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Saturday, July 15, 2023

Links - 15th July 2023 (2 - Migrants)

Mass immigration’s advocates are finally admitting that it cuts pay - "Ministers brief the newspapers that the labour market is too tight, and companies need more workers. And some former ministers are starting to say the quiet part out loud. Philip Hammond, the former chancellor, has said relaxing immigration controls will create more competition for jobs and help to reduce inflation – and therefore interest rates – by reducing the power of workers to seek increases in pay... the inflation crisis – and the solution proffered by Hammond – has revealed a truth long denied by ministers and officials. For years they have insisted that immigration does not cause job displacement or hold down wages. They have done so despite academic studies and evidence from the Government’s own Migration Advisory Committee saying the opposite. But now they admit it themselves. Inflation, according to Chris Patten, is high in part because Brexit has made it “more difficult for us to import … labour”... We have created a higher education model entirely dependent on income from foreign students, whatever their quality, at the expense of British kids who are displaced from our best institutions and courses, and that fails to offer technical and vocational alternatives. Partly as a result we have skills shortages that cause demand for migrant workers to grow. Dependence on their ready supply kills the incentive to invest in labour-saving, productivity-improving tech, and the skills of people already here. MPs grow hysterical when ministers confirm that not every unfortunate individual from every unfortunate country can come here via a “safe and legal route”.  This is partly down to the failing economic model upon which Britain has relied for decades. Productivity is poor, growth low, and pay stagnant. But mass immigration grows our GDP, if not GDP per capita, and reduces debt as a percentage of our economy without us having to do much. The lack of imagination, vision and ideas of how we might do things differently is part of the problem. But so too is the ideology of many of our politicians. The Right sees immigration as an economic shortcut, the Left through its obsession with radical diversity and identity politics. Which brings us back to the lies. Last week, responding to the argument that mass immigration was increasing rental prices – a statement of fact – a BBC journalist said, “who you gonna get to build all those homes? British workers don’t seem too keen on learning construction skills.” But he was wrong: non-UK nationals account for 13 per cent of construction workers in the buildings sector, eight per cent in specialised construction, and seven per cent in civil engineering.  Shortly afterwards, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, claimed, “this city was built by migrants, by refugees” – a statement which, like the claim that we “have always been a country of immigration” – is verifiably false. Those who believe immigration should be reduced and controlled are often presented by liberals as zealots and extremists who peddle a lie – but on this vital issue, where change is irreversible and comes with real consequences, the opposite is the truth."

A new era of immigration politics has started in Canada - "For decades, the annual announcement of Canada’s expected immigration level for the upcoming year was one of the most boring press releases in Ottawa.  Successive governments since the early 1990s gently raised the number each year, allowing a few more immigrants into the country but keeping the rate, as a percentage of Canada’s population, at about 0.8 percent.  In that time Canada has enjoyed a remarkable pro-immigration consensus among its major political parties... All of a sudden, though, mainstream voices are arguing that Canada should consider allowing fewer immigrants each year and louder voices are arguing that the country should allow many, many more... It might be a tough sell, especially in the midst of an ongoing housing crisis and health-care backlogs that have blared out from news headlines for years... In an interview with The Hub on Tuesday, Mikal Skuterud, an economics professor at the University of Waterloo who specializes in labour markets and immigration, said advocates for higher immigration focus too much on the total size of the economy, rather than GDP per capita, which he says is a rough way of calculating Canadian living standards.  It’s undeniable that bringing in more people will boost Canada’s GDP, but it’s extremely hard to boost GDP per capita through immigration, he said. The United States is the one country that may be able to accomplish it because they genuinely attract the best talent from around the world.  But rather than a global “war for young talent,” the policies endorsed by advocate groups like the Century Initiative are more likely to bring low-skilled immigrants to Canada who may be saddled with lower living standards than the people who came here before them, he said.  Skuterud believes that the recent Canadian consensus on immigration comes in large part from accepting high-skilled immigrants who keep living standards high. This system also leads to lower levels of inequality.  “In this country, it’s a system that you want chugging along in the background, very effectively, with high immigration rates. And when I say high, 0.8 percent is high,” said Skuterud.  Skuterud agrees that something has changed in the debate, but he hasn’t experienced any blowback for arguing a position that has historically been taboo in Canada. He said he has been pleasantly surprised about the quality of the debate, even in the more rough and tumble venues like Twitter. And as the immigration debate opens up, it hasn’t attracted any populist or anti-immigrant sentiment so far.  The British-based Canadian sociologist Eric Kaufmann argues that Canada has benefited from an elite “taboo” about opposition to high immigration levels, but he has argued for years that it can’t last forever.  Kaufmann argues that politicians should learn to talk about immigration in a way that allows these points of view to enter the debate, or risk letting a populist dam burst like it did in the United States when Donald Trump made his unlikely bid for president.  Skuterud worries that if inequality increases, at least partly due to immigration policies, it could endanger the Canadian consensus on immigration. “This push towards just filling job vacancies (with immigration) has has two effects. One, it lowers average living standards. And two, and probably what worries me more, it increases inequality. And that’s not good for public support for immigration”"

As record numbers of foreign students come to Canada, experts urge a rethink of the program - "At the Sydney Cineplex Cinemas last fall, alongside movie-goers taking in the latest Marvel movie, university students were piling into the theatre for classes due to a lack of teaching space.  Not coincidentally, the university reported a haul of nearly $85 million in tuition fees this spring, a 200 percent increase from just five years ago, driven mainly by an increase in international students.  And teaching space isn’t the only thing at a premium in Sydney. Local media have reported on a housing shortage that residents attribute to the influx of international students. Some of the students themselves have asked for a cap on enrolment, as they grapple with housing issues and underwhelming employment opportunities... Because there is no central coordination or limit on how many international students can come to Canada, our post-secondary institutions have basically found a way to monetize permanent resident status, said Mikal Skuterud, an economics professor at the University of Waterloo who specializes in labour markets and immigration.  “Canadian PR status has massive economic value around the world. If we auctioned it off that would generate huge amounts of revenue. We’d probably never have to pay income tax again,” said Skuterud.  International student fees have continued to rise along with the number of students coming to Canada, meaning even as the fees reach dizzying heights compared to the fees for domestic students, people are still willing to pay them. “So every school for sure is looking at what happens to applications when they increase their tuition fees. And from everything I’ve seen, there is no response,” said Skuterud.  And while foreign students increasingly seem to be jaded about life in Canada, finding themselves on the front lines of the country’s housing crisis and in schools that don’t live up to their marketing brochures, they have little recourse.  “Those foreign students aren’t voting. (Ontario Premier) Doug Ford knows that. And those foreign students’ parents, more importantly, who paid the tuition, especially aren’t voting,” said Skuterud. While Canada’s largest universities have been juicing their enrolment numbers with international students, there have been new colleges and schools popping up that seem to exist entirely to take advantage of Canada’s loose rules on foreign students."
Damn students pulling up the ladder after them!

Opinion: Closing Roxham Road loophole a benefit to all migrants - "Migrant advocates often argue that borders should be open: Whoever shows up at a border should be allowed to cross and lodge a claim. But who shows up is not random. Rather, Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest is fundamentally incompatible with a principled approach to the protection of refugees and asylum seekers. Instead of unequal access for those who can afford to pay, the STCA is an important step toward levelling the playing field for all vulnerable people in genuine need of protection.  Neither domestic nor international law offer an internationally accepted definition of “migrant.” To the contrary, the careless and indiscriminate use of the term ignores the democratic socio-political process that defines a non-citizen’s status, which determines conditions of admissibility that distinguish undocumented migrants from economic immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. States have legal and moral obligations to immigrants and refugees, and to consider asylum claims. Under domestic and international law, these obligations differ by such criteria as human vulnerabilities, labour needs and other material and ethical considerations.  Public perception of queue jumping at Roxham Road challenges the legitimacy of a well-administered migration policy that is fair for the most vulnerable and grounded in the rule of law. Irregular migration puts at risk the integrity, sustainability and legitimacy of the social contract on which the domestic migratory regime is based. Such a contract preserves the integrity of a state’s borders and the successful political and economic socialization and integration of migrants, as well as social justice and the collective benefit of migration in fostering prosperity... The number of people who strive for asylum or refugee status in the Global North vastly exceeds the fiscal and social capacity of receiving countries. The current refugee system sprung up after the Second World War in an acknowledgement that certain people deserve temporary protection. Evidence in Canada and the U.S. shows that many asylum seekers today are not seeking temporary protection: their intent is to immigrate. In a world where travel is relatively cheap and easy, refugee and asylum provisions have become a back door for economic immigrants who would not otherwise be admissible, and who do not qualify under exemptions that would allow them to lodge a claim at an official port of entry.  In 2022, for example, 40,000 people crossed into Canada irregularly from New York at Roxham Road , whose location has made it a semi-unofficial port of irregular entry. Yet, almost half had entered the U.S. legally.  At Roxham Road, 40 per cent who cross end up having their claims denied . Although the rate is above average, even failed claimants are unlikely to be removed. For all intents and purposes, many are economic migrants. Claimants originate in countries marred by conflict, corruption and dire economic conditions: Central America, Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti. Sophisticated human smuggling networks , which fall under the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime , prey on their misery. Yet, it is not illegal for someone to avail of the services of a smuggler or even to commit identity fraud for the purposes of making an asylum claim. In fact, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates the vast majority of people who try to make it to North America engage the services of human smugglers and what is now a $10-billion-a-year industry."
Of course, to liberals illegal and legal migrants are all the same

