Society's ChildS


Tornado2

Slow news day: The Times claims BBC and RT working together after RT hires BBC studio for an interview - a common industry practice


RT
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 15:24 UTC
The Times Newspaper
© Carl de Souza
The Times of London has made another play for a Pulitzer prize, this time running a scoop that RT hired a studio for an interview, that belonged to the BBC. Just like any other broadcaster does. Yep, that's the whole story.

The headline reads "BBC hires out studio to Kremlin channel." At first, I thought it might be the beginning of a fun weekly feature looking at who the BBC is hiring out its facilities to. The reason I thought that is because it's absolutely standard practice for the BBC to hire out studios to broadcasters from around the world.

As the BBC itself says: "Like other international broadcasters, we hire our studios to other media outlets, at a standard rate, if we have spare capacity; the revenue generated goes back into the BBC public service budget."

It's clear this story is a wet dream for a Times journalist on a slow-news day. RT and the BBC together, who could resist? Forget that the actual facts of the story are mundane, it has all the keywords that are presumably needed to successfully pitch a story at the Murdoch paper.
Read More...
USA

How feminists empowered 'grid girls' out of their jobs

Kirio Birks
Quillette
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 15:40 UTC
Grid girls
Objectification, we are told, is degrading. Why? Because any job that requires employees to be sexually attractive and gazed upon for that reason necessarily dehumanises them. It encourages others to treat them as pretty 'things' rather than as autonomous people with their own lives, passions, thoughts, and desires. Or so the thinking goes. 'Grid Girls' - models employed by Formula One for promotional purposes - have just discovered that their role is to be discontinued. As Formula One's managing director of commercial operations explained: "While the practice of employing grid girls has been a staple of Formula 1 Grands Prix for decades, we feel this custom does not resonate with our brand values and clearly is at odds with modern day societal norms."

But in their hurry to spare Grid Girls the indignity of the male gaze, nobody making this argument seems to have stopped to wonder whether Grid Girls might have an interest in defending what they do. Instead, a collective of ostensibly progressive voices leapt to their defence without bothering to ask the girls themselves if they needed defending at all. In response, Formula One abandoned its Grid Girls so that it can be seen to be moving with the times and hip to contemporary mores. In doing so, Formula One's executives have implicitly conceded that they have spent too long objectifying women instead of empowering them. They would like it to be known that they'd rather see women driving the cars, or as members of the engineering teams, or just about anywhere other than track-side holding a driver's name-board and looking beautiful.
Read More...
Arrow Down

'Double standards are unacceptable': Moscow slams CAS ruling to deny Olympic entry to 47 Russian athletes


RT
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 11:10 UTC
PyeongChang 2018
© Ramil Sitdikov / Sputnik
Speaker of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin has called for a firm response from his colleagues to the recent Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling, which denied Olympic entry to 47 Russian athletes.

On Friday morning, the Ad Hoc division of the CAS dismissed two appeals filed by the Russian athletes and coaches, stating that invitation to the Olympic Games lies exclusively within the competence of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) - the organizer of the event.

Russian State Duma deputies are expected to prepare an official statement regarding the CAS decision to uphold an Olympic ban against the 47 Russian team members who appealed their ban from PyeongChang, TASS reports.

Comment: Giving with one hand only to take with the other...

See also: 'Insufficient' evidence: IOC overturns 28 Russian athletes' ban from Olympics in groundbreaking ruling

Read More...
Airplane

Spirit Airlines employee told student to flush emotional support hamster down the toilet, so she did

Kathleen Joyce
Fox News
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 21:31 UTC
emotional support hamster
© ReutersBelen Aldecosea said she flushed her emotional support hamster down the toilet after Spirit Airlines refused her furry pet on the flight.
A college student said she flushed her emotional support hamster down the toilet after Spirit Airlines refused to let her bring her furry pet on the plane.

Belen Aldecosea, 21, of Miami Beach, Florida, told the Miami Herald that she contacted Spirit Airlines before her flight from Baltimore to South Florida on Nov. 21, 2017, regarding traveling with her dwarf hamster, Pebbles. Aldecosea claimed the airline told her it was not a problem to bring her hamster on the flight.

However, when the student arrived at the airport she said the airline refused to let Pebbles on the plane. Aldecosea said she did not have many options since her family was in Florida and her friends were hours away. The student claimed a Spirit employee suggested she either flush Pebbles down the toilet or let the animal free.

Comment: It's hard to fathom why Alsecosea decided flushing her beloved pet down the toilet was her only option. Setting the rodent free would have been much more humane, even if its chances of survival were slim. At least it would have a fighting chance!

More wacky airplane hijinks:

Read More...
Eye 2

Tennessee sheriff taped saying 'I love this sh*t, I thrive on it' after ordering unarmed suspect's killing

James Lartey
MSN / Guardian
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 13:40 UTC
police car
© Getty Images/Westend61USA, police car
A Tennessee sheriff is being sued for using excessive force after he was recorded boasting he had told officers to shoot a man rather than risk damaging police cars by ramming him off the road.

"They said 'we're ramming him,'" Sheriff Oddie Shoupe of White County said on tape in the aftermath of the killing of suspect Michael Dial. "I said, 'Don't ram him, shoot him.' F--- that shit. Ain't gonna tear up my cars."

Shoupe arrived on the scene shortly after police had shot Dial at the conclusion of a low-speed chase, clearly upset he had missed the excitement.

"I love this s--t," Shoupe said, apparently unaware that his comments were being picked up by another deputy's body-worn camera. "God, I tell you what, I thrive on it.

