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To those who frequent the Free Thought Project, you will know that positions of power often attract unscrupulous individuals, who seek out this power to give themselves an advantage that doesn't come with being an average Joe. We see this from cops to politicians to priests who seek out these positions to prey on the weak or exploit their power for personal gain. One case out of West Virginia highlights this tendency of power corrupting quite well as a meth addict sought out the job of sheriff, won it, and was arrested on the second day on the job.
In 2017, the newly elected sheriff of Roane County, Bo Williams was arrested and charged with grand larceny. Williams was caught stealing methamphetamine from the evidence room for his personal consumption.
© ReutersThe Women's March was held in New York City on January 19, 2019
Conservative firebrand Loomer made her way to the main stage as Agunda Okeyo, the director of the Women's March New York City, was giving her opening remarks. She approached the speaker and attempted to hold on to the mic.
"The Women's March does not represent Jewish people. The Women's March is the real Nazi march. The Women's March hates Jews," Loomer shouted as security escorted her off the stage.
Loomer yelled the name of Women's March leader Linda Sarsour and other organizers, calling them "Jew-haters."
© Reuters / Mexican National Defence Secretary
The pipeline had been spewing fuel for several hours near Pemex's Tula refinery, and hundreds of people had reportedly gathered round with plastic containers and even vehicles to grab whatever fuel they could carry - rendering the eventual explosion that much more deadly. Videos posted on social media, apparently from the scene, show flames shooting dozens of meters upwards as people scurry around screaming.
Pemex said in a statement that the fire was because of illegal siphoning at the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline in Tlahuelilpan.
The site has been secured by the Mexican Army, according to Hidalgo state Governor Omar Fayad. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has made cracking down on fuel thieves a priority, stating that the siphoning cost the government over US$3 billion in 2018.
Comment: Gas-related explosions and other fires from around the world in recent times include:
- Huge gas explosion at university in Lyon, France (17th January 2019)
- Suspected 'gas leak' triggers explosion in central Paris, reports of injuries - UPDATE (12th January 2019)
- 4 killed, 35 missing after gas explosion rips through residential building in Russia - UPDATE (31st December 2018)
- Surge at ConEd substation casts eerie blue glow over New York (28th December 2018)
- Mine bursts into flames killing 9 in Solikamsk, Russia (23rd December)
- 13 dead in Czech coal mine methane explosion (21st December 2018)
- Towns burn after 'apocalyptic' explosions tear across Northern Massachusetts (14th September 2018)
- Explosions and huge fire at Zurich central station (25th August 2018)
At least 73 people were killed in central Mexico after a ruptured gasoline pipeline exploded Friday evening, the governor of the State of Hidalgo, Omar Fayad, said Saturday in a news conference in Mexico City.The horrifying aftermath of the pipeline blast in Mexico has been captured in a disturbing video that shows terrified people, engulfed by flames, fleeing for their lives. The footage shows crowds of panicked people running to escape the massive wall of fire, many of whom are covered in flames.
At least 74 people were injured, with seven of those under the age of 18 and one was 12 years old, Fayad said. He said some of the minors will be transferred to Shriners Hospital for Children in Galveston, Texas.
Alejandro Gertz Manero, general prosecutor of Mexico, said Saturday night that the investigation has just started but that a "preliminary belief" is that static electricity from the clothing of people around the pipeline may have caused the blast.
He noted a large number of people were around the pipeline, some of whom were wearing clothes made with synthetic fibers that could "generate electric reactions.
"He said no arrests have been made and that witnesses will be interviewed Sunday.The fire resulting from the pipeline explosion has been extinguished, Mexican Secretary of Public Security Alfonso Durazo said on Twitter, and rescue teams have begun to recover bodies.
Residents in the immediate vicinity of the pipeline, which runs from the cities of Tuxpan to Tula, have been evacuated, State oil company Pemex said.
Pemex said an investigation into the cause of the blast was underway. The company initially had said the explosion was caused by illegal taps in the pipeline. The governor of the State of Hidalgo, Omar Fayad, called on the community not to steal gasoline.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who visited Tlahuelilpan and met with officials at a command center, said pipelines will be monitored to avoid fuel theft.
"To guarantee that there are no fuel shortages, it has been fundamental the participation of the armed forces, the military, marines and federal police," he said. "If necessary, we will re-enforce the surveillance strategy. Another method will be the increase of fuel transportation capacity."
He said his administration is working to acquire and buy fuel tanks to increase fuel by 25%.
The explosion comes as gas stations in several Mexican states and the country's capital have been running dry for nearly two weeks.The López Obrador administration closed key pipelines in an effort to crack down on fuel theft, which the Mexican leader said cost the country an estimated $3 billion last year.
Drivers in Mexico have grown desperate. Family members take turns waiting in long lines for gas. Some comb social media for clues about which stations are open. Others have simply decided to leave their cars at home.
Pemex said a new gas distribution system will have long-term benefits that outweigh any short-term cost. Pemex said the explosion would not affect gasoline distribution in Mexico City. Authorities have blamed fuel theft for previous explosions in Mexico. In 2010, a pipeline blew up in the state of Puebla, leaving 28 people dead and scores injured.
Warning: Footage contains distressing scenes
© Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian PressComedian Mike Ward speaks to the media at the Quebec Appeal Court, Jan. 16, 2019 in Montreal.
Grey sought to convince a panel of three judges on Quebec's Appeal Court that a joke about drowning an "ugly" disabled boy might have been distasteful - but it must remain legal in a free and democratic society.