Meme - "The most annoying types of people are the ones who immigrate to America but still complain about living there. Like, bruh go back to your country. No one forced you to come here! *Speedy Gonzales*"

The Strange Death of Europe, Revisited - "We are constantly told that immigration is vital to overcome an aging workforce, but ignored is the, once popular and logical, argument that reducing our population is both desirable and beneficial.  Murray also pours scorn on the stated need for younger workers... 'there will be a constant need to import larger and larger numbers of immigrants, as in a pyramid scheme, in order to keep more and more people in the style to which they have become accustomed'... new arrivals in Europe (and while he is at pains in the early chapters not to be so explicit, he means Muslims) don’t like their new countrymen much more than Europeans like them. This deluge of immigrants was a strange kind of transplant, in which both the host and the organ have explicitly stated rejection ahead of time. Poll after poll throughout the continent has shown that the public at large were against further immigration, whilst poll after poll of the immigrants shows that they find certain key tenets of European culture to be antithetical to their worldview... while Francis Fukuyama was stupidly declaring The End of History  Samuel Huntington was preparing for his The Clash of Civilizations... The Rushdie affair of 1989 should have warned us that absolutism of thought was alive and well in our societies (and the response of those non-muslim Europeans who sided with the Ayatollah should have shown us that moral cowardice had not yet been thrown overboard). The sight of British citizens burning books might also have alerted us to the fact that all was not well. As time went on, and Rushdie receded from the public imagination, the general feeling in British government was that this guy wasn’t really one of us, and was proving a little too much trouble than he was worth. Our sacred European values are far too often only sacred when still tolerable. So much for Voltaire.  Within a year the Rushdie Affair was overshadowed by European triumphalism... So drunk were we on Fukuyama that the likes of Huntingdon were decried as scaremongers. We scarcely noticed that age-old prejudice and grudge could still tear apart a sophisticated and modern European country like Yugoslavia. The image of a Europe freed from its past is illusory.   These warning signs, and many others, were ignored either willfully or through incompetence. Had you asked anyone on September 10th 2001 if they believed that fascist street thugs or organized rape gangs would soon be roaming European streets; or that the far-right would be able to remodel itself and capture the attention of German, French, Austrian or Italian youth; or that blasphemy laws would be voluntarily adhered to by European newspapers; or indeed that Britain would leave the EU, you might have found yourself being forced to visit a psychiatrist. But here we are... Europeans, particularly western Europeans, whilst happy with some immigration, are opposed to mass immigration across the board... Successive Western-European governments have ignored this data, and instead embarked upon a strategy of simply telling Europeans that they are just wrong to think the things they think. So goes the sacred system of democracy. This willful ignorance of the electorate’s wishes has done much to discredit the establishment, and played its own role in the disastrous lack of faith European publics have in their elected representatives. This lack of faith even extends to the operations of government and security. Witness the British Police’s response to the various gangs of Pakistani Muslims grooming non-Muslim girls and children for sexual slavery, and how could one have faith that your government is fulfilling its end of the social contract?  Furthermore, media outlets have entered into a Faustian pact to subvert reality and pretend that the problem of integration and the lived experience of native Europeans were simply imagined. This process, which has been ostensible policy for decades, has come into sharp focus with the growing sense of an European Muslim identity, and has reached fever pitch since the migrant crisis of 2015... outlets such as Huffington Post, The Independent, even Teen Vogue and NME are reporting gleefully on the creation of female only music festivals in Sweden. The suggestion is that these are necessary because of a “rape culture” among Swedish men. Missing from this is of course the point that the vast majority of men who committed en masse sexual assault at last summer’s festivals, like those who did the same at Cologne train station on New Year’s Eve, were reported to have been migrants. This poses several problems... everyone at both of those incidents, and by extension everyone else, knows what really happened... if you were a Swedish man, and you were told you can’t go to music festivals anymore because the migrant men you have welcomed into your country and done much to help, can’t keep their hands to themselves, where would you direct your anger?... The self-loathing far-left would do well to remember that Europe is the place where Marxism was created... I’m especially proud of our shame... Compare our feelings about our colonial past to that of our nearest neighbors in Turkey... too much shame, as well as too much pride, will come before a fall. For the West, with all its deformations and problems, still provides a better hope for humanity that many of its adversaries or friends."
The author says the "solution" to people not wanting low paid work is to have a minimum wage. Of course, if welfare payments are too close to the minimum wage, the left will complain they are inadequate, and the cycle will continue. Even more bafflingly, he claims UBI will solve this problem. Ironic, given that UBI proponents say UBI frees people from work they don't want to do so they can get on with life
Liberals claim democracy in the US has failed because elites ignore the populace when they want liberal goals. Yet...
Condemning the "far right" due to their links to past figures is such a lazy ploy. Yet somehow the same logic doesn't work when you point out that the Democrats in the US were the slaveholders
The writer seizes on an interesting contradiction - the left fetishes an EU identity, despite its whiteness. Of course he accuses Murray of championing whiteness, but most of the comments are criticising him for making that claim despite having no proof
From 2017. With Italy and Sweden in 2022, some change has come

Liberals bring in influx of immigrants without a plan to support them - "Our health-care system ranks poorly against peer countries and seems to be only getting worse... Our housing situation is dismal... It seems like we have shortages of every type of basic infrastructure and service, from transit to schools and childcare spots.  International students are frequenting food banks, living in crowded and often unsanitary rooming houses and even driving five hours –– each way –– to attend classes.  Many immigrants still can’t work in their trained fields because we haven’t taken the time to sort our credentialing systems. Despite just about everyone agreeing that foreign-trained doctors shouldn’t be driving taxi cabs, it always seems to be a problem for another day.  Meanwhile, Liberals argue that we need more newcomers to boost our economy and address labour shortages. Not only does this seem callous and exploitative in light of our inability to provide for needs like housing and health care, there’s little evidence our current immigration system can produce these desired outcomes. At a certain point, we will get diminishing returns. While more immigrants mean more tax dollars, we don’t get to just take from them without giving anything back. They, too, require doctors, affordable homes, schools and passports in a timely manner. They use subways and parks and, eventually, long-term care homes.  By failing to invest heavily in infrastructure and government services, the Liberals are exacerbating resource scarcity and intensifying competition for fundamental goods and services.  Historically, this never ends well. Eventually, people look for someone to blame for their declining quality of life, and that group tends to be newcomers."

Opinion: No, immigration is not some magic pill for saving the economy - The Globe and Mail - "now the main argument made to ramp up immigration is that it will spur economic growth, and this is a tantalizing promise that turns out not to be true. Study after study after study shows that sudden expansions in immigration increase the size of the economy (the GDP) but don’t change GDP per person or the average wage... The research shows that immigration tends to lower wages for people who compete directly with the new immigrants (often previously arrived immigrants and low-skilled workers) and improves incomes for the higher skilled and business owners who get labour at lower wages. That is, it can be an inequality-increasing policy... Immigration thus keeps wages down in occupations in high demand, and that reduces incentives for firms and workers already here to invest in the skills needed to fill those positions, reducing opportunities, missing an opportunity to increase the skill level of the work force and getting in the way of training and education policies intended to help workers with those opportunities.  Using immigration to solve the labour crunch therefore has the potential to weaken productivity and lower wages. Linked to the argument about labour shortages is the aging of our population. The retirement of the baby boom will lead to substantial increases in the ratio of non-workers to workers over the next decade. Surely, bringing in more immigrants is the right solution to this? The answer is that it will help a little bit but immigrants aren’t that much younger than the people already living here, and adding 100,000 more immigrants a year won’t move the age dial enough to seriously alter the dependency ratio. And while it’s not solving these problems, a jump in immigration will put strains on other parts of our economy and society. Adding 100,000 more immigrants a year will mean a big increase in people looking for housing in our cities each year, where the housing markets are already at the breaking point.  The government’s response to this most obvious of problems is that immigrant trades workers will fill shortages in construction trades, increasing housing production. But the construction sector isn’t grinding to a halt because of lack of workers – employment in the sector is already above 2019 levels and there is plenty of activity. The problem in housing supply is rooted in municipal regulations around density and offshore buyers treating our housing as an investment. Immigration won’t hit those nails. It will make problems worse. And when it does, it will put a strain on Canadians’ much vaunted immigration-welcoming attitudes. Further strains on the health care system are also concerning... the current system underutilizes foreign-trained immigrants, and the problem lies with rigid professional associations, not with the federal government. Bringing in more health workers without solving this problem is unfair to the people we are bringing in, adding them to the large number of frustrated foreign-trained health workers already here. Again, increasing the numbers is not the solution to the problem."

