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Brigitte Bardot: Vast majority of #MeToo actresses are hypocrites, just looking for publicity

Brigitte Bardot
© AFP/File / Eric Feferberg
French film legend Brigitte Bardot attacked the #MeToo movement Wednesday, claiming that actresses who complain of sexual harassment were just looking for publicity.

"The vast majority are being hypocritical and ridiculous," she told the French magazine Paris Match.

"Lots of actresses try to play the tease with producers to get a role. And then, so we will talk about them, they say they were harassed," declared the 83-year-old Bardot.

"I was never the victim of sexual harassment. And I found it charming when men told me that I was beautiful or I had a nice little backside," said the actress, who became a sex symbol overnight for "And God Created Woman" in 1956.

Her comments come a week after fellow French star Catherine Deneuve sparked a worldwide feminist backlash by defending men's right to "hit on" women.

She signed an open letter by 100 prominent women that claimed that #MeToo had become a puritanical "witch-hunt" which threatened sexual freedom.

Comment: Feminist thinking has so corrupted people's minds that they seemingly can't wrap their head around the fact that some women are not paragons of virtue. Some men (a tiny minority) are rapists - they should be tried in the courts. Some women lie about rape and sexual harassment. But apparently we should just take them all at their word - because no one would ever lie about such a thing, apparently - and assume the worst about the men in question. No questions asked, no due process, no evidence.


Life Preserver

Lifeguard-piloted drone rescues teenagers from drowning in 'world first' (VIDEO)

Drone rescue
© Surf Life Saving NSW / Facebook
A pair of teenagers, who got into difficulty while swimming off the Australian coast, were saved by a lifeguard-piloted drone in what is thought to be a world first.

Pals Gabe Vidler and Monty Greeslade reportedly got into difficulty in a three meter (10ft) swell at Lennox Head beach, an area popular with surfers south of Brisbane, on Thursday. In a fortunate coincidence, lifeguards at the the beach were just then preparing for a training mission in the use of drones for rescuing stranded swimmers.

At about 11:30am local time, a beachgoer noticed that the two 17 year olds were in trouble in the water and alerted lifeguards, who put their training into practice. Within minutes, they located the pair with the UAV and deployed the drone's rescue pod.

Umbrella

America has a tourism problem: Travel coalition aims to reverse growing unpopularity of US as vacation destination

Decline US tourism
As more international travelers decide to skip the United States, 10 business associations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Restaurant Association, have created a travel industry group aimed at reversing the growing unpopularity of the U.S. as a vacation destination.

Historically, the U.S. had only to sit back and let foreign tourists and their money roll in. Over the past few years, though, that gravy train has begun to dry up, a trend that accelerated as President Donald Trump began to make good on campaign promises to restrict immigration. As a result, businesses that make up the multibillion-dollar industry relying on that revenue have grown increasingly nervous.

So on Tuesday, some of its biggest players unveiled the "Visit U.S. Coalition" to spur the Trump administration into enacting friendlier visa and border-security policies at a time when federal agencies are doing the opposite.

Comment: It appears that America's loss may have been Russia's gain as it is now one of the top ten countries visited by foreigners.
Russia ranks tenth in the ratings of the most visited countries in 2015 according to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the press service for the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturizm) has reported.

According to the organization, 31.6 million foreigners visited Russia last year, which is a 6.2 percent increase from 2014. The top country in this ranking, according to UNWTO, is France (86.3 million), followed by the U.S. (77.9 million), Spain (68.1 million), China (56.9 million) and Italy (50.8 million). "We see a constantly growing foreign tourist interest in our country.

Rosturizm is working on making travel in Russia comfortable, accessible and safe. This [means] non-resource export of services, which is very important in the current economic situation. The sector is a locomotive of the economy, it creates new jobs, promotes self-employment and increases socio-economic stability. I am convinced that Russia has every chance to strengthen its position in the rating of the most popular tourist destinations," the press service quoted Oleg Safonov, the head of Rosturizm, as saying.



