Society's ChildS

Sheeple

Flashback Poll finds half of British Muslims think homosexuality should be illegal

Muslims mosque
© Murdo Macleod for the GuardianPrayers at a mosque in Bradford.


Survey for Channel 4 documentary finds 23% want sharia law but most feel strong connection with Britain


British Muslims are more likely to feel a stronger connection to Britain than the population at large, according to polling, which also found that more than half think that homosexuality should be illegal.

Extensive polling conducted by ICM suggests that in most cases attitudes held by the British Muslim population do not broadly differ from those held by the population at large, but there are significant differences when it comes to some issues such as homosexuality and women's rights.

Trevor Phillips, the former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said the findings were "extremely worrying" as they suggested on many issues Muslims were "nation within a nation".

He called for a more "muscular approach" to integration.

Comment: Interesting documentary by Trevor Phillips, mentioned above, on stereotypes, ethnicity and multiculturalism in Britain:




Extinguisher

Learned helplessness: Hilarious fallout from Oregon gas pumping law reveals alarming effects of gov't dependence

idiot pumping gas
Many Oregon residents are panicked after their state has given them a new freedom - it is no longer illegal for them to pump their own gas in certain counties.

For the first time in the lives of many Oregon residents, it is legal for them to pump their own gas - and while it may not seem like much to the rest of the country, the reactions of Oregonians who have no clue how to accomplish the simple chore serve as a troubling reminder of the dependence that can be created by the laws set by the government.

If you have never been to Oregon, it may seem like a foreign concept. But if you are from a different state and you have visited, you may have been surprised when you got out of your car to pump your own gas, and an attendant informed you that you were doing something illegal.

Now, thanks to the passage of House Bill 2482, Oregon residents in counties with a population fewer than 40,000 people are allowed to pump their own gas. The new law went into effect on Jan. 1, and it impacts drivers in 15 counties - several of whom are now trying to figure out how to fill their cars with gasoline for the first time.

Comment: As the article states, while the results of Oregonians new-found freedom is hilarious, it's also rather disturbing. Something as easy as pumping gas should not be elevated to the level of rocket science. If you don't know how to do it, learn.

Here's some of the better tweets:








Vader

Israeli military says teenager Ahed Tamimi faces up to 14 years in jail for slapping soldier

Ahed Tamimi
Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi enters a military courtroom escorted by Israeli security personnel at Ofer Prison, Ramallah, West Bank, Jan. 15, 2018.
Israel's military says a teenage Palestinian girl could face up to 14 years in prison after being indicted for allegedly assaulting a pair of Israeli soldiers outside her home.

Ahed Tamimi, 16, was charged this week by an Israeli military court after she was filmed in December pushing, kicking and slapping the soldiers, who stood by silently. Her father said the girl was upset after her 15-year-old cousin was shot in the head with a rubber bullet.


Comment: It was a metal rubber-coated bullet, and this is what it did to her cousin:

That's life under the occupation in Nabi Saleh, where people are occupied with the struggle. About an hour after Mohammed was shot in the head at short range by an Israel Defense Forces soldier (or a Border Policeman), his now-better-known cousin, Ahed Tamimi, went to the yard of her house and tried to forcibly expel the two soldiers who had invaded her turf, while the camera rolled. It's a reasonable assumption that she tried to vent her wrath on the soldiers in part because of the shooting of her cousin an hour earlier.

Only a few dozen meters separate the place where the soldiers shot Mohammed and Ahed's home; only an hour separated the two events. People in her family relate that Ahed, 16, burst into tears when she heard that her cousin had been shot and was in serious condition. From the window of her home at the edge of Nabi Saleh, a small village near Ramallah, you can see the stone wall that surrounds the luxurious building, under construction, that Mohammed climbed in order to get a view of the soldiers who were still inside. At that point he was shot in the head with one bullet from a distance of a few meters, and fell bleeding to the ground from a height of three meters (nearly 10 feet).

The widely shared video turned Tamimi into a Palestinian hero. In Israel, the footage sparked debate about the soldiers' refusal to act.

The maximum sentence appears unlikely.

Her lawyer, Gaby Lasky, said Wednesday she doubts such a sentence is likely. She said sentencing for such an offense is usually "much, much lighter."

Comment: More on this sad case: And a documentary on the extreme abuse inflicted on Palestinian children by the psychopathic Israeli military:




Bizarro Earth

Couple bleed to death after Satanic ritual

satanic ritual
© CCO
A couple has been found dead in an apartment on the Greek island of Kefallinia after performing a satanic ritual.