Welcome no more: Rohingya face backlash in Bangladesh - "Back then, thousands of Bangladeshis, outraged by the anti-Muslim violence across the border, trekked from across the country to distribute food and medicine to the shell-shocked arrivals.  But public attitudes have hardened after years of fruitless efforts to negotiate a safe return for the Rohingya, with media outlets and politicians regularly condemning refugees as drug runners and terror threats... Resentment is widespread among Bangladeshis living near the camps, who say the Rohingya have outstayed their welcome.  "They are bringing shame to Bangladesh," Ayasur Rahman, the spokesman of a local civil society group campaigning against the Rohingya's presence, told AFP.  "They should be sent to Myanmar immediately," he said, accusing refugees of "snatching our jobs (and) stealing our passports"... Negative media portrayals of the Rohingya have become so rampant that they caught the attention of former UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet, who toured the country in August as one of her final acts in office. "I am very worried about increasing anti-Rohingya rhetoric in Bangladesh, stereotyping and scapegoating Rohingya as the source of crime and other problems"...   Refugees acknowledge that violence and criminal activity exist within the Kutupalong camp network - though it is the Rohingya themselves who are its chief victims.  The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), an Islamist militant group that has clashed with Myanmar's army in the past, has sought to entrench its control over the camps - even murdering civil society leaders that could challenge its authority.  Southern Bangladesh is also a hotspot for the regional methamphetamine trade originating in Myanmar, and Rohingya are often recruited as drug couriers for the influential local kingpins who control distribution networks."
Islamophobia!

'Tons' of food gets tossed by NYC hotel because migrants won't eat it - "Nearly a ton of taxpayer-provided food gets tossed in the trash every day at a massive Manhattan hotel being used to house migrants — because they’d rather secretly cook their own meals on dangerous hot plates, a whistleblowing worker has revealed.  Disturbing photos show garbage bags full of sandwiches and bagels awaiting disposal at the four-star Row NYC hotel near Times Square, where the city pays a daily rate as high as $500 per room, hotel employee Felipe Rodriguez told The Post... An NYPD source who was working in Times Square on New Year’s Eve confirmed the chaos at the hotel, saying the lobby was littered with broken bottles and some revelers were dancing while others were sprawled out on the furniture and the floor.  “It was a total s–t show,” the cops said.  City Hall has refused to say how much it pays to rent out the Row or any of the scores of other hotels being used to house migrants.  But Rodriguez said he’s “heard from management it’s between $400 and $500 a night, per room, depending on how big the room is.”   Rodriguez, 57, said he began working at the 1,300-room hotel in 2017 and was shocked by what’s happened since Mayor Eric Adams’ administration began using it as a “Humanitarian Response and Relief Center.”...   An NYPD source confirmed that cops have responded to a string of domestic incidents at the hotel...   Officials initially planned to have migrants undergo processing in the HERRCs for just 72 hours but abandoned that goal after getting overwhelmed by the influx that led Adams to declare a state of emergency in October... “There have been times when we couldn’t take all of the garbage out because the bins were full, and I’m talking about 25, 30 bins of garbage.”  “My problem is, why are we throwing away so much food? Someone from the city should have said, ‘Let’s order less food so we throw less food out.’ But nobody cares”... he’s confiscated hot plates, pressure cookers and other forbidden kitchen items from hotel residents at least eight times...   In addition to sandwiches and bagels, the migrants are served food including fruit, peanuts, chips, juice, soda and prepared dinners that “you heat in a microwave,” Rodriguez said.  “They don’t like the menu. They just don’t. They want rice and beans, plantains, tostones,” he said... “They usually put the hot plate on the rug so that nobody can see it and it stays away from the fire alarm,” he said. “If those polyester curtains by the windows touch that red coil, it’s over. It’s a possibility that scares the s–t out of everybody in the Row...  the Row “forgot about the standards we had when we had regular guests.”  “If they got caught smoking in the hotel, it was a $500 charge. You could smoke outside, but you couldn’t stand in front so that people wouldn’t get secondhand smoke,” he said. “The protocols went down the toilet because migrants can smoke weed, they can smoke cigarettes. You can’t tell them nothing.”  Rodriguez also alleged that he’s seen some residents apparently selling drugs outside the hotel and that he took photos of some scooters that were chained up nearby. "
Of course, it's the government's fault for not providing "culturally appropriate" food, and they need to cater to everyone there

'Many migrants end up working in jobs lower than their skill level': study - "Efforts by skilled migrants to meet employer demands for Australian qualifications result in only marginal returns, at least in the short term, according to new research  by workforce experts at Flinders University and Charles Darwin University.  While industries are increasingly embracing the skilled migrant program in an attempt to overcome specific skills shortages, migrants' qualifications from their home countries are often not recognised in Australia... Skilled migrants find it confusing that the Australian government accepts certain qualifications for entry into the country as part of its points system, yet employers refuse to accept them as transferrable... acquiring additional Australian qualifications makes comparatively little difference to their employment status when compared to migrants who do not seek new qualifications.  According to the study, men were more likely to have a job than women and those aged 40 or older were likely to be underutilised, unemployed or mismatched in jobs... both unrecognised qualifications and the need to show local work experience pose major obstacles."

Not cheating if... / Mary Jane gets wet / Hot Girl Summer


T-shirt: "it's not CHEATING if my husband watches*"


Sam Raimi: "I assure you, Miss Dunst, your nipples are extremely essential to the plot" *Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-man films in wet clothes without a bra*


"Hot Girl Summer will end your ass up in... Single Mother Winter
Well, one of you got me pregnant! I'm not raising this baby alone! Whose ever baby this is!"

Links - 15th July 2023 (1)

Thinking about death: High neural activity is linked to shorter lifespans

The constant state of parental anxiety: Reports of ‘creepy’ man at D.C. parks cause small panic - The Washington Post - "  He said police are interested in identifying the man but, he wrote, “no crime has been committed at this time — all we have is an individual sitting on a public park bench at Rose Park drinking coffee. There is no evidence of this individual approaching any children.”  The mini panic doesn’t say much about whether this man is an actual threat. But it does say much about modern parenting and about our relentless anxiety.  No longer are hunches spread among friends.They are spread online. This has benefits as warnings can head off real danger, which this person may possibly pose. But unverified information and unjustified fear can also go viral...   “Here you have in micro the dynamics of a ‘moral panic,’ that is, a social movement that organizes itself in response to perceived moral perils and whose responses include greater vigilance, public brandings of the accused, tougher laws, and so on,” Roger N. Lancaster wrote to me after I e-mailed him about the warnings.  The George Mason University cultural studies professor last year published “Sex Panic and the Punitive State,” (University of California Press) and has previously spoken with me about the current parenting climate that has parents, he says, in a constant state of dread.  We keep our kids indoors and under constant supervision out of the misplaced idea that over-protection is good parenting, even though the reality is that child abduction by a stranger is exceedingly rare, he contends... “The problem is that when shifting definitions of evil combine with low standards of evidence, you get witch hunts. (Is sitting on a park bench with a cup of coffee any reasonable measure of evil intent?)  “People are also right to want safe streets, parks, and playgrounds. The problem comes when reasonable desires turn into utopian wishes for an absolutely safe, absolutely hygienic — dare one say, absolutely familiar — environment. Then the public goes on a mad chase for impossible conditions.”  He said, in this case, two pieces of advice he gives in his book are worth repeating:
1.Take a deep breath.
2. Always insist on hard evidence."

What makes Singapore Singaporean? Society's unique cultural traits offer a clue - "So far, we've seen that Singapore society is long—term oriented, collectivistic and largely accepting of authority. None of this is particularly out of step With general perceptions, though useful to be able to quantify."
When you have a compliant population...
So much for "stereotypes"

Morality justifies motivated reasoning in the folk ethics of belief - "When faced with a dilemma between believing what is supported by an impartial assessment of the evidence (e.g., that one's friend is guilty of a crime) and believing what would better fulfill a moral obligation (e.g., that the friend is innocent), people often believe in line with the latter. But is this how people think beliefs ought to be formed? We addressed this question across three studies and found that, across a diverse set of everyday situations, people treat moral considerations as legitimate grounds for believing propositions that are unsupported by objective, evidence-based reasoning. We further document two ways in which moral considerations affect how people evaluate others' beliefs. First, the moral value of a belief affects the evidential threshold required to believe, such that morally beneficial beliefs demand less evidence than morally risky beliefs. Second, people sometimes treat the moral value of a belief as an independent justification for belief, and on that basis, sometimes prescribe evidentially poor beliefs to others. Together these results show that, in the folk ethics of belief, morality can justify and demand motivated reasoning."
Proof of the moralistic fallacy

Enthusiasm Is Key to Happiness - The Atlantic - "enthusiasm is one of the personality traits that appear to drive happiness the most. In fact, to get happier, each of us can increase our own zest for the common objects of our lives. And it isn’t all that hard to do... Two traits out of the Big Five seem to be especially important for happiness: In 2018, psychologists confirmed that high extroversion and low neuroticism seemed to be the recipe for well-being. More specifically, the correlations hinged on one aspect of extroversion and one aspect of neuroticism—enthusiasm and withdrawal, respectively...
1. Use the “as if principle.”
2. Reframe challenges as chances.
3. Curate your friends."

