A little list

Nov 19th, 2017 11:11 am | By

Harvey Weinstein knew they were coming for him. He drew up a list of people to try to silence.

The Observer has gained access to a secret hitlist of almost 100 prominent individuals targeted by Harvey Weinstein in an extraordinary attempt to discover what they knew about sexual misconduct claims against him and whether they were intending to go public.

The previously undisclosed list contains a total of 91 actors, publicists, producers, financiers and others working in the film industry, all of whom Weinstein allegedly identified as part of a strategy to prevent accusers from going public with sexual misconduct claims against him.

The names, apparently drawn up by Weinstein himself, were distributed to a team hired by the

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At a conference

Nov 19th, 2017 9:35 am | By

Yesterday Kashif Chaudhry went to a conference in Virginia – a conference about hating Ahmadi Muslims. Kashif is an Ahmadi Muslim, and a cardiologist. He’s writing up the conference, and in the meantime he has this public Facebook post about it:

Every American, but especially American Muslims, should be worried about this and must condemn it loudly. Whether its Islamophobes hating on Muslims, Neo-Nazis hating on Muslims and Jews, or Sunni extremists hating on Shia and Ahmadi Muslims, all Americans must condemn the hate and protect our values of pluralism and inclusivity.

Today, I went to an anti-Ahmadi “Khatme Nabuwat” conference in Virginia, a fundraiser by an extremist organization. I can’t believe the hatred that was being spewed by the

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Never mistake Postmodern neo-Marxism for Cultural Marxism

Nov 19th, 2017 8:55 am | By

Tabatha Southey at MacLeans explains about Jordan Peterson.

“Postmodern neo-Marxism” is Peterson’s nemesis, and the best way to explain what postmodern neo-Marxism is, is to explain what it is not—that is, it is entirely distinct from the concept of “cultural Marxism.”

“Cultural Marxism” is a conspiracy theory holding that an international cabal of Marxist academics, realizing that traditional Marxism is unlikely to triumph any time soon, is out to destroy Western civilization by undermining its cultural values. “Postmodern neo-Marxism,” on the other hand, is a conspiracy theory holding that an international cabal of Marxist academics, realizing that traditional Marxism is unlikely to triumph any time soon, is out to destroy Western civilization by undermining its cultural values with “cultural”

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The last person in the line had a gun

Nov 19th, 2017 8:04 am | By

Carole Cadwalladr notes that Theresa May last week belatedly admitted that Russia had turned its fake news firehose on Britain too.

And then, just a few hours later, I clicked a link on Twitter. It was from Leave.EU’s official account – the Ukip-allied Brexit campaign headed by Nigel Farage. “WATCH @carolecadwalla takes a hit as the Russian conspiracy deepens.”

Leave.EU is now the subject of two Electoral Commission investigations into potentially illegal sources of funding, the first of which followed an article I wrote in March. They’ve been calling me crazy for months and I thought this would be more of the same. But it wasn’t. The video was a clip from the film Airplane!, in which a

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Access

Nov 18th, 2017 4:30 pm | By

Here’s why legalized use of women for sex is so fabulous: it means that Good women won’t be attacked, only Bad Slutty women will.

See? Great. Herd the rapey men off into this area over here where the women it’s ok to rape are. Problem solved!

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Conditional

Nov 18th, 2017 3:04 pm | By

Bill O’Neill – that Ohio judge who told us all what a large number of extremely attractive women he’s had sex with – has apologized.

Kidding; he hasn’t really.

If I offended anyone, particularly the wonderful women in my life, I apologize. But if I have helped elevate the discussion on the serious issues of sexual assault, as opposed to personal indiscretions, to a new level…I make no apologies. Suggesting the admitted conduct of Senator Al Franken and the alleged conduct of Judge Roy Moore are on the same level trivializes the serious subject at hand.

There are Democrats out there who are saying neither one of them pass the purity test to sit in the United States Senate.

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A heavily armed church

Nov 18th, 2017 10:44 am | By

The Tampa Bay Times:

If you are an evildoer wishing to bring harm to the members of River at Tampa Bay Church, don’t expect congregants to turn the other cheek.

They’ll blast you.

So says a sign at the church, at 3738 River International Drive in Tampa, that delivers a stark warning to anyone thinking of wreaking havoc.