Ward, a popular Quebec comedian, is appealing a Quebec Human Rights Tribunal ruling that his performances included discriminatory comments about a young disabled singer, Jeremy Gabriel. The tribunal ordered Ward to pay $35,000 in moral and punitive damages to Gabriel and $7,000 to his mother.
Comment: Odd that two stories have come up in the past week coming out of Montreal where stand-up comics are being chastised. Montreal, being the home of the long-running 'Just For Laughs' comedy festival, seems to have become infected by the SJW virus, where people's feelings are more important than the right to free speech. Ward is absolutely right in his assessment - once people can be legally prosecuted for making jokes, comedy is finished (which is probably fine to the SJWs who are known to have absolutely no sense of humor).
See also:
- The 'Woke' crowd and the Nuremburg trials of comedy
- The New War on Comedy, and Free Speech, by the Intolerant Left
- Can anyone take a joke? The death of comedy in the age of outrage
- Hateful liberal derangement is killing comedy in the Age of Trump
- Mel Brooks: 'We have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy'
- University charity group demands comedian sign 'safe space' contract ahead of unpaid appearance
- Comedian tells the truth and gets blasted after saying 'straight white male' is the new 'N-word'
- Scottish comedian, Count Dankula, fined £800 in Nazi pug case
© Sputnik / V. YakovlevOymyakon, Yakutia.
Venturini came to Russia's Yakutia because the region claims the title of the world's coldest place. A village called Oymyakon may not be even beyond the polar circle, but its long distance from the Pacific Ocean and high altitude result in an extreme local climate, with temperatures ranging from as high as 30 degrees Celsius at the peak of summertime to as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius during winters. The official temperature record in the place is -67.7°C, according to the data of a local weather station, while locals claim one year it went below -70 °C.
This is exactly what the Italian wants for his Monster Frozen project - a marathon run in the extreme Russian cold. Venturini said he has spent two years preparing for the challenge, designing special clothes, training inside an industrial freezer and gathering the crew, who will support and film his endeavor.
The team arrived in Yakutia on Thursday, but they met an unexpected hurdle. The truck they loaned from the regional rescue service failed as they were travelling to Oymyakon. The vehicle got stranded about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from a weather station, a spokesman for the service told the media.
© AP Photo/Tsvangirayi MukwazhiAn injured man received assistance at a hospital Thursday after an alleged assault by a group of uniformed soldiers in Harare, Zimbabwe. AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi
The African country's largest internet service provider - Econet - says it has been ordered to cut services until further notice.
Access to Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter has been intermittently blocked since protests broke out on Monday, according to the BBC.
At least three people have been killed and 600 people have been arrested.
"We were served with another directive for total shutdown of the internet until further notice," Econet said in a text message Friday, according to Agence France-Presse.
© ReutersOrthodox Jews at a ceremony in Moscow
"Has anyone written an article comparing the American Jews who support Moscow and Putin today with those who supported Stalin in the 1930s?" columnist Isaac Stone Fish tweeted on Wednesday.
Articles on the great Russian boogeyman are ten a penny in 2019, but why Fish - who is Jewish - thought this particular niche needed to be filled is anyone's guess. Accusations of anti-Semitism and poor foresight flowed on Twitter. The columnist was called out by journalist Glenn Greenwald, who is also of Jewish descent.
© AFP Photo/Madaree TOHLALABuddhist monks and armed Thai police at the compound of the Rattanaupap temple, which was attacked by gunmen.
Black-clad assailants carrying rifles crept into Rattanaupap temple in Narathiwat province near Malaysia's border on Friday evening and started firing, local superintendent Pakdi Preechachon told AFP.
"The attack took place around 7:30 pm (1230 GMT) when an unknown number of gunmen dressed in black entered the temple through a rear area via a creek," Pakdi said.
"Two monks were shot dead at the temple while two others were wounded."
© Procter & Gamble Co.Gillette’s ill-judged ‘toxic masculinity’ ad.
As a culture we are being preached to constantly. No, I don't mean that we sit in a room whilst someone delivers a three-point sermon at the front. I'm talking about the fact that the vast majority of us sit for hours on end in front of a little box, and we let people whose ideas and beliefs would be strange to us if we weren't in the habit of cultivating this practice on a regular basis, preach at us, teach us, and shape our thinking beyond all recognition. It is not a question of whether we'll be preached to; it's simply a question of which preaching we sit under.
This is usually done in very subtle ways. An ideology is presented to us, but it is not done so in the "in-your-face" kind of way that a three-point sermon might be done. No, it is cloaked in the garb of emotive and powerful language and buzz-phrases, deliberately designed not to make us think, but rather to make us "non-think". The aim is to have us look at one side of a particular social issue - transgenderism being the latest fad - to empathise and sympathise with that side, so that in the end we come to look at the issue not from the perspective of an overarching objective reality - XX = XX and XY = XY and never the twain shall meet -, but rather from the subjective viewpoint of the person or people being shown to us and their feelings.
Comment: See also:
- It's time to retoxify masculinity
- The only answer to the attack on men is women standing up to feminist elite
- Surprise: Genius behind man-hating Gillette ad is a radical feminist
- The Bachelor and Gillette - Society's double standards for male and female behavior
- Gillette ad waxes nostalgic about the fathers the Left has yanked from boys' lives
- Clueless: P&G challenges men to shave their 'toxic masculinity' in Gillette ad
Comment: Love her or hate her, independent journalist Laura Loomer has a knack for getting her views publicized.