Lilia Botusheva, a 23-year-old Bulgarian woman and her 30-year-old boyfriend from Germany, whose name the police did not disclose, went to the Greek island on holiday.

Comment: Tourist couple found dead on Greek Island in possible satanic ritual


Question

Body parts found with undetonated explosive belong to missing teen whose torso was found in Lake Ontario last year

A 45-year-old Oshawa, Ont., man, Adam Jeffrey Strong, has been charged in the case with indecent interference to a body and is in custody, police said

Rori Hache
© FacebookRori Hache
Police expect to be poring over a home east of Toronto for the next month after revealing Friday that body parts found in the residence belonged to an 18-year-old woman whose torso was found in Lake Ontario in the fall.

Durham regional police are treating the case of Rori Hache as a homicide, but have not yet laid murder charges in her death.

Airplane

Finnish authorities are investigating private jet pilot killed by aircraft's flying door

Finnish airplane
© Luke MacGregor / Reuters
Finnish authorities are investigating a bizarre incident in which a pilot was killed by a plane door which became detached from the plane. He was preparing a private jet for a flight when it happened.

The Gulfstream G150 jet, usually used for private flights arrived at the Kittila airport in northern Finland from Moscow, the local Lapin Kansa newspaper reports. It was being prepared for its next flight from the popular holiday resort in the Lapland region to Yekaterinburg, Russia on Thursday.

Ice Cube

Baltimore parents and teachers are outraged as kids taught in near-freezing classrooms

Baltimore children in freezing school
© aaronmaybin / Instagram
Amidst severe snowstorms, Baltimore City closed its public schools this week following national outrage after children were shown freezing in classrooms, and long-running heating issues flared up again.

The furor was prompted after former NFL linebacker and teacher, Aaron Maybin, took to social media Wednesday to ask how he was supposed to teach children wrapped up with winter coats and gloves when room temperatures were 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Heart - Black

Elderly Ontario couple dies in the cold: After Grant had a heart attack outside, his wife, Ada went to find him

Grant Triebner, 90, and Ada Triebner, 83, were found on their property. 'They never did much apart from each other. They were so close, together all their lives'

Grant and Ada Triebner
© FacebookGrant and Ada Triebner
An elderly couple who died together in the brutal cold outside their farmhouse are remembered by neighbours as an inseparable pair who loved living in their rural Huron County home.

Grant Triebner, 90, and his wife Ada Triebner, 83, were found by police on their property, about five kilometres northwest of Exeter on Wednesday morning, after a wind-whipped, frigid night when temperatures plunged to nearly -10 C.

Cloud Lightning

We ain't seen nothing yet: Total economic losses due to global disasters in 2017 were over $300 billion

global natural disasters
According to a new reinsurance report issued by the Swiss Re Institute, total economic losses from natural and man-made disasters have soared 63 percent in 2017 to an estimated $306 billion, up from $188 billion in 2016.

Globally, insurers lost $136 billion from natural and man-made disasters in 2017, up from $65 billion in 2016, the third highest on record. This is "well above the previous 10-year annual average, and the third highest on sigma records," Swiss Re said in its report. Natural disasters accounted for $131 billion of 2017's insured losses, and man-made disasters for the remaining $5 billion. The human loss totaled around 11,000 deaths, similar to 2016.

Martin Bertogg, Head of Catastrophe Perils at Swiss Re said, "in recent years, annual insurance losses from disaster events have exceeded USD 100 billion a few times. The insurance industry has demonstrated that it can cope very well with such high losses."

Comment: One wonders if the insurance companies are aware of this:

Scientists predict upsurge in major earthquakes for 2018 due to slowdown in Earth's rotation



Post-It Note

Wall Street Journal advertises for new Moscow bureau chief - only those willing to demonize Russia need apply

Wall Street Journal
It's long been an open secret in Moscow that correspondent positions at Western newspapers are only available to journalists who are prepared to consistently take a strongly anti-Russian line.

And a current job advertisement from the Wall Street Journal publicly confirms this understanding. The Rupert Murdoch-owned business paper is looking for a new bureau chief based in the Russian capital, and the desired candidate must fit some stringent ideological criteria. Russian language skills are a "distinct advantage" but they can apparently be overlooked if a reporter is comfortable with the outlet's agenda. These include recognizing that Vladimir Putin is a "beacon for right-wing politicians across Europe and even in the US," and regarding the Russian president as "a champion of so-called illiberal democracy."


Comment: See also: