Society's ChildS


Bullseye

Best of the Web: The Terrifying Parable of Laurence Fox's Question Time Appearance

Douglas Murray
The Spectator
Mon, 20 Jan 2020 15:01 UTC

Comment: In the aftermath of British actor and comedian Ricky Gervais tearing into woke Hollywood celebrities' virtue-signaling at the Golden Globes awards ceremony earlier this month, another British actor recently joined the fray, making no-holds-barred appearances on British TV and radio. Only Fox, unlike Gervais, is most certainly not joking...


laurence fox woke question time
In what turned out to be the last year of his life, Roger Scruton often mulled on the nature and techniques of twenty-first century denunciation. For Roger, like others who had seen totalitarian societies up close, knew what intimidation and officially-imposed forms of thinking were actually like.

Which is not to say, of course, that modern Britain or America are totalitarian societies. Only that we have people among us who act with precisely the same techniques as those did in totalitarian societies. In modern Britain, as in communist Czechoslovakia and elsewhere, the habits are the same. A member of a profession comes into their workplace in the morning to find a letter of denunciation signed by all their colleagues. An organ of official opinion castigates someone for having fraternised with the wrong elements. Almost all of this is done by people who think they are doing good. As it happens I have spent the first part of the year reading Vasily Grossman, and this last notion has been particularly striking of late. Bad things are rarely done by people who think they are doing bad things. They are almost everywhere done by people who imagine that they are acting for the common good.

Which brings me to Laurence Fox, or rather the response to Laurence Fox in recent days.

Comment: Follow Mr. Fox on Twitter.

Here's Fox at his most irreverent and non-PC, in a recent interview with journalist James Delingpod:


His music's not bad either. Here's his latest single:




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Bug

Police allowed to conduct illegal searches of vehicles at concerts and music festivals

mapi
MassPrivateI
Tue, 28 Jan 2020 00:00 UTC
Police Allowed To Conduct Illegal Searches
© Hudson Valley 360
A recent Appeals Court ruling in Tennessee reveals a disturbing window into how police use concerts, music festivals and sporting events to trample our Fourth Amendment rights.

When Brian Wiley purchased tickets to the Bonnaaroo Music Festival in 2016 he never thought that police would be allowed to search his car without probable cause.

Yet that is exactly what happened.

The Bonnaroo Music Festival is a four-day music festival that provides overnight camping to concertgoers with the added bonus of being searched free of charge.

According to Coffee County Sheriff's investigator James Sherrill, Mr. Wiley should have known that concertgoers and campers would be searched the moment they stepped foot onto the festivals grounds.

The police argued that Mr. Wiley's music festival ticket gives police permission to search everyone, including their vehicles.

Comment: It was, and is, events like the intelligence-agency-manufactured Las Vegas massacre that has provided the justification of such illegal searches as we are now reading about:

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No Entry

Bayer considers stopping sales of glyphosate to private users amid settlement discussions with 75,000 Roundup cancer claimants


Channel News Asia
Thu, 30 Jan 2020 11:30 UTC
Monsanto
© REUTERS/Regis DuvignauFILE PHOTO: A man uses a Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller spray containing glyphosate in a garden in Bordeaux, France, June 1, 2019.
Bayer is considering stopping sales of the weedkiller glyphosate to private users who apply it in their gardens, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Thursday, citing financial and corporate sources.

The business daily said the move was part of ongoing talks with tens of thousands of plaintiffs in the United States about an out-of-court settlement. The plaintiffs blame Bayer's glyphosate-based weedkillers for their cancer.

Bayer was not immediately available for comment.

Comment: While this may seem like a victory, as has happened elsewhere, such as France, farmers - who are struggling as it is - are permitted to use glyphosate where there's 'no alternative', so the food supply will continue to be toxic. One also wonders what it will be replaced with, because it's unlikely the big chemical companies will willingly give up those profits.

In the end, what's really needed is a paradigm shift in our approach towards nature, and there needs to be an international effort to find the most optimal ways to work with it to achieve our goals:

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Network

Article 13: UK will not implement EU copyright directive


BBC
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 00:01 UTC
EU copyright directive
© Getty Images
Universities and Science Minister Chris Skidmore has said that the UK will not implement the EU Copyright Directive after the country leaves the EU.

Several companies have criticised the law, which would hold them accountable for not removing copyrighted content uploaded by users, if it is passed.

EU member states have until 7 June 2021 to implement the new reforms, but the UK will have left the EU by then.

The UK was among 19 nations that initially supported the law.

Comment: See also:

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No Entry

Russia to close border with China amid coronavirus outbreak - Prime Minister Mishustin


Sputnik
Thu, 30 Jan 2020 10:16 UTC
temp check coronavirus china
© REUTERS / CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINSA worker uses a thermometer to check the temperature of a customer as she enters a Starbucks shop as the country is hit by an outbreak of the new coronavirus, in Beijing, China January 30, 2020
So far, the coronavirus epidemic has left 170 people dead and over 7,700 more infected in China.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said he had signed a decree to close Russia's border in the Far East as part of the effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus from China.
"A relevant order was signed today, and the implementation has already started. Later in the day, we will brief everyone, through an established procedure, on all the events on closing the border in the Far Eastern region and on other measures that the government has implemented," Mishustin said at a cabinet meeting.

Comment: See also:

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Info

Best of the Web: Kiss me now, you Nazi! Refusing to date woke women makes you 'dangerous' & 'far-right', apparently

Graham Dockery
RT
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 19:47 UTC

Comment: British media was abuzz last week over this actor's outspoken comments on 'woke culture'. If you don't know before who Laurence Fox is, you will soon!


