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Communist Party of China #homophobia theguardian.com

China bans depictions of gay people on television

The Chinese government has banned all depictions of gay people on television, as part of a cultural crackdown on “vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content”.

Chinese censors have released new regulations for content that “exaggerates the dark side of society” and now deem homosexuality, extramarital affairs, one night stands and underage relationships as illegal on screen.

Last week the Chinese government pulled a popular drama, Addicted, from being streamed on Chinese websites as it follows two men in gay relationships, causing uproar among the show’s millions of viewers.

The government said the show contravened the new guidelines, which state that “No television drama shall show abnormal sexual relationships and behaviours, such as incest, same-sex relationships, sexual perversion, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual violence, and so on.”

The ban also extends to smoking, drinking, adultery, sexually suggestive clothing, even reincarnation. China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television told television producers it would constantly monitor TV channels to ensure the new rules were strictly adhered to.

The clampdown follows an increase in cultural censorship in China since Xi Jinping came to power in November 2012. In December 2014, censors stopped a TV show, The Empress of China, from being broadcast because the actors showed too much cleavage. The show only returned to screens once the breasts had been blurred out.

In September 2015, a documentary about young gay Chinese called Mama Rainbow was taken down from all Chinese websites.

The new regulations have angered gay activists in China, who have fought for two decades to overcome the substantial stigma in their country against homosexuality. It was only decriminalised in 1997 and was only taken off the official list of mental illnesses in 2001.

In November, one Chinese campaigner took the government to court over its description of homosexuality as a “psychological disorder” in textbooks.

Mostafa Gavahi & other hardliners #fundie #homophobia theguardian.com

“Homosexual” and “devil worshipping” hairstyles have been banned in Iran, alongside tattoos, sunbed treatments and plucked eyebrows for men, which are all deemed un-Islamic.

The move – aimed at spiky cuts – follows a trend where, each summer, Iranian authorities Iranian authorities get tough on men and women sporting clothing or hairdos seen as imitations of western lifestyles.

In 2010, Iran banned ponytails, mullets and long, gelled hair for men, but allowed 1980s-style floppy fringes or quiffs.

Iran’s moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, has spoken against such crackdowns, stating that the police’s duty is to implement the law and not enforce Islam. But hardliners have remained defiant.

Mostafa Govahi, the head of Iran’s barbers’ union, told the semi-official Isna news agency on Monday that fancifully spiked hairstyles were banned and those who styled them risked having their shops closed.

He said: “Devil-worshipping hairstyles are forbidden. Any shop that cuts hair in the devil worshipping style will be harshly dealt with and their licence revoked. Tattoos, solarium treatments and plucking eyebrows [for men] are also forbidden.”

Govahi said shops who imitate such “western hairstyles” or violate “the Islamic establishment’s regulations” would be shut down if they failed to take an initial warning seriously. “Usually the barber shops who do this do not have a licence. They have been identified and will be dealt with,” he said.

In a separate interview broadcast by the exiled Iranian opposition television channel, Manoto, Govahi said barbers across Iran had been given a list of appropriate hairstyles for men. He said hairstyles adopted by homosexuals were also banned but did not provide further details on what sort of haircut that would be.

“Haircuts that show symbols or signs of devil worshippers or those adopted by homosexuals are banned,” he said. “I won’t allow such wrongful western styles as long as I’m in this position.” He said the policy was in line with the cultural norms outlined by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Recently, a group of hardliners in the city of Qazvin wrote to the authorities asking them to ban full-body waxing for women in beauty salons. Women receiving hair removal treatments to their private parts was of particular concern.

Shop mannequins have not been immune from such measures either, with those displaying sizeable breasts or hips not tolerated.

Religious police and plainclothes basij militia are often deployed on the streets or in public buildings such as big shopping malls where they crack down on men and women who fail to stick to their forced Islamic dress code.

