Society's ChildS


Key

Monkey bus-ness: Driver in India suspended after letting furry friend behind the wheel

Monkey driving bus
Have you ever seen a monkey steering the wheel of a bus? This video of a fury little driver may be amusing, but not so much to the authorities in India, who suspended the actual driver who let the animal 'control' the vehicle.

The incident took place in the southeastern Indian state of Karnataka on Monday. However, the authorities only learned about it after footage of the driver - smiling and patting the monkey as it sat on the steering wheel of the moving bus - went viral.

The driver, identified as M Prakash, "has been taken off duty for allowing the monkey to sit on the steering wheel and handle it," an official from the local transport company confirmed. He said the authorities launched an inquiry since "a driver cannot risk the life of passengers."

The monkey, which belongs to a school teacher, sat next to him at first, but then its curiosity and mischievousness must have taken over. So it went to make friends with the driver and jumped on the steering wheel. The primate reportedly steered the bus for almost 10 minutes, while M Prakash was only working the pedals and gears. Around 30 passengers were on the monkey-driven bus.

Star of David

Vandal spray-paints 19 swastikas on Jewish center in Virginia

building vandal
© FairfaxCountyPD
The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia has been spray-painted with at least 19 swastikas. Although the suspect was captured on CCTV, the vandal still remains at large.

The incident occurred early on Saturday in Annandale, when a man - it is being presumed - spray-painted numerous white swastikas over the center. The suspect was well disguised and his identity remains unknown.

Stills from CCTV footage, released by Fairfax County police, show the suspect, sporting a dark blue T-shirt over a gray hoodie walking past the JCC and painting the offensive symbols on the building. The suspect was also seemingly well-prepared for the vandalism act and was equipped with a headlamp.

Tornado2

Liberal rage: Kavanaugh confirmation sparks fresh protests among activists

Anti-Kavanaugh protests
Across the United States protestors fighting against the nomination of judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court saw their hopes dashed and have reacted with anger.

As protesters chanted "vote them out" and "November is coming," while demonstrating on Capitol Hill ahead of the Kavanaugh vote, the 53-year-old conservative judge was confirmed by the US Senate in a vote 50 to 48 in favor of the appointment.

Even while Vice President Mike Pence ran down the details of the final tally, protesters inside of the Senate chamber could be heard shouting "Shame on you!" according to reports.

Comment: 'Grassroots' outrage? George Soros Funds The Activists Behind Anti-Kavanaugh Campaign


Nuke

Eating their own: Avenatti becomes 'radioactive' as liberals blame him for Kavanaugh confirmation

Following Friday's announcement by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) that she would vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the left flipped on one of its recent heroes; Michael Avenatti.
Michael Avenatti
© Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesMichael Avenatti
In a fiery speech announcing her decision, Collins ripped unsupported claims by Avenatti's client, Julie Swetnick, that Kavanaugh facilitated a Cosby-esque "gang rape" operation while in high school.
Some of the allegations levied against Judge Kavanaugh illustrate why the presumption of innocence is so important. I am thinking in particular not of the allegations raised by Professor Ford, but of the allegation that, when he was a teenager, Judge Kavanaugh drugged multiple girls and used their weakened state to facilitate gang rape.

This outlandish allegation was put forth without any credible supporting evidence and simply parroted public statements of others. That such an allegation can find its way into the Supreme Court confirmation process is a stark reminder about why the presumption of innocence is so ingrained in our American consciousness. -Sen. Susan Collins
As a result of Collins citing Swetnick's claim, liberals began to pile onto Avenatti - blaming him for Kavanaugh's impending Saturday confirmation, while conservative pundits poked fun.

Comment: Probably a wise choice - although his background makes him perfectly suited to be a liberal favorite: With the spotlight on lawyer Avenatti, his own dodgy past is emerging


Quenelle - Golden

Syrian Druze gather in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to demonstrate support for Assad

Druze at Golan Heights
© REUTERS / Ammar Awad
The minority has been repeatedly subjected to Daesh terrorism since 2015, leading to protests by the Druze community from the Israeli-controlled portion of the Golan to protect their brothers on the other side of the artificial border from the violence.

Gathering along a fence separating them from the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights, Druze commemorated the anniversary of the start of the 1973 Arab Israeli War while celebrating Syria's successes in its recent war against the terrorists.


Comment:


No Entry

Russian social media group leader faces criminal charges over extreme misogyny

russia jail male state misogyny
© Vkontakte social networkMale State founder Vladislav Pozdnyakov
A man in central Russia is facing up to five years in prison for launching and maintaining a group called 'Male State' on one of the country's social networks. The group's members used it to collectively degrade and bully women.

The Russian Investigative Committee reported on Friday that its branch, in the major industrial center of Nizhny Novgorod, had pressed charges of extremism against a 27-year old man from the nearby Saratov Region. In comments with Lenta.ru news site investigators revealed the suspect's name as Vladislav Pozdnyakov.

Investigators claim that the suspect had been the mastermind behind the 'Male State' group on Russia's most popular social network Vkontakte. They also claim that most of the texts and images posted by the suspect and other group members amounted to hate speech.

Comment: While the debate on free speech should be taken on a case by case basis, and even Putin has recently intervened to ensure that common sense prevails, the internet is as much part of the public sphere as a street corner and so anyone contravening the laws of the land will fall foul of the law.

See also:


Donut

Overweight, unhealthy, suicidal and addicted: America's youth are a total mess

obesity american youth
After reading the information contained in this article, you will probably find yourself questioning if America is going to be able to survive for much longer, because our young people are a complete and total mess. Yes, all generations of Americans have had their problems, but this generation appears to be particularly screwed up. Obesity rates are at all-time highs, a third of all American teens have not read a single book within the past year, and the average high school senior spends six hours a day on the Internet. On top of all that, we are seeing unprecedented levels of suicide, drug overdoses and liver disease (due to heavy drinking) among our young people. Like other empires throughout world history, will we be undone by our own excesses?

