Society's Child

#MeToo and the risk of glamorizing sexual assault

Debra W. Soh
Playboy
Wed, 20 Dec 2017 17:06 UTC

The theme of Time magazine's Person of the Year issue was perhaps an unexpected choice, but most have lauded it as inspirational. Titled "The Silence Breakers," this year's issue spotlights women who have spoken out against sexual harassment. The cover features Taylor Swift, Ashley Judd, Susan Fowler, Adama Iwu and Isabel Pascual, as well as the arm of a young hospital worker who preferred to remain anonymous, symbolizing countless victims who aren't able to speak out due to fears of retribution. But as the #MeToo phenomenon brings forward more victims with harrowing accounts of harassment, are we accidentally heralding a different message about what it means to be a woman?

Since news broke in early October about multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein, the floodgates have been kicked open in a way no one could have predicted. There's no foreseeable end in sight to the number of public figures accused of misconduct; at latest count, the list totals more than 100 names, including Gene Simmons, Geraldo Rivera and Bruce Weber.

This truly is a watershed moment and a long overdue reckoning. I don't doubt that every woman on this planet has experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact at some point in her life. Women are fed up with suffering silently, feeling powerless and watching the guilty parties carry on unaffected.

Words aren't violence - take it from someone who suffered real physical abuse

Alexandra Berryhill
Quillette
Thu, 27 Dec 2018 13:16 UTC

Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (1856-1941)

For the fourth time in the space of 30 minutes, the sound of a cell-phone text alert interrupted my college class. The professor, a gifted educator with an infectious passion for his subject, had made his no-phones policy clear on many occasions. These repeated infractions were too much for him, and he lost his temper.

He shouted at us about maturity, respect and the convenient proximity of our classroom's two doors, through which anyone more interested in their phone than his lecture was welcome to depart. One of my classmates said later that the professor had activated his "angry-dad mode."

Back at home, this professor is raising a house full of boys. He'll talk professional sports with anyone willing to listen. He regularly shows up with a splint, bandage, or brace-always some injury gained by roughhousing with his sons, in whom he takes obvious pride. I've enrolled in every class he teaches. I've been alone with him a dozen times. I am not afraid of him, because there's nothing to fear.

Liberated Libya? ISIS claims responsibility for suicide bombing at foreign ministry in Tripoli, killing 3

RT
Tue, 25 Dec 2018 23:39 UTC

The Islamic State terrorist group has claimed responsibility for suicide bomb attacks on Libya's foreign ministry in Tripoli, which have left at least three people dead and over half-a-dozen injured.

Three armed gunmen stormed the foreign ministry of Libya's internationally recognized government in Tripoli on Tuesday morning, killing three employees and injuring at least ten others. Later in the day, the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, through its propaganda outlet.

The assault on the diplomatic compound began at around 9:30am with the detonation of a car bomb in front of the building. Immediately afterwards the gunmen opened fire and two of them managed to get inside and blow themselves up. The third attacker was killed in the gunfire exchange with the ministry guards.

Comment: So Trump recently declared the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, shortly after repeated US airstrikes in the region, and yet visits troops in Iraq on 26th December saying that they'll be staying in Iraq because "we could use this as the base if we wanted to do something in Syria". Meanwhile, their partner in crime, Israel, ramps up their belligerence towards Lebanon; Afghanistan suffers a surge of incursions by the Taliban, Libya from attacks by ISIS; the US & UK backed Saudi's continue their war on Yemen, and the Western-backed neo-Nazi's in Ukraine threaten to provoke Russia, again, in the Kerch strait.

With this relentless Western-linked chaos creation, is it any wonder Russia is celebrating the successful launch of their Avangard weapon system??

See also: Russia has a roadmap for Libya - Another noble Gaddafi

Moroccan gang that murdered Scandinavian women spent 2 days 'hunting for targets'

Sputnik
Thu, 27 Dec 2018 17:57 UTC

Two Scandinavian women, who went on a backpacking trip, were murdered on December 17 in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains by "a lone wolf gang." The cell does not have formal ties to Daesh, but it is associated with the international terror group.

Police detained five more suspects believed to be responsible for the horrific killing of two women, Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, bringing the total number of people in custody to 19, media reported on Wednesday.

