Fly the friendly skies of United.

https://twitter.com/Diane_7A/status/851525530134491137

@united "Fly the Friendly Skies" #united pic.twitter.com/ENxSZPiLEK

— Dark Night (@darknight2107) April 10, 2017

https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/851462245561229313

united's list of special in-flight deals makes a lot more sense now pic.twitter.com/UvkRVFppKz

— Bob Vulfov (@bobvulfov) April 10, 2017

https://twitter.com/metsFanscotty/status/851515669061545984… Read the rest

Here’s a thing you can do. George Szirtes writes:

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT – please sign if you support it.

“Dear Mr Tajani,

I see my fellow Booker Prize winner, the translator Ottilie Mulzet has already written to you about the disgraceful law intended to close the Central European University in Budapest. The law, intended for this one specific purpose, is the latest of steps taken by Viktor Orbán to close out democratic institutions in the country, including press, media and NGOs. Please note I do not say opposition institutions since the CEU is in no way a political opponent of the government. It is simply an independent university.

This evening the

From the ACLU:

Just a week after the Republican Party’s Affordable Care Act repeal bill was dramatically pulled from the House floor, the Senate advanced legislation that will have serious consequences for the reproductive health and family planning abilities of millions across the country. It’s now awaiting President Trump’s signature — and we have his vice president to thank.

On March 30, the Senate passed H.J. Res 43, but only because, without sufficient support, Vice President Mike Pence cast the tiebreaking vote – a constitutional authority he holds as president of the Senate. He voted in favor, with a smile and a wave.

Here’s why that’s so disturbing: H.J. Res 43 would eliminate a regulation that

The CEO of United Airlines says it’s all rather upsetting. To them.

Videos of a United Airlines passenger being forcibly dragged from his seat on a Sunday overbooked flight at O’Hare International Airport have been viewed more than 1 million times, and the airline’s CEO on Monday called the incident “an upsetting event to all of us here at United.”

Well that’s sad and everything but what about that doctor they beat up? What about his patients in Louisville who had appointments to see him today?

Another passenger on the flight, Audra Bridges, told the Louisville Courier-Journal that United asked for a volunteer at the gate to take a later flight, offering $400 and a hotel stay. Bridges, of

Seriously?

Videos showing a man being violently removed from a United Airlines flight have provoked a public outcry on social media.

The footage taken from inside the airliner shows a man being violently pulled out of his seat and dragged down the aisle as passengers prepared to take off from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday evening.

Well there must be a reason. It may be a bad or mistaken reason but there must be a reason – they think he harassed the person next to him, or someone thought he was A Terrorist, or something.

But no.

The airline in question – United – has acknowledged that the man’s only apparent crime was that the flight was overbooked and

Speaking of systemic obstacles thrown in the path of women in STEM – Google does its part.

Google has discriminated against its female employees, according to the US Department of Labor (DoL), which said it had evidence of “systemic compensation disparities”.

As part of an ongoing DoL investigation, the government has collected information that suggests the internet search giant is violating federal employment laws with its salaries for women, agency officials said.

“We found systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce,” Janette Wipper, a DoL regional director, testified in court in San Francisco on Friday.

Stay in STEM, girls – and if they pay you less than they pay the boys, just stay later and … Read the rest

Robert Reich on Facebook:

Update for Trump voters.

1. He said he wouldn’t bomb Syria. You bought it. Then he bombed Syria.

2. He said he’d build a wall along the border with Mexico. You bought it. Now his secretary of homeland security says “It’s unlikely that we will build a wall.”

3. He said he’d clean the Washington swamp. You bought it. Then he brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, to make laws that will enrich their businesses.

4. He said he’d repeal Obamacare and replace it with something “wonderful.” You bought it. Then he didn’t.

5. He said he’d use his business experience to whip the

Well that’s a thing I didn’t know was happening.

What is “lunch shaming?” It happens when a child can’t pay a school lunch bill.

In Alabama, a child short on funds was stamped on the arm with “I Need Lunch Money.” In some schools, children are forced to clean cafeteria tables in front of their peers to pay the debt. Other schools require cafeteria workers to take a child’s hot food and throw it in the trash if he doesn’t have the money to pay for it.

New Mexico has passed a bill outlawing that kind of bullying.

In some cases, cafeteria workers have been ordered to throw away the hot lunches of children who owed money,

I saw people yesterday saying this was going to happen. I thought they were exaggerating the level of predictability. BBC headline: Egypt’s Coptic churches hit by deadly blasts on Palm Sunday.

In Alexandria, an explosion outside St Mark’s Coptic church killed 13 people. Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Church, had been attending Mass inside and was unhurt, state media reported.

An earlier blast at St George’s Coptic church in Tanta killed 29 people.

So-called Islamic State (IS) says it is behind the explosions. The group has recently targeted Copts in Egypt.

Four police officers, including one policewoman, were among those killed in Alexandria, the interior ministry said. The suicide bomber blew himself up after they stopped him

Is it a crime against childhood to teach children to read critically? Kathryn Heyman thinks not.

This week, the Victorian Education Department released their Respectful Relationships program for state primary schools. In spite of the shock headlines reporting fairytales being ‘banned’, the program simply helps teach children how to deconstruct those stories. In other words, it teaches them how to read. As Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said, with admirable restraint, “We are very much in favour of kids reading stories and then sitting down and talking about them. It is called learning.”

If you don’t look at stories (of all kinds) with a critical eye you can’t think about how they’re shaping you. It’s quite a good idea to … Read the rest

Another “prominent male philosopher suddenly found to have long history of sexual harassment accusations” story, where “suddenly found to have”=”has long been known to have but we tried to keep it quiet for a few decades.” The long history this time belongs to John Searle.

Documents obtained by BuzzFeed News show that Joanna Ong, 24, who filed suit against Searle and the University of California Regents last month, was not the first woman to report the 84-year-old professor to the university. Ong’s suit alleges that she was fired from her job as Searle’s research assistant after rejecting his advances.

In 2014, an undergraduate student said Searle told her she couldn’t be his research assistant because she was married and

Originally a comment by Helene on Rhetoric and imagery which is pure and simple Jew hatred.

I hold no brief for the Israeli government, especially not Netanyahu and his rightwing coalition. In particular, I loathe the meddling by ultra-orthodox rabbis and the haredi community in many civil matters (e.g. marriage, divorce). But there is little doubt that Israel is by far the most liberal (full women’s rights, gays rights — gays serve openly in the military and the only gay pride parade that I’ve seen bigger than Tel Aviv’s is the one in Berlin — press freedom, general civil rights, etc.) and democratic country in the Middle East, with a better record on many of these issues than many … Read the rest