What Home Cooking Does That Restaurants Can’t - The Atlantic - "As a professional food writer, I have always found joy and enlightenment in trying new foods. For both work and pleasure, I have had the privilege of eating at hundreds of the best restaurants in the world: Michelin-starred spots in Florence, Italy; bouchons in Lyon, France; shawarma stands in Amman, Jordan. Yet the most memorable meals of my life have unquestionably been in other people’s homes... This opinion is not just mine. I asked several friends—some chefs, others food writers, and many that are neither—and found that, given the choice between a meal at a top-notch restaurant and one in the home of a regular person who is a good cook, they would almost all choose the latter... This might sound counterintuitive. Restaurants have access to premium ingredients and specialized equipment, and employ impeccably trained professionals. And my polling methods were hardly scientific. But I think the love for home food that I and many others have emphasizes a deeper truth: Our emotions about what goes in our mouth are intertwined with our feelings about the person preparing the food, the conversation at the table, the cultural rituals around a dish’s consumption. When dining, the social context matters perhaps even more than the quality of the food... the benefits of communal meal times to physical and emotional well-being—such as lower rates of depression and higher academic performance—are widely documented. Still, the average American eats just three dinners a week with loved ones and spends more than half of their money that goes to food outside the home. Plenty of people see hosting a large group as a stressor. Many of us are missing out on an experience that restaurants cannot provide. Dining out is transactional by nature: Bills are split, access depends on income, the time at your table is typically capped, and interaction with the people preparing the food tends to be nonexistent. In the home, the exchange happens in an entirely different way. You are not paying to consume a certain cuisine; you have invested in a relationship with someone and, as a result, are invited for a meal. You are not a customer; you are a guest—and that makes all the difference."

The Delusions of Crowds—A Review - "the rioting regularly incited by the football casuals with whom he embedded had little to do with working class social frustrations, as some cultural commentators tended to insist. Nor was the violence merely a safety valve for downtrodden people. Buford argued that group violence simply gave its members an “antisocial kick”—it was just exhilarating to smash up other people and other places... Mackay makes the case, often in gory detail, that episodes of collective mania seem to be an inevitable consequence of human nature. Humans in every time and place have cast aside their better judgment and allowed themselves to be caught up in all manner of irrational hoopla. The insights Mackay made nearly two centuries ago provide the starting point for William J. Bernstein’s analysis in The Delusions of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups... Evolutionary biology has made us imitators, he reminds us, particularly when people form crowds. Social science tells us that humans prefer a good story to hard data, and decades of peer-reviewed research tells us that humans tend to opt for self-deception to critical thinking. In the end, this demi-Vulcan cant reveals as much about the author’s contempt for evangelical Protestantism as anything else, as he casually dissolves useful distinctions between a broad range of theological viewpoints. Pro-Israel dispensationalist evangelicals, for instance, are grouped with ISIS and David Koresh’s Branch Davidians... Bernstein’s explanation for such phenomena is somewhat trite. In essence, he attributes the rapid growth of eschatological thinking among the German peasantry to their desire for an escape from the drudgery of their daily lives (neglecting to mention that most people who had ever lived led lives of similar toil). He presents the rise of end-times thinking in northern Europe as a predictable psychological response to a story well told and a desire to be a part of something—collectively, people took up with a compelling narrative and turned away from reason. But anyone who has ever held a religious or political idea with fervency could tell you that there’s more to it than that. Believing in something and trying to remake your world or your soul for the better provides a feeling of supreme human agency. As Vivian Gornick put it in her 1978 book The Romance of American Communism, “for better or worse, radical politics—full of sorrow and glory—embodies the stirring spectacle of humans engaged, alive to the beauty and rawness of self-creation.” The more recent events covered by Bernstein are among the least compelling sections of his book... To Bernstein, Jerry Falwell and ISIS are selling the same bill of goods. But this kind of equivalence is self-evidently absurd... It would have been nice, though, if he had subjected the disciples of Stalin and Mao to the same withering scrutiny he brings to bear on pilgrimages by American Christians to the Holy Land."

Meme State: "Why do you need privacy? Nothing to hide, nothing to fear"
Normal person: "Agreed, which is why I'm leaking these government files online"
State: *angry with gun*

Forced to download TT & SGSecure: The startling truth hidden in the reviews of government apps - "many people have been forced to leave positive reviews on government apps in order to boost the app ratings on both the Appstore and Google Playstore.  A couple of people who were full-time National Servicemen (NSFs) noted that they were forced to download the TraceTogether app or sign up for extra duty shifts, or even be charged for insubordination. This prompted several other reddit users to share about how they were forced to download the government’s anti-terrorism app, SGSecure and leave a positive review, while they were serving their national service. They, too, were faced with the same threat of signing up for extra shifts if they did not download the app... another person said they were asked to ‘like’ Facebook pages that were associated to the Ministry of Defence and to leave positive reviews for the NS cookhouse. Sifting through the thousands of reviews of the SGSecure app on both the Apple Appstore and Google Playstore revealed two things.  First, many 5-star reviews that were hyperbolic in describing the effectiveness of the SGSecure app. It is arguably one of the best displays of Singapore’s unique brand of humour on the internet. On a more serious note, there were also many 1-star as well as 5-star reviews in which people stressed that they had only downloaded the app because they were forced to while they were serving national service."

Early Europeans Could Not Tolerate Milk but Drank It Anyway, Study Finds - The New York Times - "Europeans were consuming milk without lactase for thousands of years, despite the misery from gas and cramping it might have caused... People without the lactase mutation consume about as much milk as people who carry it. Yet people who cannot make the enzyme do not suffer any significant health problems. They do not die at a higher rate, they do not have weaker bones and they have just as many children as people with the mutation do... Early Europeans may have also lessened the painful effects of milk sugar by fermenting milk into cheese or turning it into butter. (In Ireland, people who harvest peat from bogs have occasionally found massive containers of “bog butter” dating back thousands of years.)  Consuming milk without lactase became riskier later, in times of crisis, Dr. Evershed and his colleagues argued. Starvation has been shown to shift mild symptoms, such as gas and cramps, to more dangerous ones, like diarrhea... for those who could tolerate it, milk could have restored fluid levels, making it more likely that they could recover from the infection."

Depressed parrot who stopped talking tells new owner to 'f*** off' - "A sad parrot who refused to talk after his owner died has finally found a voice – telling his new keepers to ‘f*** off’.  Jesse, the potty-mouthed African grey, was so down in the dumps he started to pluck out feathers."

Meme - "WHEN YOU REALIZE THAT THE PROSPERITY OFFERS YOU EVERYTHING SATAN OFFERED CHRIST"

A Lot of What We Think We Know About World War II Is Wrong - "almost everything the Germans made was over-engineered, from the tanks to gas-mask cases to the field jacket of the lowly landser. Eventually, in the German military archives in Freiburg in the Black Forest, I found a memo from early December 1941, signed by Hitler, in which was the line, “From now on, we have to stop making such complete and aesthetic weapons.” In other words, up to that point, they had been consciously doing so. Needless to say, his instruction was not followed; those all-metal, finely-designed-yet-cumbersome and utterly pointless cylindrical gas-mask cases were made right up to the end of the war, while still to come was the Panther tank, not to mention the Tiger, with its Porsche-designed six-speed hydraulically controlled semi-automatic pre-selector gear-box, as complicated and sophisticated as it sounds and entirely unsuitable for front-line combat or use by poorly-trained young drivers. The transmission on a U.S.-built Sherman tank was a robust four-speed manual, simply made in vast numbers. America built 74,000 Sherman hulls and engines; Germany built just 1,347 Tigers...   Almost every narrative history of the war ever published almost entirely concentrates on the strategic and tactical levels, but gives scant regard to the operational, and the result is a skewed version of events, in which German machine guns reign supreme and Tiger tanks always come out on top... Until the start of 1944, the priority for manpower in Britain was not the army or navy or even air force, but the Ministry of Aircraft Production. Well-fed men and women were kept in the factories. Germany, on the other hand, was very under-mechanized but had a vast army, which meant it was dependent on horse-power and foot-slogging infantrymen. As a result of so many German men at the front, their factories were manned by slaves and POWs, who were underfed and treated abominably, and whose production capacity was affected as a result...  Germany built a surface fleet before the war, which could never hope to rival Britain or France and in doing so neglected the U-boat arm... there were never enough U-boats to more than dent the flow of shipping to Britain. In fact, out of 18,772 sailings in 1940, they sank just 127 ships, that is, 0.7 percent, and 1.4 percent in the entire war.   Suddenly, rather than appearing like David against Goliath and backs-to-the-walls amateurs as is so often depicted, Britain emerges once again as a global super-power in command of the largest trading empire the world has ever seen, while Germany, despite impressive victories on land early in the war appears to be woefully under-resourced and flagrantly squandering what supplies it could call upon. What’s more, after the initial glut of conquest booty, the occupied territories swiftly became a drain and burden that had to be manned and which proved a further drain on precious resources. The words “Teutonic” and “efficiency” usually go together; in the Second World War, nothing could have been farther from the truth."