Rouhani has repeatedly made clear he stands opposed to such practices, but Iran’s police and similar forces operate under the direct control of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In controversial remarks last week, Rouhani told a group of senior Iranian officers: “Police do not have a duty to enforce Islam. No police officer can do something and say he did it because God commanded it, or the prophet had said so. It has nothing to do with the police.”

He added: “The police only have one duty: to implement the law. That’s it.”

This week, he reiterated his position once more but it has been met with sharp criticism from hardliners, among them many influential clerics. Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi responded by saying: “All individuals, including the police, are required to enforce rules of Islam.”

Eclipso #moonbat theguardian.com

[Comment on article describing daily life in North Korea]

To be honest ... apart from the food shortages, I'm not sure how it's any worse than life in the UK. Where are the slums and the ghettos? Judging by those photos, I'd guess that working class people in the UK have it worse. At least the North Koreans have solidarity and they all feel part of society. Over here, some people are just left to fend for themselves. They're sufficiently embittered by being spat on and treated like dirt that they take out their anger on even their own families. And that leads the one the highest rates of family breakdown in the whole world. Most people would rather have friends, family and community than a few fancy gadgets which probably take the richness out of life anyway.

Demonstrators and the Minute newspaper #racist #wingnut theguardian.com

A formal investigation has been launched over a racist slur made by a French far-right magazine against the country's justice minister.

On the cover of this week's edition, Minute magazine taunted Christiane Taubira with the headline: "Crafty as a monkey, Taubira gets her banana back". It is the third racist attack on Taubira in as many weeks and has provoked outrage and soul searching in France across political divides.

A member of the far-right National Front was suspended after comparing Taubira to a monkey in a recent television interview, and during a visit to the city of Angers, the minister faced children waving bananas. One 11-year-old girl shouted: "Monkey, eat your banana".

[...]

The headline is a play on words: banana can also be used as slang for a broad smile.

NB:bolding added

Stephanie Messenger #quack #conspiracy #dunning-kruger #psycho theguardian.com

An anti-vaccination children’s picture book written to “educate children on the benefits of having measles” has been bombarded with hundreds of scathing reviews in the past few days in the wake of the disease’s current outbreak in the US.

Australian author Stephanie Messenger, who writes that she has raised three children “vaccine-free and childhood disease-free”, first self-published Melanie’s Marvelous Measles two years ago. But since the measles outbreak in California’s Disneyland last month spread to more than 100 people, it has received more than 800 one-star reviews on Amazon.com as readers laid into the title.

...

The book sets out to take children on a “journey to learn about the ineffectiveness of vaccinations and to know they don’t have to be scared of childhood illnesses, like measles and chicken pox”. With a cover showing a rash-covered girl playing in the garden, Messenger’s story sees Tina worrying about her friend Melanie, who is away from school with measles. Her mother tells her not to be concerned. “Many wise people believe measles make the body stronger and more mature for the future,” she tells her daughter, who then asks if she can visit Melanie and catch measles herself. “That sounds like a great idea,” laughs her mother. “Let’s take her some carrot juice and melon to help her get strong and recover from the measles.”

...

Messenger, in her book, claims that “often today, we are being bombarded with messages from vested interests to fear all diseases in order for someone to sell some potion or vaccine, when, in fact, history shows that in industrialised countries, these diseases are quite benign and, according to natural health sources, beneficial to the body”.

Mike Huckabee #fundie #homophobia theguardian.com

The Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on Sunday said same-sex marriage was like drinking and swearing – a concept appealing to others but not to him as a Christian.

The former Arkansas governor, appearing on CNN, said forcing people opposed to same-sex marriage to accept it was the same as telling Jews they had to serve “bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli”.

“We’re not going to do that,” he said, adding: “We’re not going to ask a Muslim to serve up, ah, something that is offensive to him, to have dogs in his backyard.

“We’re so sensitive to make sure we don’t offend certain religions, but then we act like Christians can’t have the convictions that they have had for over 2,000 years.”

Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, showed strongly in the 2008 Republican primaries, winning the Iowa caucus. In January, he announced he was quitting his Fox News show in order to explore another run for the presidency in 2016.

