Links - 23rd May 2018 (2)

Report: Colleges Dropping 'Fat Studies' Courses in 2018 - "a “Fat Studies” professor at York University who wrote an academic journal article that referred to obese stomachs as “glorious.”"

What were the causes of 9/11? - "events in Iraq have undermined Pape’s contention that foreign occupation is the driving force behind suicide attacks, particularly in the Islamic world. Suicide attackers in Iraq are largely foreigners, and half or more are estimated to be Saudis, while the rest are from other middle eastern countries, with a sprinkling of Europeans. Only around 10 per cent of the suicide attacks in Iraq are undertaken by Iraqis. It is not foreign occupation, but rather a globalised culture of martyrdom that is driving suicide attacks in the Muslim world. Indeed, in 2003, US forces in Saudi Arabia—Bin Laden’s original casus belli—were reduced almost to zero, yet Bin Laden and his followers continued to advocate attacking the US."
So much for Western Foreign Policy

‘Complete invention’: Blair denies telling Trump UK may have spied on him - "Tony Blair has dismissed as a “complete invention” a claim that he warned Donald Trump’s advisers UK intelligence may have spied on him during the presidential election campaign. In his already bestselling new book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, author Michael Wolff says the the former prime minister had a secret meeting with Trump’s son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner."
Some people will believe anything that makes Trump look bad

Woman Offers Bounty For Trump, Gets Instant Karma - "A woman was suspended from Twitter for offering a bounty for anyone who would be willing to assassinate President Donald Trump... a California man was arrested for threatening to shoot another man because he was wearing an anti-Trump shirt. The suspect reportedly asked the man with the shirt to remove it because it offended him. He then threatened to shoot him if he didn't comply."

LGBT Activists Can’t See What’s Wrong With A 9-Year-Old Drag Queen - "The images of the young boy are undeniably adult in nature, from the make-up to the posing, to the facial expressions. The boy is emulating an adult woman being sexually provocative. He has seen this behavior and body language in his drag queen mentors. Drag is an inherently adult form of entertainment, meant to exaggerate female sexuality using humor and vulgarity. The sexuality within the artform cannot be separated out and therefore many oppose minors, and certainly children, participating in it. Since LGBT people first celebrated the boy, he has been a symbol of a movement crossing a line... The LGBT world often struggles to separate its sexually explicit culture from its advocacy for equality and rights. In many ways they are incapable of understanding why the outside world would be appalled by explicitly sexual public displays. For them it must be out of malice, hatred, or ignorance rather than reasonable aversion."

Reservist Brought Out the Worst in Me. This Article is Proof - "Literally no one in my camp can summon two fucks to give about ICT. The same applies for the commanders, the men and everybody in-between. The signals sergeant has forgotten how to turn on his radio, and my platoon commander collapsed after 17 push-ups. When you look into their eyes, you can see the distant, glassy look of men who are either somewhere far away or totally dead inside."

Gang leader had ill intentions towards teen girl, friend testifies at rape trial - "Fu had to walk away to “buy a drink” although he did not need it, because he was feeling “helpless”... Koh responded to the message by asking Fu what “position” he had “to speak up” for the victim. Fu then told Koh that he was trying to “woo her and wanted her to be my girlfriend”. However, Koh raised the point that Fu already had a girlfriend. When Fu asked Koh if he was going to have sex with the victim, Koh told him that he did not have a say in what he (Koh) wanted to do. He also said later that it “depended” on his “mood”."

A confirmed case of toxic shock syndrome associated with the use of a menstrual cup

Yale let accusers text each other to coordinate testimony against male during Title IX hearing: lawsuit - "Two female students at Yale formally accused a male student “only minutes apart” on the same day, saying he groped both of them on a bus and one of them months earlier in Paris. They teamed up again by coordinating their testimony against the male... nearly 20 witnesses also failed to notice Doe’s alleged groping... The policy under which Doe was investigated was “drafted, approved and authorized almost entirely by women’s groups and women representatives at Yale,” and it never defines groping, the suit claims."

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Pulled From All Chinese Theaters - "The Last Jedi earned $28.7 million in its opening weekend in China at the start of January. That number was the lowest of Lucasfilm’s latest releases thus far; The Force Awakens grossed $52 million in its opening weekend, whereas Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opened to $30 million. While those movies went on to more than double their opening grosses in the country – with The Force Awakens earning $124 million and Rogue One taking in $69.5 million – The Last Jedi is, unfortunately, performing differently. Episode VIII added only $2.4 million in its second weekend in China. And now that it has reportedly been removed from all theaters, it will end its run in the world’s second largest moviegoing market with only $31.1 million."

