M'sian student owns up to ‘I love Israel’ Facebook post with apology, plea for forgiveness - "Mr Jonathan Ong Ujang, the Sarawakian who sparked protests online with his “I love Israel” Facebook post, has apologised for the gaffe and said he will bear full responsibility for any hurt he may have caused those who took offence to his comments. The Kuching-based Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) student also said that he had acted of his own volition in issuing the comments and that he had no intention to shame his university. He noted that his remarks on the issue of Israel pulling out their windsurfing sports team from the Langkawi meet had gone viral on social media and created quite a stir, especially as he had shown his backing of Israel, a nation that does not share diplomatic ties with Malaysia... He pledged to never again compete in future campus elections, adding that he will take full blame for his actions. Mr Ong then added that he would understand if there are those who no longer wanted to be associated with him because of the incident, saying: “I will not blame you.” “This too has been a great lesson for me personally to be careful in posting things online. Apologies once again for lacking sensitivity towards you all. Any official action taken against me I will graciously accept,” he said."
Saying that you love something and being against the politicisation of sport means you offend people. Malaysia Boleh!
I’m dropping my protest of Washington’s football team name - "9 out of 10 Native Americans judge the name to be innocent — just as team owner Snyder and the National Football League have said all along... every major American Indian organization has resoundingly condemned the team name, going back 40 years. Multiple dictionaries have defined “redskin” as “often offensive” since the 1970s. I also acted partly out of what I saw as a high-minded desire to support a politically weak ethnic group. It felt like a token of penance for the sufferings imposed on Native Americans over the centuries by the continent’s European conquerors and their descendants... it’s unsettling to learn now that I vented all that energy and passion on behalf of such a small fraction of the Native American population... Those who have opposed the team name include more than a quarter of Washington-area residents, along with President Obama, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and 50 Democratic U.S. senators. Many of us thought we were defending a group that needed support. But it feels presumptuous for us to say we know Indians’ interests better than they do. We can’t credibly claim that 9 out of 10 Indians somehow just don’t realize they’re being insulted. Some Indians told The Post that they actively support the name, because its use means Native Americans haven’t been forgotten... Nearly three-quarters of Indians in the Post poll said they were “not at all” bothered by the use of Native American imagery in sports. The split between leaders and followers is so great that I don’t see how a non-Indian can champion the position backed by a sliver of the community... 4 out of 5 Native Americans said they would not be personally offended if a non-native person called them a “redskin.” That suggests that dictionaries should add some kind of caveat in defining the word as a slur"
Political correctness means even if 1 person is offended, the name must be changed! Even if 10 people think it's a good thing.
ISIS recruitment: Kerry faults Israel, Singapore’s Lee faults Saudi/Qatari ideology - "He claimed “there wasn’t a leader I met with in the region who didn’t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation.” This, however, is perplexing, because ISIS is recruiting Asian jihadists in droves, and Asians for the most part do not care much about the Middle East Peace talks. On 25 September, U.S. Pacific Command Admiral Locklear disclosed that ISIS had recruited 1,000 Asian fighters using social media, a number that is probably higher by now. Moreover, it is likely that Secretary Kerry’s good friends in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, rather than the stalled Middle East peace process, are causing the jump in ISIS recruitment in Asia and elsewhere in the world. Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew already recognized the root cause of ISIS back in 2003, and pointed the finger at Saudi Arabia for the cause of terrorism in Asia."
The Bus Incident: 24-yr-old American Goes Ballistic - "The video of an apparent African-American man going off on an elderly Korean man has gone viral. According to a news report on TBSeFM this morning, on Saturday night the black man, who’s an American English teacher, was talking loudly on his cell phone when the Korean man told him to be quiet several times. The word Nee ga (니가), meaning you in Korean, was allegedly spoken, causing the black man to fly into a rage... 'By the time I left Korea I had begun to realize why there’s so much racism there in the first place – it’s partly because foreigners act so fucking dumb'"
When offence is subjective and the lowest common denominator wins...; some Americans think that Chinese people saying "那个" are being racist and using the word "nigger" too
Muslim nations block gay groups from UN Aids conference - "Major Western nations are protesting a move to block gay and transgender groups from attending a high-level United Nations conference on AIDS. A letter from Egypt on behalf of 51 countries in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation asked that 11 organizations not be allowed to attend the conference"
"LGBT Against Islamophobia"
Speaking to the Teenage Feminists of Twitter Who Are Obsessed with Serial Killers
No true feminist puts sugar in her porridge
Me: It could be "The lady doth protest too much, methinks". So maybe many feminists deep down want a man to dominate them
Someone: or maybe ppl are using the word 'feminist' as a shield to protect and absolve themselves of any wrongdoing. there seems to be no scenario where you can cross a 'feminist'
“Beer” Word Is Haram In Malaysia? - "Malaysian muslim are advise to avoid all non-alcoholic beer even when is certify Halal by other country Halal standard.
He said this was because the word “beer” was not suitable to be used for a non-alcholic drink, as to Muslims, beer was “haram” (prohibited).
- Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom"
What happened to violating the principle of Islamic jurisprudence that one should not doubt?
A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of acupuncture for the treatment of childhood persistent allergic rhinitis. - "active acupuncture was more effective than sham acupuncture in decreasing the symptom scores for persistent allergic rhinitis and increasing the symptom-free days. No serious adverse effect was identified"
Acupuncture for persistent allergic rhinitis: a randomised, sham-controlled trial - "Our findings suggest that acupuncture is effective in the symptomatic treatment of PAR"
Think acupuncture's a hoax? Think again - "new research published this week in the journal Nature Neuroscience finds that the natural compound adenosine, known for its anti-inflammatory properties, floods tissue that is punctured or aggravated, and may be the secret ingredient in acupuncture."
Placebos Work Even When You Know
For China’s upper middle class, driving for Uber is a cure for loneliness - "Uber is filling an empty niche created in an upwardly-mobile generation that finds itself far from extended families, or with lots of time on their hands after retirement. Many of them have no siblings and few cousins because of China’s one-child policy, so few relatives their own age. And they sometimes find making new friends difficult—to many Chinese who are naturally quiet and restrained, striking up a conversation with a stranger at a club or a bar is not a comfortable habit. Nor is it common for upwardly mobile workers to take on shifts as a bartender or waiter in order to meet new friends, because those jobs are deemed inferior. But there’s no such stereotype for drivers—especially when you own the car yourself... he uses Uber to find tennis partners. Signing on Uber’s driver app right after he plays at a court, he is likely to pick up another playerhe uses Uber to find tennis partners. Signing on Uber’s driver app right after he plays at a court, he is likely to pick up another player... He also intentionally picks up Uber passengers after he goes to a state-backed aerospace academy in Beijing to sell electronic components. He wants to know from the passengers coming from the academy “what products they are making,” he said. “I might get some opportunities.”"
Do More Women on the Board Mean Better Results? - "much of the research on financial performance and female leadership tends to be sponsored by groups with an interest in boosting women’s representation in business, like Catalyst, a U.S. nonprofit... A 2011 study by two University of Michigan professors showed that the stock price of Norwegian companies actually dropped when they began adding women to their boards... Better performance by companies with female board members doesn’t necessarily suggest that the women led to the stronger performance, either; it could also mean that companies that are financially successful tend to be more inclusive. Last year, professors at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the University of Edinburgh examined two thousand firms and found that larger companies with bigger boards were more likely to add women"
Dr M: I failed to change lazy Malays - ""I spend 22 years trying to change the Malays but I admit I failed. However, there are a few success stories," he said in his remarks after launching a book by Anas Zubedy on Thursday. Dr Mahathir lamented at the laziness of the Malays saying "if anyone asks me today, I would have to say Malays are lazy." He said the men would become Mat Rempit, referring to groups of youths road-racing on their motorcycles at night, when they failed. This is evident in the gender breakdown in public universities. "During my school time, if we fail our examination we feel embarassed. "Seventy percent of the students in our higher learning institution are female and only 30% are male."
The lazy, greedy, dishonest Malay - "if the Malays were more like the Chinese, then the British would not have needed to bring the Chinese to Malaya from the mid-1800s onwards to work the tin mines. It is because the Malays did not want to work the tin mines that they needed to bring in the Chinese labourers. And the same goes for the Indians who were brought in to work the estates. It was because the Malays did not want to do that job so they had to bring in the Indian estate labourers. If the Malays were prepared to do that job then, today, Malaysia’s population would not be only about 60% or so Malays. Malaysia’s population would probably be 95% Malay like in the East Coast of West Malaysia (except for the population of the main towns, of course). I faced this same problem back in the 1970s-1980s when I operated a small fleet of fishing boats in Terengganu. Initially I tried to use Malay fishermen but could not make any money. The Malays were not prepared to fish for long periods of time. They would go out in the morning and return the same day. Hence we lost money. I then brought in Chinese fishermen from Sungai Besar and Sabak Bernam. They would go out and return three, four or five days later once the hold was full of fish or once they ran out of ice and fuel. Invariably we made money because the cost of ice and fuel for three days or more was not that much different from the cost of ice and fuel if you just fished for one day... many Chinese and Indians talk fondly about the Malays they knew back in the 1950s and 1960s. Then, by the 1970s, things started to change. The Malays started to become more aggressive, abrasive, competitive and greedy. They started to look at things from a Malay versus non-Malay perspective."
Mahathir defends ‘lazy Malays’ remarks - "“I am ashamed when I see the Chinese students studying three different languages, but still have a better grasp of the English language compared with their Malay peers “The Malays study two languages, Bahasa Malaysia and English, but they keep saying ‘all right, that is enough, no need to learn English any more’.” He was referring to the government’s decision to abolish the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English, which he had introduced in 2003. He had said that despite all the government had done to help them, the Malays still expected things to come easy and refused to adopt working cultures of more successful races, such as those in Japan, the nation integral to the Mahathir administration’s Look East policy. “Values dictate if one race should succeed or not … like the Japanese, they are ashamed if they fail. That is why they are afraid to fail … but the Malays, they lack shame,” he said."
Why AMWF is viewed as better than WMAF on this subreddit. : hapas - "The main difference—and also the reason why AMWF, despite being so much rarer than WMAF, produces so many better quality children (yes, I'm considering this as a known fact by now)—is that due to the imbalance of racial perceptions by Caucasians, Asian men need to fight an uphill battle to get their "prized" white bride off their golden pedestal. It's basically all to do with how masculine the father is, how much of a fighter he is. As creepy as this Success Insider dude is for constantly talking about his fiancé's whiteness, this guy is out there getting what he wants, constantly focusing on self-improvement. What happens when he has a child? That child gets a killer education and mindset; I won't be surprised if this dude's son becomes famous. When the average Asian man is filtered out from the white dating game, the Asian man needs to be above average. Again, tendencies here; I've got to say this because there will always be a moron shouting the "not all" sentence. For WMAF on the other hand, there is no uphill battle on the man's part. A white man is born with the only thing he needs in order to find an East Asian bride: his race and skin colour. There is no need to be exceptional. In fact, many people are of the opinion that white men dating Asian women are on the lower end of masculinity—losers, as they call them—and that they date them not by choice, but by lack of choice: couldn't get a white woman, gets the next best thing (with the bonus stereotype of good sex)."
Calvin Cheng - This is what happens when you have aggressive... - [On Pink Dot & Wear White] "This is what happens when you have aggressive in-your-face activism.
Every action elicits a reaction.
Please do not import the western culture wars into Singapore.
If I had my way, I would ban both movements. Harmony and peace are much more important."
When you can't live without bananas
Saturday, July 09, 2016
The snipers in Dallas may have pulled the trigger. But make no mistake, it was Black Lives Matter that loaded the guns.
The snipers in Dallas may have pulled the trigger. But make no mistake, it was Black Lives Matter that loaded the guns.
Every time protestors condemned the shooting of a black man by police regardless of the circumstances and you nodded without questioning, you loaded one bullet.
When you hijacked a gay parade and intimidated them into excluding the police despite their strong support of LGBTQs, you loaded another.
Then when you paraded “demanding an end to racist police murder” - despite the fact that white men are shot more by police once you correct for homicide rates, you loaded one more.
When people chanted "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon!" and you pretended they weren't representative, or excused them because they were 'victims', you loaded yet another.
Each time you chanted "hands up, don't shoot" despite it being a lie, you nudged the safety until it turned off.
You and your hateful kinds helped perpetuate a global chain of hate. And yesterday, that chain reached men in Dallas with access to guns.
All they had to do was pull the trigger. A million SJWs had already loaded the guns.
And now you still want to blame white people. What a fucking irony.
Every time protestors condemned the shooting of a black man by police regardless of the circumstances and you nodded without questioning, you loaded one bullet.
When you hijacked a gay parade and intimidated them into excluding the police despite their strong support of LGBTQs, you loaded another.
Then when you paraded “demanding an end to racist police murder” - despite the fact that white men are shot more by police once you correct for homicide rates, you loaded one more.
When people chanted "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon!" and you pretended they weren't representative, or excused them because they were 'victims', you loaded yet another.
Each time you chanted "hands up, don't shoot" despite it being a lie, you nudged the safety until it turned off.
You and your hateful kinds helped perpetuate a global chain of hate. And yesterday, that chain reached men in Dallas with access to guns.
All they had to do was pull the trigger. A million SJWs had already loaded the guns.
And now you still want to blame white people. What a fucking irony.
Post ID: 106968971810238798
Friday, July 08, 2016
Links - 8th July 2016
Review ministerial salaries to bring S’pore’s rates in line with other global cities | New Nation - "A citizens’ review of ministerial salaries is currently under way in a move that is set to lower payouts to all ministers and MPs in Singapore Parliament, which will keep wages in line with what leaders in other countries are receiving... This comes just two months after the ministries of National Development and Transport said in Parliament that parking prices would go up to bring Singapore’s rates in line with those of other global cities."
This past month many senseless attacks have... - Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) - "The fact that the attacks took place during Ramadan, in which Muslims are taught to be close to the Creator and to seek His blessings through doing good deeds and refraining from evil, show clearly these attacks have nothing to do with Islam"
Why so-called Islamic State chooses to bomb during Ramadan - "The belief in Ramadan as a month of war comes from Islamic history itself. The Prophet Muhammad waged his first jihad, known as the Battle of Badr, during Ramadan in 624. Eight years later he also conquered Mecca during the month of Ramadan, thereby claiming the city which houses one of Islam's most holy sites today: the Kaaba. All of this fuels the radical belief that jihad is, in itself, much more than just a militaristic action. It is also seen as an act of worship akin to ordinary ritual acts and is fought "fi sabil Allah" (in the path of Allah). Abdullah Azzam, who is often referred to as "the godfather of modern jihad" because he led the original Arab foreign fighters in Afghanistan during the 1980s, argued that "neglecting jihad is like abandoning fasting and praying." Later, he wrote, "jihad is the most excellent form of worship, and by its means the Muslim can reach the highest of ranks [of paradise].""
Maajid Nawaz - There is a pernicious, disingenuous meme floating... - "Religious extremism throughout the ages has targeted its 'own' before others. That's the nature of trying to control people. And that's why extremists were always so concerned with 'heresy' and 'blasphemy'. The 'traitor' from within is always more dangerous, and thus always more strictly punished. The Prophet's own grand children were killed by Muslim extremists known as the khawarij who were reported to be better at reciting the Quran & more steadfast in prayer than anyone else... Instead of whinging and making our first reaction about Muslim victimhood, again, why not try being part of the solution by working to challenge extremism? Or are cartoons the only thing that make us come out in the streets with rage?"
PJ church nixes interfaith ‘buka puasa’ after police report lodged - "Syed Azmi explained that police officers had visited the church to warn it of potential trouble over the planned event in Selangor during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan."
Black Lives Matter Toronto stalls Pride parade - "Members of the Black Lives Matter Toronto group briefly halted the Pride parade today, holding up the marching for about 30 minutes. The parade didn't re-start until after Pride Toronto executive director Mathieu Chantelois signed a document agreeing to the group's demands."
Isn't this criminal intimidation? Is this homophobic? Is it derailing if a minority does it?
This gay Toronto cop sent an open letter to Pride Toronto about the Black Lives Matter protest - "it's Pride Toronto's assent to a request that police floats and booths not appear in future Pride parades, marches and community spaces that Const. Chuck Krangle's letter singles out... ' Police officers are significantly represented in the LGBTQ community and it would be unacceptable to alienate and discriminate against them and those who support them. They too struggled to gain a place and workplace free from discrimination and bias... Exclusion does not promote inclusion'"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, What's life really like as a war correspondent? - "There were a couple of legendary people like Martha Gellhorn who slept and boozed her way around warzones... there was a wonderful woman who's now forgotten called Anne Sharpley of the London Evening Standard... she was dedicated to her career. And I remember her saying to me: you know, the way you get on as a foreign correspondent is sleep first with the Reuters correspondent - the local one - and then sleep with the chief of police"
Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and controls - "The present paper provides evidence that these laws and safeguards are regularly ignored and transgressed in all the jurisdictions and that transgressions are not prosecuted. For example, about 900 people annually are administered lethal substances without having given explicit consent, and in one jurisdiction, almost 50% of cases of euthanasia are not reported. Increased tolerance of transgressions in societies with such laws represents a social “slippery slope,” as do changes to the laws and criteria that followed legalization. Although the initial intent was to limit euthanasia and assisted suicide to a last-resort option for a very small number of terminally ill people, some jurisdictions now extend the practice to newborns, children, and people with dementia. A terminal illness is no longer a prerequisite. In the Netherlands, euthanasia for anyone over the age of 70 who is “tired of living” is now being considered. Legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide therefore places many people at risk, affects the values of society over time, and does not provide controls and safeguards."
