Society's ChildS


Eye 2

'Atlantic' editor, promoter of erroneous conspiracy ginning up Iraq war, bemoans Arab 'propensity' to conspiracy thinking

Jeffrey Goldberg editor atlantic magazine
© ScreenshotJeffrey Goldberg at Jewish Community Center in Manhattan on December 5, 2019.
Jeffrey Goldberg is very busy as editor of The Atlantic so it's understandable that he trots out old reporting in a piece denouncing Donald Trump as a peddler of conspiracy theory for questioning the official coronavirus death toll.

But look at the old reporting: Back in Cairo in 2001, an Islamist told Goldberg that Arabs didn't execute the strike on the World Trade Center. So Goldberg is back to his old beat, telling us what a scary neighborhood Israel is in.
The Middle East is a cauldron of conspiracy, a place where the most bizarre theories often have real policy consequences.
But credulity is hardly confined to the Middle East, and Goldberg doesn't have a right to lecture anyone on the topic. Famously, in the runup to the Iraq war, Goldberg's own credulity contributed to the rush to a bad judgment. He propagated a few conspiracy theories that turned out to be bogus, and disastrously so.

Comment: The Atlantic seems to have been a shill for every bad political idea in the last three decades:


Light Sabers

UK government likely to keep schools closed after Labour-led local councils rebel against plan to reopen on June 1

closed school
© REUTERS/Mark Hartnell
A revolt of mainly Labour-led local councils has pushed 10 Downing Street to admit it will not penalize some 1,500 primary schools in England who said they'd disobey its call for reopening from Covid-19 closures.

Schools across the UK were shuttered due to the pandemic on March 20, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government sought to open them back up on June 1, so the pupils would get at least a month's worth of classroom time before the summer holidays.

That plan is now looking highly unlikely, as eighteen local councils - including two led by the PM's own Conservatives - have openly rejected the plan, along with the opposition Labour party and the NASUWT teachers' union. Just five percent of NASUWT members believe it is safe to reopen the schools on June 1, the union said.

Heart - Black

'Total fiasco': Dismay after UK minister admits government prioritized NHS over care homes during Covid-19 early stages

elderly man
© REUTERS/Steven WattAn elderly resident with a carer at Ashgreen House Residential and Nursing Home
UK hospitals were prioritized over social care homes during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, a government minister has admitted, prompting public anger in light of the huge amount of Covid-19 deaths among the elderly.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland became the first UK government minister on Wednesday to ostensibly concede that they decided to direct the majority of resources toward the NHS at the detriment of care homes in terms of protection against the deadly Covid-19 disease.

It also appears to fly in the face of rhetoric peddled by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has insisted in recent days that they have "tried to throw a protective ring around" care homes "right from the start" of the outbreak.

Cell Phone

Dangerous precedent: Refusing to unlock your phone? Jail. UK judge sentences activist under TERRORISM law

Paul Golding
© Martyn Wheatley/Global Look Press/Keystone Press AgencyPaul Golding
The leader of the anti-immigrant group Britain First was fined and given a suspended sentence for refusing to unlock his phone and computer to police after returning from a trip to Russia last year, under UK anti-terrorism laws.

Paul Golding, 38, was ordered to pay a £21 ($26) surcharge and £750 ($918) in costs, and given a nine-month "conditional discharge" by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot at the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Wednesday.

He was charged with "wilfully refusing to comply" under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act. Police testified that Golding had refused their demand to unlock his iPhone and Apple computer when they stopped him at Heathrow Airport on October 23 last year, as he returned from a trip to Moscow.

Bad Guys

Data on missile specifications feared leaked in cyberattack on Japan's Mitsubishi Electric

Mitsubishi Electric
Data regarding the capability of a cutting-edge high-speed gliding missile may have leaked through a cyberattack on Mitsubishi Electric Corp., sources close to the matter said Wednesday.

The Defense Ministry is investigating the case in coordination with the major electronics company, one of the key players in Japan's defense and infrastructure industries.

The suspected leakage involves information about production of a prototype of the missile that the ministry requested during the bidding process, according to the sources.

NPC

Delusional SJW soccer star Megan Rapinoe calls President Trump a white nationalist, says she's not ruling out running for office

Megan Rapinoe
© Ronald Martinez/Getty ImagesMegan Rapinoe
Megan Rapinoe, star and co-captain of the United States women's national soccer team, took her criticism of President Donald Trump to a new level in videos published on Tuesday, calling him a white nationalist.