Yep, That's a Jetpack For Runners

This Man Flew Over Mt. Fuji on a Real-Life Jetpack, and It’s Absolutely Breathtaking

How Wall Street’s Bankers Stayed Out of Jail - The Atlantic - "How we arrived at a place where Wall Street misdeeds go virtually unpunished while soccer executives in Switzerland get arrested is murky at best. But the legal window for punishing Wall Street bankers for fraudulent actions that contributed to the 2008 crash has just about closed. It seems an apt time to ask: In the biggest picture, what justice has been achieved? Since 2009, 49 financial institutions have paid various government entities and private plaintiffs nearly $190 billion in fines and settlements, according to an analysis by the investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. That may seem like a big number, but the money has come from shareholders, not individual bankers. (Settlements were levied on corporations, not specific employees, and paid out as corporate expenses—in some cases, tax-deductible ones.)... The more meaningful number is how many Wall Street executives have gone to jail for playing a part in the crisis. That number is one... following the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s, more than 1,000 bankers of all stripes were jailed for their transgressions... Any narrative of how we got to this point has to start with the so-called Holder Doctrine, a June 1999 memorandum written by the then–deputy attorney general warning of the dangers of prosecuting big banks—a variant of the “too big to fail” argument that has since become so familiar. Holder’s memo asserted that “collateral consequences” from prosecutions—including corporate instability or collapse—should be taken into account when deciding whether to prosecute a big financial institution. That sentiment was echoed as late as 2012 by Lanny Breuer, then the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division"

Meet DD-umbo… the female elephant with a HUGE pair of BOOBS - "South African wildlife photographer Renata Ewald captured the comical pictures of the unusual elephant at Kruger National Park... Humans are the only animal in the world to have permanently swollen breasts all-year round, as all other animals only develop boobs after the latter state of pregnancy as they get ready for breastfeeding."

We're Probably Imagining Aliens Wrong - The Atlantic - The Atlantic - "Humans have always had the impulse to cast alien life in our image, says British science writer Philip Ball. It’s a tendency that goes back centuries, and has only been propagated by modern science fiction. In this video by Adam D'Arpino for Aeon, Bell argues that this tendency could actually be limiting us in the search for aliens. “When we start speculating about what advanced extraterrestrials are like, we’re really just talking about ourselves,” he says. “Such failures of imagination can become a straightjacket for our thinking. How can we move beyond solipsism and Hollywood tropes?”"

Astronaut: If You Think UFOs Are Aliens, You're an Idiot - ""Obviously, I've seen countless things in the sky that I don't understand," Hadfield told the Canadian broadcaster. The retired astronaut also was a pilot for both the Royal Canadian Airforce and US Navy.  "But to see something in the sky that you don't understand and then to immediately conclude that it's intelligent life from another solar system is the height of foolishness and lack of logic," he added. Other experts have suggested that adversaries could be behind the mysterious sightings, suggesting other nations like Russia or China may be invading US airspace using highly advanced technologies."

Rep. Bowman calls Manchin ‘the new Mitch McConnell’ - "Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Monday said Sen. Joe Manchin “has become the new Mitch McConnell,” denouncing the West Virginia Democrat for maintaining his support of the legislative filibuster while opposing his party’s expansive election and ethics reform bill... “Now,” Bowman said, “Joe Manchin is doing everything in his power to stop democracy and to stop our work for the people, the work that the people sent us here to do.”"
The circular firing squad of the left strikes again
Democracy means letting the majority do whatever they want, apparently.

[VIDEO] Claire Wineland Dies at 21 and Leaves Beautiful Message - "When you pity people who are sick, you take away their power... I have something called cystic fibrosis, but I’m actually not here to depress you all about cystic fibrosis. I’m actually here to talk about, how do we change the way that we treat sick people? And that we stop pitying them, and start empowering them... we teach sick people that when they are sick, somehow, some way, they cannot be as happy as normal, healthy people, right? We teach them that their happiness, their contentment in life, their joy in life, is tied to how healthy we are... people who are sick, and nurses and doctors, as well, everyone in the medical community, everyone in the health care community, get so stuck in this notion that a hospital room is this cold, sterile, white place where we go to be sick, and that that’s all that it can be. And we get so stuck in that that we cannot see the possibility. We can’t see what we can make out of it. We don’t see what we can do with it... Innovation happens, art happens, because of suffering, and when we clamp down to that suffering, when we teach people who are sick, when you teach little seven-year-old me that because I’m sick, I don’t have anything to give to the world, I don’t have anything to create

A Series of Mysterious Bleeps and Bloops Defined the Early Days of the Internet - "Before all our phones were online all the time, before there were wifi connections in houses, planes, libraries, and coffee shops, we were logged off before we made the conscious decision to log on. Doing so meant listening to familiar dial tones, then a series of mysterious bleeps and bloops, and finally a loud static-y crash that sounded like a radio stuck between stations (if you remember that sound too)...  Much of the “conversation” you hear from a modem is figuring out which protocols to use, like two strangers in a foreign country figuring out which language they both speak... Part of the “training” the modems have to do together is figuring out how well it’s working and what frequencies to communicate at...  It’s a reminder of a time when we weren’t surrounded by the internet, and instead had to invite it in—and that rush of anticipation when you could hear it coming"

Absurd Creature of the Week: The Parasitic Worm That Turns Crickets Into Suicidal Maniacs | WIRED - "The some 350 known species of horsehair worms invade insects. After developing for several months, the worms mind-control their hosts to make a kamikaze dive into water, and then escape through holes bored in the insect's exoskeleton. The parasites end up in a tangled knot that can be as heavy as the tattered---and oftentimes very much alive---host they leave behind... Now, it’s nearly impossible to identify an infected cricket, for this is no clumsy zombie of popular culture. Outwardly, the cricket behaves quite normally, save for a brilliant little trick the worm plays: It manipulates them to shut the hell up with the chirping. Chirping is, after all, energetically expensive, not to mention a real fine way to get yourself noticed and eaten, a rather anticlimactic end to the worm’s grand scheme... In nature, it’s typically one worm per cricket, though every now and then two or three will emerge. In Hanelt’s lab, however, his record is an astonishing 32 worms erupting from one unfortunate host... there is still much, much to be learned, just as there is with other highly sophisticated mind-controllers like wasps that enslave cockroaches and fungi that zombify ants."

Meme - "Dovalbun: RIGHT so when I started my sociology course in college, my teacher stated us off with 'well I guess we have to do icebreakers. i'm Jon, and I fear bears. why do I fear bears? because bears can run at 30 miles per hour and Chester Zoo is 30 miles away. that means a bear can be outside this door in an hour. why would a bear be here? because they can smell fear and I fear them.'"

Multiple partners are associated with higher testosterone in North American men and women - "Previous research has shown that being partnered is associated with lower testosterone (T) in men and women. To address how multiple partners may be associated with T, we examined 47 men and 48 women who were single, monoamorously partnered (partnered), polyamorous (having multiple committed relationships), or in a polyamorous lifestyle but not currently multipartnered. Men who were partnered had lower T than all other men, and polyamorous men had higher T than single men. Polyamorous women had higher T than all other women. Measures of sociosexual orientation (SOI) and sexual desire differed in women by relationship type, but not in men. Findings are interpreted in light of ‘competitive’ and ‘bond–maintenance’ relationship orientations and statuses."
More proof that women are more sexually plastic than men
Addendum: female sex drive more plastic

(2) Ninety Two Percent: Examining the Birth Trends, Family Structure, Economic Standing, Paternal Relationships, and Emotional Stability of Biracial Children with African American Fathers - "92% of biracial children with African American fathers are born out of wedlock and 82% end up on government assistance

Texas girl Aurora Castner born in jail graduates top of class, heading to Harvard in the fall - "A Texas teen who was born in jail exceeded all odds as she graduated from high school at the top of her class and will be attending Harvard University in the fall.  Aurora Sky Castner graduated third in her class at Conroe High School Thursday night 18 years after she was born in the Galveston County Jail... Castner’s mother was incarcerated at the time she gave birth and was not a part of her life since the day her father picked her up as a newborn from the jail and raised her as a single dad."

Writing About Writing | Facebook - "English has two different terms for words that come into English from other languages. A 'calque' is translated from the source language. (E.g., flea market, beer garden, paper tiger) A 'loanword' is ported in its original form. (E.g., cafe, bazaar, kindergarten) Perhaps ironically, the word 'calque' is a loanword, while 'loanword' is a calque (from Ger. 'lehnwort')."

I like my women how I like my advent calendar. : Jokes - "I like my women how I like my advent calendar. Against my wall, flaps open, ready to be eaten."