Belgian doctors give healthy woman green light to die by euthanasia because of 'suicidal thoughts'
F
irst Do No Harm: Intentionally Shortening Lives of Patients without Their Explicit Request in Belgium - "The liberal state has an obligation to protect the vulnerable. The use of drugs with the explicit intention to shorten life and without the patient’s volition still continues to linger on and should be addressed adequately. The liberal state has an obligation to protect the vulnerable. Given that ending patients’ lives without request is more common than euthanasia, it is suggested to urge the Belgian medical profession to put this issue high on its agenda. The lives of many patients are still shortened involuntarily. Even Chambaere et al who are not critical of life-ending acts without the patient’s explicit request implicitly acknowledge that in 31.9% of the cases they studied the practice was problematic"
Category:Blue Skin - X-Men Movies Wiki - Wikia
Very dilligent.
Has convenience turned you into a monster? - "in an environment shaped by on-demand apps, workers are considered independent contractors or free agents, and job protections are eliminated. It’s a system that heavily favors the corporation over the laborer. Strangely enough, however, progressives aren’t just giving their tacit approval to the sharing economy by spending their money with companies like Uber. They’re straight up coming out against protecting the workers involved. A survey from Pew found that Americans who use ride-hailing and home-sharing services are against regulating them. The people who use these services tend to be younger, and they tend to identify as Democrats. The conclusion is obvious: we young progressives are hypocrites... The reality is that to exist in a capitalist system is to engage with exploitation... If being a progressive required ideological purism, I would have to abscond to a yurt in nature, grow my own crops, make my own clothes, and never list that yurt on Airbnb as a romantic getaway in the woods."
Facebook Bans Admin Who Supported Trump's Immigration Policies, Then Bans Libertarian Commentator For Defending Him
AI will create 'useless class' of human, predicts bestselling historian
Why Tamil Nadu may soon ban alcohol - "The first Tasmac store was set up in 1983 - in just over three decades, their numbers have risen to over 6,800 and locals say every single village in the state has one within walking distance. But campaigners say this ease of accessibility has fuelled massive alcohol addiction in the state with nearly 10 million addicts. According to the government's own admission, more than seven million people in the state drink daily... there have been several instances when the state has banned alcohol, only to lift it again... Alcohol is completely banned in the western Indian state of Gujarat while the southern state of Kerala and some other Indian states have imposed a partial ban. In April, the eastern state of Bihar announced a complete ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol. Reports coming out of the state, however, suggest that the ban has just pushed the alcohol trade underground, and that illegal sales are rampant"
Maybe this is where the Malaysian stereotype of Indians as drunkards - "Tak mabuk bukan india" - comes from
Edible Rings On Six-Packs Feed Marine Life If They End Up In The Ocean
Justin Trudeau accused of 'manhandling' Conservative MP - ""What kind of man elbows a woman? It's pathetic! You're pathetic!" Mr Mulcair shouted at Mr Trudeau in the incident caught on video. The CBC reported that Mr Trudeau lost his temper and shouted an expletive. The incident is considered a rare misstep for the young prime minister who is popular at home and abroad. "I have never seen a display of bully behaviour by a Canadian politician let alone a prime minister as I witnessed just now in the chamber""
Isis employs wheelchair-bound killer - "The killer, who appears in propaganda photos showing the shooting of an alleged spy, may have been chosen by Isis as part of a crude attempt to show it is an "equal opportunities" organisation... Other celebrity endorsements have come from the linguist and writer Noam Chomsky and model Naomi Campbell"
How progressive
Sean Penn: Journalists who call Hugo Chávez a dictator should be jailed - "Sean Penn has defended Hugo Chávez as a model democrat and said those who call him a dictator should be jailed... The Organisation of American States recently accused Chávez of intolerance and authoritarianism, and a Spanish judge accused Venezuela of cosseting Farc and Eta terrorists"
SPOING!
There has never been a country that should have been so rich but ended up this poor - "Venezuela has become a failed state. According to the International Monetary Fund's latest projections, it has the world's worst economic growth, worst inflation and ninth-worst unemployment rate right now. It also has the second-worst murder rate, and an infant mortality rate at public hospitals that's gotten 100 times worse itself the past four years. And in case all that wasn't bad enough, its currency, going by black market rates, has lost 99 percent of its value since the start of 2012. It's what you call a complete social and economic collapse. And it has happened despite the fact that Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves. Never has a country that should have been so rich been so poor. There's no mystery here. Venezuela's government is to blame."
“When we celebrate, and it is a cause for celebration, the achievements of Venezuela, in jobs, in housing , in health, in education, but above all its role in the whole world as a completely different place, then we do that because we recognise what they have achieved.” - Jeremy Corbyn, June 2015
Chomsky as Chavez's Clown - "How can Chomsky commit the same error as some famous intellectuals of the past century, some praising Stalin and some, years later, revering Mao and his “Little Red Book”? They did so because they believed that in Russia and in China they were building the “true communism” and he does so now because he believes that in Venezuela “a new world, a different world” is being created. How can he forget that later all those intellectuals were forced to confess a “mea culpa” for their ideological blindness that prevented them from seeing what was behind the Stalinist and Maoist revolutionary discourse? That totalitarianism, responsible for the death of millions of people, inspired Castro to impose for fifty years a dictatorship in Cuba that Chávez devoutly imitates... Could it be that this obstinate anti-imperialism, the fact that in his view the most important thing is to denounce the injustices prevalent in the USA as well as the injustices generated by this country on a global scale, drives him to stake his position on what happens in the American continent in such a confusing manner? Although Chomsky still considers himself “anarchist-libertarian” it’s clear that for him ideological considerations must be relegated to the background and a kind of gradation must be made between injustices according to the degree of global danger posed by the targets of his criticism. The problem is that such political relativism allows many Marxist-Leninists, demagogues and politicians, whose only concern is the conquest of power, its execution and conservation, to get shelter in Chomsky’s anti-imperialist arguments instead of caring about helping the people to organize themselves. It’s a serious problem because Chomsky does and says nothing to dissuade them. On the contrary, maintaining such immoral discretion with such perseverance and allowing himself to be photographed besides the Castros and the Chavezes he becomes an accomplice of the clownishness and the authoritarian, dictatorial deviations of these modern day oligarchs, no matter how convenient or discreet his praises might be."
This past month many senseless attacks have... - Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) - "The fact that the attacks took place during Ramadan, in which Muslims are taught to be close to the Creator and to seek His blessings through doing good deeds and refraining from evil, show clearly these attacks have nothing to do with Islam"
Why so-called Islamic State chooses to bomb during Ramadan - "The belief in Ramadan as a month of war comes from Islamic history itself. The Prophet Muhammad waged his first jihad, known as the Battle of Badr, during Ramadan in 624. Eight years later he also conquered Mecca during the month of Ramadan, thereby claiming the city which houses one of Islam's most holy sites today: the Kaaba. All of this fuels the radical belief that jihad is, in itself, much more than just a militaristic action. It is also seen as an act of worship akin to ordinary ritual acts and is fought "fi sabil Allah" (in the path of Allah). Abdullah Azzam, who is often referred to as "the godfather of modern jihad" because he led the original Arab foreign fighters in Afghanistan during the 1980s, argued that "neglecting jihad is like abandoning fasting and praying." Later, he wrote, "jihad is the most excellent form of worship, and by its means the Muslim can reach the highest of ranks [of paradise].""
Maajid Nawaz - There is a pernicious, disingenuous meme floating... - "Religious extremism throughout the ages has targeted its 'own' before others. That's the nature of trying to control people. And that's why extremists were always so concerned with 'heresy' and 'blasphemy'. The 'traitor' from within is always more dangerous, and thus always more strictly punished. The Prophet's own grand children were killed by Muslim extremists known as the khawarij who were reported to be better at reciting the Quran & more steadfast in prayer than anyone else... Instead of whinging and making our first reaction about Muslim victimhood, again, why not try being part of the solution by working to challenge extremism? Or are cartoons the only thing that make us come out in the streets with rage?"
PJ church nixes interfaith ‘buka puasa’ after police report lodged - "Syed Azmi explained that police officers had visited the church to warn it of potential trouble over the planned event in Selangor during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan."
Black Lives Matter Toronto stalls Pride parade - "Members of the Black Lives Matter Toronto group briefly halted the Pride parade today, holding up the marching for about 30 minutes. The parade didn't re-start until after Pride Toronto executive director Mathieu Chantelois signed a document agreeing to the group's demands."
Isn't this criminal intimidation? Is this homophobic? Is it derailing if a minority does it?
This gay Toronto cop sent an open letter to Pride Toronto about the Black Lives Matter protest - "it's Pride Toronto's assent to a request that police floats and booths not appear in future Pride parades, marches and community spaces that Const. Chuck Krangle's letter singles out... ' Police officers are significantly represented in the LGBTQ community and it would be unacceptable to alienate and discriminate against them and those who support them. They too struggled to gain a place and workplace free from discrimination and bias... Exclusion does not promote inclusion'"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, What's life really like as a war correspondent? - "There were a couple of legendary people like Martha Gellhorn who slept and boozed her way around warzones... there was a wonderful woman who's now forgotten called Anne Sharpley of the London Evening Standard... she was dedicated to her career. And I remember her saying to me: you know, the way you get on as a foreign correspondent is sleep first with the Reuters correspondent - the local one - and then sleep with the chief of police"
Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and controls - "The present paper provides evidence that these laws and safeguards are regularly ignored and transgressed in all the jurisdictions and that transgressions are not prosecuted. For example, about 900 people annually are administered lethal substances without having given explicit consent, and in one jurisdiction, almost 50% of cases of euthanasia are not reported. Increased tolerance of transgressions in societies with such laws represents a social “slippery slope,” as do changes to the laws and criteria that followed legalization. Although the initial intent was to limit euthanasia and assisted suicide to a last-resort option for a very small number of terminally ill people, some jurisdictions now extend the practice to newborns, children, and people with dementia. A terminal illness is no longer a prerequisite. In the Netherlands, euthanasia for anyone over the age of 70 who is “tired of living” is now being considered. Legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide therefore places many people at risk, affects the values of society over time, and does not provide controls and safeguards."
Belgian doctors give healthy woman green light to die by euthanasia because of 'suicidal thoughts'
F
irst Do No Harm: Intentionally Shortening Lives of Patients without Their Explicit Request in Belgium - "The liberal state has an obligation to protect the vulnerable. The use of drugs with the explicit intention to shorten life and without the patient’s volition still continues to linger on and should be addressed adequately. The liberal state has an obligation to protect the vulnerable. Given that ending patients’ lives without request is more common than euthanasia, it is suggested to urge the Belgian medical profession to put this issue high on its agenda. The lives of many patients are still shortened involuntarily. Even Chambaere et al who are not critical of life-ending acts without the patient’s explicit request implicitly acknowledge that in 31.9% of the cases they studied the practice was problematic"
Category:Blue Skin - X-Men Movies Wiki - Wikia
Very dilligent.
Has convenience turned you into a monster? - "in an environment shaped by on-demand apps, workers are considered independent contractors or free agents, and job protections are eliminated. It’s a system that heavily favors the corporation over the laborer. Strangely enough, however, progressives aren’t just giving their tacit approval to the sharing economy by spending their money with companies like Uber. They’re straight up coming out against protecting the workers involved. A survey from Pew found that Americans who use ride-hailing and home-sharing services are against regulating them. The people who use these services tend to be younger, and they tend to identify as Democrats. The conclusion is obvious: we young progressives are hypocrites... The reality is that to exist in a capitalist system is to engage with exploitation... If being a progressive required ideological purism, I would have to abscond to a yurt in nature, grow my own crops, make my own clothes, and never list that yurt on Airbnb as a romantic getaway in the woods."
Facebook Bans Admin Who Supported Trump's Immigration Policies, Then Bans Libertarian Commentator For Defending Him
AI will create 'useless class' of human, predicts bestselling historian
Why Tamil Nadu may soon ban alcohol - "The first Tasmac store was set up in 1983 - in just over three decades, their numbers have risen to over 6,800 and locals say every single village in the state has one within walking distance. But campaigners say this ease of accessibility has fuelled massive alcohol addiction in the state with nearly 10 million addicts. According to the government's own admission, more than seven million people in the state drink daily... there have been several instances when the state has banned alcohol, only to lift it again... Alcohol is completely banned in the western Indian state of Gujarat while the southern state of Kerala and some other Indian states have imposed a partial ban. In April, the eastern state of Bihar announced a complete ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol. Reports coming out of the state, however, suggest that the ban has just pushed the alcohol trade underground, and that illegal sales are rampant"
Maybe this is where the Malaysian stereotype of Indians as drunkards - "Tak mabuk bukan india" - comes from
Edible Rings On Six-Packs Feed Marine Life If They End Up In The Ocean
Justin Trudeau accused of 'manhandling' Conservative MP - ""What kind of man elbows a woman? It's pathetic! You're pathetic!" Mr Mulcair shouted at Mr Trudeau in the incident caught on video. The CBC reported that Mr Trudeau lost his temper and shouted an expletive. The incident is considered a rare misstep for the young prime minister who is popular at home and abroad. "I have never seen a display of bully behaviour by a Canadian politician let alone a prime minister as I witnessed just now in the chamber""
Isis employs wheelchair-bound killer - "The killer, who appears in propaganda photos showing the shooting of an alleged spy, may have been chosen by Isis as part of a crude attempt to show it is an "equal opportunities" organisation... Other celebrity endorsements have come from the linguist and writer Noam Chomsky and model Naomi Campbell"
How progressive
Sean Penn: Journalists who call Hugo Chávez a dictator should be jailed - "Sean Penn has defended Hugo Chávez as a model democrat and said those who call him a dictator should be jailed... The Organisation of American States recently accused Chávez of intolerance and authoritarianism, and a Spanish judge accused Venezuela of cosseting Farc and Eta terrorists"
SPOING!
There has never been a country that should have been so rich but ended up this poor - "Venezuela has become a failed state. According to the International Monetary Fund's latest projections, it has the world's worst economic growth, worst inflation and ninth-worst unemployment rate right now. It also has the second-worst murder rate, and an infant mortality rate at public hospitals that's gotten 100 times worse itself the past four years. And in case all that wasn't bad enough, its currency, going by black market rates, has lost 99 percent of its value since the start of 2012. It's what you call a complete social and economic collapse. And it has happened despite the fact that Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves. Never has a country that should have been so rich been so poor. There's no mystery here. Venezuela's government is to blame."
“When we celebrate, and it is a cause for celebration, the achievements of Venezuela, in jobs, in housing , in health, in education, but above all its role in the whole world as a completely different place, then we do that because we recognise what they have achieved.” - Jeremy Corbyn, June 2015
Chomsky as Chavez's Clown - "How can Chomsky commit the same error as some famous intellectuals of the past century, some praising Stalin and some, years later, revering Mao and his “Little Red Book”? They did so because they believed that in Russia and in China they were building the “true communism” and he does so now because he believes that in Venezuela “a new world, a different world” is being created. How can he forget that later all those intellectuals were forced to confess a “mea culpa” for their ideological blindness that prevented them from seeing what was behind the Stalinist and Maoist revolutionary discourse? That totalitarianism, responsible for the death of millions of people, inspired Castro to impose for fifty years a dictatorship in Cuba that Chávez devoutly imitates... Could it be that this obstinate anti-imperialism, the fact that in his view the most important thing is to denounce the injustices prevalent in the USA as well as the injustices generated by this country on a global scale, drives him to stake his position on what happens in the American continent in such a confusing manner? Although Chomsky still considers himself “anarchist-libertarian” it’s clear that for him ideological considerations must be relegated to the background and a kind of gradation must be made between injustices according to the degree of global danger posed by the targets of his criticism. The problem is that such political relativism allows many Marxist-Leninists, demagogues and politicians, whose only concern is the conquest of power, its execution and conservation, to get shelter in Chomsky’s anti-imperialist arguments instead of caring about helping the people to organize themselves. It’s a serious problem because Chomsky does and says nothing to dissuade them. On the contrary, maintaining such immoral discretion with such perseverance and allowing himself to be photographed besides the Castros and the Chavezes he becomes an accomplice of the clownishness and the authoritarian, dictatorial deviations of these modern day oligarchs, no matter how convenient or discreet his praises might be."