According to the head of Morocco's central office for judicial investigation, Abdelhak Khiam, the gang members went to a popular tourist hiking area to hunt victims for two days before the murder.

Comment: See also:

French Arab journalist gets death threats for saying Islam is not above criticism, humor or the law

RT
Tue, 25 Dec 2018 17:28 UTC

Zineb el Rhazoui, a French journalist who used to work for Charlie Hebdo, is dealing with an avalanche of online abuse from Muslims, for saying that Islam should submit to French law. She says she has no intention of backing down.

"Islam must submit to criticism, submit to humor, submit to the laws of the Republic, submit to French law," el Rhazoui said in a recent interview. For that, she's been called a whore and threatened with violence, murder and rape.

The abuse got so bad that her current publisher, Ring, has addressed a complaint to Twitter, attaching screenshot of a few choice messages: "I want to beat you up" and "I want to see you burn in hell" being the more innocuous ones.

US lawmakers voice howls of alarm after noticing 45+ year relationship between China's Xinhua and Associated Press

RT
Wed, 26 Dec 2018 16:40 UTC

A bipartisan group of US representatives has demanded answers from the news agency AP after it signed a memorandum with its Chinese counterpart Xinhua. RT looks at how a formality caused quite a stir.

The 14 legislators wrote a letter to question AP's wisdom about doing business with Xinhua, stating that unlike AP's "independent journalism, Xinhua's core mission is to shape public opinion in ways sympathetic" to Beijing, according to a Washington Post report.

However, the answer may be more simplistic. AP explained: "The recent memo of understanding updates a relationship that has been consistently the same since 1972 and opens the possibility for future commercial interactions, similar to agreements AP has with other state news agencies around the world."

Comment: According to their letter, lawmakers 'recognize that a free and independent press is indispensable to our democratic society'. Of course.....as long as that 'free and democratic press' is suitably reined in:

Mine bursts into flames killing 9 in Solikamsk, Russia

RFE/RL
Sun, 23 Dec 2018 23:51 UTC

Russia's Perm Krai and the city of Solikamsk are mourning the loss of nine workers killed in a mine fire.

Russia's Perm Krai and the city of Solikamsk are mourning the loss of nine construction workers who died after a potash mine owned by the Uralkali company burst into flames, trapping the men some 360 meters underground.

Perm Governor Maxim Reshetnikov declared a day of mourning for December 24, stipulating that national flags be flown at half-staff and advising cultural organizations and broadcasters to cancel entertainment events and comedy shows, Interfax reported on December 23.

The blaze broke out on December 22 at a depth of 340 meters at the mine in Solikamsk, some 215 kilometers from the major city of Perm, near the Urals.

Officials with Uralkali said the trapped workers were employees of a subcontractor doing maintenance work at the potash mine. Potash is a common ingredient in fertilizer.

Comment: This happened a day after a methane explosion in a Czech mine killed 13 people. Also notable is this from 2015: Massive sinkhole widens even further in Solikamsk, Russia

And here are just a few other similar incidents reported over the years, from around the globe:

Explosions kill 23 labourers at 2 coal mines in southwest Pakistan (May 2018)
Death toll in Iran mine explosion rises to 42 (May 2017)
Siberian gold mine collapse leaves 2 dead, 1 injured (April 2017)
Methane explosion kills 8 coal miners in western Ukraine (March 2017)
Explosion rips through coal mine in central China leaving nine dead (Feb 2017
Over 38 workers dead in China after two coal mine explosions in a week (Dec 2016)
Methane explosion in Russian coal mine kills 4, dozens trapped (Feb 2016)

Obviously mining is an inherently dangerous job, but is there something else going on?

Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?

NYPD cop honored for single-handedly fending off hostile vagrants in subway station

Bruce Golding
New York Post
Wed, 26 Dec 2018 20:50 UTC

An NYPD cop was honored Tuesday for single-handedly battling a group of hostile homeless men in a Manhattan subway station.

Officer Syed Ali got a Christmas Day visit from Councilman Chaim Deutsch (D-Brooklyn) at the NYPD Transit Task Force headquarters in Brooklyn.