In a portion of an interview with Vice's Anand Giridharadas posted Tuesday, Rapinoe lambasted Trump's actions as president while praising immigration and equality as good for the economy.


Comment: With regards to equality being good, it would depend on Rapinoe's idea of equality. Equality of opportunity is good for people and business, while equality of outcome is a very dangerous idea:



Specifically, she said that Trump's "spewing of hate and 'othering' of the rest of the country" has only led to more despair, anxiety and fear in the country.

X

Johnson & Johnson to stop selling talc baby powder in U.S. and Canada

baby powder
© Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Johnson & Johnson will stop selling its talc Baby Powder in the United States and Canada, it announced on Tuesday, saying demand had fallen in the wake of what it called "misinformation" about the product's safety amid a barrage of legal challenges.

J&J faces more than 19,000 lawsuits from consumers and their survivors claiming its talc products caused cancer due to contamination with asbestos, a known carcinogen. Many are pending before a U.S. district judge in New Jersey.

"I wish my mother could be here to see this day," said Crystal Deckard, whose mother Darlene Coker alleged Baby Powder caused her mesothelioma. She dropped the suit filed in 1999 after losing her fight to compel J&J to divulge internal records. Coker died of the cancer in 2009.

In its statement, J&J said it "remains steadfastly confident in the safety of talc-based Johnson's Baby Powder," citing "decades of scientific studies."

Comment: The billions in lawsuits is a drop in the bucket compared to the mass suffering caused by this criminal enterprise. Here's some additional reporting on the topic:


NPC

Lisa Kudrow is right - the Culture Police needs to leave Friends and the past alone

Lisa Kudrow
© Reuters / Lucas JacksonLisa Kudrow
Friends star Lisa Kudrow has said the show, so often labelled 'problematic', should be seen as a time capsule. She's right. If revisionist Culture Police delete the past, we'll never move forward.

Let's get one thing straight: none of the main characters in Friends was likeable. A bunch of needy, self-centered sexual mercenaries who'd happily ditch their 'Friends' if they thought there was half a chance of someone having a fumble in their pants.

While we're at it, let's get another thing straight: Phoebe was the least likeable of the lot, spawning a generation of 'kooks' and almost certainly causing the ukulele plague of the 2010s.

However, the actor who played Phoebe, Lisa Kudrow, has said something I do like. Asked about revisionist critiques of the show and its all-white cast, she said, "It should be looked at as a time capsule, not for what they did wrong."

Eye 1

What critical thinking? Wayback Machine is now complicit in Big Tech censorship

covid
© SOPA Images via Getty Images / Rafael Henrique
The webpage archive service Wayback Machine's decision to additionally label already-deleted articles as 'disinformation' is internet history revisionism that comes at a time when critical thinking is desperately needed.

Earlier this month, Wayback Machine took heed of MIT Technology Review's protests that they are breathing life into debunked coronavirus 'hoaxes', and took to retroactively labelling past web pages and content removed from their original pages with warnings decrying the information presented as false.

The pages in question come from popular platforms such as Medium which, in theory, were launched to allow users to create content without it being editorialised by the powers that be. By redefining content after it has already been removed, Wayback Machine is adding a level of editorialisation atop of another — adding insult to injury by obfuscating original messages and overlaying them with a warning of disinformation. Disinformation being defined as misleading information that is spread deliberately to deceive.

Chalkboard

Hull mum disgusted as 11-year-old's homework was to define 'hardcore porn'

homework asks define porn
Mrs Taylor is "fuming" with her daughter's school
A Hull mum is "fuming" over her 11-year-old daughter's school work which asked children to define hardcore pornography - among other "inappropriate" topics.

Children in Years 7, 8 and 9 at Archbishop Sentamu Academy in east Hull were set the work in their Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) class as part of their home learning.

Teachers have asked the 11 to 14-year-olds to "define" pornography, soft pornography, hardcore pornography and transsexual pornography, as well as female genital mutilation, wet dreams, trafficking, male circumcision, breast ironing and more.

They were also asked questions about alcohol, drugs and smoking.

Following complaints from parents, the academy has now apologised for any offence caused.