Polish woman speaks Singlish on TikTok as she's been in S'pore for a while - "The best videos are of her explaining why saying some Polish words in Singapore can result in awkwardness, mainly because they sound like vulgar words in Hokkien.  For example, "tkanina" means "fabric" in Polish, but "fornicate with your mother" in Hokkien. And another example, "lampa" means "lamp" in Polish, but "balls" in Hokkien.   And if you're wondering why an Eastern European woman is hanging out in Singapore for a while now, that's because the woman is the wife of Singaporean beatboxer Dharni Ng, who is better known by his stage name, Dharni... Dharni previously spent a number of years in Warsaw, Poland, having relocated there to pursue his career in beatboxing... he originally travelled to Warsaw to do a gig, and he ended up finding success in a local talent show with two others.  That partnership eventually fizzled, but he was so enchanted by Poland, its culture, and beautiful girls, that he had to stay on."

Friday, July 14, 2023

Links - 14th July 2023 (2 - Pit Bulls)

Meme - Nicole Cartee: "He eats watermelon! *Pit Bull*"
Nicole Gartee added a new photo: *Pit bull*
Lauren Cartee: "thats a cute pic!"
Nicole Carte: "Yeah i know he made himself a bed lol"
Lynn Cartee shared Global Animal's photo: "I'm not a monster. I'm just a PIT BULL"
Lynn Gartee shared dont touch my hair, face or phone.'s photo: "THERES NOTHING DANGEROUS ABOUT US... OK, THE LITTLE ONE MIGHT BE A LITTLE UNSTABLE *2 pit bulls and 1 other dog*"
Lynn Cartee shared The Dogington Post's photo: "SMILE *Pit Bull*"
"Look at the huge smile on this happy baby!"
"was brutally killed by her family pit bull"
"Porsche Nicole Cartee, 25-years old, was brutally killed by her family pit bull. The male dog, named Spike, had been with the family for 10-years. On August 22, the pit bull "just snapped" and began attacking Nicole's mother, according to authorities. When Nicole tried to rescue her mother, the pit bull turned on her, killing her. The dog also attacked Nicole's sister who was in the home. Nicole was dead when first responders arrived. Animal control director Jamie Nelson described the scene as "horrific." Nicole's mother was hospitalized with serious injuries; her sister was treated on scene. Patrick Powell, Nicole's boyfriend of 10-years, said the two had recently separated, but were planning on reuniting. Powell said the dog had a history of violence; it had attacked Nicole's mother two months earlier. The mother, however, blamed the incident on a stray dog, Powell said. A male cousin confirmed the previous attack to the media, but said the injuries were minor. Authorities found no previous attacks on record."
Clearly the owner's fault for being abusive and not loving the dog enough

Meme - "I would name it as one of the top tragedies of my life. While I was on vacation overseas I had 3 separate people taking turns throughout the day checking on my dogs, taking care of them and playing with them while I was gone. I thought it was the safest option and the best for my fur babies. 2 days ago I found out the dogs broke through the gate barrier in the house and got into a fight over what we suspect was a stray can of catfood. They were only alone for a couple of hours.. that's all it took and one of my fur babies (white one) killed the smaller black one.. I feel more pain right now than I have been in a while... Worse still is I have a decision before me regarding luna (the white one). I have contacted trained professionals for advice and they are willing to evaluate her but I still don't know what I am going to do..."

Meme - "You love n Rescued both. ..because they needed homes...Alot of us have n are doing the same because there's so many Pitts needing homes because of Humans not worthy of their love. I fell in love with this breed but I know they are jealous dogs but cuddling couch potatoes as well. Forgive Yourself n Luna, maybe an EXPERIENCED Trainor that has Dealt with Pitts Exclusively can help. You've Sadly lost one...! don't think putting Luna down is necessary."

Meme - "My pitties have all fought with each other to various degrees. No fatalities, but definitely trips to the vet were required. We have many gates and every time there was a fight, it was human error. l.e. feeding treats together, leaving gates open, and favorite toys left unattended. Euthanasia never crossed my mind. Ever. They are animals and certain behaviors are inherently dangerous. Only you have to live with your decision, as I have with mine..."

Meme - "I'm So heartbroken for you n I'm dealing with my latest Rescued Pitt off side of a busy road that has attacked my older Dearly Loved Pitt over jealousy. If I wasn't here every time I would have most likely come home to same. She plays with my Doberman but backs down when challenged . Had they ever fought before this? I've cried n struggled with a solution n can absolutely imagine your grief. Give yourself some time to think thru this grief. Pitts are Velcro dogs that crave love n give love but there's something about them when triggered n fight its like a "switch" Throwing Water on mine works but my older Pitt is no match . Praying for healing."

Meme - "The same kinda thing happened except it was a friend watching my pittie and she fed her dog and my dog together and they fought bad her dog ended up passing away she called the police and animal control ugh it was heartbreaking I went back and forth for 10 months to court to get him back while he sat in an animal shelter as if he was a person in jail, ugh it would break my heart when I would go see him and he would have lil tears in his eyes it wasn't until they started letting me go in the kennel and take him in to the yard that I realized the courts already made up their mind. They put him down. Without even telling me, as morbid as it is me and my mom wanted his paw print and to get him cremated and all I got was a letter in the mail I miss him every day I still blame myself. Even if it was human error he shouldve been with me, hed still be here Even with the whole shelter advocating for him they counted him out because of his breed. I'm so sorry this happened to loose any of our fur babies is terrible and in that matter....but don't loose both of them. Get Luna some training and keep her as a only doggo."

Meme - "This happened with us. Our girls..played, walked and slept together, for two years. It was a dream come true...they were besties, until they weren't and it was over a treat. We were traveling with them... we were there and had to pull them apart... bleeding... us and them... ended up in the ER from a bite (unintentional by them) We made the trek home. We tried everything from training and time apart... nothing worked. We had to rehome our younger girl (Dalmatian) for the safety of both. Thankfully, we found someone we knew to take her in. We miss her deeply. lam sharing this with you, Because it could have happened with you there. It's heart breaking. Blessings to you and your Pup."

Humans Can’t Quit a Basic Myth About Dog Breeds - The Atlantic - "According to Morrill’s team, breed explains just a small fraction of the mind-boggling variation in behavior seen in the species that is dog—less than 10 percent. Which is to say, most of the mishmash can be attributed to something else. That might seem like too small a proportion to some; other, older studies, which analyzed their own data somewhat differently, have made higher estimates... While friendly dogs are considered desirable, the stereotype pendulum swings the opposite way with aggression, a murky label that some behaviorists dislike and yet is often inappropriately pasted onto dogs who then end up banned from housing complexes, abandoned in shelters, even euthanized based on breed alone. Dogs who fall into the pit-bull category are a famous, and particularly controversial, example of this: Bred to fight other animals, they’ve acquired a reputation for violence and unpredictability, a stigma worsened, scholars have argued, by racism against America’s urban Black and Latino communities, to which the dogs were culturally linked in the mid-20th century. Some experts argue that caution around pit bulls is warranted, given their history; people who look at pictures of the dogs tend to rate them unfavorably. And yet, studies done by Alvarez, Zapata, and others have found that pit bulls don’t seem to be more aggressive or volatile than other dogs. If any dogs are a bit more apt to react when provoked, Alvarez told me, it might be the shrimpy ones—Chihuahuas, dachshunds, and so on—perhaps because their teenier brains have a harder time reining in impulsive behaviors … or because they’re just smaller dogs, constantly being loomed over, picked up, or accidentally kicked."
Apparently it's racist to blame the owners. Oops

Meme - "God once said: 'I need someone strong enough to maul a child but gentle enough to maul a child, smart enough to maul a child and passionate enough to maul a child. Someone with so much love they can maul a child. So God created the... Pit Bull"

College student who was disfigured in vicious attack by dogs reveals her face - "A Texas college student who was left “catastrophically” disfigured from a dog attack was bitten more than 800 times and lost almost 30 percent of her blood — as terrifying bodycam footage shows cops struggling to get the beasts under control.  Jacqueline Durand, a student at the University of Texas at Dallas, was mauled a day before her 22nd birthday in December when she showed up at the home of Dr. Justin Bishop and his wife, Ashley, to walk their two dogs.  But when she opened the door, the animals — a German shepherd mixed-breed named Lucy and a pit bull mixed-breed named Bender — pounced on her and pinned her down... The couple told investigators the dogs came from rescue organizations and that they hadn’t had any problems with them. But the lawsuit includes a photo of an “ominous sign” on the couple’s front door that states: “Crazy Dogs. Please Don’t Knock or Ring the Bell. Call or Text Instead.”  Durand’s attorney, Chip Brooker, told CBS News that the sign “suggests that the Bishops knew that both of these dogs had acted aggressively to people arriving at the front door.”"