Post ID: 5616602678001092474
TRANSformers
"What happens when Megatron discovers he’s really a woman?"
Post ID: 4567108734435028815
Tuesday, July 05, 2016
Links - 5th July 2016
Spain Runs Out of Workers With Almost 5 Million Unemployed - "Pimentel’s experience reflects a bizarre feature of the Spanish labor market that is hampering the country’s efforts to repair the damage from the economic crisis. Even with close to 5 million people out of work, the next prime minister will face labor shortages with employers struggle to find the staff they need. “It’s a paradox,” said Valentin Bote, head of research in Spain at Randstad, a recruitment agency. “The unemployment rate is too high. Yet we’re seeing some tension in the labor market because unemployed people don’t have the skills employers demand.”"
Those who write essays on how education has intrinsic vale, should be free until college, enriches society etc should go to Spain
Alleged sampan thief arrested - "A 32-year-old man was on Tuesday arrested by the Police Coast Guard for allegedly stealing a motorised sampan, and attempting to leave Singapore unlawfully."
Anthony Hill, Unarmed, Naked Black Man, Fatally Shot By Police Near Atlanta - "A white, Atlanta-area police officer shot dead a naked and unarmed African-American man acting erratically in his apartment complex and who was possibly suffering from a mental illness, the county police chief said. A Dekalb County police officer responded to a caller who said a man was “acting deranged, knocking on doors, and crawling around on the ground naked”"
Deputy shot dead after man takes gun - "A veteran King County sheriff’s deputy was killed yesterday when a nude and highly agitated man who’d been running in traffic and pounding on cars took the officer’s gun and shot him repeatedly outside an apartment complex here... That the deputy had tried to stop the man with pepper spray likely will revive a long-standing debate over the merits of nonlethal force, which many police officers say is ineffective against determined individuals — especially ones as agitated as the suspect appeared to be."
Naked and/or unarmed people are not harmless; perhaps it is better to die a hero, than live long enough to see yourself become the villain
Pink Alert (picture)
Eating Meat Made Us Human, Suggests New Skull Fossil
Too bad for the vegetarians. Who will no doubt continue with their FUD
Vegetarian diets, chronic diseases and longevity. - "According to pure vegetarian ideologists, people consuming vegetarian diet have better health and live longer than nonvegetarians, because persons consuming milk, dairy products, meat, eggs and fish are at health risk. In fact the most healthy people in Europe are inhabitants of Iceland, Switzerland and Scandinavia, consuming great amounts of food of animal origin. "
Transgender Men See Sexism From Both Sides - "Every transgender man interviewed for this story said he wasn’t just treated differently after he transitioned—he felt different, too. Those who had taken testosterone treatments said they noticed psychological changes that came with the medical transition. Most trans men said that after they took hormone treatments they felt more sure of themselves and slightly more aggressive than they had been before the treatment. “After transitioning I was able to think more clearly, I was more decisive,” says the radio newscaster Gardner. He says the shift has affected his daily routine, even for something as ordinary as a trip to the grocery store. Before he transitioned, he says, he used to spend 45 minutes debating which pasta sauce to buy, which vegetables were the freshest. “I would stand there and look at the different varieties of yogurt,” he recalls. “Now I just grab one. I’m looking for utility, I don’t second-guess myself.” “As a female there was black and white and everything in between. When I started taking the hormones, it was more black and white,” he explains, adding: “If I get into a disagreement with someone at work, I don’t have that feeling afterwards of, ‘I hope I didn’t hurt his or her feelings.’ I’m not a worrier as much as I was in the female body”... “I have to be very careful to not be staring at kids,” says Gardner. “I can look at a mom and her baby, but I can’t look for too long. I miss being seen as not a threat.” Ditto for kids on the playground and puppies, multiple guys said... everyone said they’d experienced a moment when they were walking at night behind a woman, and suddenly realized that she was walking faster or clutching her purse because she was scared. “If I start to get too close, I can feel her fear, I can feel that she’s getting upset,” says Milan. “And it’s really just an indication of how dangerous this world is for women”... Many also noticed a shift in their friendships after they transitioned, with some struggling to make friends with cisgender men, unsure of the social cues of male friendship."
This article will piss people of more than one ideological persuasion off
What would happen if white people walking faster because black people were behind them were taken as evidence that the world was unsafe for white people?
Lucasfilm is Pissed About These Amy Schumer Star Wars Photos
A London receptionist refused to wear heels and was dismissed from her job. Now she’s petitioning Parliament.
Cologne New Year sex attacks: Germany's women are angry, scared - and getting tired of excuses - "this is all highly unusual in a country where women are generally used to a high degree of personal safety. In recent years, the number of rape cases and associated offences in Germany has fallen by around 8 per cent. In Hamburg, where a series of attacks also took place on New Year’s Eve, bouncers warned women not to leave nightclubs because of an increasingly hostile crowd on the streets. But the warning was so unusual that several women ignored it and were sexually assaulted by those waiting outside."
Obama Blasts Political Correctness, 'Fragile' Students in Rutgers Speech - "he reserved some time at the end of his speech to also criticize students who are too “fragile” to listen to people whose opinions offend them. He said it was a mistake for students to seek to disinvite speakers with whom they disagree. “I know a couple years ago some folks on this campus got upset that Condoleezza Rice was supposed to speak at a commencement,” said Obama. “I don’t think it’s a secret that I disagree with many of the foreign policies of Dr. Rice and the previous administration. But the notion that this community or the country would be better served by not hearing from a former secretary of state or shutting out what she had to say, I believe that is misguided.” The answer to bad speech is more speech, Obama continued."
Everyone who shared this focused on Trump bashing - but not his safe spaces takedown
Trump vs. Clinton Is Terrible News for Fans of Free Speech and the First Amendment - "Clinton's "long war on free speech" includes censorship crusades against rap music, video games, movies, and television. And we’re not just talking about ratings systems and warning labels here. She's also supported federal laws that would penalize the makers and distributors of so-called offensive entertainment. Clinton is also in favor of empowering the federal government to spy on private communications through such tools as anti-encryption back doors on iPhones and other devices. And then of course there is Hillary Clinton's well-known view that federal authorities should be able to prevent her political opponents from distributing a documentary film that's critical of her in the days before a federal election. That particular issue was litigated before the U.S. Supreme Court in a little case called Citizens United v. FEC. Among other things, Citizens United featured Clinton and her pro-censorship allies squaring off against the American Civil Liberties Union, which supported Citizens United and its First Amendment right to distribute a documentary film about a political candidate in the United States of America... Trump also wants the government to censor parts of the internet in order to eliminate speech that he thinks is dangerous (as does Hillary Clinton)"
Mumbai meat ban: The politics behind the city’s veg vs non-veg divide - "The recent outrage over the ban on sale of meat in Mumbai for four days during the Jain festival of Paryushan (the High Court later stayed it, and on Thursday, the Supreme Court refused to quash the stay) has exposed a faultline that goes to the gut of the matter — the vegetarian versus non-vegetarian divide in the city and how politicians have made a meal of it... The only restaurant serving non-vegetarian as well as vegetarian food on Nepean Sea Road closed more than a decade ago, after shrill protests. Residents had staged a demonstration against ‘Roti’, saying the restaurant was breaching the sanctity of the place where mostly Jains live... In 2007, a group of residents in Chembur, northeast Mumbai, filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court against the opening of a kebab outlet on the ground floor of Devkinandan, a residential building with 14 flats. In their petition, they said the non-vegetarian eatery would cause communal problems as 95 per cent of the population in the surrounding area was vegetarian, many of them Gujaratis, Jains and Rajasthanis. The restaurant plan never took off... “When people want to put up their homes for sale or rent, they often specifically tell us ‘non-veg party nahin chahiye (we don’t want buyers who eat non-vegetarian)’.""
No beef allowed: inside the schools that have banned meat - "when MUSE school in Calabasas, California, decided to become the first school in the US to switch to an all-vegan menu – starting this autumn – it’s no surprise that reactions were forceful. A whopping 40% of the students were withdrawn by concerned parents – though numbers recovered and are now the highest on record, according to head of the school Jeff King. The private school, founded in 2006 by actress and environmental campaigner Suzy Amis Cameron and her sister, Rebecca Amis, also faced accusations from some US critics of looking after the health of its tiny group of privileged children while the mass of poorer students endured inadequate diets in the public school system... Palmer also discovered a “brilliant wheeze” whereby boarders would call the local Domino’s and order a “St Chris” – prompting the delivery of a pizza loaded with meat but covered with a deceptive layer of cheese... It’s hard to see how a maintained school could go fully veggie given government regulations oblige them to provide red meat at least three times a week"
Vegetarian Advocate: A New York Ban on Meat Consumption in the Workplace [Hidden Agenda Warning] - "What are the odds that New York will ban meat consumption in restaurants, bars and workplaces within the next 25 years? None, right? Maybe not. Twenty-five years ago the idea that New York would ban smoking in restaurants, bars and workplaces was laughable. (In fact, one legislator's response to the legislator who proposed the statewide ban back then, well, was to blow smoke in his face)... Today, a statewide ban on meat consumption seems like an impossible dream, but what we are trying to achieve is something that could happen in a distant tomorrow."
Treat meat eaters like smokers, warns Jeremy Corbyn's new vegan farming minister Kerry McCarthy - Telegraph - "In an interview with Viva!life, a magazine for vegans, she admitted she was a "militant" when it came to clamping down on meat consumption... New Zealanders are the top meat eaters, on average eating more meat per person than any other country"
Shark fin ban masks growing appetite for its meat - "The internet erupted with praise last month when United Parcel Service tweeted that it would stop shipping shark fins. But the decision – after a petition to the delivery giant garnered 178,000 signatures – addressed just one of many concerns about the ecologically vital but often threatened marine species. “There is a persistent belief among many well-intentioned folks that the only threat that sharks have ever faced, or are currently facing, is shark finning,” said David Shiffman, a well-known shark scientist at the University of Miami. He argues that the focus on fins distracts attention from more important conservation actions... It’s not clear why the public discourse on sharks has become so singularly focused. Clarke believes that the visceral response that many people have to shark finning is partly responsible, with concern “propelled by bloody pictures of fins being cut off”. But many fins are obtained legally and humanely, a fact often overlooked. Fins are also an easy target for activists in countries with no taste for the Chinese delicacy, Clarke said, noting, “It’s relatively easy to ban a product that you never use.” Conservationists would be wise to examine their own countries’ practices first. In reality, shark conservation is messy and complicated... Lopping the wings off live rays and skates, arguably as cruel as finning, is both “legal and commonplace”, Fordham said, adding, “Skates and rays are being fished as heavily, and are more threatened and much less protected”... As mundane as it sounds, better record-keeping would have a greater impact on shark conservation than any ban on the collection or trade of shark fins. But, Shiffman notes, “I’ve yet to see an internet petition that gets 50,000 signatures saying, ‘Standardise global customs codes.'”"
Benghazi victim's sister slams Hillary Clinton for denying YouTube video claim - "The sister of a war hero killed in Benghazi has accused Hillary Clinton lying to victims' families about the 2012 attack in a bid to court votes. The Democrat front runner has denied telling soldiers' relatives that the attacks were provoked by an anti-Muslim YouTube video. Her words came after an email emerged in the Benghazi committee in which she told the Egyptian prime minister 'we know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film'. But as the former First Lady battles to uphold her version of events, Kate Quigley, sister of fallen soldier Glen Doherty, has lashed out at Clinton, claiming she did pin the events on the video. 'She knows that she knew what happened that day and she wasn't truthful,' Kate Quigley told the Boston Herald Radio's Morning Meeting on Wednesday. 'This is a woman that will do and say anything to get what she wants. I have very little respect for her"
Those who write essays on how education has intrinsic vale, should be free until college, enriches society etc should go to Spain
Alleged sampan thief arrested - "A 32-year-old man was on Tuesday arrested by the Police Coast Guard for allegedly stealing a motorised sampan, and attempting to leave Singapore unlawfully."
Anthony Hill, Unarmed, Naked Black Man, Fatally Shot By Police Near Atlanta - "A white, Atlanta-area police officer shot dead a naked and unarmed African-American man acting erratically in his apartment complex and who was possibly suffering from a mental illness, the county police chief said. A Dekalb County police officer responded to a caller who said a man was “acting deranged, knocking on doors, and crawling around on the ground naked”"
Deputy shot dead after man takes gun - "A veteran King County sheriff’s deputy was killed yesterday when a nude and highly agitated man who’d been running in traffic and pounding on cars took the officer’s gun and shot him repeatedly outside an apartment complex here... That the deputy had tried to stop the man with pepper spray likely will revive a long-standing debate over the merits of nonlethal force, which many police officers say is ineffective against determined individuals — especially ones as agitated as the suspect appeared to be."
Naked and/or unarmed people are not harmless; perhaps it is better to die a hero, than live long enough to see yourself become the villain
Pink Alert (picture)
Eating Meat Made Us Human, Suggests New Skull Fossil
Too bad for the vegetarians. Who will no doubt continue with their FUD
Vegetarian diets, chronic diseases and longevity. - "According to pure vegetarian ideologists, people consuming vegetarian diet have better health and live longer than nonvegetarians, because persons consuming milk, dairy products, meat, eggs and fish are at health risk. In fact the most healthy people in Europe are inhabitants of Iceland, Switzerland and Scandinavia, consuming great amounts of food of animal origin. "
Transgender Men See Sexism From Both Sides - "Every transgender man interviewed for this story said he wasn’t just treated differently after he transitioned—he felt different, too. Those who had taken testosterone treatments said they noticed psychological changes that came with the medical transition. Most trans men said that after they took hormone treatments they felt more sure of themselves and slightly more aggressive than they had been before the treatment. “After transitioning I was able to think more clearly, I was more decisive,” says the radio newscaster Gardner. He says the shift has affected his daily routine, even for something as ordinary as a trip to the grocery store. Before he transitioned, he says, he used to spend 45 minutes debating which pasta sauce to buy, which vegetables were the freshest. “I would stand there and look at the different varieties of yogurt,” he recalls. “Now I just grab one. I’m looking for utility, I don’t second-guess myself.” “As a female there was black and white and everything in between. When I started taking the hormones, it was more black and white,” he explains, adding: “If I get into a disagreement with someone at work, I don’t have that feeling afterwards of, ‘I hope I didn’t hurt his or her feelings.’ I’m not a worrier as much as I was in the female body”... “I have to be very careful to not be staring at kids,” says Gardner. “I can look at a mom and her baby, but I can’t look for too long. I miss being seen as not a threat.” Ditto for kids on the playground and puppies, multiple guys said... everyone said they’d experienced a moment when they were walking at night behind a woman, and suddenly realized that she was walking faster or clutching her purse because she was scared. “If I start to get too close, I can feel her fear, I can feel that she’s getting upset,” says Milan. “And it’s really just an indication of how dangerous this world is for women”... Many also noticed a shift in their friendships after they transitioned, with some struggling to make friends with cisgender men, unsure of the social cues of male friendship."
This article will piss people of more than one ideological persuasion off
What would happen if white people walking faster because black people were behind them were taken as evidence that the world was unsafe for white people?
Lucasfilm is Pissed About These Amy Schumer Star Wars Photos
A London receptionist refused to wear heels and was dismissed from her job. Now she’s petitioning Parliament.
Cologne New Year sex attacks: Germany's women are angry, scared - and getting tired of excuses - "this is all highly unusual in a country where women are generally used to a high degree of personal safety. In recent years, the number of rape cases and associated offences in Germany has fallen by around 8 per cent. In Hamburg, where a series of attacks also took place on New Year’s Eve, bouncers warned women not to leave nightclubs because of an increasingly hostile crowd on the streets. But the warning was so unusual that several women ignored it and were sexually assaulted by those waiting outside."
Obama Blasts Political Correctness, 'Fragile' Students in Rutgers Speech - "he reserved some time at the end of his speech to also criticize students who are too “fragile” to listen to people whose opinions offend them. He said it was a mistake for students to seek to disinvite speakers with whom they disagree. “I know a couple years ago some folks on this campus got upset that Condoleezza Rice was supposed to speak at a commencement,” said Obama. “I don’t think it’s a secret that I disagree with many of the foreign policies of Dr. Rice and the previous administration. But the notion that this community or the country would be better served by not hearing from a former secretary of state or shutting out what she had to say, I believe that is misguided.” The answer to bad speech is more speech, Obama continued."
