Society's ChildS


Attention

How to stop the corporate virtue-signaling before it's too late

Ben & Jerry's van
Just before Halloween, the U.S. streaming giant Hulu sent out a tweet: "If you're dressing up for #Huluween this year, this is your reminder to wear a costume that is culturally appropriate and respectful to others. Let's celebrate the holiday in a way that we can all enjoy."

The question of whether some Halloween costumes are "appropriate" is one of the hottest flashpoints in the culture wars right now. The mainstream media, university professors and left-wing politicians seem to agree that dressing up as people of another race is inherently offensive while a large proportion of regular people believe that costumes are only offensive if there's an intent to mock. Unsurprisingly, Hulu's finger-wagging tweet pissed off a lot of people who wondered why a streaming service was suddenly sounding like a social justice warrior. Hulu deleted the tweet.

Comment: It's curious why a company would even think it's a good idea to weigh in on some issue that has nothing to do with their brand. Since most are cynical enough to see through such pandering, the only thing it does is risk offending a part of their customer base. A slight miscalculation of the make-up that customer base could end up with detrimental results.

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Mr. Potato

CNN goes ahead with lawsuit against Trump over White House ban on boor Jim Acosta

acosta intern microphone
© Reuters / Jonathan ErnstA White House staff member reaches for the microphone held by CNN's Jim Acosta as he continues to question U.S. President Donald Trump after being told his time was up.
CNN has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the revocation of press credentials from its reporter Jim Acosta. The suit alleges the ban violated both First and Fifth Amendment rights of the network and reporter.

The lawsuit was announced by CNN on Tuesday. The network is also asking the court for an "immediate restraining order requiring the pass be returned to Jim."

Comment: The members of the White House press corp are there by invitation. Jim Acosta has a long history of bad behaviour. CNN is perfectly capable of designating another reporter who has better manners. 'Tough questions' and respectful interactions are not mutually exclusive behaviors. The network is doing itself no favors in trying to shoehorn him back into the WH corps with a frivolous lawsuit.


Handcuffs

Illinois prisons to retrain staff after transgender inmate who feels like 'sex slave' sues

US prison
© Reuters / Shannon Stapleton
After multiple lawsuits from a prisoner who claimed she felt like a 'sex slave' in male prisons, the Illinois Department of Corrections is mandating staff training in "transgender issues." Is it a special privilege or necessity?

There are only 28 transgender prisoners in the Illinois correctional system, but one of them - a trans-woman named Deon "Strawberry" Hampton - has sued the Illinois Corrections Department four times to be allowed to serve out the remainder of her 10-year burglary sentence in a women's prison, alleging abuse by inmates and guards alike. While previous lawsuits merely shuttled her between four different men's prisons, this time the court ordered officials to reevaluate her request and allow her to attend a transgender support group.

Arrow Up

Glyphosate blues: Bayer hit by new wave of lawsuits over Monsanto's toxic Roundup weed killer

Roundup
© Global Look Press
German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer disclosed that lawsuits from 9,300 plaintiffs were pending at the end of October. The lawsuits allege that the company's recently acquired weed-killing product causes cancer.

Plaintiffs claim that Roundup weed killers, which Bayer acquired in its takeover of US agrochemical firm Monsanto, made them ill and that the company knew or should have known of the risks but failed to warn adequately.

Bayer rejected all the accusations, claiming there are hundreds of scientific studies and regulatory authorities that show glyphosate, the compound contained in the weed killers, is safe to use.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup, which is the most popular weed killer in the US.

Comment: See also:


Fire

California's wildfires are man-made, but not in the way they tell us

cranston wildfire california 2018
© Mario Tama/Getty ImagesThe Cranston Fire burns in San Bernardino National Forest on July 26, 2018 near Idyllwild, California. Fire crews are battling the 4,700-acre fire in the midst of a heat wave.
California is once again on fire. Northern California's Carr Fire has killed six people, two of them firefighters, and continues to burn out of control, claiming more than 700 homes and about 100,000 acres.

As a citizen-soldier in the California Army National Guard for two decades, I often heard the gallows humor quip that California's four seasons were: flood, fire, earthquake and riot.

