Society's ChildS


2 + 2 = 4

Jordan Peterson vs Cathy Newman, Revenge of the SJW Spin Doctors

Peterson Newman
Jordan Peterson has called bull on the left's claims that SJW media maven Cathy Newman has been a victim of "threats" and "alt-right" bullying.

In his first video appearance since totally owning Newman in a must-watch Channel 4 studio discussion on feminism, free speech and social justice, Peterson expressed regret at having given any credence to the threat claims.

"Define threats," Peterson says, when asked whether he believes if these "threats" ever actually existed.

Because there is no evidence that these "threats" were credible, Peterson now wishes he had never tacitly endorsed their existence when he asked his Twitter followers to "back off" from being rude to Newman.

His critics just exploited this by using it as proof that threats had indeed been made.

Tornado2

John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel and global warming sceptic, passes away

John Coleman
© The Weather ChannelJohn Coleman
It is with great sadness that I announce this. John Coleman was a true hero of mine, and a great friend. He made gigantic contributions to television, to weather forecasting, and even to the National Weather Service who changed and upgraded many of their methods to accommodate the visionary ideas he had in founding the Weather Channel.

In 1983, Coleman won the American Meteorological Society award for Outstanding Service by a Broadcast Meteorologist. The organization credited Coleman for "his pioneering efforts in establishing a national cable weather channel," according to the AMS website.

I last saw John Coleman a couple of months ago in Chicago at a gathering of TV meteorologists and climate skeptics. He was as jovial and as witty as ever.

To say "he will be missed", is an understatement.

Comment: Independent thinkers like Coleman will be sorely missed.


Dollars

Liberal feeding frenzy: Princeton offers to give students $10k for those willing to hold 'identity and difference' events

money man
Princeton University is offering students up to $10,000 to run "conversation" events on topics of "identity and difference" through a program called Campus Conversations on Identity (CCI).

Funding opportunities for CCI events take one of two forms: mini-grants of up to $1,000, awarded on a rolling basis; and "signature event" grants of between $1,000 and $10,000. To qualify for the latter category, an event must be a widely publicized public lecture or workshop sponsored by or presented "in partnership with" a department or other unit of the university.

According to the official program description, CCI was created "to support a series of public programs about identity and difference" in order to "resource opportunities that provide a public forum for productive dialogue; to model honest conversations on a range of complex social issues; and to provide an opportunity for self-reflection and learning about the experiences and viewpoints of others."

Comment: Someone get Jordan Peterson over to this school of "higher learning" quick to speak some sense to these students - and their University's President! All half-kidding aside, isn't it interesting how one of the US's top schools is feeding into these ideologies just as Peterson's name recognition and message is just now reaching a new height?


Light Sabers

New York City sues Big Pharma for role in city's opioid epidemic

oxycontin
© AP
The city is suing major pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid epidemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.

The lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court seeks $500 million in damages for current and future costs from what the mayor described as "corporate drug pushers."

"Who's getting away with bloody murder right now? The big pharmaceutical companies," he said at a press conference in the Bronx.

"It's time for Big Pharma to pay for what they've done. It's time that they are held accountable."

Stormtrooper

Video shows LAPD officer dragging 18yo woman off train and arresting her for not removing her feet from a seat

handcuffed
© Sputnik/ Vitaliy Belousov
This week, an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department dragged an 18-year-old woman off a Red Line Metrorail train after she reportedly refused to remove her feet from a seat.

A video of the altercation uploaded on YouTube shows a police officer requesting that West Hollywood resident Bethany Nava move her feet off the seat of a Metrorail train.

After Nava refused to follow the officer's instructions, the cop told her she would have to get off the train at the next stop. Once the train arrives at the platform, Nava refused to budge and the unidentified police officer is then pictured dragging Nava off the train car as she holds on to a pole inside the car.