Everyone who shared this focused on Trump bashing - but not his safe spaces takedown
Trump vs. Clinton Is Terrible News for Fans of Free Speech and the First Amendment - "Clinton's "long war on free speech" includes censorship crusades against rap music, video games, movies, and television. And we’re not just talking about ratings systems and warning labels here. She's also supported federal laws that would penalize the makers and distributors of so-called offensive entertainment. Clinton is also in favor of empowering the federal government to spy on private communications through such tools as anti-encryption back doors on iPhones and other devices. And then of course there is Hillary Clinton's well-known view that federal authorities should be able to prevent her political opponents from distributing a documentary film that's critical of her in the days before a federal election. That particular issue was litigated before the U.S. Supreme Court in a little case called Citizens United v. FEC. Among other things, Citizens United featured Clinton and her pro-censorship allies squaring off against the American Civil Liberties Union, which supported Citizens United and its First Amendment right to distribute a documentary film about a political candidate in the United States of America... Trump also wants the government to censor parts of the internet in order to eliminate speech that he thinks is dangerous (as does Hillary Clinton)"
Mumbai meat ban: The politics behind the city’s veg vs non-veg divide - "The recent outrage over the ban on sale of meat in Mumbai for four days during the Jain festival of Paryushan (the High Court later stayed it, and on Thursday, the Supreme Court refused to quash the stay) has exposed a faultline that goes to the gut of the matter — the vegetarian versus non-vegetarian divide in the city and how politicians have made a meal of it... The only restaurant serving non-vegetarian as well as vegetarian food on Nepean Sea Road closed more than a decade ago, after shrill protests. Residents had staged a demonstration against ‘Roti’, saying the restaurant was breaching the sanctity of the place where mostly Jains live... In 2007, a group of residents in Chembur, northeast Mumbai, filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court against the opening of a kebab outlet on the ground floor of Devkinandan, a residential building with 14 flats. In their petition, they said the non-vegetarian eatery would cause communal problems as 95 per cent of the population in the surrounding area was vegetarian, many of them Gujaratis, Jains and Rajasthanis. The restaurant plan never took off... “When people want to put up their homes for sale or rent, they often specifically tell us ‘non-veg party nahin chahiye (we don’t want buyers who eat non-vegetarian)’.""
No beef allowed: inside the schools that have banned meat - "when MUSE school in Calabasas, California, decided to become the first school in the US to switch to an all-vegan menu – starting this autumn – it’s no surprise that reactions were forceful. A whopping 40% of the students were withdrawn by concerned parents – though numbers recovered and are now the highest on record, according to head of the school Jeff King. The private school, founded in 2006 by actress and environmental campaigner Suzy Amis Cameron and her sister, Rebecca Amis, also faced accusations from some US critics of looking after the health of its tiny group of privileged children while the mass of poorer students endured inadequate diets in the public school system... Palmer also discovered a “brilliant wheeze” whereby boarders would call the local Domino’s and order a “St Chris” – prompting the delivery of a pizza loaded with meat but covered with a deceptive layer of cheese... It’s hard to see how a maintained school could go fully veggie given government regulations oblige them to provide red meat at least three times a week"
Vegetarian Advocate: A New York Ban on Meat Consumption in the Workplace [Hidden Agenda Warning] - "What are the odds that New York will ban meat consumption in restaurants, bars and workplaces within the next 25 years? None, right? Maybe not. Twenty-five years ago the idea that New York would ban smoking in restaurants, bars and workplaces was laughable. (In fact, one legislator's response to the legislator who proposed the statewide ban back then, well, was to blow smoke in his face)... Today, a statewide ban on meat consumption seems like an impossible dream, but what we are trying to achieve is something that could happen in a distant tomorrow."
Treat meat eaters like smokers, warns Jeremy Corbyn's new vegan farming minister Kerry McCarthy - Telegraph - "In an interview with Viva!life, a magazine for vegans, she admitted she was a "militant" when it came to clamping down on meat consumption... New Zealanders are the top meat eaters, on average eating more meat per person than any other country"
Shark fin ban masks growing appetite for its meat - "The internet erupted with praise last month when United Parcel Service tweeted that it would stop shipping shark fins. But the decision – after a petition to the delivery giant garnered 178,000 signatures – addressed just one of many concerns about the ecologically vital but often threatened marine species. “There is a persistent belief among many well-intentioned folks that the only threat that sharks have ever faced, or are currently facing, is shark finning,” said David Shiffman, a well-known shark scientist at the University of Miami. He argues that the focus on fins distracts attention from more important conservation actions... It’s not clear why the public discourse on sharks has become so singularly focused. Clarke believes that the visceral response that many people have to shark finning is partly responsible, with concern “propelled by bloody pictures of fins being cut off”. But many fins are obtained legally and humanely, a fact often overlooked. Fins are also an easy target for activists in countries with no taste for the Chinese delicacy, Clarke said, noting, “It’s relatively easy to ban a product that you never use.” Conservationists would be wise to examine their own countries’ practices first. In reality, shark conservation is messy and complicated... Lopping the wings off live rays and skates, arguably as cruel as finning, is both “legal and commonplace”, Fordham said, adding, “Skates and rays are being fished as heavily, and are more threatened and much less protected”... As mundane as it sounds, better record-keeping would have a greater impact on shark conservation than any ban on the collection or trade of shark fins. But, Shiffman notes, “I’ve yet to see an internet petition that gets 50,000 signatures saying, ‘Standardise global customs codes.'”"
Benghazi victim's sister slams Hillary Clinton for denying YouTube video claim - "The sister of a war hero killed in Benghazi has accused Hillary Clinton lying to victims' families about the 2012 attack in a bid to court votes. The Democrat front runner has denied telling soldiers' relatives that the attacks were provoked by an anti-Muslim YouTube video. Her words came after an email emerged in the Benghazi committee in which she told the Egyptian prime minister 'we know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film'. But as the former First Lady battles to uphold her version of events, Kate Quigley, sister of fallen soldier Glen Doherty, has lashed out at Clinton, claiming she did pin the events on the video. 'She knows that she knew what happened that day and she wasn't truthful,' Kate Quigley told the Boston Herald Radio's Morning Meeting on Wednesday. 'This is a woman that will do and say anything to get what she wants. I have very little respect for her"
Post ID: 9182207543825933774
The Chinese Communists' Modest Contribution to the War Against Japan
The Communist forces were initially in no position to resist Japan. It was left entirely to the Nationalists to defend Chinese territory. and they bore the brunt of the onslaught. The Communists entered the war with only 30.000 troops. In September 1937 they were reorganized into the Eighth Route Army. Shortly afterward. the New Fourth Army was established to operate in central China, comprising the remnants of troops left behind in the evacuation of the Jiangxi Soviet in 1934.
Mao was acutely aware of his party's strategic weakness, and he called for guerrilla warfare. the avoidance of direct confrontation with Japanese main forces, and the preservation and expansion of military resources. From 1937 to 1939, during the first two years of the war, Japanese forces stayed close to railway lines and depots. leaving the countryside unguarded. When they shifted their attention to securing their hold over broader areas, the CCP had already expanded into rural areas behind their lines. At this point some of Mao's commanders urged mobile warfare against the Japanese, arguing that guerilla warfare would have little impact. They called for closer cooperation with Nationalist forces in an effort to inflict larger losses on Japanese armies, and they received support from a number of party leaders. Mao, however, insisted on avoiding military confrontation and ordered the Eighth Route and New Fourth armies to disperse into small units and engage in recruitment, political work, and base area construction. Under this strategy, by design, there were to be very few clashes with Japanese troops, and even then only small ones. Japanese patrols or puppet Chinese security forces would be ambushed or raided for material and weapons. Collaborators were assassinated. rail lines torn up. mines laid on roads, telegraph poles cut down, and wire stolen.
The sole exception was 1940. With growing confidence due to their expanding control of the countryside. the CCP launched its only sustained offensive of the war. Mao authorized coordinated attacks by 104 regiments against rail lines. major roads, coal mines, and other infrastructure in Japanese hands. The Eighth Route Army lost 22.000 killed and wounded, while the Japanese lost an estimated 3,000 to 4,000. The Japanese sent large reinforcements on search and destroy operations and recovered all their lost territory, leveling villages that collaborated with the CCP, massacring human populations and livestock. and building blockhouses and strategic villages. The population in the Communist-controlled areas dropped from 44 to 25 million, and the Eighth Route Army shrank from 400,000 to 300,000. By 1942. 90 percent of the former Communist base areas on the North China Plain were under enemy control or were actively contested. Having provoked a fierce reaction, Mao reverted to his previous strategy and would never launch another major offensive against the Japanese.
There was a staggering imbalance in the burdens of combat. In January 1940, Zhou Enlai sent a report to Stalin, commenting on the favorable impact of the war against Japan. He stated that more than 1 million Chinese soldiers had been killed or wounded by August 1939, but only 30.000 from the Eighth Route Army and 1,000 from the New Fourth Army. Halfway into the war. the CCP had suffered only 3 percent of total Chinese military casualties. Despite their devastating losses. the Nationalists continually rebuilt their armed forces and persisted in their resistance against Japan in the years to come. The last major stand was their 1944 defense of Henan, Hunan, and Guangzi against a large Japanese offensive known as the lchigo Campaign. Nationalist forces suffered another 146,000 casualties. In the words of one analyst, Japan delivered a mortal blow to the Nationalist Chinese army from which she never had time to recover. By the end of the war it was "in an advanced stage of deterioration.."
In the wake of the Communist victory in 1949 and the CCP‘s subsequent decades of lavish self-praise as heroes of the anti-Japanese resistance, the Nationalist war effort has often been overlooked and denigrated. In the view of one of the most acute critics of the Nationalists’ failures, their military accomplishments were considerable: "[The Nationalist army] persisted for eight years in a war against an enemy force that was decidedly superior in organization, training. and equipment. . . . Completely frustrating Japanese expectations of a quick and decisive victory, it actively fought at Shanghai. at Nanking, and on the plains of North and Central China, incurring frightful losses... |and] mired the Japanese army in the vastness of the Chinese nation."‘ During the entire Chinese war, Japan suffered 483,708 dead and 1.9 million wounded, and Chinese forces suffered 1.3 million dead and 1.7 million wounded.
The Communists' contribution to the war effort was extremely modest. According to a December 1944 Soviet Comintern report, a total of more than 1 million Nationalist troops had been killed in battle, compared to 103,186 in the CCP's Eighth Route Army and another several thousand in the New Fourth Army. The Communists suffered only 10 percent of total Chinese military casualties. One author has called Mao's famous doctrine of people's war one of the "great myths" about the period: “people's war was hardly used in the conflict against the Japanese."
--- China Under Mao / Andrew G. Walder
Mao was acutely aware of his party's strategic weakness, and he called for guerrilla warfare. the avoidance of direct confrontation with Japanese main forces, and the preservation and expansion of military resources. From 1937 to 1939, during the first two years of the war, Japanese forces stayed close to railway lines and depots. leaving the countryside unguarded. When they shifted their attention to securing their hold over broader areas, the CCP had already expanded into rural areas behind their lines. At this point some of Mao's commanders urged mobile warfare against the Japanese, arguing that guerilla warfare would have little impact. They called for closer cooperation with Nationalist forces in an effort to inflict larger losses on Japanese armies, and they received support from a number of party leaders. Mao, however, insisted on avoiding military confrontation and ordered the Eighth Route and New Fourth armies to disperse into small units and engage in recruitment, political work, and base area construction. Under this strategy, by design, there were to be very few clashes with Japanese troops, and even then only small ones. Japanese patrols or puppet Chinese security forces would be ambushed or raided for material and weapons. Collaborators were assassinated. rail lines torn up. mines laid on roads, telegraph poles cut down, and wire stolen.
The sole exception was 1940. With growing confidence due to their expanding control of the countryside. the CCP launched its only sustained offensive of the war. Mao authorized coordinated attacks by 104 regiments against rail lines. major roads, coal mines, and other infrastructure in Japanese hands. The Eighth Route Army lost 22.000 killed and wounded, while the Japanese lost an estimated 3,000 to 4,000. The Japanese sent large reinforcements on search and destroy operations and recovered all their lost territory, leveling villages that collaborated with the CCP, massacring human populations and livestock. and building blockhouses and strategic villages. The population in the Communist-controlled areas dropped from 44 to 25 million, and the Eighth Route Army shrank from 400,000 to 300,000. By 1942. 90 percent of the former Communist base areas on the North China Plain were under enemy control or were actively contested. Having provoked a fierce reaction, Mao reverted to his previous strategy and would never launch another major offensive against the Japanese.
There was a staggering imbalance in the burdens of combat. In January 1940, Zhou Enlai sent a report to Stalin, commenting on the favorable impact of the war against Japan. He stated that more than 1 million Chinese soldiers had been killed or wounded by August 1939, but only 30.000 from the Eighth Route Army and 1,000 from the New Fourth Army. Halfway into the war. the CCP had suffered only 3 percent of total Chinese military casualties. Despite their devastating losses. the Nationalists continually rebuilt their armed forces and persisted in their resistance against Japan in the years to come. The last major stand was their 1944 defense of Henan, Hunan, and Guangzi against a large Japanese offensive known as the lchigo Campaign. Nationalist forces suffered another 146,000 casualties. In the words of one analyst, Japan delivered a mortal blow to the Nationalist Chinese army from which she never had time to recover. By the end of the war it was "in an advanced stage of deterioration.."
In the wake of the Communist victory in 1949 and the CCP‘s subsequent decades of lavish self-praise as heroes of the anti-Japanese resistance, the Nationalist war effort has often been overlooked and denigrated. In the view of one of the most acute critics of the Nationalists’ failures, their military accomplishments were considerable: "[The Nationalist army] persisted for eight years in a war against an enemy force that was decidedly superior in organization, training. and equipment. . . . Completely frustrating Japanese expectations of a quick and decisive victory, it actively fought at Shanghai. at Nanking, and on the plains of North and Central China, incurring frightful losses... |and] mired the Japanese army in the vastness of the Chinese nation."‘ During the entire Chinese war, Japan suffered 483,708 dead and 1.9 million wounded, and Chinese forces suffered 1.3 million dead and 1.7 million wounded.
The Communists' contribution to the war effort was extremely modest. According to a December 1944 Soviet Comintern report, a total of more than 1 million Nationalist troops had been killed in battle, compared to 103,186 in the CCP's Eighth Route Army and another several thousand in the New Fourth Army. The Communists suffered only 10 percent of total Chinese military casualties. One author has called Mao's famous doctrine of people's war one of the "great myths" about the period: “people's war was hardly used in the conflict against the Japanese."
--- China Under Mao / Andrew G. Walder
Post ID: 5081448585517348114
Monday, July 04, 2016
Sam Harris on Blaming the West for Everything, Islam, Intentions and Salon
Sam Harris: The ‘Salon’ Interview: Sam Harris
"You can make the list of U.S. crimes and missteps as long as you want, but it still doesn’t explain ISIS. The fact that we invaded Iraq is merely a background condition for a local explosion of jihadist triumphalism and horror—one that is fully explained by a commitment to a specific interpretation of Islamic scripture. Unfortunately, these same ideas are currently addling the brains of people throughout the world who have no terrestrial grievances whatsoever. Medical students and engineers, who are second- and third-generation British citizens, have joined ISIS. There is nothing about Western foreign policy, global capitalism, or white privilege that explains this...
After World War I, for example, countries like Britain and France and Russia constructed the modern Middle East, for reasons of self-interest and without concerns for sectarian rivalries. These agreements prepared the way for much of the political chaos we’ve seen since. In Iraq, for instance, where ISIS was born, the British imposed a Hashimite monarchy which marked the boundaries of the country irrespective of ethnic and religious tensions. We can’t sidestep this history when talking about these problems today; it’s only part of the story but it absolutely matters. Do you agree?
But the religious lunacy and tribalism was already in place—and that is why the West’s careless partitioning of the region was so problematic. I agree that the history of colonialism isn’t pretty. But the example you raise just proves my point. In fact, this practically became a science experiment that dissected out the crucial variable of religion. There are (or were) Christians living in all these beleaguered countries. How many Christian suicide bombers have there been? Where are the Pakistani, Iraqi, Syrian, Egyptian, and Palestinian Christians who are blowing themselves up in crowds of noncombatants? Have there been any? I’m guessing there must have been a few, but the Muslim supply of such people is apparently inexhaustible. In every case, we’re talking about the same people, speaking same language, living in the same places, enduring the same material deprivation. In fact, the Christians of the Middle East have it worse. They’ve not only suffered the legacy of colonialism, they’ve been hounded out of their countries and often killed outright by their Muslim neighbors—and they still haven’t organized themselves into a death cult. What’s the difference that makes the difference? Religion.
