Society's ChildS


Bullseye

Circling the wagons

manga bookshelves pornography
© Getty
[Trigger warning: child sexual abuse]

A conservative politician attacks a peer-reviewed research paper by a Humanities PhD student.

Sounds terrible, doesn't it? Anti-free speech. Anti-academic freedom. A chilling atmosphere for researchers. But before you get out the loudhailer and head to protest outside Parliament, perhaps it would be good to get a little context. First, here's the tweet, from Conservative Party MP Neil O'Brien:

My instinct upon seeing a tweet like this is to click the link to the paper — in this case, one published this year in the journal Qualitative Research — and take a look at it. The instinct of several other academics on Twitter was to instantly, reflexively defend the paper from O'Brien's criticism. But we'll get to those academics in just a moment. For now, let's actually look the paper - if we can stomach it.

NPC

Scotland appoints first ever 'Period Poverty' & menopause officer, and it's a MAN

period poverty man
Screenshot.
Dundee man and former personal trainer Jason Grant is the newly appointed period dignity officer for the Tay region but critics say the role should have gone to a woman.
The decision to appoint a man as Scotland's first ever so-called 'period dignity officer' has prompted outrage, on the same day the flagship law offering free period products to all in need of them was launched.

Dundee man and former personal trainer Jason Grant is the newly appointed period dignity officer for the Tay region - who has the task of promoting access to free sanitary products across schools and colleges - where he will also discuss issues around the menopause.


Comment: One positive from this warped shambles is that more people will become wise to just how corrupted their government and public institutions have become.


It follows the Scottish Government's introduction of the Period Products Act, which means councils and education providers are now legally obliged to offer out tampons and pads for free in a response to a period poverty campaign


Comment: 'For free', paid for by the public through increased taxes. That said, helping the soaring numbers of people falling below the poverty line is not necessarily a bad idea, however people should be outraged that a scheme like this is necessary in the first place, not congratulating the government on its failings.


Comment: This is the same Scottish government that are clutching at 'emergency' Covid powers, and who failed to ram through a warped gender bill through parliament:


Bad Guys

Norway bridge collapses, drivers of 2 vehicles rescued

collapse wood bridge norway
© Stian Lysberg Solum /NTB Scanpix via APA drone image of the Tretten bridge over the River Laagen that collapsed, in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway, Monday, Aug. 15, 2022.
A wooden bridge over a river in southern Norway collapsed early Monday, with a car plunging into the water and a truck getting stuck on a raised section. The drivers of both vehicles were rescued and doing well, police said.

Police were alerted shortly after 7:30 a.m. (0530 GMT; 1:30 a.m. EDT) that the bridge had collapsed as a truck and a car were crossing over it. The cause wasn't immediately known.

The car plunged into the river while the truck remained on the bridge in a nearly vertical position on a section that was raised at a steep angle out of the water.

A helicopter assisted in the rescue operation and pulled out the truck driver, police said. The driver of the car managed to get out of his vehicle by himself.

Attention

I was called a killer for warning of lockdown harms

Sikora
© UnknownKarol Sikora
This cancer crisis is the predictable consequence of the NHS focusing exclusively on Covid-19

During the pandemic, I wrote for this newspaper an article entitled "Why can't just one of these endless press conferences be dedicated to non-Covid related illnesses?" Perhaps naively, I thought it might be a suggestion which the Government would take up. Virtually cost-free, an uncontroversial subject and very little downside: why wouldn't they do it, I thought? The idea received a warm response on Twitter. Others clearly shared the same view. I'm certain it was seen by the army of bureaucrats working on pandemic communications, yet nothing came of it.

Instead, those valuable hours were spent justifying ludicrous policies, dishing out patronising lectures and terrifying the country into submission with apocalyptic scenarios. I vividly remember a Brigadier, dressed in military fatigues, explaining with the help of a stick how he was building emergency Covid hospitals. All very impressive until he was asked who would staff them. It was clear that the Government wanted to be seen to be doing "something", rather than actually aiming to consistently and instructively inform. It was pure theatre.

Comment: That was precisely the plan: The accumulation of non-COVID deaths due to mandatory neglect.


Eye 2

1 dead as Ukraine continues shelling of city hosting Europe's largest nuclear plant

Zaporozhye Power Plant
Zaporozhye Power Plant
Ukrainian troops shelled a residential area in the city of Energodar on Sunday, a member of the local administration, Vladimir Rogov, reported in a Telegram post. A local 49-year-old resident was killed in the strike, he added. Energodar hosts the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the largest such facility in Europe.


Comment: Ukraine is killing its own people, as well threatening to cause potentially catastrophic damage to the nuclear plant.


The man was walking his dog when the shelling began, according to Rogov. A 24-year-old woman was also injured in the attack, he said, adding that she had been sent to a hospital. The Ukrainian strike also targeted an area near the city's thermal power plant, where the shelling caused a fire close to the facility, the official said.

Bizarro Earth

Video shows Ukrainian mine explode on beach killing 2 in Odessa

odessa
Two people died and one was injured as a result of detonation of an explosive device on the beach in Zatoka village in the Odesa region.

Source: Serhii Bratchuk, Odesa Oblast Military Administration spokesman, on Telegram; Odesa City Council with reference to Operational Command Pivden (South)

Details: Bratchuk reported that according to preliminary information, people suffered these injuries as a mine-explosive device went off on the beach in Zatoka.


Comment: Despite it being well known Ukraine has littered particular areas with mines, and continues to do so with 'petal' mines in civilian areas, Pravda fails to mention that it is clearly the one responsible for the deaths of these innocents.