“I’d like to think there is room in America for people to disagree instead of screaming and shouting and having to shut their businesses down,” he said, adding: “People can be my friends who have lifestyles that are not necessarily my lifestyle. I don’t shut people out of my circle or out of my life because they have a different point of view.

“I don’t drink alcohol, but gosh – a lot of my friends, maybe most of them, do. You know, I don’t use profanity, but believe me, I’ve got a lot of friends who do. Some people really like classical music and ballet and opera – it’s not my cup of tea.”

Same-sex marriage is now legal in 36 states and the District of Columbia. Alabama could become the 37th state to allow it, pending the outcome of a legal fight stoked by resistance by the state government to a judge’s repeated rulings. The US supreme court is due to rule on the issue this year.

Same-sex marriages occurred in Huckabee’s home state, Arkansas, in May 2014, but are currently on hold pending an appeal. The state banned the practice in a 2004 constitutional amendment that was approved by voters.

Polls show 30% support for same-sex marriage among voters who identify themselves as Republicans.

“For me — this is not just a political issue,” Huckabee said. “It is a biblical issue. And unless I get a new version of the scriptures it’s really not my place to just say, ‘OK, I’m just going to evolve.’”

Huckabee is currently promoting a book, God, Guns, Grits and Gravy, which heralds what he says are the values of the states located between the more liberal east and west coasts. The book has courted some controversy, notably over his contention that President Obama was unwise to let his teenage daughters listen to music by Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

Huckabee did not answer a question about whether he thought being gay was a choice, but said he appreciated different viewpoints on gay marriage and was friends with gay people.

ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) #fundie theguardian.com

Researchers have discovered that the hydrogen canopy that may have enclosed Earth before the Flood had some very interesting effects on plant and animal life. The hydrogen in the canopy absorbed blue light, but radiated red light, so the sky was pink rather than blue! Not only did pre-Flood man see the panorama of Creation “through rose-colored glasses,” but the pink light had a definite effect on his mind and body. Modern scientists have discovered that pink light stimulates the adrenal glands to secrete a hormone called norepinephrine. Norepinephrine is both a tranquilliser and a neurotransmitter that both calms the person and sharpens his ability to think. The tranquilliser in the hormone can reduce stress and the accompanying medical complications (heart conditions, ulcers, etc) that come with our-hectic, modern-day lifestyles. Some drugs have the same tranquillising effect, but these drugs also decrease the ability to think and respond to the environment. The neurotransmitter in the norepinephrine sharpens the person’s senses and enables him to think clearly by speeding up his nervous impulses.

Metal hydrogen not only filters blue light, but it also has a fiberoptic effects. This means that light from the sun was not only transmitted through the canopy, but was also spread out across the canopy. The light was dispersed around the world – even at night! At sunrise the sky was a vivid pink color. As the colour of the sky changed, the light grew in intensity throughout the morning, until it was a light pink at noon. As the light subsided during the afternoon, the color of the sky returned to vivid pink again at sunset.

The pink colour and the light dispersion worked together to create a perfect working condition. The pink morning sky caused the norepinephrine to begin flowing and stimulating the man to work. At noon, when the pink light and the norepinephrine production were at their peak, the man worked most efficiently. The decreasing intensity of the pink light in the afternoon gradually calmed the person so that by sunset he was relaxed and ready for a peaceful night’s sleep.

Modern scientists are just now discovering what Christians have always believed – that God’s Creation was perfect.

For more information on the subject of Creation model, you might like to read the book Panorama of Creation by Dr Carl Baugh. You might also want to read some of the numerous books on Creation written by Dr Henry M Morris or other contemporary Christian scientists.

Vitaly Milonov #fundie theguardian.com

The Russian politician who inspired a controversial anti-gay law has found a new source of gay propaganda: the Eurovision song contest.

St Petersburg legislator Vitaly Milonov – who sponsored a local law against homosexual propaganda in 2011 that helped pave the way for a similar federal law last year – has written a letter to Russia's Eurovision selection committee asking it not to send Russian musicians to the 2014 competition in Copenhagen in May.