We can also look outside the Muslim world to see that mere injustice and inequality rarely produce such destructive behavior. Many countries in Latin America have legitimate grievances against the U.S. Where are the Guatemalan suicide bombers? Where are the Cherokee suicide bombers, for that matter? If oppression were enough, the Tibetans should have been practicing suicidal terrorism against the Chinese for decades. Instead, they practice self-immolation, for reasons that are totally understandable within the context of their own religious beliefs. Again, specific beliefs matter, and we deny this at our peril. If the behavior of Muslim suicide bombers should tell us anything, it’s that certain people really do believe in martyrdom. Let me be very clear about this: I’m not talking about all (or even most) Muslims—I’m talking about jihadists. But all jihadists are Muslim. If even 1 percent of the world’s Muslims are potential jihadists, we have a terrible problem on our hands. I’m not sure how we deal with 16 million aspiring martyrs—but lying to ourselves about the nature of the problem doesn’t seem like the best strategy.
A key difference I see is that Islam is bound up with a civilization and a culture in way that Christianity isn’t, or isn’t any longer. The enlightenment project, the modern scientific revolution – these things prepared the way for secular politics in the West; they made possible Jefferson’s wall. And I don’t think there’s a “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” equivalent in Islam – though perhaps I am mistaken. How significant is this difference and do you think it matters in terms of our expectations and our approach to dealing with the Muslim world?
Yes, these are points I’ve often made. Islam hasn’t suffered the same collisions with secularism and science that Christianity has. And there are also doctrinal differences that make it more impervious to these collisions than Christianity and Judaism were. Unfortunately, the Qur’an doesn’t contain anything like that line from Matthew, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s.” To the contrary, it is difficult to find an Islamic rationale for truly separating religion and politics. Finding a durable basis for such a separation is one of the great challenges of our age, and that’s why I support reformers like Maajid Nawaz, who is attempting to do just that...
You’ve been critical of liberal commentators like Glenn Greenwald, Reza Aslan and Nicholas Kristof. Do you not take any of their points, especially as it relates to blanket condemnations of Islam?
Unfortunately, these people are consistently on the wrong side of the issues. For instance, each of these men, with varying degrees of malice and stupidity, has publicly attacked Ayaan Hirsi Ali as a bigot. And yet Ayaan is a pure victim of Islamic theocracy. She is also a humanist hero who fully recapitulated the Enlightenment project, having been given almost no intellectual tools with which to do it..
People like Greenwald, Aslan, and Kristof attack her for the stridency with which she criticizes the misogyny and intolerance of free thought that are endemic to Islam. Not only do they get the ethics of the situation absolutely wrong, they make her life more dangerous in the process. It is an absolute scandal.
These people are part of what Maajid Nawaz has termed the “regressive Left”—pseudo-liberals who are so blinded by identity politics that they reliably take the side of a backward mob over one of its victims. Rather than protect individual women, apostates, intellectuals, cartoonists, novelists, and true liberals from the intolerance of religious imbeciles, they protect these theocrats from criticism.
The profundity of this moral blindness seems to have achieved an almost crystalline form in the person of Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald is a gay, Jewish atheist who would be murdered three times over in scores of Muslim communities for reasons that are unambiguously religious. And yet, he considers any focus on this particular brand of theocracy—even by someone who has suffered under its shadow as much as Ayaan has—to be a sign of malice toward innocent people. When cartoonists get butchered in Paris to shouts of “We have avenged the Prophet!” Greenwald races to his keyboard to castigate the dead, liberal cartoonists for their (nonexistent) bigotry. He allies himself with a group like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and works tirelessly to blur the line between legitimate civil rights concerns and theocratic bullying. These are the people who get Ayaan blacklisted from speaking at universities, and Greenwald has publicly stated that there is no group he is prouder to have collaborated with...
I don’t offer any “blanket condemnations” of anything or anyone. I speak about the specific consequences of specific ideas, in so far as they are believed. If 68 percent of British Muslims believe that anyone who “insults Islam” should be prosecuted and punished—then when criticizing the disastrous consequences of that idea for the U.K., I’m talking about those 68 percent. If 30 percent want to live under shari’ah, then I’m talking about precisely those people in that context. These are real poll numbers, by the way, and they’re very troubling...
Intentions are hugely important. In many cases, intention is the only thing that differentiates a truly evil person (or regime) from one who is a mere victim of circumstance. A surgeon performing an appendectomy is not the same as Jack the Ripper just because he’s cutting another person with a knife—and this remains true even if the patient dies. Needless to say, we make such distinctions in our criminal justice system all the time. The difference between first-degree murder, manslaughter, and a tragic accident is largely a matter of what the defendant intended to do and why...
I’m not saying that the Palestinians don’t have any rational grievances against Israel. Of course they do. But their culture has also been poisoned by religious hatred. And this same hatred exists throughout the Muslim world. Ayaan Hirsi Ali remembers being instructed as a teenager in Somalia to pray for the destruction of the Jews. Needless to say, neither she nor her teachers had ever met a Jew. In fact, they had very likely never met anyone who had ever met a Jew. And yet this annihilationist hatred was still central to their worldview...
When four children are blown up on a beach in Gaza by an Israeli missile, one thing should be absolutely clear: The missile went astray. Children were not the target because, even by the most self-interested and cynical calculus, killing Palestinian children is disastrous for Israel... The Israelis currently have the power to kill as many Palestinian children as they want. The fact that they kill so few, amid circumstances that have all the hallmarks of “collateral damage,” tells us something about them. The fact that the Taliban enters a school in Peshawar and methodically butchers 132 kids, after forcing them to watch their teacher being burned alive, tells us something about them.
The regressive Left is blind to these distinctions. For instance, we recently bombed a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, killing 22 doctors, nurses, and patients. This was an utter tragedy—for the bombed, obviously, but also for U.S. foreign policy. It was obviously a mistake (on some level), because bombing this hospital was totally against our interests. The details are still unclear. Perhaps it will prove be a case of criminal negligence. But, judging from my Twitter feed, fans of Noam Chomsky reacted as if President Obama had called a meeting and declared his intention to destroy one of the most beloved charities on earth by murdering its staff en masse.
We are better than our enemies. And the horror is that even such a simple statement of moral fact will be derided as wartime propaganda by many of our readers. Indeed, many will think that even using a term like “enemy” in this (or any) context is a kind of jingoistic outburst. These people take civilization for granted—which is a luxury we can’t always afford. As impossible as it may be to believe, many of our readers think that we are worse than the jihadists. I am long past imagining that there is anything I can say to rectify this sort of moral confusion. (But here goes…)
Simply recall who we’re fighting—groups like al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS. These people kill doctors, aid workers, and journalists on purpose...
The crucial irony to notice here is that it’s people like Greenwald and Aslan who have abandoned the most vulnerable Muslims to theocracy and intolerance. This is what Maajid Nawaz calls the problem of “the minorities within the minorities”—the women, gays, intellectuals, apostates, within the Muslim world who can’t even speak freely for fear of being murdered by their neighbors. I am explicitly making common cause with these people whenever I criticize the Islamic doctrines that are putting their lives in jeopardy...
As long as we’re talking about the regressive Left, it would be remiss of me not to point out how culpable Salon is for giving it a voice. The problem is not limited to the political correctness and masochism I’ve been speaking about—it’s also the practice of outright deception to defame Islam’s critics. To give you one example, I once wrote an article about Islamist violence in which I spoke in glowing terms about Malala Yousafzai. I literally said nothing but good things about her... in response to this encomium, Salon published a piece by the lunatic Murtaza Hussain entitled, “Sam Harris Slurs Malala,” which subjected my views to the same defamatory and dishonest treatment that I’ve come to expect from him. And this sort of thing has been done to me a dozen times on your website. And yet Salon purports to be a forum for the civil discussion of important ideas.
Most readers simply don’t understand how this game is played. If they read an article which states that Sam Harris is a racist, genocidal, xenophobic, pro-torture goon who supported the Iraq war—all of which has been alleged about me in Salon—well, then, it’s assumed that some journalists who work for the website under proper editorial control have actually looked into the matter and feel that they are on firm enough ground to legally say such things. There’s a real confusion about what journalism has become, and I can assure you that very few people realize that much of what appears on your website is produced by malicious freaks who are just blogging in their underpants...
By conflating any focus on Islamism and jihadism with bigotry, there may come a time when only real bigots and Christian theocrats will be willing to address the problem. And they could gain political power because then even sane, secular people might feel that they have no other choice. Just imagine how our political landscape might change if we ever suffered a terrorist attack worse than 9/11...
If you’re going to call me an asshole for publicly doubting that Jesus was born of virgin, please stop complaining that most Americans don’t believe in climate change."
"You can make the list of U.S. crimes and missteps as long as you want, but it still doesn’t explain ISIS. The fact that we invaded Iraq is merely a background condition for a local explosion of jihadist triumphalism and horror—one that is fully explained by a commitment to a specific interpretation of Islamic scripture. Unfortunately, these same ideas are currently addling the brains of people throughout the world who have no terrestrial grievances whatsoever. Medical students and engineers, who are second- and third-generation British citizens, have joined ISIS. There is nothing about Western foreign policy, global capitalism, or white privilege that explains this...
After World War I, for example, countries like Britain and France and Russia constructed the modern Middle East, for reasons of self-interest and without concerns for sectarian rivalries. These agreements prepared the way for much of the political chaos we’ve seen since. In Iraq, for instance, where ISIS was born, the British imposed a Hashimite monarchy which marked the boundaries of the country irrespective of ethnic and religious tensions. We can’t sidestep this history when talking about these problems today; it’s only part of the story but it absolutely matters. Do you agree?
But the religious lunacy and tribalism was already in place—and that is why the West’s careless partitioning of the region was so problematic. I agree that the history of colonialism isn’t pretty. But the example you raise just proves my point. In fact, this practically became a science experiment that dissected out the crucial variable of religion. There are (or were) Christians living in all these beleaguered countries. How many Christian suicide bombers have there been? Where are the Pakistani, Iraqi, Syrian, Egyptian, and Palestinian Christians who are blowing themselves up in crowds of noncombatants? Have there been any? I’m guessing there must have been a few, but the Muslim supply of such people is apparently inexhaustible. In every case, we’re talking about the same people, speaking same language, living in the same places, enduring the same material deprivation. In fact, the Christians of the Middle East have it worse. They’ve not only suffered the legacy of colonialism, they’ve been hounded out of their countries and often killed outright by their Muslim neighbors—and they still haven’t organized themselves into a death cult. What’s the difference that makes the difference? Religion.
We can also look outside the Muslim world to see that mere injustice and inequality rarely produce such destructive behavior. Many countries in Latin America have legitimate grievances against the U.S. Where are the Guatemalan suicide bombers? Where are the Cherokee suicide bombers, for that matter? If oppression were enough, the Tibetans should have been practicing suicidal terrorism against the Chinese for decades. Instead, they practice self-immolation, for reasons that are totally understandable within the context of their own religious beliefs. Again, specific beliefs matter, and we deny this at our peril. If the behavior of Muslim suicide bombers should tell us anything, it’s that certain people really do believe in martyrdom. Let me be very clear about this: I’m not talking about all (or even most) Muslims—I’m talking about jihadists. But all jihadists are Muslim. If even 1 percent of the world’s Muslims are potential jihadists, we have a terrible problem on our hands. I’m not sure how we deal with 16 million aspiring martyrs—but lying to ourselves about the nature of the problem doesn’t seem like the best strategy.
A key difference I see is that Islam is bound up with a civilization and a culture in way that Christianity isn’t, or isn’t any longer. The enlightenment project, the modern scientific revolution – these things prepared the way for secular politics in the West; they made possible Jefferson’s wall. And I don’t think there’s a “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” equivalent in Islam – though perhaps I am mistaken. How significant is this difference and do you think it matters in terms of our expectations and our approach to dealing with the Muslim world?
Yes, these are points I’ve often made. Islam hasn’t suffered the same collisions with secularism and science that Christianity has. And there are also doctrinal differences that make it more impervious to these collisions than Christianity and Judaism were. Unfortunately, the Qur’an doesn’t contain anything like that line from Matthew, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s.” To the contrary, it is difficult to find an Islamic rationale for truly separating religion and politics. Finding a durable basis for such a separation is one of the great challenges of our age, and that’s why I support reformers like Maajid Nawaz, who is attempting to do just that...
You’ve been critical of liberal commentators like Glenn Greenwald, Reza Aslan and Nicholas Kristof. Do you not take any of their points, especially as it relates to blanket condemnations of Islam?
Unfortunately, these people are consistently on the wrong side of the issues. For instance, each of these men, with varying degrees of malice and stupidity, has publicly attacked Ayaan Hirsi Ali as a bigot. And yet Ayaan is a pure victim of Islamic theocracy. She is also a humanist hero who fully recapitulated the Enlightenment project, having been given almost no intellectual tools with which to do it..
People like Greenwald, Aslan, and Kristof attack her for the stridency with which she criticizes the misogyny and intolerance of free thought that are endemic to Islam. Not only do they get the ethics of the situation absolutely wrong, they make her life more dangerous in the process. It is an absolute scandal.
These people are part of what Maajid Nawaz has termed the “regressive Left”—pseudo-liberals who are so blinded by identity politics that they reliably take the side of a backward mob over one of its victims. Rather than protect individual women, apostates, intellectuals, cartoonists, novelists, and true liberals from the intolerance of religious imbeciles, they protect these theocrats from criticism.
The profundity of this moral blindness seems to have achieved an almost crystalline form in the person of Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald is a gay, Jewish atheist who would be murdered three times over in scores of Muslim communities for reasons that are unambiguously religious. And yet, he considers any focus on this particular brand of theocracy—even by someone who has suffered under its shadow as much as Ayaan has—to be a sign of malice toward innocent people. When cartoonists get butchered in Paris to shouts of “We have avenged the Prophet!” Greenwald races to his keyboard to castigate the dead, liberal cartoonists for their (nonexistent) bigotry. He allies himself with a group like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and works tirelessly to blur the line between legitimate civil rights concerns and theocratic bullying. These are the people who get Ayaan blacklisted from speaking at universities, and Greenwald has publicly stated that there is no group he is prouder to have collaborated with...
I don’t offer any “blanket condemnations” of anything or anyone. I speak about the specific consequences of specific ideas, in so far as they are believed. If 68 percent of British Muslims believe that anyone who “insults Islam” should be prosecuted and punished—then when criticizing the disastrous consequences of that idea for the U.K., I’m talking about those 68 percent. If 30 percent want to live under shari’ah, then I’m talking about precisely those people in that context. These are real poll numbers, by the way, and they’re very troubling...
Intentions are hugely important. In many cases, intention is the only thing that differentiates a truly evil person (or regime) from one who is a mere victim of circumstance. A surgeon performing an appendectomy is not the same as Jack the Ripper just because he’s cutting another person with a knife—and this remains true even if the patient dies. Needless to say, we make such distinctions in our criminal justice system all the time. The difference between first-degree murder, manslaughter, and a tragic accident is largely a matter of what the defendant intended to do and why...
I’m not saying that the Palestinians don’t have any rational grievances against Israel. Of course they do. But their culture has also been poisoned by religious hatred. And this same hatred exists throughout the Muslim world. Ayaan Hirsi Ali remembers being instructed as a teenager in Somalia to pray for the destruction of the Jews. Needless to say, neither she nor her teachers had ever met a Jew. In fact, they had very likely never met anyone who had ever met a Jew. And yet this annihilationist hatred was still central to their worldview...
When four children are blown up on a beach in Gaza by an Israeli missile, one thing should be absolutely clear: The missile went astray. Children were not the target because, even by the most self-interested and cynical calculus, killing Palestinian children is disastrous for Israel... The Israelis currently have the power to kill as many Palestinian children as they want. The fact that they kill so few, amid circumstances that have all the hallmarks of “collateral damage,” tells us something about them. The fact that the Taliban enters a school in Peshawar and methodically butchers 132 kids, after forcing them to watch their teacher being burned alive, tells us something about them.
The regressive Left is blind to these distinctions. For instance, we recently bombed a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, killing 22 doctors, nurses, and patients. This was an utter tragedy—for the bombed, obviously, but also for U.S. foreign policy. It was obviously a mistake (on some level), because bombing this hospital was totally against our interests. The details are still unclear. Perhaps it will prove be a case of criminal negligence. But, judging from my Twitter feed, fans of Noam Chomsky reacted as if President Obama had called a meeting and declared his intention to destroy one of the most beloved charities on earth by murdering its staff en masse.
We are better than our enemies. And the horror is that even such a simple statement of moral fact will be derided as wartime propaganda by many of our readers. Indeed, many will think that even using a term like “enemy” in this (or any) context is a kind of jingoistic outburst. These people take civilization for granted—which is a luxury we can’t always afford. As impossible as it may be to believe, many of our readers think that we are worse than the jihadists. I am long past imagining that there is anything I can say to rectify this sort of moral confusion. (But here goes…)
Simply recall who we’re fighting—groups like al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS. These people kill doctors, aid workers, and journalists on purpose...
The crucial irony to notice here is that it’s people like Greenwald and Aslan who have abandoned the most vulnerable Muslims to theocracy and intolerance. This is what Maajid Nawaz calls the problem of “the minorities within the minorities”—the women, gays, intellectuals, apostates, within the Muslim world who can’t even speak freely for fear of being murdered by their neighbors. I am explicitly making common cause with these people whenever I criticize the Islamic doctrines that are putting their lives in jeopardy...