“PLEASE KNOW THIS IS NOT A GUN FREE ZONE,” it reads. “WE ARE HEAVILY ARMED — ANY ATTEMPT WILL BE DEALT WITH DEADLY FORCE — YES WE ARE A CHURCH AND WE WILL PROTECT OUR PEOPLE.”

The message is signed “THE PASTORS.”

The sign at the 21-year-old church was put up about a year ago, said Associate Pastor Allen Hawes.

If … Read the rest



Damned by history forever

Nov 18th, 2017 10:32 am | By

Super-right-on dude Owen Jones tweeted a classic of mindless phrase-mongering a couple of days ago.

https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/931241678622593025

Imagine being an opponent of trans rights and believing this was the one exception of history looking kindly on opponents of a struggle for minority rights. It is not going to happen. You are a) going to lose and b) be damned by history forever.

Why is that mindless?

One, because he is talking, of course, not about people who actually are “opponents of trans rights” but people who disagree that “identify as” is a magic phrase when it comes to sex but not when it comes to anything else. Two, because he is assuming that all “struggles for minority rights” are progressive and … Read the rest



Oops, we changed our minds

Nov 17th, 2017 4:48 pm | By

A student newspaper published by the School of Humanities of the Catholic St. Edward’s University proudly reports that St. Edward’s joined the list of right-on silencers who invite Julie Bindel to talk and then later call her back and say no we changed our minds. Who knew that Catholic universities were that “intersectional”?

Universities across the country have been facing backlash over their decisions to host or cancel speakers. Last week, St. Edward’s University joined the national conversation by cancelling a talk by British feminist and political activist, Julie Bindel, based on views she had expressed about the transgender community.

Jesus – it sounds as if they’re excited about being invited to join the cool kids’ table. “Hey everybody’s talking … Read the rest



There were FIFTY of them! And they were all HAWT!!

Nov 17th, 2017 3:20 pm | By

Oh wait wait wait everybody, it turns out everything’s ok after all. This one judge in Ohio had lots of awesome sex with 50 very attractive females (his words) so there’s nothing to worry about. Whew!

Now that the dogs of war are calling for the head of Senator Al Franken I believe it is time to speak up on behalf of all heterosexual males. As a candidate for Governor let me save my opponents some research time. In the last fifty years I was sexually intimate with approximately 50 very attractive females. It ranged from a gorgeous blonde who was my first true love and we made passionate love in the hayloft of her parents [sic] barn and ended

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Postmodern neo-Marxist cult classes

Nov 17th, 2017 12:44 pm | By

That item about Jordan Peterson’s plan to create a List of courses he considers “neo-Marxist”  blah blah got my attention. As It Happens reported last week:

Psychology professor Jordan Peterson’s stated plan to build a website aimed at reducing enrolment in university classes he calls “indoctrination cults” has drawn the ire of his University of Toronto colleagues, who say it will make them the target of harassment.

“As a science professor, I’m not specifically targeted, but I still believe this website is morally wrong,” U of T physics professor A.W. Peet told As It Happens host Carol Off. “A number of students and faculty members who I’m in correspondence with are concerned about his plans.”

Peterson, who rose to

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Jordan and the crazy harpies

Nov 17th, 2017 11:56 am | By

Jordan Peterson has the solution to all this sexual harassment everywhere.

Ho yus, that will fix it. Women were never sexually harassed until…what year was it again? 1964? If only women could be permanently imprisoned by marriage, all would be well.

Rachel Giese is not quite convinced.

[C]onsider his recent conversation with fellow provocateur Camille Paglia. Expressing his frustrations with women who disagreed with him, Peterson said that men can’t control “crazy women” because men aren’t allowed to physically fight women. “I know how to stand

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Trump is shocked, shocked

Nov 17th, 2017 9:49 am | By

It’s like Bernie Madoff accusing someone else of being a lying cheating fraudulent thief:

President Trump, who was dogged by sexual misconduct allegations during his 2016 campaign, took aim at longtime critic Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on Thursday night, after Franken was accused of forcibly kissing and groping a woman 11 years ago.

“The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words,” Trump wrote on Twitter, misspelling the apparent reference to the 19th-century novel “Frankenstein.”

Novel? Oh don’t be silly, he has no idea there’s any such novel. He thinks it’s a movie.

Eleven women came forward during Trump’s presidential campaign to accuse him of unwanted touching or kissing over several decades. Trump called the charges “pure

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Too many worms

Nov 17th, 2017 9:26 am | By

Grim:

A North Korean soldier who was shot while fleeing across the border has an extremely high level of parasites in his intestines, his doctors say.