Feminist protesters and Laurence Fox
© Getty Images / Karwai TangFeminist protesters and Laurence Fox
Not into purple hair? Don't think a lecture on your own toxic masculinity sounds like good pillow talk? Won't go to see Little Women on a date? Well that means you are probably a white supremacist, if not a mass murderer.

That's according to pundit Vicky Spratt, who recently penned an angry response to British singer and actor Laurence Fox's declaration that he won't date "woke" women. Fox has become something of an iconoclast of late, first for ridiculing the notion of 'white privilege' on a BBC panel, and then for expounding on his dating preferences in a Sunday Times feature.

Comment: See also:

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Green Light

Russia will relax tourist visa rules, allowing stays of up to 6 months & simplified applications

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Wed, 29 Jan 2020 21:27 UTC
tourists in russia
© Global Look Press / Komsomolskaya Pravda
Russia has long been known for having a formidable visa process, especially for Western visitors. But since the 2018 FIFA World Cup, there's been a slow liberalization.

Now Moscow daily Izvestia reports cross-party parliamentary support for allowing foreigners to stay for six months on a single tourist visa, as well as making acquiring one a lot easier, by only asking for a hotel reservation. At present, vacations are capped at 30 days and require an invitation. A separate category for business travelers provides for a stay of up to 90 days, within a six month period. But these permits are often expensive and involve a cumbersome application procedure.

The newspaper claims that a bill to this effect has already been drafted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the intention of increasing the attractiveness of the country and assisting the development of the tourism sector. It follows a favorable reaction to the introduction of short term e-visas for certain locations, such as Vladivostok and Saint Petersburg, and the Fan ID system used for the football jamboree, which was regarded as a success.

It's reported that the initiative is backed by the ruling United Russia party along with A Just Russia and the LDPR. However, the Communist Party is said to be opposed, because it would prefer the Kremlin to focus on domestic tourism. Experts suggest the liberalization of entry into Russia is likely to immediately boost visitor numbers by between 10-30 percent.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

QAnon YouTubers are telling people to drink bleach (MMS) to ward off coronavirus

EJ Dickson
Rolling Stone
Thu, 30 Jan 2020 07:51 UTC
bleach
© Shutterstock
As coronavirus spreads across the globe — with Chinese authorities confirming nearly 6,000 cases and 132 people dead as of Wednesday — the reaction on social media in particular has largely been marked by fear and panic. For some conspiracy theorists, however, it has also served as a prime opportunity to spread misinformation and baseless rumors about the disease — some of which are potentially extremely dangerous.

One terrifying example? QAnon supporters are encouraging people to drink MMS — or Miracle Mineral Solution, a bleaching agent that has been touted as a "miracle cure" by anti-vaxxers and other fringe groups — to ward off coronavirus. And despite restrictions on such content on platforms like YouTube, it is nonetheless fairly easy to find.

According to the Daily Beast, proponents of QAnon — the elaborate conspiracy theory purporting that President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a ring of Democratic child sexual abusers — have been promoting MMS as a "cure" for coronavirus on Twitter, particularly the MMS-branded "20-20-20 spray," with one account alleging it "kills viruses instantly." Another prominent conspiracy theorist tweeted, "#coronavirus is a depopulation program," recommending colloidal silver (a supplement that, if taken in large amounts, can result in discoloration of the skin and nails, or kidney damage) and MMS to ward off the disease.

Comment: The only thing miraculous about MMS is that people are still using it after years of warnings from outlets like Sott. IF there is any benefit to using it (and that is a very big 'if') it basically amounts to chemical warfare on the body, taking out as many healthy cells as pathogenic ones. There are better ways of dealing with infective agents.

See also:

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Pills

Why do prescription drugs cost so much? Big Pharma is protected by global web of patent laws

Faisal Chaudhry
The Conversation
Wed, 29 Jan 2020 22:03 UTC
drug price protest big pharma
© Eric McGregor/LightRocket via Getty ImagesAdvocates for lower drug prices held a vigil on Sept. 5, 2019 outside of Eli Lilly in New York City, honoring those who have lost their lives due to the high cost of insulin.
The high price of insulin, which has reached as much as US$450 per month, has raised outrage across the country. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has called it a national embarrassment, wondering why U.S. residents should have to drive to Canada to buy cheaper insulin.

As a legal scholar who focuses on the contradictory role of property rights on economic well-being, including through the role of intellectual property rights, my research makes it clear that drug pricing is far more complicated than any candidate on the debate stage has time to explain. To fully understand these complexities requires looking at a web of international patent law and trade agreements. Insulin was discovered almost 100 years ago, saving the lives of many people with diabetes. Its soaring costs in recent years has brought outcries from patients and politicians.

Comment:

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NPC

Liberal Stephen King caves to PC brigade stupidity after 'outrage' over comments about 'quality over diversity'


RT
Wed, 15 Jan 2020 23:20 UTC
Stephen King
© REUTERS/Lucas JacksonAuthor and honoree Stephen King at the PEN America Literary Gala in New York, U.S., May 22, 2018.
Stephen King has found himself the target of Twitter's woke army, after having the audacity to argue that quality is more important than diversity when it comes to art. His attempt to clarify the issue only brought more attacks.

The famed author - revered by many on social media for his outspoken liberal views - was barraged by angry messages after weighing in on a debate sparked by this year's Academy Award nominees, who have been criticized for not being adequately diverse.

Noting that as a writer he is allowed to offer nominations in three categories - Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay - King disclosed that "the diversity issue" never factors into his decision-making.

Comment: Seems a clear situation of 'when you fight by the sword' and all that.

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