As long as we’re talking about the regressive Left, it would be remiss of me not to point out how culpable Salon is for giving it a voice. The problem is not limited to the political correctness and masochism I’ve been speaking about—it’s also the practice of outright deception to defame Islam’s critics. To give you one example, I once wrote an article about Islamist violence in which I spoke in glowing terms about Malala Yousafzai. I literally said nothing but good things about her... in response to this encomium, Salon published a piece by the lunatic Murtaza Hussain entitled, “Sam Harris Slurs Malala,” which subjected my views to the same defamatory and dishonest treatment that I’ve come to expect from him. And this sort of thing has been done to me a dozen times on your website. And yet Salon purports to be a forum for the civil discussion of important ideas.
Most readers simply don’t understand how this game is played. If they read an article which states that Sam Harris is a racist, genocidal, xenophobic, pro-torture goon who supported the Iraq war—all of which has been alleged about me in Salon—well, then, it’s assumed that some journalists who work for the website under proper editorial control have actually looked into the matter and feel that they are on firm enough ground to legally say such things. There’s a real confusion about what journalism has become, and I can assure you that very few people realize that much of what appears on your website is produced by malicious freaks who are just blogging in their underpants...
By conflating any focus on Islamism and jihadism with bigotry, there may come a time when only real bigots and Christian theocrats will be willing to address the problem. And they could gain political power because then even sane, secular people might feel that they have no other choice. Just imagine how our political landscape might change if we ever suffered a terrorist attack worse than 9/11...
If you’re going to call me an asshole for publicly doubting that Jesus was born of virgin, please stop complaining that most Americans don’t believe in climate change."
Post ID: 5797318014078996331
Links - 4th July 2016
Composers Datebook for Friday, June 17 - "It’s possible that Bach’s Cantata No. 21 was first performance that day: its first part performed before the sermon, its second part right afterwards. The opening text, which Bach sets as a fugue, begins “Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis” or, in English, I had much affliction.” Now even in Bach’s day, composers were afflicted with critics, including snide remarks in print from fellow composers. In 1725, a then-famous composer—and critic—Johann Mattheson took Bach to task for the way in which he had set his text by quoting exactly what is being sung:
"I, I, I, I had much affliction, I had much affliction, in my heart, in my heart. I had much affliction, in my heart…” etc…
Mattheson’s point, apparently, was that vocal music should not stutter, but flow gracefully in the “gallant” style that was becoming more fashionable and trendy back then. Even so, Mattheson knew that Bach was the real deal, and earlier had praised Bach in print for church and keyboard music so well written that (quote), “we must certainly rate this man highly.”"
Composers Datebook for Sunday, July 3 - "The piano became the dominant keyboard instrument in Mozart’s lifetime in the late 18th century. Before that, the harpsichord had ruled. But for more than a hundred years after Mozart’s day, the harpsichord seemed as dead as the dodo, and even the great harpsichord works of Bach and other EARLY 18th century masters were always played on the piano—that is, until Wanda Landowska came on the scene. This indomitable woman was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1879, and single-handedly brought the harpsichord back to life. It was on today’s date in 1927 that she inaugurated an historic series of harpsichord concerts at her summer home near Paris—and, two years later, in 1929, Landowska premiered the “Concert champêtre,” by Francis Poulenc, a brand new harpsichord concerto written specially for her"
WHAT PROTECTION CAN ROAD USERS GET AGAINST SELFISH CYCLISTS? - "Most cyclists and e-bikers have this sense of entitlement on the right to use the road. Also, they think that is the job of the drivers and motorists to pay them extra attention as they weave in and out of lane or cycle in the center lane or in huge groups. They want people to give way to them. Yet they ride in groups like this, Rarely do they follow the traffic rules. They choose which ever light is convenient for them."
Cybersecurity official warns selfies may be used for ’black magic’ - "CyberSecurity Malaysia is an agency under the Science Technology and Innovation Ministry. It was launched in 2007 by former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to promote cybersecurity."
Beware of ‘trans movement’ as patriarchy in disguise - "today’s “trans movement” (particularly the transwoman sector) inadvertently takes us back to a time when women were valued based on their appearance, and whether they fit someone else’s preconceived notion of femininity. In essence, all it takes to be a woman today are [fake] breasts and good hair. As a culture, we are telling women that the feelings and sentiments of a particular group of men – in this case, men who regard themselves as women – matter more than they do. That’s patriarchy by definition, even if women happen to agree to it... my female identity was confirmed by science, which demonstrates that every cell of my being is female no matter how I look or what I do. My being a woman literally has to do with my being, not my doing. Hence, I can live out my life without fitting some ideal of a woman, whether it’s Mad Men’s or anybody else’s... any man, whether he’s identifying as a woman or looking for his next victim, may use the women’s restroom because he feels like it. So much for women’s rights. Nevertheless, the bathroom discussion is couched in the language of civil rights and discrimination. Talk about a culture-war trap... the bathroom wars indicate that we’re entering an entirely new phase of patriarchy which declares victory every time it destroys a safe space for women, including bathrooms, fitting rooms, locker rooms, and so on."
Check In China - "The bizarre practice of scalping is very common. Limited medical resources for the huge population force patients to queue up at hospitals well ahead of the opening time in order to purchase appointment tickets, which are usually snapped up by scalpers and resold at a high price"
Woman jailed 2 weeks for slapping, spitting at police officers after topless swim - "Ms Zhao had gone to Tanjong Beach Club on Sentosa Island at about 1pm to meet her friends. They had drinks and remained there throughout the evening. At about 8.30pm, a security guard heard a sound coming from the swimming pool area. When he went to check, he found that Ms Zhao was topless in the pool. He asked her to put her bikini top back on, and she compliedd with his instruction. But she once again took off her top and went back into the pool soon after that. Noticing this, the guard asked her to produce identification, but she refused to co-operate and started behaving aggressively, prompting him to call the police."
Shonda Rhimes’ Real Talk for Dartmouth Grads: Dreams Are for Losers - "Elsewhere in the world, girls are being harmed simply because they want to get an education. Slavery still exists. Children still die from malnutrition. In this country, we lose more people to handgun violence than any other nation in the world. Sexual assault against women in America is pervasive and disturbing and continues at an alarming rate. So yes tomorrow may suck for you — as it did for me. But as you stare at the lint in your navel, have some perspective. We are incredibly lucky... a hashtag is not a movement. A hashtag does not make you Dr King. A hashtag does not change anything. It’s a hashtag. It’s you, sitting on your butt, typing into your computer and then going back to binge watching your favorite show. For me, it’s Game of Thrones... Whenever you see me somewhere succeeding in one area of my life, that almost certainly means that I am failing in another area of my life... ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU THEY ARE DOING IT ALL PERFECTLY IS A LIAR"
Uber for MBAs is a worrying sign for knowledge workers everywhere
Feeding the world: Can we preserve forests, go organic and eat meat? - "The study’s organic route is only likely to be able to support the FAO’s business-as-usual meat-eating scenario out to 2050 if cropland expands at least 20 per cent on 2000 levels. No scenarios allow for an organic approach to food production and global adoption of a North American style diet, the study suggests. On the climate-benefits of organic agriculture more generally, the paper explains: “[T]he benefits from increased soil carbon stocks of organic agriculture can be annihilated by the larger area demand resulting from lower yields of organic agriculture. In this regard, the massive greenhouse gas emission costs associated with the expansion of cropland into grazing land, currently not well documented, will be crucial.”
Beggar caught making over 70,000 USD per month in Dubai - ""Some of the beggars had passports issued with business or tourist visas," Al Badiawi told reporters. "During the campaign, we found that the majority of beggars had entered the country legally with a three-month visa, in order to collect as much money as they could during their time here," Al Badiawi explained. The seizures showed that one beggar was making about 73,500 dollars per month. "More money was collected on Fridays when beggars stood in front of mosques," Al Badiawi said."
49-Million-Year-Old Cockroach Fossil Reveals A New World Origin For The Old World Ectobius Genus - "The four species of cockroach discovered in Colorado soon became extinct in North America but continued to thrive in the Old World. It is believed that Ectobius disappeared from North America due to a drop in temperature, soon finding a home in Europe and Africa. It took 49 million years for an Ectobius cockroach, adapted to the cold, to return to North America. The researchers describe the Ectobius’ existence in North America as one that is reminiscent of horses, which were first found in North America but soon became extinct and later reintroduced by Spanish explorers."
The Surprising History of America's Wild Horses - "Consider this parallel. To all intents and purposes, the Mongolian wild horse (E. przewalskii, or E. caballus przewalskii) disappeared from its habitat in Mongolia and northern China a hundred years ago. It survived only in zoos and reserves. That is not domestication in the classic sense, but it is captivity, with keepers providing food and veterinarians providing health care. Then surplus animals were released during the 1990s and now repopulate a portion of their native range in Mongolia and China. Are they a reintroduced native species or not? And how does their claim to endemism differ from that of E. caballus in North America, except for the length and degree of captivity?"
Can You Identify These Medieval Weapons By Name?
Do plants feel pain? - "plants release gases that are the equivalent of crying out in pain. Using a laser-powered microphone, researchers have picked up sound waves produced by plants releasing gases when cut or injured. Although not audible to the human ear, the secret voices of plants have revealed that cucumbers scream when they are sick, and flowers whine when their leaves are cut. There's also evidence that plants can hear themselves being eaten. Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia found that plants understand and respond to chewing sounds made by caterpillars that are dining on them. As soon as the plants hear the noises, they respond with several defense mechanisms. For some researchers, evidence of these complex communication systems -- emitting noises via gas when in distress -- signals that plants feel pain"
To truly end animal suffering, the most ethical choice is to kill wild predators (especially Cecil the lion) - "there are estimated 60 billion land birds and over 100 billion land mammals living in the wild. Who is working to alleviate their suffering? As the philosopher Jeff McMahan writes: “Wherever there is animal life, predators are stalking, chasing, capturing, killing, and devouring their prey. Agonized suffering and violent death are ubiquitous and continuous.” If we believe that we should protect animals from unnecessary suffering and death, then it seems that we should be focusing much more on reducing the non-human causes of animal suffering and death that occur almost continuously in the wild... If wild animals don’t have lives worth living then we should try to either improve their lives to the point that they are worth living, or we should prevent such animals from existing in the future. In other words, we should focus on reducing disease, parasites and starvation among wild animals, or on reducing their population size."
Hookup culture is bad for women—so why do we force ourselves to participate? - "It wasn’t just the social pressure that drove me to buy into the commitment-free hookup lifestyle, but my own identity as a feminist. The idea that sexual liberation is fundamental to female agency dominates progressive media. True feminists, I believed, not only wanted but also thrived on emotionless, non-committal sexual engagements... If this was sexual liberation, it was hard to understand how it was helping women. But I was pretty sure my friends and I weren’t closeted conservatives who wanted to go back to an era of sockhops and going steady."
Sex on Campus - She Can Play That Game, Too - NYTimes.com - "women at elite universities were choosing hookups because they saw relationships as too demanding and potentially too distracting from their goals... Susan Patton says women like A. are making a mistake. Ms. Patton, who graduated from Princeton in 1977 and is now a human resources consultant in New York, said in an interview that she wrote her letter after attending a conference on Princeton’s campus, where she took part in a discussion about careers with a group of female students. At one point, she asked the young women if any of them wanted to marry and have children. They at first appeared shocked by the question, then looked at one another for reassurance before, she said, “sheepishly” raising their hands. “I thought, ‘My gosh, what have we come to that these brilliant young women are afraid to say that marriage and children are significant parts of what they view as their lifelong happiness?’ ” Ms. Patton said. “They have gotten such strong, vitriolic messages from the extreme feminists saying, ‘Go it alone — you don’t need a man,’ ” she added... Women said universally that hookups could not exist without alcohol, because they were for the most part too uncomfortable to pair off with men they did not know well without being drunk. One girl, explaining why her encounters freshman and sophomore year often ended with fellatio, said that usually by the time she got back to a guy’s room, she was starting to sober up and didn’t want to be there anymore, and giving the guy oral sex was an easy way to wrap things up and leave... The close relationship between hooking up and drinking leads to confusion and disagreement about the line between a “bad hookup” and assault"
Boys on the Side - "“Here in America, the girls, they give up their mouth, their ass, their tits,” the Argentinean said to me, punctuating each with the appropriate hand motion, “before they even know the guy. It’s like, ‘Hello.’ ‘Hello.’ ‘You wanna hook up?’ ‘Sure.’ They are so aggressive! Do they have hearts of steel or something? In my country, a girl like this would be desperate. Or a prostitute”... Armstrong and Hamilton had come looking for sexual victims. Instead, at this university, and even more so at other, more prestigious universities they studied, they found the opposite: women who were managing their romantic lives like savvy headhunters"
Anti-trans conservatives borrow left-wing rhetoric. - "The ADF’s video was the latest example of the right’s attempts to marshal the language of campus-style social justice politics, with its emphasis on victimization, trauma, and triggers... It’s a kind of high-level trolling meant to highlight contradictions in mainstream feminist discourse, not to build support for rape victims. Those contradictions, however, are real. There’s no coherent ideology in which traumatized students have the right to be shielded from material that upsets them—be it Ovid, 9½ Weeks, or the sentiments of Laura Kipnis—but not from undressing in the presence of people with different genitalia... Some radical feminists believe that these contradictions should make people on the left reconsider their commitment to trans rights. Certainly, creepy men can and probably will take advantage of trans-friendly bathroom laws to try to prey on women. Shortly after Washington state allowed trans people to use bathrooms and changing rooms that correspond with their gender identity, a man barged into the women’s locker room at a local pool, announcing, “The law has changed, and I have the right to be here”... The ease with which conservatives are able to appropriate social justice arguments should, however, make some on the left reconsider the politics of personal fragility. If claiming to feel triggered operates as a political trump card, conservatives are going to play it... It’s not surprising that they’ve found it easy to adapt arguments premised on extreme female vulnerability to their own purposes. Those ideas always had a conservative streak to begin with. So far, progressives have mostly responded to conservative complaints about opening up bathrooms to trans people by loudly insisting that trans bathroom predators are a myth. This elides the fact that we have no working definition of what differentiates a trans woman from a man claiming to be a woman for iniquitous ends. There are, in fact, instances of men who’ve donned drag to spy on women in bathrooms or assault them in female-only spaces such as homeless shelters. There may well be more. Those who want to defend laws on gender-inclusive bathroom access should have an argument besides incredulous denial. Rather than engaging in a victimology arms race, they might ground their arguments in the language of civil liberties... It would be easier for people on the left to make that argument now, though, if they hadn’t spent the past few years arguing the opposite. "
The Jian Ghomeshi Rape Hoax Shows Why Due Process Matters - "In court one of the women who falsely accused Ghomshi of rape admitted under cross-examination tha she was sending him pictures of herself semi-naked after he “raped” her... The second woman to accuse Ghomeshi of raping her emailed him the next day asking for bonus sex... Do you know understand why feminists want to eliminate due process protections in rape cases?... We supposedly live in a rape culture, but a woman can destroy your life based on a false accusation."
Feminists, We Are Not Winning the War on Campus Sexual Assault - "In college I would have been one of the women attending the rallies, holding the signs, and celebrating the wave of expulsions and suspensions of men accused of sexual assault... And then I joined a firm known for handling student discipline cases, started representing students accused of sexual assault, and soon realized what an insane, Kafkaesque world these student disciplinary proceedings are."
"I, I, I, I had much affliction, I had much affliction, in my heart, in my heart. I had much affliction, in my heart…” etc…
Mattheson’s point, apparently, was that vocal music should not stutter, but flow gracefully in the “gallant” style that was becoming more fashionable and trendy back then. Even so, Mattheson knew that Bach was the real deal, and earlier had praised Bach in print for church and keyboard music so well written that (quote), “we must certainly rate this man highly.”"
Composers Datebook for Sunday, July 3 - "The piano became the dominant keyboard instrument in Mozart’s lifetime in the late 18th century. Before that, the harpsichord had ruled. But for more than a hundred years after Mozart’s day, the harpsichord seemed as dead as the dodo, and even the great harpsichord works of Bach and other EARLY 18th century masters were always played on the piano—that is, until Wanda Landowska came on the scene. This indomitable woman was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1879, and single-handedly brought the harpsichord back to life. It was on today’s date in 1927 that she inaugurated an historic series of harpsichord concerts at her summer home near Paris—and, two years later, in 1929, Landowska premiered the “Concert champêtre,” by Francis Poulenc, a brand new harpsichord concerto written specially for her"
WHAT PROTECTION CAN ROAD USERS GET AGAINST SELFISH CYCLISTS? - "Most cyclists and e-bikers have this sense of entitlement on the right to use the road. Also, they think that is the job of the drivers and motorists to pay them extra attention as they weave in and out of lane or cycle in the center lane or in huge groups. They want people to give way to them. Yet they ride in groups like this, Rarely do they follow the traffic rules. They choose which ever light is convenient for them."