The defector crossed the demilitarised zone on Monday, but was shot several times by North Korean border guards.

Doctors say the patient is stable – but “an enormous number” of worms in his body are contaminating his wounds and making his situation worse.

His condition is thought to give a rare insight into life in North Korea.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my 20 years as a physician,” South Korean doctor Lee Cook-jong told journalists, explaining that the longest worm removed from the patient’s intestines was 27cm (11in) long.

How did … Read the rest



They came to share their opinions

Nov 16th, 2017 6:04 pm | By

I saw this in the Sun last week.

GENITOOL 
Doctor dumped boyfriend because he criticised the smell of her vagina – and wants other women to follow suit

I saw that some typical goons had talked about it on their podcast hur hur hur. I read Jen Gunter’s blog post on it. Now it’s in the Times, as is only fair.

For 25 years she’s been listening to women tell her they’ve been told how Wrong and Gross their genitals are.

These women all shared something: They were told these things by men. While I admit this is anecdotal data, my years of listening to secret shame about healthy vaginas and vulvas seems to suggest it is largely, if

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So they think they have some kind of magic

Nov 16th, 2017 5:30 pm | By

The other day Bjarte recommended Willful Blindness by Margaret Heffernan. The library found it quickly so I’m reading it. There’s a bit on page 28 in a chapter on willful blindness in love:

“Success confers its own blindness,” says Brown. “Successful people believe they can get away with it. I talked once to a group of men who’d all become millionaires before the age of forty and who’d had affairs. They don’t even see the danger! It isn’t a love of risk. They think the wives will never know, so where’s the harm? Everything else in their lives has worked out, so they think they have some kind of magic, that their success has meant that they can have everything

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So very burdensome

Nov 16th, 2017 11:29 am | By

In annals of Things I Neglected in the Hail of All the Other Things, there is the move by Republicans and Trump to halt a rule requiring big companies to collect data on how they pay their employees. The ACLU in September:

Last night, 223 members of the House of Representatives voted against equal pay for our nation’s workers.

If asked, these members of Congress would almost certainly say that men and women should receive equal pay for equal work and that pay discrimination based on gender and race is a scourge that should be eliminated. Yet when the opportunity arose to support an equal pay initiative that is critical in achieving these goals, they voted no.

Believe what

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A good time to have meaningful dialogue

Nov 16th, 2017 10:49 am | By

Speaking of narrow authoritarian impoverished versions of “morality,” there’s this sheriff in Texas who is all worked up about…the word “fuck” on someone’s personal vehicle.

A sheriff in Texas is looking for a truck bearing a profanity-laced anti-Trump sticker and said authorities are considering charging its owner with disorderly conduct — a threat that immediately raised alarm among free speech advocates.

I wouldn’t call it “profanity-laced” – it’s too succinct for that. It says simply: Fuck Trump and fuck you for voting for him.

Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy E. Nehls posted a photo of the truck Wednesday on Facebook after, he said, he’d received several complaints about the display from unhappy people in the Houston-area county.

The … Read the rest



Lax in enforcing church doctrine

Nov 16th, 2017 9:29 am | By

Speaking of eccentric Catholic priests like Father Greg Boyle who care more about their oppressed and overwhelmed parishioners than they do about Vatican dogma, I’m reminded that Seattle had an archbishop like that thirty years ago…and that the Vatican sent an enforcer to suppress him.

Ever since the Vatican crackdown on Seattle Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen last summer [i.e. 1986], Patrick Jankanish has been coming alone to Sunday mass at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church.

“My wife was a convert {to Catholicism} before we were married nine years ago,” Jankanish told a visitor, adding that the couple has been deeply involved in the vigorous social justice program of the Jesuit parish on fashionable Capital Hill.

To the Jankanishes, Hunthausen

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Primarily because of documents

Nov 15th, 2017 4:57 pm | By

Trump shyly confesses that he doesn’t watch much tv, he’s too much of a bookworm.

Over the weekend, as Air Force One made its way to Vietnam, President Trump was questioned about Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. Wasn’t it time, Trump was asked, for the president to cut his support of Moore, given a spate of allegations about his behavior with teenage girls several decades ago?

“Well, again,” Trump replied, “I’ve been with you folks, so I haven’t gotten to see too much. And believe it or not, even when I’m in Washington and New York, I do not watch much television. I know they like to say — people that don’t know me — they like to

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