Calendar

Riyadh Ritz-Carlton's 'luxurious jail' resumes booking hotel guests

Riyadh Ritz-Carlton
© Giuseppe Cacace / AFP
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the Saudi capital Riyadh
The Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh will resume taking bookings next month, Bloomberg reports. The hotel in the Saudi capital was turned into a prison for the royal elite accused by the ruling regime of corruption.

The purge's goal is reportedly to recoup as much as $100 billion from the arrested Saudi businessmen. Riyadh claims it wants back misappropriated money. The sum is equal to the kingdom's national debt.

The Ritz-Carlton has been closed to guests since November 2017. Around 200 people, including businessmen, officials and 17 princes - were given rooms at the five-star hotel, which was turned into the world's most luxurious jail.

Comment: See also: Detained Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal negotiating settlement terms for his release


Arrow Down

Crypto crash sparks investor appetite for gold

gold bars
© Jochen Tack / Global Look Press
A major correction on the cryptocurrency market has revived investor interest in the world's oldest commodity. Gold has seen a breakneck-paced rally this month.

Bullion dealer Sharps Pixley said physical gold sales increased fivefold on Wednesday, as people were willing to sell digital gold and buy the real thing.

"Yesterday was a hell of a crazy day. Emails and phones did not stand still with customers asking how they could turn their crypto into gold," Director Daniel Marburger told Bloomberg.

Sheriff

US immigration officials planning major sweep of Northern California sanctuary cities to enforce federal policy

Road to Immigration reform
© TapWires
U.S. immigration officials have begun preparing for a major sweep in San Francisco and other Northern California cities in which federal officers would look to arrest more than 1,500 undocumented people while sending a message that immigration policy will be enforced in the sanctuary state, according to a source familiar with the operation.

Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, declined to comment Tuesday on plans for the operation.

The campaign, centered in the Bay Area, could happen within weeks, and is expected to become the biggest enforcement action of its kind under President Trump, said the source, who requested anonymity because the plans have not been made public.

Trump has expressed frustration that sanctuary laws - which seek to protect immigrants and persuade them not to live in the shadows by restricting cooperation between local and federal authorities - get in the way of his goal of tightening immigration.

The operation would go after people who have been identified as targets for deportation, including those who have been served with final deportation orders and those with criminal histories, the source said. The number could tick up if officers come across other undocumented immigrants in the course of their actions and make what are known as collateral arrests.

Comment: More on the sanctuary city debate:


Stormtrooper

Police now conducting mouth swab checkpoints to test drivers for cannabis

swab checks marijuana
Legalization in California is proving to be a bittersweet victory for advocates of cannabis and freedom. Not only has the DoJ promised to start going after innocent people in states where marijuana is legal but now police are setting up checkpoints to specifically target marijuana users.

Since weed was legalized in California, the San Diego police department has begun conducting checkpoints to target drivers who may be under the influence of pot. During these highly questionable checkpoints, police are taking saliva samples from motorists and running it through a machine called the Drager 5000.

The swab checks the saliva to see if the driver has marijuana in their system and in regard to the 4th Amendment, they are certainly controversial.

Eye 1

Italian commuter racially abused by London xenophobic man in shocking footage, police hunting suspect (VIDEO)

Passenger on train
© ShameArmy / YouTube
A man on a racist tirade against an Italian commuter was met with disgust by fellow commuters. In a video uploaded to social media to shame the potty-mouthed passenger, fellow travellers can be heard standing up for the victim.

The London Underground passenger launched into a sickening racist rant at an Italian man sitting beside him - but he didn't expect the usually subdued Tube passengers to stand up to him.

While it is not clear what spurred the blue-capped man into spewing such hatred, it appears the presence of a foreigner may have set him off.

When the xenophobic man was challenged about his behavior by his fellow passengers, he became even angrier, despite protests from those around him that "there's children on the train."