"If they don't think I'll give the damn order to kill that motherf---er they're full of s--t," he added, laughing. "Take him out. I'm here on the damn wrong end of the county," he said.

Comment: How telling. Psychopaths also thrive on excitement involving violence. Yet another criminal holding a badge!

Read More...
Rainbow

Bermuda, first jurisdiction in the world to repeal same-sex marriage


Guardian
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 13:22 UTC
St George’s, Bermuda
© andykazie/Getty ImagesSt George’s, Bermuda: the British territory’s governor said the new law reflected opposition to same-sex marriage among voters.


British island territory swaps marriage for domestic partnerships for LGBT couples in move criticised as attack on equal rights

Bermuda has become the first jurisdiction to legalise and then repeal same-sex marriage, in what critics have called an unprecedented rollback of civil rights by the British territory.

Bermuda's governor has signed into law a bill reversing the right of gay couples to marry, despite a supreme court ruling last year authorising same-sex marriage.

Walton Brown, Bermuda's minister of home affairs, said the legislation signed by Governor John Rankin would balance opposition to same-sex marriage on the socially conservative island while complying with European court rulings that ensure recognition and protection for same-sex couples in the territory.

Bermuda's Senate and House of Assembly passed the legislation by wide margins in December and a majority of voters opposed same-sex marriage in a referendum.

Comment: The global media will surely make a big deal out of this, but lets put things in the right perspective: There have been around half a dozen same-sex marriages in Bermuda since May 2017, and gay couples still have the option of registering domestic partnerships.

Read More...
USA

US military sees more misconduct complaints while fewer senior officers found guilty


RT
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 12:58 UTC
US Military
© Win McNamee / Reuters
While the number of complaints filed against senior US military and defense officials increased, fewer Department of Defense officers were actually found guilty of misconduct last year, according to data from DoD investigators.

Some 803 complaints were made in the last fiscal year compared with 787 the previous year. Only 144 were considered credible and subsequently investigated by the Inspector General. In total, 49 senior officials were eventually found guilty of misconduct.

The number of cases "involving substantiated senior official misconduct involved approximately two percent of the DoD senior official population," according to the latest report. The data was released Wednesday during a House Armed Services personnel subcommittee hearing.

Comment: #MeToo is coming to the US military, CNN warns:
While the issue of sexual assault in the military has been widely reported for years, the recent spate of allegations against individuals and momentum of the #MeToo movement has prompted a renewed effort for transparency within the armed services.
Perhaps a co-ed war machine wasn't the best idea.

Read More...
Info

Iran: West must make nuclear deal a success before pressing other issues


RT
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 12:58 UTC
Heavy Water Reactor, Iran
© Nanking2012 / WikipediaGeneral view of Arak IR-40 Heavy Water Reactor, Iran
Tehran will not yield to pressure to renegotiate the landmark nuclear deal, a senior Iranian official has said, claiming no other country will bother negotiating with Washington in future if it withdraws from the agreement.

The US and European Union must make the 2015 nuclear deal work before asking Tehran to negotiate other issues, such as its ballistic missile program and its influence in the wider Middle East region, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister and chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi has said.

"Now they ask Iran to enter discussions on other issues. Our answer is clear: make the [deal] a successful experience and then we discuss other issues," Araghchi told the Euromoney Iran Conference in Paris on Thursday.
Read More...
Eye 1

While thousands of doped-up Western athletes get green light, Winter Olympics ban upheld for dozens of Russians


RT
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 12:58 UTC
Russia olympic flag
© Maxim Shemetov / ReutersThe logo of Russian Olympic team competing in 2018 Winter Olympics
The Ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport has rejected the appeals of the Russian athletes and coaches, stating that invitation to the Olympics lies within the competence of the International Olympic Committee.

CAS has "dismissed the application filed on 6 February 2018 by 32 Russian athletes against the International Olympic Committee. It has also dismissed the application filed on 7 February 2018 by 15 Russian athletes and coaches against the IOC," the court said in a statement in conclusion of the review.

Forty-seven Russian team members, athletes and coaches, challenged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refusal to invite them to participate in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games. After a scrupulous review, CAS has ruled that the ban was an "eligibility" decision rather than a "sanction", noting that the IOC was free to ban the athletes.

Comment: Further reading: Politicized harassment: WADA and IOC continue targeting Russian Olympic athletes

Read More...
Stormtrooper

Surveillance video shows cops brutally attacked innocent elderly man, lied to arrest him

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Projet
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 13:08 UTC
police surveillance Robert Besedin
© The Free Thought Project


An innocent elderly man's surveillance camera saved him from years in prison after it showed that cops attacked him for no reason and lied about it in their report.

Long Island, NY - An innocent elderly man was yanked from his front porch, thrown down stairs, and then brutally attacked by those who claim to protect and serve. Then, after he was permanently injured, police charged him with a crime.

Robert Besedin, the 72-year-old Air Force veteran has since filed a federal lawsuit against police after he said two officers "pushed him, grab him by his neck, hurled him down four steps and body slammed him to the ground."

The force with which the officers attacked Besedin was so brutal that it knocked his hearing aids from his ears.

After the officers savagely attacked the innocent elderly man, he was arrested, brought to jail, locked in a cage for days-unable to hear anything without his hearing aids-and charged with felony assault against two Nassau police officers. The only thing is, he never touched them.

Comment: Who would have thought that we would ever see the day that criminals would be allowed to wear badges.

Read More...