Deutsch - who was photographed next to Ali, who held a commemorative plaque - hailed the cop's "quick action to defend civilians and himself against five individuals attacking on a subway platform."

"Officer Ali showed restraint & discipline in how he de-escalated the situation," Deutsch wrote on Twitter.

Mayor Bill de Blasio also tweeted praise for Ali's "extraordinary professionalism and bravery."

Comment: RT adds that the officer requested that the power be cut on the tracks to protect the life of his attacker before helping the man out. A backup unit took five men into custody then released them for medical evaluations. The gang was identified and later booked for breaches of city transit rules but the DA declined to pursue charges. The name of the NYPD hero has not been released.

The NYPD Muslim Officers Society posted a video:

German publication to file criminal case against fake news journalist, hastened decay of trust in MSM

Sputnik
Mon, 24 Dec 2018 15:41 UTC

Der Spiegel is set to file a criminal complaint against Claas Relotius, a former journalist of the newspaper, who admitted to falsifying reports and disseminating fake news. Alan Bailey, a UK-based political commentator, spoke to Sputnik about the reputational damage the case has caused for one of Germany's leading media outlets.

Sputnik: In your view, why was one of the biggest German media outlets not checking what its journalists were putting out?

Alan Bailey: It's a combination of two aspects. Are the articles the journalist produces popular? Do they attract readers? If they do (as appears to be the case with Relotius) then why mess with a successful formula? And secondly, are the journalist's articles backing up the narrative the publication wishes to push? Again, yes, in this case. Anything outside the Liberal 'soft-left' viewpoint is called out as extremist and dismissed as niche and dangerous. Claas Relotius was a textbook case of both these and was over time given a free hand to write and say whatever he wished. He realised over time that this was the case and pushed his luck further and further until his luck ran out.

Comment: Readership does not dictate the truth, nor should it dictate the news, no matter its views. News is to inform, not conform.

See also:

Criticism of Israel immediately triggers its army of outraged partisans

Kamel Hawwash
Middle East Eye
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 14:14 UTC

Israel was created through violence and terror, which it continues to heap on Palestinians to this day, as it works to fulfill the dream of Zionism - a Jewish state from the river to the sea.

How, then, does it continue to portray itself as the victim, while painting the actual victims - Palestinians - as the aggressors?

It has become a tired and broken record, one that Israel and its ardent supporters play, regardless of the rationality of their arguments. Any criticism of Israel, or any peaceful act to put pressure on the state, draws the same outrage, expressed through carefully thought out, yet irrational, talking points.

Total impunity

Anyone, or any organisation, who dares to criticise the self-proclaimed "only democracy in the Middle East" is accused of being motivated by anti-semitism. Any critical act or protest aimed at pressing Israel to uphold international law, no matter how peaceful, is denounced.

Israel's treatment with kid gloves is not new; what is new, however, is its launching of the bullying trigger button within seconds of an attack.

If you read the linked white house statement try not to puke.

sbc

Let's go, Brandon! Fucking asswipe, worthless, POS. Fraud! Argh! 😤

slbeaudry

I don't think this new requirement has undergone proper public review. There are procedures codified for this sort of thing. If some sort of...

Buffalo_Ken

First it will be 100 employees,then 50, then one. Masses are collectively powerful against the intolerant vocal minority and it is time to wipe...

Bezel Bub

I most certainly would not park my arse on a plane full of vaccinated people and have them infect me with their mutated virus. Whilst my...

Winternights3

Society's Child

#MeToo and the risk of glamorizing sexual assault

Words aren't violence - take it from someone who suffered real physical abuse

Liberated Libya? ISIS claims responsibility for suicide bombing at foreign ministry in Tripoli, killing 3

Moroccan gang that murdered Scandinavian women spent 2 days 'hunting for targets'

French Arab journalist gets death threats for saying Islam is not above criticism, humor or the law

US lawmakers voice howls of alarm after noticing 45+ year relationship between China's Xinhua and Associated Press

Mine bursts into flames killing 9 in Solikamsk, Russia

NYPD cop honored for single-handedly fending off hostile vagrants in subway station

German publication to file criminal case against fake news journalist, hastened decay of trust in MSM

Criticism of Israel immediately triggers its army of outraged partisans

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