Comment: Video has emerged on Twitter:




Biohazard

Europe debates lifting fracking bans as sanction-created energy crisis worsens

power plant
© Michael Sohn/The Associated PressThe Lichterfelde gas-fired power plant in Berlin on March 30.
Germany's energy supply crisis has sparked a national political debate about whether the country should lift its ban on fracking to allow development of untapped natural-gas reserves.

As a result of Russia's war in Ukraine, there is growing concern in Germany that Moscow will completely cut off its gas supplies. Russia has already reduced gas to 20 per cent through its Nord Stream 1 pipeline that runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany.


Comment: And not without good reason.


German energy minister Robert Habeck has been travelling the planet looking for alternative energy supplies, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be vising Canada this month to strengthen energy ties.


Comment: To beg for energy; energy poor Western nations have already done the rounds everywhere else and they're still scrambling for more, expensive, unreliable, supplies.


Footprints

More illegal immigrants en route from Texas to Muriel Bowser's D.C.

BusBowser
© Paul Morigi/Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty ImagesIllegal Immigrant Bus • Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser
More illegal immigrants in Del Rio, Texas, are en route to Mayor Muriel Bowser's Washington, DC, as the Democrat said the situation is reaching a "tipping point" while Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) ships illegals to sanctuary cities. A Thursday video shows another busload of migrants preparing to arrive in the nation's capital:

Comment: Chad Wolf nails the frustration and impotence of the the Biden Administration's lack of solutions to the migrant problem and unwillingness to take responsibility to fix it.
Former Acting DHS Director Chad Wolf said Friday that the mayors of New York City and Washington, D.C. should be leaning on the Biden administration to actually do something about the border crisis so that hundreds of thousands of migrants aren't flooding into cities across the country.

Despite being turned down the first time, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, asking him to send in the National Guard to help D.C. deal with the migrants that are being bused to the nation's capital by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

When asked whether Bowser should receive help from the National Guard, Wolf said:
"No, and in fact the National Guard should be down on the border actually trying to solve this crisis.

"Look, what Mayor Bowser, Mayor Adams in New York City should be doing is leaning on the Biden administration to put policies and procedures in place to stop this crisis so that we don't have hundreds of thousands of migrants going into all cities across the country. That's what they need to be focused on. As far as the National Guard is concerned, they need to be advocating again for that at the border to help Border Patrol, to help CBP control that border, but it's gonna take leadership by the administration to do that at the end of the day.

"It is absolutely bizarre and very hypocritical that Adams is complaining about 250 illegal immigrants being bused to his city when Texas deals with 7,000 illegals each day.

"Obviously they only care about this issue when it impacts their cities and their communities. Folks in Texas and Arizona and California and others along the border have been impacted for the past 16 to 17 months so what Governor Abbott's having to do is basically shame big city mayors like Mayor Adams and Mayor Bowser to actually care, to actually get involved in this fight and be part of the solution and to lean on the Biden administration to solve this issue at the end of the day.

"He shouldn't have to do this, but if this is what it's going to take to get others talking about this crisis and talking about solutions then they need to continue to do this. These are cities that have encouraged illegal immigrants to come to their communities. DHS has been flying these individuals into the state of New York, into states all over this country for months and months and months.

"It's only until they see them firsthand getting off buses that they seem to care, that they seem to raise any type of concern at the end of the day. It's bizarre, their view. This administration wants this crisis to go away. When's the last time we heard from the president, the vice president or DHS secretary in a public setting, in a press conference to answer questions about the border, to actually outline their strategy at the border?

"Just several days ago they formally ended Remain in Mexico or MPP. They have taken a vital tool away from the Border Patrol to help solve this crisis and they're offering no solution, no plan, and no strategy in return."

"The vast majority of Americans disagree with this broken and failed border strategy that the administration is undertaking.

"They need to change course. They need to set new policies and new procedures in place. This can be solved, and it can be solved relatively quickly but it takes leadership. It takes hard decisions to actually do that at the end of the day and this administration continues not to do any of that.

"Again, they don't want to talk about this issue. They hope it goes away, and I don't believe it is because the vast majority of Americans see what's going on down there. They're throwing their hands up and they're saying after 15, 16 months, aren't you capable enough, aren't you competent enough to actually put something in place that stops this and, again, Americans want a change."



Pistol

Women's rally violently dispersed in Kabul - media

Afghan women
© AFP/Wakil KohsarTaliban fighters fire into the air to disperse Afghan women protesters in Kabul
August 13, 2022
The Taliban violently dispersed a women's protest rally in Afghanistan's capital on Saturday, several days ahead of the first anniversary of the Islamist group's return to power, the news agency AFP has reported.

Around 40 women were chanting "bread, work and freedom" as they approached the education ministry in Kabul, according to the agency. One video, apparently recorded in Kabul and posted on social media, shows Taliban militants firing their weapons into the air to break up an approaching female crowd.

After the protest was dispersed, some women attempted to take shelter in nearby shops but were reportedly pursued and beaten by Taliban fighters using the butts of their guns.

Snakes in Suits

NYC Mayor Eric Adams blasts Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after second bus of migrants arrives: 'This is horrific'

Adams/Abbott
© Getty ImagesNew York City Mayor Eric Adams • Texas Governor Greg Abbott
New York City Mayor Eric Adams blasted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday after a second bus full of illegal migrants arrived at his doorstep.

Adams gave a news conference Sunday morning at the Port Authority where he greeted an incoming bus of around 40 migrants — only 14 of whom disembarked in the Big Apple.

"This is horrific when you think about what the governor is doing," Adams said, noting that many of the arriving families did not realize they were coming to New York City.

His comments follow the first arrival of around 50 migrants at a Port Authority in New York City on Friday. The bus arrived on the orders of Abbott, who has been shipping border-crossers into liberal cities to bring attention to the issue of illegal immigration in his own state.

Adams has accused the governor of using innocent people "as political pawns to manufacture a crisis."