Society's Child

Why is there no conversation about men who are having unwanted sex?

Jessie Ford
The Conversation
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 16:04 UTC

Time Magazine recently featured "The Silence Breakers" as its 2017 "Person of the Year," a nod to the countless women who have come forward with stories of unwanted sexual advances and sexual assaults.

But missing from the conversation are men. For example, a number of surveys have found that about 8 percent of men are victims of sexual assault in college, and the majority of these men are heterosexual.

Why aren't more men coming forward? What's behind their silence? Could it have something to do with underlying cultural assumptions about men and sex - that men always want sex, and that all men find it enjoyable?

While I didn't speak with men who have been sexually assaulted, I did recently complete a study on young men who have unwanted, nonconsensual sex. The goal was to dig deeper into the experiences of these men: how the sex unfolded, why they didn't want it in the first place and why they didn't just say, "No."

Their responses might offer some clues about why men are, by and large, missing from the wave of sexual assault revelations.

Mt. Gox bitcoins 'not lost', someone doesn't want them found - RT source

RT
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 14:38 UTC

The hundreds of thousands of bitcoins stolen from the Mt. Gox exchange four years ago could be recovered, but there are powerful forces against it, according to bitcoin entrepreneur William Mook.

The Tokyo-based virtual currency exchange handled around 80 percent of global bitcoin trades. Mt. Gox shut down and went bankrupt in February 2014 after suffering the biggest cryptocurrency heist on record.

The exchange said it had lost about 850,000 bitcoins - then worth around half a billion US dollars - and $28 million in cash from its Japanese bank accounts.

Mt. Gox blamed hackers for its lost bitcoins, pointing to a software security flaw. Later in March, it said that had found 200,000 of the missing tokens.

Sessions backtracks on marijuana policy, wants it illegal for states to legalize weed

Rachel Blevins
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 13:52 UTC

As more than half of the states in the country recognize the power of cannabis and choose to legalize it in some form, the federal government still blindly claims that it has no medicinal value, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reportedly rescinding a policy that keeps federal prosecutors from aggressively enforcing federal law in states where cannabis is legal.

The announcement is expected Thursday, according to two sources cited by a report from the Associated Press. The policy was initially put in place by the Obama Administration in 2013, acknowledging that states should be in charge of what their cannabis policy was, and how they prosecuted offenders who violated it.

Interference from the federal level was always feared in states that legalized cannabis for recreational use, because the plant is still labeled as a Schedule I drug by the federal government-despite an increasing wealth of research that has shown its medicinal value.

The sources told the AP that Sessions' policy "will let U.S. attorneys across the country decide what kinds of federal resources to devote to marijuana enforcement based on what they see as priorities in their districts." As has been the case with the War on Drugs since its inception, such a policy could be used by U.S. attorneys to target low-income cannabis users in states such as Colorado and California, while ignoring wealthy cannabis users-even though both groups were using the plant legally in their respective states.

Russian invasion! After facing massive scrutiny RT France finally goes live

Russia Insider
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 13:27 UTC

"President Macron accused the channel of propaganda, though it hadn't gone on air yet."

- Le Freak, C'est Chic

RT opens in France to rock the boat for mainstream propaganda outlets and offer a home for journalists who want to report the truth.

After facing scrutiny from regulatory agencies and slander from the pundits, RT France has taken to the air.

Comment: You can't stop the signal. Kudos to RT for continuing to annoy Western media by saying the things they censor themselves from saying. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.

President of Kazakhstan praises 'Putin the peacemaker' in new autobiography

Fort Russ
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 13:27 UTC

The President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in his book "The Age of Independence" has spoken of his high appreciation of the effectiveness of his many years of cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The book is written in the genre of historical journalism and reflects the author's view of the modern history of Kazakhstan and its future, published on Thursday.

"The importance of relations between Kazakhstan and Russia was evidenced by the intensity of contacts at the highest level. My long-term fruitful interaction with Vladimir Putin is an international and political phenomenon that is exceptional in its saturation and effectiveness, "the Kazakh leader said.

'Please spare us the thought police!' Top-selling German newspaper says new online hate speech law should be abolished

Michelle Martin
Reuters
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 11:21 UTC

A new law meant to curtail hate speech on social media in Germany is stifling free speech and making martyrs out of anti-immigrant politicians whose posts are deleted, the top-selling Bild newspaper said on Thursday.