'The Last Jedi' Loses 92% Of Its Screens In China In 2nd Weekend; It "Insults The IQ" And The Stars "Aren’t Very Beautiful"

India $2.9 Billion Nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarine Flooded and Almost Sank After Someone Left the Hatch Open

Racism and race crime redefined - "Describing an incident as racist may say as much about a victim's mindset as the offender. How else can one explain the British Crime Survey finding that 3,100 car thefts from Asians were deemed to be racially motivated?"
Sometimes, people are just imagining it

Natural selection is causing a decline in human 'education genes', say scientists - "those who carry the genes for longer education time were less likely to have a big family, which means the smartest people in the room were actually contributing less to the Icelandic gene pool... even those who carried the genes for longer education time, but who did not actually get more education, still had fewer offspring on average than those without the genetic factor."

Men should ejaculate 21 times a month to protect against prostate cancer, study suggests

5 Lies People Love to Tell Activists About Violence – And Why You Shouldn't Believe Them - Everyday Feminism
So it looks like feminism encourages violence

Surprise as DNA reveals new group of Native Americans: the ancient Beringians - "nearly half of the girl’s DNA came from the ancient north Eurasians who lived in what is now Siberia"

“The 13th” and its Glaring Omission: Actual Crime that Mirrors Demographics - "When one looks at the face of non-drug related crime and its victims — which often affects minority groups in the USA — one sees that the incarceration rate closely mirrors the crime rate...
I. PRISON RATES TRIPLED 1960–2010, SAME FOR ALL DEMOGRAPHICS (except White Women, which increased by 8 times)... In a fundamental way, this punches a hole in the theory that the War on Drugs and mandatory minimum laws are are blatantly racist...
Police officer’s lethal use of force leads to about 1000 deaths annually, just under 10% of persons shot being “unarmed” and four out of 10 of them being African American. But that doesn’t always mean attackers are not lethally dangerous. A handful of the most tragic outcomes involving Black Americans we collectively mourn, witness, and interpret on TV and social networks. Though, why do we never hear about the 60%-75% of them who aren’t non-Hispanic black? (In 2015 according to The Washington Post, approximately 60% of people shot and killed “unarmed” are not black — and ditto 75% of all people killed by law enforcement, which is about 750 victims.)... We may hear a monthly news story of someone shot or hurt by police — always black — but we won’t hear how 90% or more are justified... African Americans (13% of the population) are about 25% of the people killed by police. Black Americans are also 27% of the arrests, just below 40% for violent crimes, and around 50% of persons getting killed (and doing the killing) in U.S. society... Police are in high crime areas doing their prescribed job — with the occasional tragic mistake or “problematic” but justified killing — perhaps, because black lives DO matter to them... When people say cops aren’t killing many citizens in other countries, it’s also true cops are rarely getting shot and killed in other countries, too"

'Ferguson effect': DOJ says racial tension may increase murders - "Arrests for violent crimes go down after high-profile and controversial police-involved shootings, the report says, with murder rates going up at the same time"

Sora Aoi: Japan's porn star who taught a Chinese generation about sex - ""There was once a popular saying on China's internet - 'Diaoyu Islands belong to China, and Sora Aoi belongs to the world'. This is how she relieved the political and civil tensions.""

British Girls' School Bans Staff from Calling Students 'Girls' - "Altrincham Grammar for Girls sent out a letter last week informing student’s parents that teachers would officially be prohibited from referring to their students as “girls.”... "this kind of move risks leading to more bullying of transgender pupils who may wrongly be blamed for this move""

Another country has banned boiling live lobsters. Some scientists wonder why - "the most common opinion held by researchers is that lobsters (and their hard-shell relatives) cannot process pain"

Sri Lanka's president rejects move to allow women to buy alcohol - "He told a rally he had ordered the government to withdraw the reform, which would also have allowed women to work in bars without a permit... A majority of women in Sri Lanka traditionally choose not to drink alcohol as they see it as contrary to Sri Lankan culture"

At Islamic convention, ex-educator urges ban on scholarships for minorities - "A retired teacher told the Malaysian government on Saturday (Jan 13) to end federal scholarships for minority students as part of moves to uplift Malay supremacy in the country ahead of the 14th general election... his group was also against the government issuing scholarships based on merit"

Heartland Democrats to Washington: You’re Killing Us - "New report blames elitist national party for alienating voters, and threatening the party's chances in 2020"

German study: Almost one in three Muslim students 'would fight and die for Islam' - "29.9 per cent of Muslim students in the German state of Lower Saxony imagine fighting and risking their lives for Islam. Also 27.4 per cent of them say that Sharia law is much better in punishing an affair or homosexuality than German law."

Lineage 2: Revolution Female Characters Censored For Western Release - "NetMarble’s Lineage 2: Revolution originally launched in Asia back in 2016 and only recently made its way to the West in November, 2017. Some users pointed out that the Western version of the game that’s available in North America and Europe, has been heavily censored… or rather, the female characters have been heavily censored."