Meme - "It isn't your job as a pitbull owner to control your animal. It's everyone else's job in your neighborhood to never stroll or breath or exist aggressively in case Pibbles gets loose and its not your fault because you warned them."
Lost/Found Pets in Navarre, FL: "*MY DOG IS NOT LOST INFO POST*
I just wanted to hop on here and say if my dog ever does get loose she is very sweet her name is sage , she is a pit mix if that day ever comes where she does get out I'm asking if you see her and you have small children 13 or younger please do not approach with your child she is very scared of kids and may get aggressive towards them, she has never been aggressive to a child or tried to bite them but to take the extra step and be safe please do not allow children to approach. Thank you"

Meme - "How about another mauling, Murray? I think we've had enough of your maulings! What do you get, when you cross a dog with a genetic predisposition for violence, with a TODDLER that SCREAMS AND MAKES VERY SUDDEN MOVEMENTS?! Call the pound! I'll tell YOU what you get! You get what you fucking deserve! *shreds an infant*"

Meme - "Live Love Laugh. *Pitbull with spiked collar* *Crying wojak girl with "Daddy" top and black baby*"

Meme - "This is my apprentice, Darth Maul *pitbull*"

Meme - "A fun game you can play is "Guess the Breed." Rules are simple. How you play is you find a news article about a dog attack, and you guess what breed you think did it. The game is rigged, though, because you can guess "pit bull" every time, and 95% of the time you'll be correct.
My dad's dog bit off my nose - now I have hair growing on my face"

Portland pastry chef mauled by off-leash dog, dog's handler promptly ODs on fentanyl - "Cheryl Wakerhauser owns Pix Patisserie. She says she was out on a run along Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard when she was attacked and mauled by a dog.  She reports the dog was off leash in a parking lot of a vacant building that’s surrounded by a chain-link fence.  The dog grabbed her leg and threw her to the ground, and attacked her legs and arm. Wakerhauser says she has more than 35 puncture wounds... Wakerhauser says the dog was taken away by animal control. The dog is a pitbull named "Bubbie," as confirmed by police... Police say the suspect, identified as houseless individual Theron D. Bates, had handed the dog over to police and then tried to run away.  However, Bates then ingested fentanyl shortly afterward and overdosed."

Meme - "If you laugh react a picture of a fugly pitbull, you'll be reported to the police!"
Caitlin Abbott: "Someone block the two ignorant people laugh reacting to this poor girl, and the nice comments people are leaving for her. Maybe they're the ones who did this to her since they find it so funny..."
Players for Pits, NFP: "we have blocked the ones who commented, but that's the only way we can. Let's not give them any more attention, its anti-pit bull people. All their profile were already flagged and sent to police, too. We love you all for looking out - please report any comments you see so we can ban and delete them!"

Olivia Quast's nose ripped off by boyfriend's pitbull mix - "A Connecticut artist had her nose bitten off by her boyfriend’s pit bull mix rescue when the pooch got spooked by her teeth-whitening device.  Olivia Quast, 30, from Thomaston, suffered horrific injuries to her face and arm during the Feb. 3 incident involving her boyfriend Graeme Stasyshyn’s 6-year-old dog, Bentley, which he’s had for four years... the dog then continued attacking her, leaving her left arm mangled before she could fight the animal off and call for help.  Quast speculated that Bentley, who was abused as a puppy, might have been startled and provoked by her teeth-whitening mouth guard equipped with a UV light... the woman said the dog’s eyes “changed” and described the animal as “dissociated.” The artist said of herself that she used to be a “cat person” who never liked dogs until she moved in with her 44-year-old boyfriend and his pointer, pitbull and bulldog mix, which became the first dog she “ever loved.”  Quast stressed that she had a good relationship with Bentley and would snuggle with the pooch in her bed, so when the canine attacked her last month, it came as a “total shock.”... As a result of the illness, the woman dislocates her joints on a daily basis, has received stitches more than 80 times and lives with chronic pain.  In the wake of the brutal attack, Quast and her boyfriend had Bentley humanely euthanized, after treating the dog to a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich and letting it play with stuffed animals while listening to classical music"

Dog breed genetics may affect traits like aggression and fearfulness - "Your dog’s ability to learn new tricks may be less a product of your extensive training than their underlying genetics.  Among 101 dog breeds, scientists found that certain behavioral traits such as trainability or aggression were more likely to be shared by genetically similar breeds. While past studies have looked into the genetic underpinnings of dog behaviors for certain breeds, this research — published October 1 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B — is the first to investigate a wide swath of breed diversity and find a strong genetic signal.  “Anecdotally, everyone knows that different dogs have different behavioral traits,” says Noah Snyder-Mackler, a geneticist at the University of Washington in Seattle. “But we didn’t know how much or why.”...   Using data from over 14,000 dogs described in C-BARQ, the researchers gave each breed a score for 14 different behaviors, and then searched for overall genetic similarities among breeds that had similar scores. For traits such as aggression toward strangers, trainability and chasing, the researchers found that genes contribute 60 to 70 percent of behavioral variation among breeds. Poodles and border collies, for example, had higher trainability scores, while Chihuahuas and dachshunds had higher aggression toward strangers."
"It's all in how you raise them"

2018 Dog Bite Fatality: Woman Dies After Being Attacked by a Pack of Dogs Near Ardmore, Oklahoma - "inaccurate headlines about this fatal dog mauling went viral. Here are the themes: sausage dogs maul and weiner dogs attack. The media went viral around the world, not restricted to the United States. This is despite a statement by a veterinarian disputing it, who had examined these dogs while alive, the best way to determine breed identification. Dr. Douglas Aldridge stated, "The dogs appear to me to be a pit bull and 4 pit-bull mix puppies."  Two employees at the Ardmore Animal Shelter -- who received the dogs dead, never examined them alive -- are responsible for deliberately mislabeling six of the dogs as predominantly "dachshund." Vet technician Amanda Dinwiddie, whose husband has bred and sold pit bulls in the past, and shelter co-director Tena Layton, an owner of multiple pit bulls, are 100% responsible for misleading the sheriff, media and public about the breeds involved in this deadly attack.  What is a mystery to us is why Layton ever supplied photographs of the dogs to the public? Because one of those images "clearly" identifies the largest dog as a pit bull."
This pit lover kept spamming the story about a pack of 7 dachshunds killing someone to "prove" that pitbulls weren't more dangerous. So much for that lie (even if it were true, clearly this means 1 dachshund would be as deadly as 1 pit)

Police body cam shows dog shot, killed after vicious attack of owner - "Officers in Richland County saved a Shelby resident, who was attacked by his pit bull on Saturday night.  The Shelby Police Department received a 9-1-1 call about a reported dog attack on Joelynn Drive, where upon their arrival they saw the dog biting his owner's arm in the back room of the home.  One officer (John Reed) used his Taser on the dog to give the owner enough time to break free and get out of the room. The two officers tried to contain the dog in the bedroom, but weren't able to do so, because the door couldn't close due to renovations. Once the officer stopped using the TASER, police said the dog recovered and began charging toward the door. The second officer (Cody Baker) then fired two rounds, which both struck and killed the dog instantly."

Meme - "Not my pibble's fault, this is. Negative energy, your child had *blood dripping*"

Dangerous Dog Fight Breaks Out Inside Walt Disney World - "At Disney in a store..watched 2 pit bull “service dogs” get into a big fight and the owners were right there and traveling together, so it wasn’t like the dogs didn’t know each other."

Meme - Daniel @growing_daniel: "Pit bulls are taking shit to the next level"
"Kansas man accidentally shot by dog remembered as 'lovable goofball'"

Meme - Animal Sense: Basic Training And Behavior Problems: "Hi trainers and behaviorists. My concern is we have 2 six month old pit bull female puppies. They are fighting like crazy. One has even torn a hunk out if the others ear during one of their fights. My husband has been bitten a few times trying to break it up. We are at our wits end. We have a small cat and monkey and are afraid they will start attacking them. In walks (he takes one at a time) they try and go after every dog they see and bark like crazy dogs at the people. Why are such young pups turning si aggressive. We are 60 and don't tease or rough play with them."
Clearly the owners' fault. It's all in how you raise them. They must be abusive and neglectful bastards

Meme - *Pitbull*: "Mon & Dad are getting me a human. Due: 9/29/23"

Meme - "Pitbull Owners when the Dog designed specifically to Maul and kill Mauls and Kills"

Meme - "Normal person
Pit apologist full of excuses
It seems only pitbulls have terrible owners."

Meme - "I've had many breeds of dogs. And I've had 3 pit bulls in the past. I can honestly say the pits were consistently the dumbest breed of the ones I've had, and I'll never have another one. I think the fascination with pitbulls is 2 things
1) they're the cheapest and def the most abundant breed you can buy off marketplace or Craigslist. Most aren't even pure, but everyone and their cousins brother "breeds" them. So ppl get them bc they're cheap and don't look like a mutt.
2) women like the stigma of owning an "agrressive breed" that's nothing but what they call a "big baby." It makes them feel some type of way having dominion over a "breed" with a bad reputation that they can control. Kinda screams out narcissistic energy."