Let's start by talking about obesity. At this point, so many of our young people are overweight that military recruiters are having a very difficult time finding enough "suitable candidates for military service"...
The study, featuring roughly 18,000 randomly selected participants across each of the service branches, showed that almost 66 percent of service members are considered to be either overweight or obese, based on the military's use of body mass index as a measuring standard.

While the number of overweight service members is a cause for concern, it correlates with the obesity epidemic plaguing the United States, where, as of 2015, one in three young adults are considered too fat to enlist, creating a difficult environment for recruiters to find suitable candidates for military service.

Comment: It's even worse - the internet generation isn't reading books because nearly two-thirds cannot read proficiently, nor are they proficient in math. They lack social skills and have never learned how to deal with conflict or differing opinions. Without knowing how to deal with life they find anything that is vaguely threatening a cause for official and/or violent intervention. See:

Make America Great Again? Things Not Looking Good For The 'Internet Generation'


Bad Guys

Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham, National Front For Liberation appear to reconcile after series of armed clashes in Idlib

Hassan Sufan
© Via almayadeen.netHassan Sufan on the right, senior leader of the Turkish-backed National Front for Liberation (NFL)
On October 6, the former branch of al-Qaeda in Syria, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and the Turkish-backed National Front for Liberation (NFL) reached a reconciliation agreement after a series of armed clashes in the western Aleppo countryside.

According to the HTS-linked news network Iba'a, the reconciliation agreement was signed by radical scholar "Mazhar al-Ois" on behalf of HTS' leadership and by "Hassan Sufan," a senior leader of the NFL. Under the agreement, both groups will withdraw their weapons from civilian areas and release all the militants who were captured during the clashes.

The tension between HTS and the NFL began on September 26, when HTS forces attacked the town of Darat Izza in order to arrest several members of the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement [one of the NFL's groups] after accusing them of carrying out several attacks inside the town.

Comment: Notice the US is nowhere in sight.


Stop

Keeping a lid on truth: No study of Russian history or culture allowed

russian historical collage
Western governments should 're-focus financial support for Russia-related academic programs from culture and history to in-depth analysis of Russia's authoritarianism, kleptocracy and corrupt practices'. So says a new report issued this week by the Institute for Modern Russia, a think-tank funded by former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. For God forbid that students should learn about Russian culture and history before expressing any opinions about that country. Knowing some culture and history might lead to understanding, which might lead to sympathy or at least empathy, and thus to a desire to engage in dialogue, find mutual solutions to international problems, and all the rest of it. And that, of course, would be dangerous. Ignorance is much to be preferred.


There's a lot about this report which is rather disturbing, but as someone who studies Russian history for a living this particular recommendation stood out for me. History and culture are the foundations of study of any society. If you want to know a foreign country, you have for a start to learn its language, which means reading its literature. You then need to know its history to be able to put things in the right context. But there are some, it seems, who don't want people to understand context. They know the truth, and anything which might challenge it needs to be censored.

In any case, according to the argument put forward by report's author, Kateryna Smagliy, those who don't agree with her deserved to be silenced. Why? Because they are agents of the Kremlin. She urges Western governments to 'step up efforts to expose Russia's network of agents within Western academia'. 'The Russian government pursues a coherent and well-coordinated "knowledge weaponization" strategy,' she says. This strategy
led to the rise of the new phenomenon of 'hybrid analytica', which we define here as the process of design, development and promotion of various pseudo-academic narratives by duped or manipulated bona-fide intellectuals, academics and think-tank experts of political 'lobbyists in disguise', whose vested interests have been recruited through the global network of the Kremlin-linked operatives.

Comment: From the perspective of the deep state, nothing must be allowed to undermine the narrative of Russia as a belligerent and dangerous enemy of the West and thus threaten the existence of the defense industry.


Attention

Why an immigrant, minority woman is going Republican over Democrat's vicious attacks on Kavanaugh

Democrats demonization Kavanaugh
All it took was Democrats’ treatment of Brett Kavanaugh over the last few weeks to turn me into that elusive creature: a minority, immigrant woman who supports Republicans.
I have become a unicorn. My metamorphosis didn't require a magic spell or potion, or even a trip to a well-reviewed plastic surgeon to add a horn to my head. All it took was Democrats' treatment of Brett Kavanaugh over the last few weeks to turn me into that elusive creature: a minority, immigrant woman who supports Republicans.

I moved to the United States from Trinidad and Tobago eight years ago when I married my husband, Christopher, former U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia's eighth (and, in my opinion, most lovable) child. Some people might read that and think, "Well, that's no surprise then; Justice Scalia's daughter-in-law is hardly likely to be anything but Republican!"

But they would be wrong. I've always considered myself politically moderate: I am unapologetically pro-life, but my views on affirmative action, Black Lives Matter, and gun control made me sympathize strongly with Democratic perspectives and occasionally led to arguments with my husband and father-in-law.

That sense of political homelessness was a big reason that I was never in a hurry to become an American citizen. I figured I'd do it eventually, but not having a strong connection to either party, feeling unsure of where I fit into America's strange political landscape, meant it was low on my list of priorities.

Fast-forward to 2018, and Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Protests and vows to block him by any means, "using every available tool," followed almost immediately. Anybody paying attention knew that things were about to get interesting. Unfortunately, things got less interesting than ugly and convinced me that Democrats are not who they claim to be.

Comment: Ms. Scalia's perspective is likely shared by a number of moderate voters who are fed up with what the Democratic party has become; there could be a well deserved backlash threatening the party's hoped for 'blue wave' in upcoming elections.