Is the Porn Industry Racist? - "a number of white female performers are discouraged from participating in scenes with black men. Often those doing the discouraging are men in power within the industry — specifically, white men who are managers or agents"

Chinese dating apps closed after women revealed to be robots

Millennials watching ‘Friends’ on Netflix shocked by storylines - "Millennials watching Friends on Netflix have expressed reservations about the popular sitcom’s storylines, describing it as transphobic, homophobic and sexist."

Power Rangers: What if Jetman was the first Sentai to be adapted?

Why Foreign Aid Fails by Miroslav Prokopijevic - "foreign aid fails because the structure of its incentives resembles that of central planning. Aid is not only ineffective, it is arguably counterproductive. Contrary to business firms that are paid by those they are supposed to serve (customers), aid agencies are paid by tax payers of developed countries and not by those they serve. This inverse structure of incentives breaks the stream of pressure that exists on the commercial market. It also creates larger loopholes in the principle-agent relationship on each point along the chain of aid delivery. Both factors enhance corruption, moral hazard and negative selection. Instead of promoting development, aid extends the life of bad institutions and those in power. Proposals to reform foreign aid - like aid privatization and aid conditionality - do not change the existing structure of the incentives in aid delivery, and their implementation may just slightly improve aid efficacy. Larger improvement is not possible. For that reason, foreign aid will continue to be a waste of resources, probably serving some objectives different to those that are usually mentioned, like recipient's development, poverty reduction and pain relief."

Climate change is a racist crisis: that’s why Black Lives Matter closed an airport | Alexandra Wanjiku Kelbert - "Today we are saying that the climate crisis is a racist crisis. On the one hand Britain is the biggest contributor per capita to global temperature change. It is also one of the least vulnerable to the effects of climate change. On the other hand, seven of the 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change are in sub-Saharan Africa."
When you just want attention, mission creep is a great idea

Amazon Alexa Will Now Refuse To Respond If You Use 'Sexist' Language - "Amazon was, apparently, rather distressed by Quartz's findings, even if regular, everyday Americans weren't likely to ask Alexa whether she was a feminist, query her for her views on reproductive rights, or call her a "slut" (especially given that she's not a real person), so they made an effort to change Alexa's programming, making her more "woke," and even giving her the option to rebuke sexist questions... Feminists are, of course, overjoyed at the faux achievement of programming a robot with no actual gender to respond to insults in a politically correct and wholly feminist way. And Amazon's Alexa engagement team is patting itself on the back as a result."

Mother refused to report Afghan migrant molesting daughter - "An Afghan migrant who molested a 12-year-old Swedish girl was initially not reported to police - because her mother was dating him... When the girl told her what had happened, the mother refused to report him to police as she feared he would be sent back to Afghanistan, court documents reveal... Dostmohammadi was found guilty of sexual molestation and handed a three-month suspended sentence and ordered to undertake 100 hours of community service. Blekinge County Court ruled that he must also pay the victim 15,000 kronor (£1,336) in compensation."
Addendum: A Feminist Mother Concealed a Refugee who Abused her Daughter to Avoid his Expulsion - "According to the Swedish newspaper Fria Tider, the woman works in a center of the HVB network of kids and youth centers, an institution that also welcomes young refugees... The matter was discovered when the girl, after a school day, refused to return home without talking to her father before (she is the daughter of a separated couple). It was the father of the girl who decided to report sexual abuse to the Police... She also acknowledged that her mother had asked her “not to say anything” about what happened. Despite this, no charges were filed against the mother for concealment. The paradox is that the young Afghan has been convicted for sexually abusing the girl, but the Prosecutor avoided requesting his expulsion... Fria Tider points out that the mother is an activist of the #MeToo movement, which has been reporting cases of sexual abuse against women, and is also very involved in supporting Afghan refugees... In February 2015, the Swedish government approved the marriage between a 14-year-old girl and a 21-year-old girl, both refugees, despite the fact that the age of sexual consent in Sweden is set at 15 years. The case provoked a strong polemic in Gothenburg, because the social services argued that it is incompatible to protect the rights of the girl and at the same time authorize her to live with an adult as his wife. In April 2017, a court released an Iraqi immigrant who raped a 14-year-old girl after considering that the rapist had “attention deficit.”... Given the serious problem of violations, the last occurrence of the Swedish Government has been to suppress the presumption of innocence of all accused of rape, which implies that if a woman accuses you of having raped, you will have to prove that you did not. It is a reform that violates Article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty”. To prove that the sex was voluntary, the Swedish government wants every person accused of rape to show that he had “active consent”"