Colosseum

Western civilization and its enemies

Melrose Abbey, Scotland.
The remains of Melrose Abbey, Scotland.
What is civilization and why is it important? Civilization is many things, but at its heart, it is both the inheritance of societal ideas, customs, and traditions which inform the body, and it is how that body is structurally organized based on that inheritance coupled with the ongoing changes of socio-political development. Western civilization, for all of its imperfections, is, nevertheless, Christian in its inheritance and still Christian in its current state of composition (needing to be awakened to be sure).

Political theology, as an academic sub-discipline of political philosophy, is the study of how religious and theological ideas and systems have influenced the concept of the political. It is not "faith-based" politics as many people might think or otherwise claim. In fact, it is a discipline that is otherwise fairly secular; but one that recognizes the profound and tremendous importance of the theologico-political question as foundational for civilization itself.

Comment:


People 2

Actress Suzanne Somers is huge fan of Trump but believes it's career suicide to admit it in LA

suzanne somers
Suzanne Somers is saying it loud and proud ... she's a huge fan of President Trump, and she also believes she's c ommitting career suicide by saying that.

We got Suzanne leaving WeHo hot spot Madeo over the weekend and asked about the government shutdown. She says politicians need to get their crap together, but she praises the Prez ... particularly for the economy.

For the record, Trump's GDP stats in his first year mirror almost exactly Obama's in his second term.

Suzanne -- whose last big TV gig was on the '90s sitcom "Step by Step" -- can't help but laugh after acknowledging her Hollywood fate.


Pirates

'Fake news, I'm coming to gun you down': Man arrested after threatening CNN staff

CNN fake news
© Reuters
A Michigan man has been arrested after allegedly calling CNN and threatening to "gun down" employees at the Atlanta headquarters of the network.

Brandon Griesemer of Ann Arbor, Michigan, made 22 calls to CNN on January 9-10, according to an affidavit which was unsealed Friday and cited by the news network. Four calls, which were recorded, contained threats.

"Fake news. I'm coming to gun you all down," he reportedly said during a January 9 call, while cursing and using a derogatory word directed at African-Americans.

Eye 2

'Spypod': Apple to release smart speaker to record owner's voice commands

Apple Homepod
© AppleThe HomePod is Apple’s answer to Google Home and Amazon Echo
Apple is preparing to lock horns with arch-competitors Amazon and Google by releasing a microphone-equipped smart speaker.

Its 'HomePod' will go on sale in a matter of weeks, the tech giant announced today.

The new smart speaker works a bit like the Amazon Echo, which is operated using voice commands, and features microphones so sensitive they can pick up your words even when loud music is playing.

When switched on, the device is always listening for orders, which it then encrypts and sends back to Apple's servers to be interpreted and sent back to the speaker.

Privacy advocates are becoming increasingly wary of devices which can record what's going on owners' homes.

Comment: See also:


Arrow Up

Violent deaths of LGBT Brazilians hits all-time high

LGBTlips
© The Guardian
Violent deaths of LGBT people in Brazil have hit an all-time high following a sudden spike last year, new research reveals.

At least 445 LGBT Brazilians died as victims of homophobia in 2017 - a 30% increase from 2016, according to LGBT watchdog group Grupo Gay de Bahia.

The victims - 387 murders and 58 suicides - include Dandara dos Santos, a transexual woman who was beaten to death in the north-eastern Brazil city Fortaleza in March. A video of her being beaten and kicked circulated on social media with her torturers calling her homophobic slurs.

Brazil is one of the world's most violent countries, with a record 62,000 homicides in 2016, but authors of the research say that the deaths were directly related to homophobia.

Luiz Mott, an anthropologist and president of Grupo Gay de Bahia, said the rising violence owed much to the prominence of ultraconservative politicians, many of whom are linked to the country's powerful evangelical caucus in congress.

"It's a discourse that destroys solidarity and equates LGBT people to animals," he said. TV programs linked to evangelical churches often compare homosexuality to the devil.