People 2

Once you impose the 'ceteris paribus' condition, the alleged 23% gender pay gap evaporates

gender pay gap
© AEI / Carpe Diem
Next Tuesday (April 8) is "Equal Pay Day," which is an annual event to bring public awareness to the "gender wage gap." Based on the questionable assumption that women earn only 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, April 8 marks the date in 2014 that the average woman would have to continue working to earn the same amount of income the average man made in 2013, i.e. 68 extra days of work to make up for the 23% wage gap. Here's how the National Committee on Pay Equity (the organization that sponsors "Equal Pay Day") explains the 23% gender wage gap:
The wage gap exists, in part, because many women and people of color are still segregated into a few low-paying occupations. More than half of all women workers hold sales, clerical and service jobs. Studies show that the more an occupation is dominated by women or people of color, the less it pays. Part of the wage gap results from differences in education, experience or time in the workforce. But a significant portion cannot be explained by any of those factors; it is attributable to discrimination. In other words, certain jobs pay less because they are held by women and people of color.
Does the evidence support the claim that discrimination explains a significant portion of the gender wage gap? Not really. Let's explore further. And without even considering any empirical evidence, the claim would be unbelievable prima facie. Reason? It would mean that thousands of employers across the country could easily and immediately save 23% on their labor costs by hiring only women (or firing all of their male workers and hiring female workers). That is, it couldn't possibly be true that the gender pay gap is mostly due to discrimination, because it would mean that profit-seeking employers all across the country have overlooked an easy way to save 23% on their main cost - labor.

Comment: Facts are important things. They help us see through assumptions and to question what is driving continued belief in those assumptions.

See also:

Does a gender wage gap exist? 6 feminist myths that refuse to die


Magnify

Fancy Bears leaks reveal WADA doping kits broke at Rio Olympics, offered athletes money to act as whistleblowers

wada
© AFP 2017/ Marc BRAIBANT
Doping sample bottles used by the World Anti-Doping Agency at the Rio 2016 Olympics had a tendency to break when opened, a fresh batch of leaked emails, obtained by RT via the Fancy Bears hacking group, revealed.

The Rio doping laboratory head, Francisco Radler de Aquino Neto, described a "weird situation" with the kits produced by Swiss company, Berlinger, in a July 2016 letter obtained by the hackers.

"The Rio2016 [sic] Berlinger bottles seem not all to be standard and did not fit in the Berlinger openers. Forcing them resulted in breakage of the cap and sometimes it cannot [sic] be used to close the A bottle after aliquoting, e.g., photos in annex. Does Berlinger has a record of this kind of non-conformity?" The answer, if any was given, has not been revealed.

This casts doubt on WADA's claims that Russian intelligence agents managed to swap samples during the home Sochi 2014 Games, getting away with only microscopic scratch marks on the bottles. That's what Richard McLaren, in charge of the investigation into Russia's supposed doping scheme, claims to have discovered to back up his accusations - while it now turns out that WADA officials, equipped with the patented tool for the job, can't open those same bottles without breaking them.

Comment: So the bottles used for testing are extremely suspect, and anyone who was paid to come forward with Russian doping accusations should be just as suspect:
"What are you offering to Iuliia [Yuliya]? Is there an agreement you would like to send us?," the Stepanovs wrote in the email dated September 2016 after Bach allegedly offered Yuliya support for "her life" but also "her future [sporting career]", which allegedly centered around her joining the National Olympic Committee.

"We would like to confirm, YES, Iuliia needs support," the Stepanovs wrote. "What kind of support are you offering for Iullia's life and for her future? How is the IOC willing to support Iuliia's sports career? Is there a process of joining a National Olympic Committee? Is the IOC willing to help with this process?"

"Vitaly would also like to add that he will greatly appreciate any assistance in his job search. Due to his lack of education, it will be a difficult task. So maybe there is a chance he could be assisted through an Olympic Scholarship as well, so he can get the necessary education and try to help to make the Olympic Movement even better," the couple said in the email.