But, what was once an expected part of living in the Golden State is now blamed on larger forces. A crisis, we are told, should never go to waste.

Books

Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson's book is a hit in Sweden - even though FM loathes him

Jordan Peterson
© Global Look PressJordan Peterson
A Swedish book retailer has listed Jordan Peterson's new book as a top seller, just days after the country's foreign minister told the Canadian academic to "crawl back under his rock".

Peterson's new book, '12 Rules For Life, an Antidote to Chaos', is currently one of the most popular titles on Adlibris - a Swedish online book retailer.

"12 Rules for Life crawled out from under a rock in Sweden to take the Number One spot in book sales," Peterson wrote on Twitter.

Comment: Clueless Swedish Foreign Minster tells anti-PC academic Jordan Peterson 'crawl back under your rock'


Sheriff

Black security guard killed by Illinois police while stopping a bar shooting

Illinois cops kill black security guard
© Reuters/Carlo Alllegri
Responding to reports of a bar shooting, police in a southern suburb of Chicago shot and killed the heroic security guard as he was subduing the gunman. Local residents say the killer cops are unlikely to be punished.

Jemel Roberson, 26, was shot dead by Midlothian police officers after they mistook him for the suspect in a shooting call. The victim turned out to be a security guard at the bar where the incident took place - and had been in the process of restraining the perpetrator when police officers shot and killed him.

Local residents told the media that Roberson hoped to one day become a police officer. Now he is the latest case in a long string of police shootings of African-American men.

Officers were responding to a report of a shooting at Manny's Blue Room Bar in Robbins, Illinois, a short distance south of Chicago. After the establishment asked a group of drunken men to leave the bar around 4am on Sunday, one of the men then returned to the bar and began to open fire, trading shots with security, according to witnesses at the scene. Upon arriving, police then shot and killed Roberson, who had been pointing his gun at a suspect he had pinned down and detained.

Alarm Clock

Finland's first sex doll brothel opens in Helsinki

Unique Doll sex brothel
© Rex Features
Finland will be opening its first sex doll brothel later this week as demand for silicone companions blows up all over the world.

Russian-owned Unique Dolls will open its doors in Helsinki on Thursday - charging frisky Finns €100 an hour with its demimonde dolls.

The silicone brothel is located in a discrete location behind a shopping centre in the Finnish capital.

And they say they'll only ever be allowing a maximum of four clients in the building at any one time to keep noise levels at a respectable level.

TV

Florida protesters chant 'Trump!', 'Fake News!' during live MSNBC show

Protester chant 'Trump', 'Fake News' at live MSNBC show
© MSNBC
With the eyes of the nation on Florida again, MSNBC's Ari Melber hosted his show live from Broward County tonight where protesters have gathered. And multiple times over the course of the broadcast a lot of the chanting was very much audible.

Melber spoke to protesters himself earlier today and showed some of the footage, including Trump supporters who agreed with the President getting involved on the recount.

As Melber spoke with his guests, however, viewers could clearly hear chanting from the protesters nearby, including things like "Stop the steal!" and one very clear chant of "Trump! Trump! Trump!"

At one point when Melber spoke to Congressman Ted Deutch and said that Trump is lying about voter fraud and undermining the legitimacy of elections, very audible chants of "fake news" started ringing out.

Heart - Black

Kansas City, Missouri Health Department officials pour bleach on food meant for the homeless

Homeless person with soup
© Getty Images/Jeff J. Mitchell
The Kansas City Health Department threw away and poured bleach on food meant for homeless people.

The food was going to be distributed by a group called Free Hot Soup KC. The Kansas City Star said that the food, which included home-cooked chili, foil wrapped sandwiches and vats of soup, was destroyed on Sunday, Nov. 5, during a coordinated sting at several parks where volunteers had gathered.

The Health Department said the group did not have a permit and was putting people at risk.

"E. coli or salmonella or listeria can grow in the food," department director Rex Archer said. "And then you give that to homeless people who are more vulnerable, they will end up in the ER and even die from that exposure."