The law which took effect on Jan. 1 can impose fines of up to 50 million euros ($60 million) on sites that fail to remove hate speech promptly. Twitter has deleted anti-Muslim and anti-migrant posts by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and blocked a satirical account that parodied Islamophobia.

"Please spare us the thought police!" read a headline in Wednesday's Bild above an article that called the law a "sin" against freedom of opinion enshrined in Germany's constitution.

The law requires social media sites to delete or block obviously criminal content within 24 hours but Bild Editor-in-Chief Julian Reichelt said it could be applied against anything and anyone since there was no definition of what was "manifestly unlawful" in most cases.

Comment: See also:

Police respond to bogus 911 call by killing grandfather in his own home

Rachel Blevins
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 12:34 UTC

A family is heartbroken after their grandfather was shot and killed in his own home by police officers who arrived at the house in the middle of the night, and opened fire 30 seconds after they claim that they saw him in the kitchen with a firearm.

Video has yet to be released and details are still emerging from the Jan. 1 shooting that killed Mark Steven Parkinson, 65. Police have admitted that the beloved grandfather was not the target of the alleged welfare check that was being carried out by the sheriff's deputies who knocked on his front door.

The deputies were initially dispatched after police received an anonymous 911 call around 3 a.m. that requested a welfare check at the residence. A report from the Walker County Messenger claimed that during the call, "information was provided that stated a female at the residence was threatening to kill herself and her children."

The call did not originate from the Parkinson residence.

Comment: You don't even need to be the one to make the call anymore. If they just happen to show up at your door, someone's likely to get shot. Questions are for later. See also:

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai cancels industry trade speech over death threats

RT
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 12:59 UTC

Weeks after repealing net neutrality, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai canceled a planned appearance at a tech industry trade show because of death threats, according to a report.

On Wednesday, Gary Shapiro, president of Consumer Technology Association (CTA), released a statement that said Pai would not be attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year.

London Mayor's response to knife crime epidemic: £10,000 on 'knife wands' for schools, effectiveness not being tracked

Jack Montgomery
Breitbart
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 00:01 UTC

London Mayor Sadiq Khan's response to the knife crime epidemic overtaking his city has been to issue metal-detecting 'knife wands' to schools - but City Hall is not tracking how many times they are being used, or how many knives are being confiscated, if any.

Seventy-six schools across the capital are already using the wands, under what City Hall described as "Sadiq's robust and comprehensive knife crime strategy", and is "urging" more to take up his offer to provide them.

Breitbart London asked the mayor of London's office how long the initiative had been planned, and whether it was a response the Mayor's Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) figures, as well as where it has already been rolled out, how effective it has been in driving down knife crime, and how much it is expected to cost.

Comment: Seems like a rather impotent response to the problem. And if spending the money and making the effort, why not track how effective the strategy is? But while Breitbart seems to have it in for the Mayor, it isn't really clear if anything he's done has actually lead to this increase in crime. See also:

Outrage in Turkey after religious affairs agency approves child marriage as young as nine, later retracts

Arab News
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 11:02 UTC

Turkey's religious affairs state agency came under heavy criticism on Thursday from the main opposition party after it reportedly said girls as young as nine could marry under Islamic law.

The Diyanet religious affairs directorate said on Tuesday the minimum age for girls to marry was nine, while for boys it was 12, according to Turkish media including Hurriyet daily quoting the agency's official website.

The post, which took the form of an explanatory statement on Islamic law, has since been taken down, after a backlash from the opposition and women's rights groups.

The head of the High Commission of Religious Affairs Ekrem Keles on Thursday told Hurriyet that the earliest age for a girl to marry is 17 and 18 for a boy.

Comment: More bizarre opinions from Turkey's directorate on religious affairs:

Dumped by text? That's nothing - top religious body in Turkey okays divorce by text message

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Society's Child

Why is there no conversation about men who are having unwanted sex?

Mt. Gox bitcoins 'not lost', someone doesn't want them found - RT source

Sessions backtracks on marijuana policy, wants it illegal for states to legalize weed

Russian invasion! After facing massive scrutiny RT France finally goes live

President of Kazakhstan praises 'Putin the peacemaker' in new autobiography

'Please spare us the thought police!' Top-selling German newspaper says new online hate speech law should be abolished

Police respond to bogus 911 call by killing grandfather in his own home

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai cancels industry trade speech over death threats

London Mayor's response to knife crime epidemic: £10,000 on 'knife wands' for schools, effectiveness not being tracked

Outrage in Turkey after religious affairs agency approves child marriage as young as nine, later retracts

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