Cybersecurity official warns selfies may be used for ’black magic’ - "CyberSecurity Malaysia is an agency under the Science Technology and Innovation Ministry. It was launched in 2007 by former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to promote cybersecurity."
Beware of ‘trans movement’ as patriarchy in disguise - "today’s “trans movement” (particularly the transwoman sector) inadvertently takes us back to a time when women were valued based on their appearance, and whether they fit someone else’s preconceived notion of femininity. In essence, all it takes to be a woman today are [fake] breasts and good hair. As a culture, we are telling women that the feelings and sentiments of a particular group of men – in this case, men who regard themselves as women – matter more than they do. That’s patriarchy by definition, even if women happen to agree to it... my female identity was confirmed by science, which demonstrates that every cell of my being is female no matter how I look or what I do. My being a woman literally has to do with my being, not my doing. Hence, I can live out my life without fitting some ideal of a woman, whether it’s Mad Men’s or anybody else’s... any man, whether he’s identifying as a woman or looking for his next victim, may use the women’s restroom because he feels like it. So much for women’s rights. Nevertheless, the bathroom discussion is couched in the language of civil rights and discrimination. Talk about a culture-war trap... the bathroom wars indicate that we’re entering an entirely new phase of patriarchy which declares victory every time it destroys a safe space for women, including bathrooms, fitting rooms, locker rooms, and so on."
Check In China - "The bizarre practice of scalping is very common. Limited medical resources for the huge population force patients to queue up at hospitals well ahead of the opening time in order to purchase appointment tickets, which are usually snapped up by scalpers and resold at a high price"
Woman jailed 2 weeks for slapping, spitting at police officers after topless swim - "Ms Zhao had gone to Tanjong Beach Club on Sentosa Island at about 1pm to meet her friends. They had drinks and remained there throughout the evening. At about 8.30pm, a security guard heard a sound coming from the swimming pool area. When he went to check, he found that Ms Zhao was topless in the pool. He asked her to put her bikini top back on, and she compliedd with his instruction. But she once again took off her top and went back into the pool soon after that. Noticing this, the guard asked her to produce identification, but she refused to co-operate and started behaving aggressively, prompting him to call the police."
Shonda Rhimes’ Real Talk for Dartmouth Grads: Dreams Are for Losers - "Elsewhere in the world, girls are being harmed simply because they want to get an education. Slavery still exists. Children still die from malnutrition. In this country, we lose more people to handgun violence than any other nation in the world. Sexual assault against women in America is pervasive and disturbing and continues at an alarming rate. So yes tomorrow may suck for you — as it did for me. But as you stare at the lint in your navel, have some perspective. We are incredibly lucky... a hashtag is not a movement. A hashtag does not make you Dr King. A hashtag does not change anything. It’s a hashtag. It’s you, sitting on your butt, typing into your computer and then going back to binge watching your favorite show. For me, it’s Game of Thrones... Whenever you see me somewhere succeeding in one area of my life, that almost certainly means that I am failing in another area of my life... ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU THEY ARE DOING IT ALL PERFECTLY IS A LIAR"
Uber for MBAs is a worrying sign for knowledge workers everywhere
Feeding the world: Can we preserve forests, go organic and eat meat? - "The study’s organic route is only likely to be able to support the FAO’s business-as-usual meat-eating scenario out to 2050 if cropland expands at least 20 per cent on 2000 levels. No scenarios allow for an organic approach to food production and global adoption of a North American style diet, the study suggests. On the climate-benefits of organic agriculture more generally, the paper explains: “[T]he benefits from increased soil carbon stocks of organic agriculture can be annihilated by the larger area demand resulting from lower yields of organic agriculture. In this regard, the massive greenhouse gas emission costs associated with the expansion of cropland into grazing land, currently not well documented, will be crucial.”
Beggar caught making over 70,000 USD per month in Dubai - ""Some of the beggars had passports issued with business or tourist visas," Al Badiawi told reporters. "During the campaign, we found that the majority of beggars had entered the country legally with a three-month visa, in order to collect as much money as they could during their time here," Al Badiawi explained. The seizures showed that one beggar was making about 73,500 dollars per month. "More money was collected on Fridays when beggars stood in front of mosques," Al Badiawi said."
49-Million-Year-Old Cockroach Fossil Reveals A New World Origin For The Old World Ectobius Genus - "The four species of cockroach discovered in Colorado soon became extinct in North America but continued to thrive in the Old World. It is believed that Ectobius disappeared from North America due to a drop in temperature, soon finding a home in Europe and Africa. It took 49 million years for an Ectobius cockroach, adapted to the cold, to return to North America. The researchers describe the Ectobius’ existence in North America as one that is reminiscent of horses, which were first found in North America but soon became extinct and later reintroduced by Spanish explorers."
The Surprising History of America's Wild Horses - "Consider this parallel. To all intents and purposes, the Mongolian wild horse (E. przewalskii, or E. caballus przewalskii) disappeared from its habitat in Mongolia and northern China a hundred years ago. It survived only in zoos and reserves. That is not domestication in the classic sense, but it is captivity, with keepers providing food and veterinarians providing health care. Then surplus animals were released during the 1990s and now repopulate a portion of their native range in Mongolia and China. Are they a reintroduced native species or not? And how does their claim to endemism differ from that of E. caballus in North America, except for the length and degree of captivity?"
Can You Identify These Medieval Weapons By Name?
Do plants feel pain? - "plants release gases that are the equivalent of crying out in pain. Using a laser-powered microphone, researchers have picked up sound waves produced by plants releasing gases when cut or injured. Although not audible to the human ear, the secret voices of plants have revealed that cucumbers scream when they are sick, and flowers whine when their leaves are cut. There's also evidence that plants can hear themselves being eaten. Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia found that plants understand and respond to chewing sounds made by caterpillars that are dining on them. As soon as the plants hear the noises, they respond with several defense mechanisms. For some researchers, evidence of these complex communication systems -- emitting noises via gas when in distress -- signals that plants feel pain"
To truly end animal suffering, the most ethical choice is to kill wild predators (especially Cecil the lion) - "there are estimated 60 billion land birds and over 100 billion land mammals living in the wild. Who is working to alleviate their suffering? As the philosopher Jeff McMahan writes: “Wherever there is animal life, predators are stalking, chasing, capturing, killing, and devouring their prey. Agonized suffering and violent death are ubiquitous and continuous.” If we believe that we should protect animals from unnecessary suffering and death, then it seems that we should be focusing much more on reducing the non-human causes of animal suffering and death that occur almost continuously in the wild... If wild animals don’t have lives worth living then we should try to either improve their lives to the point that they are worth living, or we should prevent such animals from existing in the future. In other words, we should focus on reducing disease, parasites and starvation among wild animals, or on reducing their population size."
Hookup culture is bad for women—so why do we force ourselves to participate? - "It wasn’t just the social pressure that drove me to buy into the commitment-free hookup lifestyle, but my own identity as a feminist. The idea that sexual liberation is fundamental to female agency dominates progressive media. True feminists, I believed, not only wanted but also thrived on emotionless, non-committal sexual engagements... If this was sexual liberation, it was hard to understand how it was helping women. But I was pretty sure my friends and I weren’t closeted conservatives who wanted to go back to an era of sockhops and going steady."
Sex on Campus - She Can Play That Game, Too - NYTimes.com - "women at elite universities were choosing hookups because they saw relationships as too demanding and potentially too distracting from their goals... Susan Patton says women like A. are making a mistake. Ms. Patton, who graduated from Princeton in 1977 and is now a human resources consultant in New York, said in an interview that she wrote her letter after attending a conference on Princeton’s campus, where she took part in a discussion about careers with a group of female students. At one point, she asked the young women if any of them wanted to marry and have children. They at first appeared shocked by the question, then looked at one another for reassurance before, she said, “sheepishly” raising their hands. “I thought, ‘My gosh, what have we come to that these brilliant young women are afraid to say that marriage and children are significant parts of what they view as their lifelong happiness?’ ” Ms. Patton said. “They have gotten such strong, vitriolic messages from the extreme feminists saying, ‘Go it alone — you don’t need a man,’ ” she added... Women said universally that hookups could not exist without alcohol, because they were for the most part too uncomfortable to pair off with men they did not know well without being drunk. One girl, explaining why her encounters freshman and sophomore year often ended with fellatio, said that usually by the time she got back to a guy’s room, she was starting to sober up and didn’t want to be there anymore, and giving the guy oral sex was an easy way to wrap things up and leave... The close relationship between hooking up and drinking leads to confusion and disagreement about the line between a “bad hookup” and assault"
Boys on the Side - "“Here in America, the girls, they give up their mouth, their ass, their tits,” the Argentinean said to me, punctuating each with the appropriate hand motion, “before they even know the guy. It’s like, ‘Hello.’ ‘Hello.’ ‘You wanna hook up?’ ‘Sure.’ They are so aggressive! Do they have hearts of steel or something? In my country, a girl like this would be desperate. Or a prostitute”... Armstrong and Hamilton had come looking for sexual victims. Instead, at this university, and even more so at other, more prestigious universities they studied, they found the opposite: women who were managing their romantic lives like savvy headhunters"
Anti-trans conservatives borrow left-wing rhetoric. - "The ADF’s video was the latest example of the right’s attempts to marshal the language of campus-style social justice politics, with its emphasis on victimization, trauma, and triggers... It’s a kind of high-level trolling meant to highlight contradictions in mainstream feminist discourse, not to build support for rape victims. Those contradictions, however, are real. There’s no coherent ideology in which traumatized students have the right to be shielded from material that upsets them—be it Ovid, 9½ Weeks, or the sentiments of Laura Kipnis—but not from undressing in the presence of people with different genitalia... Some radical feminists believe that these contradictions should make people on the left reconsider their commitment to trans rights. Certainly, creepy men can and probably will take advantage of trans-friendly bathroom laws to try to prey on women. Shortly after Washington state allowed trans people to use bathrooms and changing rooms that correspond with their gender identity, a man barged into the women’s locker room at a local pool, announcing, “The law has changed, and I have the right to be here”... The ease with which conservatives are able to appropriate social justice arguments should, however, make some on the left reconsider the politics of personal fragility. If claiming to feel triggered operates as a political trump card, conservatives are going to play it... It’s not surprising that they’ve found it easy to adapt arguments premised on extreme female vulnerability to their own purposes. Those ideas always had a conservative streak to begin with. So far, progressives have mostly responded to conservative complaints about opening up bathrooms to trans people by loudly insisting that trans bathroom predators are a myth. This elides the fact that we have no working definition of what differentiates a trans woman from a man claiming to be a woman for iniquitous ends. There are, in fact, instances of men who’ve donned drag to spy on women in bathrooms or assault them in female-only spaces such as homeless shelters. There may well be more. Those who want to defend laws on gender-inclusive bathroom access should have an argument besides incredulous denial. Rather than engaging in a victimology arms race, they might ground their arguments in the language of civil liberties... It would be easier for people on the left to make that argument now, though, if they hadn’t spent the past few years arguing the opposite. "
The Jian Ghomeshi Rape Hoax Shows Why Due Process Matters - "In court one of the women who falsely accused Ghomshi of rape admitted under cross-examination tha she was sending him pictures of herself semi-naked after he “raped” her... The second woman to accuse Ghomeshi of raping her emailed him the next day asking for bonus sex... Do you know understand why feminists want to eliminate due process protections in rape cases?... We supposedly live in a rape culture, but a woman can destroy your life based on a false accusation."
Feminists, We Are Not Winning the War on Campus Sexual Assault - "In college I would have been one of the women attending the rallies, holding the signs, and celebrating the wave of expulsions and suspensions of men accused of sexual assault... And then I joined a firm known for handling student discipline cases, started representing students accused of sexual assault, and soon realized what an insane, Kafkaesque world these student disciplinary proceedings are."
Post ID: 2248310083940582366
A Car is not a Necessity in Singapore
Is having a car a necessity? You can take the MRT
Is having an MRT near your house a necessity? You can take a bus to the station
Is having a bus to take you to the MRT station a necessity? You can cycle there
Is having a bicycle to go to the MRT station a necessity? You can walk
Is having an MRT near your house a necessity? You can take a bus to the station
Is having a bus to take you to the MRT station a necessity? You can cycle there
Is having a bicycle to go to the MRT station a necessity? You can walk
Post ID: 8365946010939991605
Sunday, July 03, 2016
Links - 3rd July 2016
Global stock markets rally as Brexit fears abate - "Some investors say last week's sell-off was overdone, while others are betting on central banks to rescue the global economy if needed with more stimulus. "It never was the end of the world," said strategist Jeff Weniger. The senior portfolio strategist at BMO Private Bank in Chicago. said: "To have these kinds of reactions was ridiculous.""
Markets always overreact
George Osborne's warnings of economic doom harmed Remain campaign, David Cameron's aides say - "Former Bank of England governor Mervyn King savaged Project Fear's scaremongering, of which Mr Osborne is said to have been the main architect...
Former Bank chief Lord King said that, over the campaign, the Remain camp had treated those considering a Leave vote like 'idiots'.
Lord King – governor of the Bank for a decade – said voters had not been impressed by scaremongering. 'This was the most dispiriting campaign I can recall in my lifetime,' he told the BBC. 'I think the Government has to take responsibility for setting the tone for that. 'I do think that they said things which were not easy to sustain or support. It's true there was a great deal of uncertainty about the outcome in economic terms. That would have been enough perhaps to have made their case. 'But it went way beyond that in making claims about the precise numbers that could be used to say how much our living standards might fall. 'We had all kinds of scare stories. I was travelling round the UK a lot at that time and I was struck by how many people said to me they didn't like the scaremongering tactics, they didn't like to be told that if they were to vote to leave they would be idiots. If you say to someone, 'You are an idiot if you don't agree with me,' you are not likely to bring them in your direction.'"
Who is Jeremy Corbyn: British Bernie Sanders or rumpled revolutionary? - "To their critics, particularly among Democratic and Labour party leaders, Corbyn and Sanders also share a dangerous stubborn streak. By refusing to compromise their beliefs, these cantankerous old class-warriors risk are splitting the progressive majority at a time when it needs to be unified against the xenophobic populism of the right... There may be lessons for Sanders in the likely defenestration of Corbyn at the hands of his party MPs. Both figures have never been popular with their party elites – Sanders sits in the Senate as in independent, not a Democrat – and have regarded those elites in turn as undemocratic reactionaries. But the failure of Corbyn to even last out the year as leader of his party sends a worrying signal."
Police: Hate Crime Has NOT 'Surged by 57 Per Cent' Since Brexit - "Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton clarified that while reporting of hate crimes had risen via an online form, there was no evidence to suggest that this was uniquely related to a Brexit vote, nor that the crimes have actually been committed."
"ROAST PORK SMELL FROM TEMPLE DINNER TOO UNBEARABLE FOR FASTING HDB RESIDENT
The Big Problem With Outlawing Gender Conversion Therapies - "Can we respect the expressions of gender-crossing children without being so “affirming” of their declarations that we accidentally steer them to a transgender path they might otherwise not want or need to take?... under this bill’s current form, if a seven-year-old male said he feels he’s a girl, then the clinician would have to effectively accept that he’s a girl. If the child indicates a belief that s/he’s a straight girl, then even if the clinician thinks the patient might be a gay boy—that the child might, with good familial and social support, grow up to be a well-adjusted gay man without the need for sex-altering surgeries or lifelong hormone replacement therapy—the clinician must not “change or direct” the child’s understanding. But by not “changing or directing” the child’s understanding—by “affirming” a “transgender” identity as soon as it appears—the clinician might actually be stimulating and cementing a transgender identity... being transgender generally comes with non-trivial medical interventions, including hormonal and surgical"
Is There a Link Between Anorexia and Narcissism? - "Joan Bakewell, an eminent member of the UK House of Lords, is apologising for comments she made linking anorexia to narcissism... Kathryn Gordon and Joseph Dombeck from the Department of Psychology, North Dakota State University, with an academic interest in eating disorders, open their study on the subject with the comment: ‘The literature consistently reports a link between narcissism and eating disorder symptoms’."
Feminists demand equal representation in the refuse collection industry - "The refuse collection industry has been coming under intense pressure in recent weeks over its problematic lack of female role models. Feminists cite the lack of female representation as a clear and present sign of the oppression wrought down from every angle of the patriarchy."
Malaysia's first sharia-compliant airline suspended: Official - "Malaysia's first Islamic-compliant airline has been suspended for three months after it failed to adhere to aviation regulations... "Rayani Air has been suspended for three months"... Muslim flight crew don the hijab while non-Muslim crew are forbidden from wearing revealing clothing on board the airline, which launched last December. In-flight meals are completely halal and alcohol consumption is strictly banned... the carrier had drawn increasing criticism from passengers and the government due to last-minute delays and cancellations. Pilots of the carrier, which operates two Boeing 737-400s, had gone on strike, further damaging its image... Liow also expressed disappointment at Rayani's conduct despite previous warnings over "poor procedures and service level"."
The real reason Rayani Air went kaput - "For an airline, shariah compliance doesn’t just mean banning alcohol, serving halal food, requiring flight crew to cover their aurat, and conducting prayers before take-off. Islamic principles go far beyond that, and require that you:
Keep your promises – take off and land on time, as pledged to customers
Be trustworthy and fair – do not cancel flights without sufficient notice, explanation and apology
Be dependable – alternative arrangements should be offered if flights are cancelled.
Follow procedures and be professional – no handwritten boarding passes!
Never be deceitful – do not give customers false information.
Never break the law – don’t leave staff with no option but to go on strike
Practice good leadership – pay staff wages on time.
Be accountable – never blame others for your own shortcomings...
Maybe this is a sign from Allah, warning us not to misuse religion for personal gain. Maybe this is God’s way of telling us not to use religion as a marketing gimmick – in which case, you could consider the airline’s failure as the result of the Almighty’s wrath (I’m just saying)."
Woman given a discharge over son's death as she was of unsound mind then - "The woman who allegedly drowned her 17-month-old son in the sea off East Coast Park was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on Tuesday. Lim Ann Nee was found to be suffering from "acute transient psychotic disorder" at the time of the alleged offence on Nov 25, 2013. The 45-year-old woman was originally charged with murdering her son, Emilien Lacroix, but the charge was amended to culpable homicide last August. She was released on bail after being remanded for about eight months."
20,000 lesbians in the desert: welcome to the Dinah, a world without men - "Butch, femme, old, young, gold stars, bi, black, white, hardcore, normcore – the Dinah attracts a diverse group. There’s a sense of liberation and a tacit understanding that what happens in Dinah stays in Dinah (unless it ends up on Facebook). “Flashing is normal,” Charlotte, 24, told me. “I get flashed at a lot.” Random girls pulling you into their hotel rooms are also pretty standard. One year, there was a minor earthquake in Palm Springs. Debbie, a Dinah veteran who has attended every event since 1991, recalls that half the water splashed out of the pool. Most of the girls were too drunk to realize or care... Bacardi, Bud Lite, Smirnoff and Barefoot Wines are all big sponsors this year. Bacardi and Bud have sent teams of scantily clad promo girls (most of whom are straight) who hand out swag, pose for photos and generally act a little gay for pay. While it’s normally irritating to get relentlessly advertised to, in this case it’s a sign of progress. You’re not a real human until you’re recognized by corporate America... Today it’s estimated that almost half the population of Palm Springs are gay, and it has the highest per capita gay population in the US, if not the world"
The ‘Wage Gap’ Myth That Won’t Die - WSJ - "Time magazine reported in 2010 that in 98% of America’s largest 150 cities, including my hometown of Los Angeles, single women under 30 actually earned, on average, 8% more than their male counterparts... What California’s Fair Pay Act will do, however, is make the state, already notorious for regulation and red tape, a more difficult place to do business. Companies must now ensure that every penny of wage differential between the men and women they employ is attributable to bona-fide differences in education, training, experience, quantity or quality of work, and so on. Referring to the countless factors at play, Harvard economist Claudia Goldin has said “it’s not checkable.” Yet even attempting to do so will only add to companies’ already substantial regulatory-compliance budgets. Some of these factors—quality of work, for instance—are inevitably subjective, yet trial lawyers will swoop in to turn every conceivable pay difference into a lawsuit. Employers who cannot “prove” objectively that one employee’s work was better than another’s may face costly penalties. Many will surely pay to settle these lawsuits instead of taking them to court... Ms. Goldin has even suggested that women’s employment could decline"
Halal ship kitchens difficult but SAF offers food options - "While halal-certified kitchens can be provided on military camps, this is not possible on board naval ships, where space is a premium and has to be prioritised for operational needs. But provisions are made for servicemen - whether Muslim or those with other dietary requirements - so they have food options... Dr Maliki said this practice is similar to that in French and American navies, whose ships do not have separate halal kitchens. "SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) will accommodate where we can, but the SAF's operational priorities come before individual needs. Our servicemen and women understand and accept this"... Mr Faisal Manap (Aljunied GRC) had called for navy vessels to be equipped with halal-certified kitchens. This was a "practical issue" which he said should be resolved promptly, so as not to deprive Muslim Singaporeans the opportunity to serve on board ships. In reply, Dr Maliki said provisions are made for Muslim naval servicemen through options such as seafood, chicken and vegetables. But having a halal-certified kitchen was not possible, he said, as space has to be maximised for operational requirements such as ammunition and combat systems... "I would like to remind Mr Faisal that Singapore is a secular state and all Singaporeans enjoy the right to practise their religion under our Constitution"
Will Muslims complain if they're forced to eat vegetarian food?
SINGAPORE ARMED FORCES FINALLY ACCEPTS MALAY MUSLIM SOLDIERS INTO ARMOUR FORMATION
Allure of paid sex for teenage boys - "Adrian (not his real name), a 21-year-old, has had sex with prostitutes while holidaying in Bangkok. His friends took him to a Geylang brothel and paid for his first sexual encounter when he was 14 or 15. He has friends who go to Johor Baru regularly to "have fun, as everything from food to prostitutes" is cheaper there. Adrian, who is waiting to enter polytechnic and says he has stopped visiting prostitutes, added: "The holidays are to chill and to drink, not specifically to have sex. But when it's all boys going on holiday, sex somehow becomes part of the package."
Sexuality education 'helps cut infection rate' - ""I find that teens' attitudes towards sex these days are a lot more blase. Some are even having sex with casual friends whom they are not in a relationship with," said Dr Tan. "It's like meeting up to have sex these days is almost as casual as meeting up for a game of tennis.""
Five Nights in Pyongyang, fiction or not? - "I also don’t think an established news organization based in Shanghai would run their website from the United States on what could be a single virtual server or worse, shared hosting. Plus, a news outfit that had been operating since 1972 (as they’ve claimed in their about page) would’ve gone through what other publications have gone through from the onset of the WWW-era to present and must’ve already gone online for some time now."
Belgian minister says many Muslims 'danced' after attacks
Nest Cam smart camera is 'always on' even when 'off'
Police officer faces sack after taking topless selfie in her patrol car with semi-automatic on her lap
Markets always overreact
George Osborne's warnings of economic doom harmed Remain campaign, David Cameron's aides say - "Former Bank of England governor Mervyn King savaged Project Fear's scaremongering, of which Mr Osborne is said to have been the main architect...
Former Bank chief Lord King said that, over the campaign, the Remain camp had treated those considering a Leave vote like 'idiots'.
Lord King – governor of the Bank for a decade – said voters had not been impressed by scaremongering. 'This was the most dispiriting campaign I can recall in my lifetime,' he told the BBC. 'I think the Government has to take responsibility for setting the tone for that. 'I do think that they said things which were not easy to sustain or support. It's true there was a great deal of uncertainty about the outcome in economic terms. That would have been enough perhaps to have made their case. 'But it went way beyond that in making claims about the precise numbers that could be used to say how much our living standards might fall. 'We had all kinds of scare stories. I was travelling round the UK a lot at that time and I was struck by how many people said to me they didn't like the scaremongering tactics, they didn't like to be told that if they were to vote to leave they would be idiots. If you say to someone, 'You are an idiot if you don't agree with me,' you are not likely to bring them in your direction.'"
Who is Jeremy Corbyn: British Bernie Sanders or rumpled revolutionary? - "To their critics, particularly among Democratic and Labour party leaders, Corbyn and Sanders also share a dangerous stubborn streak. By refusing to compromise their beliefs, these cantankerous old class-warriors risk are splitting the progressive majority at a time when it needs to be unified against the xenophobic populism of the right... There may be lessons for Sanders in the likely defenestration of Corbyn at the hands of his party MPs. Both figures have never been popular with their party elites – Sanders sits in the Senate as in independent, not a Democrat – and have regarded those elites in turn as undemocratic reactionaries. But the failure of Corbyn to even last out the year as leader of his party sends a worrying signal."
Police: Hate Crime Has NOT 'Surged by 57 Per Cent' Since Brexit - "Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton clarified that while reporting of hate crimes had risen via an online form, there was no evidence to suggest that this was uniquely related to a Brexit vote, nor that the crimes have actually been committed."
"ROAST PORK SMELL FROM TEMPLE DINNER TOO UNBEARABLE FOR FASTING HDB RESIDENT
The Big Problem With Outlawing Gender Conversion Therapies - "Can we respect the expressions of gender-crossing children without being so “affirming” of their declarations that we accidentally steer them to a transgender path they might otherwise not want or need to take?... under this bill’s current form, if a seven-year-old male said he feels he’s a girl, then the clinician would have to effectively accept that he’s a girl. If the child indicates a belief that s/he’s a straight girl, then even if the clinician thinks the patient might be a gay boy—that the child might, with good familial and social support, grow up to be a well-adjusted gay man without the need for sex-altering surgeries or lifelong hormone replacement therapy—the clinician must not “change or direct” the child’s understanding. But by not “changing or directing” the child’s understanding—by “affirming” a “transgender” identity as soon as it appears—the clinician might actually be stimulating and cementing a transgender identity... being transgender generally comes with non-trivial medical interventions, including hormonal and surgical"
Is There a Link Between Anorexia and Narcissism? - "Joan Bakewell, an eminent member of the UK House of Lords, is apologising for comments she made linking anorexia to narcissism... Kathryn Gordon and Joseph Dombeck from the Department of Psychology, North Dakota State University, with an academic interest in eating disorders, open their study on the subject with the comment: ‘The literature consistently reports a link between narcissism and eating disorder symptoms’."
Feminists demand equal representation in the refuse collection industry - "The refuse collection industry has been coming under intense pressure in recent weeks over its problematic lack of female role models. Feminists cite the lack of female representation as a clear and present sign of the oppression wrought down from every angle of the patriarchy."
Malaysia's first sharia-compliant airline suspended: Official - "Malaysia's first Islamic-compliant airline has been suspended for three months after it failed to adhere to aviation regulations... "Rayani Air has been suspended for three months"... Muslim flight crew don the hijab while non-Muslim crew are forbidden from wearing revealing clothing on board the airline, which launched last December. In-flight meals are completely halal and alcohol consumption is strictly banned... the carrier had drawn increasing criticism from passengers and the government due to last-minute delays and cancellations. Pilots of the carrier, which operates two Boeing 737-400s, had gone on strike, further damaging its image... Liow also expressed disappointment at Rayani's conduct despite previous warnings over "poor procedures and service level"."
The real reason Rayani Air went kaput - "For an airline, shariah compliance doesn’t just mean banning alcohol, serving halal food, requiring flight crew to cover their aurat, and conducting prayers before take-off. Islamic principles go far beyond that, and require that you:
Keep your promises – take off and land on time, as pledged to customers
Be trustworthy and fair – do not cancel flights without sufficient notice, explanation and apology
Be dependable – alternative arrangements should be offered if flights are cancelled.
Follow procedures and be professional – no handwritten boarding passes!
Never be deceitful – do not give customers false information.
Never break the law – don’t leave staff with no option but to go on strike
Practice good leadership – pay staff wages on time.
Be accountable – never blame others for your own shortcomings...
Maybe this is a sign from Allah, warning us not to misuse religion for personal gain. Maybe this is God’s way of telling us not to use religion as a marketing gimmick – in which case, you could consider the airline’s failure as the result of the Almighty’s wrath (I’m just saying)."
Woman given a discharge over son's death as she was of unsound mind then - "The woman who allegedly drowned her 17-month-old son in the sea off East Coast Park was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on Tuesday. Lim Ann Nee was found to be suffering from "acute transient psychotic disorder" at the time of the alleged offence on Nov 25, 2013. The 45-year-old woman was originally charged with murdering her son, Emilien Lacroix, but the charge was amended to culpable homicide last August. She was released on bail after being remanded for about eight months."
20,000 lesbians in the desert: welcome to the Dinah, a world without men - "Butch, femme, old, young, gold stars, bi, black, white, hardcore, normcore – the Dinah attracts a diverse group. There’s a sense of liberation and a tacit understanding that what happens in Dinah stays in Dinah (unless it ends up on Facebook). “Flashing is normal,” Charlotte, 24, told me. “I get flashed at a lot.” Random girls pulling you into their hotel rooms are also pretty standard. One year, there was a minor earthquake in Palm Springs. Debbie, a Dinah veteran who has attended every event since 1991, recalls that half the water splashed out of the pool. Most of the girls were too drunk to realize or care... Bacardi, Bud Lite, Smirnoff and Barefoot Wines are all big sponsors this year. Bacardi and Bud have sent teams of scantily clad promo girls (most of whom are straight) who hand out swag, pose for photos and generally act a little gay for pay. While it’s normally irritating to get relentlessly advertised to, in this case it’s a sign of progress. You’re not a real human until you’re recognized by corporate America... Today it’s estimated that almost half the population of Palm Springs are gay, and it has the highest per capita gay population in the US, if not the world"
The ‘Wage Gap’ Myth That Won’t Die - WSJ - "Time magazine reported in 2010 that in 98% of America’s largest 150 cities, including my hometown of Los Angeles, single women under 30 actually earned, on average, 8% more than their male counterparts... What California’s Fair Pay Act will do, however, is make the state, already notorious for regulation and red tape, a more difficult place to do business. Companies must now ensure that every penny of wage differential between the men and women they employ is attributable to bona-fide differences in education, training, experience, quantity or quality of work, and so on. Referring to the countless factors at play, Harvard economist Claudia Goldin has said “it’s not checkable.” Yet even attempting to do so will only add to companies’ already substantial regulatory-compliance budgets. Some of these factors—quality of work, for instance—are inevitably subjective, yet trial lawyers will swoop in to turn every conceivable pay difference into a lawsuit. Employers who cannot “prove” objectively that one employee’s work was better than another’s may face costly penalties. Many will surely pay to settle these lawsuits instead of taking them to court... Ms. Goldin has even suggested that women’s employment could decline"
Halal ship kitchens difficult but SAF offers food options - "While halal-certified kitchens can be provided on military camps, this is not possible on board naval ships, where space is a premium and has to be prioritised for operational needs. But provisions are made for servicemen - whether Muslim or those with other dietary requirements - so they have food options... Dr Maliki said this practice is similar to that in French and American navies, whose ships do not have separate halal kitchens. "SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) will accommodate where we can, but the SAF's operational priorities come before individual needs. Our servicemen and women understand and accept this"... Mr Faisal Manap (Aljunied GRC) had called for navy vessels to be equipped with halal-certified kitchens. This was a "practical issue" which he said should be resolved promptly, so as not to deprive Muslim Singaporeans the opportunity to serve on board ships. In reply, Dr Maliki said provisions are made for Muslim naval servicemen through options such as seafood, chicken and vegetables. But having a halal-certified kitchen was not possible, he said, as space has to be maximised for operational requirements such as ammunition and combat systems... "I would like to remind Mr Faisal that Singapore is a secular state and all Singaporeans enjoy the right to practise their religion under our Constitution"
Will Muslims complain if they're forced to eat vegetarian food?
SINGAPORE ARMED FORCES FINALLY ACCEPTS MALAY MUSLIM SOLDIERS INTO ARMOUR FORMATION
Allure of paid sex for teenage boys - "Adrian (not his real name), a 21-year-old, has had sex with prostitutes while holidaying in Bangkok. His friends took him to a Geylang brothel and paid for his first sexual encounter when he was 14 or 15. He has friends who go to Johor Baru regularly to "have fun, as everything from food to prostitutes" is cheaper there. Adrian, who is waiting to enter polytechnic and says he has stopped visiting prostitutes, added: "The holidays are to chill and to drink, not specifically to have sex. But when it's all boys going on holiday, sex somehow becomes part of the package."
Sexuality education 'helps cut infection rate' - ""I find that teens' attitudes towards sex these days are a lot more blase. Some are even having sex with casual friends whom they are not in a relationship with," said Dr Tan. "It's like meeting up to have sex these days is almost as casual as meeting up for a game of tennis.""
Five Nights in Pyongyang, fiction or not? - "I also don’t think an established news organization based in Shanghai would run their website from the United States on what could be a single virtual server or worse, shared hosting. Plus, a news outfit that had been operating since 1972 (as they’ve claimed in their about page) would’ve gone through what other publications have gone through from the onset of the WWW-era to present and must’ve already gone online for some time now."
Belgian minister says many Muslims 'danced' after attacks
Nest Cam smart camera is 'always on' even when 'off'
Police officer faces sack after taking topless selfie in her patrol car with semi-automatic on her lap
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