Meme - "*hunting dog* genetics
*Herding dog* genetics
*running dog* genetics
*savannah dog* genetics
*pit bulls being aggressive* "just how they are raised""

Man who died at house in Oldham was 'mauled' by his dog while suffering a medical episode, inquest hears - "A man who died at a house in Oldham was 'mauled' by his dog after he collapsed from a medical episode, an inquest has heard.  Jonathan Halstead, 35, was found dead at a house on Duckworth Street in Shaw... Mr Halstead's dad heard a thud coming from one of the bedrooms.  "He went straight to the bedroom to find the dog mauling his son""

Meme - Bonnie Vanes: "OCTOBER IS PIT BULL AWARENESS MONTH"
"Ohio woman dies aft...
TOLEDO, Ohio - A 57-year-old woman has died after she was attacked by her own dog in her backyard, reports say. Police tell WTOL Channel 11 that Bonnie Varnes was found in the yard "severely mutilated and unconscious." Varies was taken to a hospital but she died of her injuries."

Meme - "These Stumpline pups (my line, but not on my yard) have not only killed three littermates, but ate em down to the head...these are 9 week old pups...do y'all STILL THINK IT'S HOW YOU RAISE THEM?! This is that predisposition to dog aggression we've been preaching about...it is GENETICS...it has absolutely nothing to do with how you raise em...they have two automatic feeders full of food in there, which you can see in the background...they were just BORN SAVAGE! Stop thinking you can LOVE THE GENETICS out of these dogs! It ain't happening!"

Meme - "Was it the pitbull's fault?
Was it raised right?
Was it being agitated?
Who was the victim?
Did the victim make a sudden movement?
Did the victim breathe?
Pubble was nannying, those animals are not important, They are just playing!, Poor pubbles was scared!, Pibble was giving CPR
It's not the pitbull's fault"

2022 Fatal Dog Attack Breed Identification Photographs - "In 2013, we began the tradition of publishing breed identification photographs of fatally attacking dogs when available through news reports, animal control agencies, police departments, social media and public information requests. Of the 54 dog bite fatalities recorded in 2022, 44% (24) had some form of an identification photograph. Our nonprofit was responsible for capturing 75% of them. Pit bulls and their mixes represent 63% of images collected in 2022."
Clearly, "stigma" and "stereotyping" means photos of pit bulls involved in fatal attacks are more likely to be released than for other breeds

Pit Bulls: Facts and Figures - "There are approximately 4.5 million pit bulls in the United States, making up approximately 5.8% of the country's canine population...  From February 2013 to the present, animal control agencies and health departments in 19 U.S. states report that pit bulls are leading all breeds in biting incidents...  From 2011 to 2019, 14 peer-reviewed retrospective medical studies from Level 1 trauma centers spanning all major geographical regions in the United States -- Northeast, Southeast, South, Southwest, Midwest, West Coast, and Northwest -- all report similar findings: pit bulls are inflicting a higher prevalence of injuries than all other breeds of dogs. The majority of these studies (12 of 14) also report that pit bulls are inflicting the most severe injuries, requiring a higher number of operative interventions -- up to five times higher -- than other dog breeds...  Studies by health care providers establish that pit bull attacks are associated with higher median Injury Severity Scale scores, a higher number of hospital admissions, higher hospital charges, and a higher risk of death...  Another study authored entirely by physicians concludes that injuries from pit bulls are both more frequent and more severe...    Similarly, an additional study found that pit bulls inflict "more complex wounds, were often unprovoked, and went off property to attack" and that "[t]he probability of a bite resulting in a complex wound was 4.4 times higher for pit bulls compared with the other top-biting breeds."...  In 2021, of the 51 Americans killed by dogs, 37 were killed by one or more pit bulls and their mixes (in some cases in combination with one or more other breeds), and 21 of those victims were either the owner of the pit bull or member of the owner's family. The eruscide rate was 57%."
Pit bull defenders love to claim that pit bull attack numbers are unreliable because people misidentify pit bulls. But if that's the case, pit bull identification in general (for breed prevalence) would also be off, which would at least partially cancel out the effect but still leave them overrepresented. Also the inaccuracy of pitbull identification cannot account for the massive overrepresentation of them in attack and fatal attack numbers

Time to give up on identity politics: It's dragging the progressive agenda down

From 2017:

Time to give up on identity politics: It's dragging the progressive agenda down

"Long before the 2016 election, 15 years ago in fact, I predicted the kind of white identitarian politics that eventually came to fruition in the last election. It had seemed to me inevitable, from the beginning, that white nationalism would arise as a necessary outgrowth if liberals kept up with their identity politics obsession, and that is precisely where we find ourselves.

Identity politics always felt like snake oil to me...

Although identity politics had been in the air for a couple of decades already, it was when I was in college, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, that it really began to take off. The Cold War had just ended and capitalism, recharged as neoliberalism, needed a new ideological apparatus to keep things moving toward further concentration of power. What was at hand were the ashes of the 1960s liberation movements, all of which were at a loss as to where to go next. From this leftover hodgepodge, over time a sharply defined ideology emerged, which we can see today in the contemporary form of identity politics — complete with “intersectionality” and other terms of art.  

My generation was the last to have escaped the full brunt of this pernicious ideology. We grew up believing that human difference was not biological but primarily intellectual. We didn’t treat racial, sexual or other differences as inevitable, defined in stone, but fluid realities to be worked around. In fact, it was an insult, if you came of age in that time, to have to commit to a particular identity. Wasn’t that the antithesis of the American idea? How could reinvention take place if you took your spot along a particular identity and stuck with it all your life? Life would be so boring, so predictable, so deadly...

those who are in their 20s and 30s today have not known any other ideological order. Identity politics — the brand of communalism it flows from, i.e., multiculturalism, and the brand of expression it leads to, i.e., political correctness — is existentially unassailable for the young. They know no other means of self-understanding, artistic expression or personal solidarity. They can only be organized around this principle. They see the world strictly through this framework, not through some Enlightenment perspective of universal human rights irrespective of one’s biological identity. The trendy concept of “white privilege,” unmoored from class conditions, exemplifies this simplistic tendency...

It’s not surprising that both Sachs and Summers went on to rebrand themselves as progressives of a sort, with help from the compliant media, because if neoliberals can say the correct things about race and gender, then their economic positions do not matter...

identity politics, wherever it has manifested, has been absolutely devastating to the cause of liberty.

1. It privileges culture, instead of politics...

Obama was immune to liberal criticism, because he fit the identity politics matrix so perfectly. He may have ruthlessly deported millions of people, kept in place and strengthened the entire extra-constitutional surveillance apparatus, and escalated illegal drone attacks and assassinations, but the color of his skin provided immunity from real criticism.

2. Not only politics, but economics is taken out of the equation...

Liberals seem to be trying to cure racism at the metaphysical level — in people’s hearts and souls — instead of limiting politics to where it should be limited, i.e., the arena of democratic policymaking...

It is because identity politics has garnered so much attention that political reform, which needs to be ongoing and consistent, has stalled for nearly 30 years...

I find the “we can do both” argument a cop-out. I have never known anyone whom I consider typical of the identity politics strain of activism — i.e., engaging in call-out culture for various racial, sexual and cultural offenses — also be engaged with such fights as the preservation of privacy and anonymity, the end to the surveillance state and the dominance of the intelligence agencies, or economic redistribution on a meaningful scale, not just limited to the populist idea of the living wage.

The identitarians, if pressed to the wall on this, will say that these emphases are not exclusive, but in reality they never do it, because there is no mental space left to pursue classical economic issues... Identity politics, it should be noted, is not an outsider’s movement; it is the ultimate insider’s game...

3. Identity politics always breeds its equal and opposite reaction.

4. Identity politics is not winnable... 

This is because liberals are rhetorically dedicated to pursuing a goal which can never be realized in practice, i.e., the complete self-realization of each identity. This should be evident across many different dimensions. The more a particular group becomes validated in the broader culture’s eyes, the less it feels satisfied with the recognition, and the more it feels it needs more of that rush of acknowledgment and credit based on identity alone. There is no end to it...

5. It leads to spectacle, rather than legislative accomplishment...

Identity politics was conceived and executed from the beginning as a movement of depoliticization. Feminism has become severed from class considerations, so that for the most part it has become a reflection of what liberal identitarians themselves like to call “white privilege.” Feminism, like the other identity politics of the moment, is cut off from solidarity with the rest of the world, or if it deals with the rest of the world can only do so on terms that must not invalidate the American version of identity politics...

identity politics — in all the forms it has shown up, from various localized nationalisms to more ambitious fascism — desires its adherents to present themselves in the most regressive, atavistic, primitive form possible. The kind of political communication identity politics thrives on is based on maximizing emotionalism and minimizing rationality. Therefore, the idea of law that arises when identity politics engenders a reaction is one that severs the natural bonds of community across differences (which is the most ironic yet predictable result of identity politics) and makes of the law an inhuman abstraction.

This depoliticization has gone on so long now, about 30 years, that breaking out of it is inconceivable, since the discourse to do so is no longer accessible. For anyone trained to think outside the confines of identity politics, those who operate within its principles — which manifests, for example, in call-out culture (or at least it did before Trump) — seem incomprehensible, and vice versa. We are different generations divided by unfathomable gaps, and there is no way to bridge them. The situation is like the indoctrination in Soviet Russia in the 1930s, so that only an economic catastrophe that lays waste to everything, resulting from imperial misadventures, can possibly break the logjam. Short of that, we are committed to the dire nihilism of identity politics for the duration of the imperial game."

 

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