Calling the event a "Europe-wide gay parade," Milonov argued that Russian performers' participation would "contradict the path of cultural and moral renewal that Russia stands on today". In a tweet, the lawmaker called for a full boycott of the "Sodom show".

"Even just broadcasting the competition in Russia could insult millions of Russians," Milonov said in the letter, according to a statement from his press service.

"The participation of the obvious transvestite and hermaphrodite Conchita Wurst on the same stage as Russian singers on live television is blatant propaganda of homosexuality and spiritual decay."

Singer Thomas Neuwirth will represent Austria at Eurovision this year in his drag persona of Conchita Wurst. Milonov later tweeted that "completely boycotting" the show was not necessary, but said the "pervert from Austria" should be excluded.

Unnamed South Korean family #fundie theguardian.com

German police have arrested five members of a South Korean family suspected of beating to death a 41-year-old woman in a religious exorcism ritual in a hotel room.

The relatives allegedly believed that the woman, also South Korean, was “possessed by demons” and tied her to a bed, gagged and severely beat her for two hours with the goal of “driving out the devil”, prosecutors said.

“I have never seen anything like it,” said Nadja Niesen, chief prosecutor of the city of Frankfurt.

The body was found Saturday in a hotel room where the five suspects – a 44-year-old woman, her 21-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter, and two boys aged 15, one of whom was the victim’s son – were arrested on suspicion of murder.

The cause of death was “suffocation due to massive chest compression and trauma to the neck”. Officials said the woman’s killers used “severe violence” against her, beating her chest and stomach while gagging her with a towel and then a cloth-covered coat hanger.

The national news agency DPA reported that the family were of unknown religious affiliation and had arrived in the city around six weeks earlier.

The investigation led police to discover a second suspected victim alive in the garage of a house the group had rented in the town of Sulzbach. The female relative was badly injured, had hypothermia and was dehydrated.

Morrissey #fundie theguardian.com

Eating meat is not murder, it's much worse than that, according to the celebrated miserablist and former Smiths singer Morrissey.

"I see no difference between eating animals and paedophilia," he said. "They are both rape, violence, murder. If I'm introduced to anyone who eats beings, I walk away."

While devout Morrissey fans may regard his every word as divine writ – including his recent monumental autobiography which he insisted on being published in the Penguin Classics series – he pushed them to the limit in his latest utterances.

"Imagine, for example, if you were in a nightclub and someone said to you: 'Hello, I enjoy bloodshed, throat-slitting and the destruction of life,' well, I doubt if you'd want to exchange phone numbers," he said.

The insights were shared in a Q&A session on his fan website, True to You. Asked about his proudest achievement, he said it was persuading many people to stop eating meat. "If you believe in the abattoir then you would support Auschwitz. There's no difference."

But he wasn't done: "If Jamie 'Orrible is so certain that flesh-food is tasty then why doesn't he stick one of his children in a microwave?" he asked. And of Cilla Black preparing a leg of lamb recently on television: "Since a lamb is a baby, I wondered what kind of mind Cilla Black could possibly have that would convince her that eating a baby is OK?"

Garron Helm #racist theguardian.com

An internet troll accused of sending an antisemitic message to Labour MP Luciana Berger has been sentenced to four weeks in prison at Merseyside magistrates court.

Garron Helm, 21, from Litherland, north of Liverpool, tweeted a picture of the MP with a Holocaust yellow star superimposed on her forehead, with the hashtag “Hitler was right”. The tweet, which referred to Berger as a "communist jewess", read: "You can always trust a Jew to show their true colours eventually."

Helm send the tweet in the early hours of the morning on 7 August and claimed to have sent it in a state of anger and frustration. He pleaded guilty to sending an offensive, indecent or obscene message.

Berger, the MP for Liverpool Wavertree, said she hoped the jail term would deter would-be trolls. “This sentence sends a clear message that hate crime is not tolerated in our country," she said. "I hope this case serves as an encouragement to others to report hate crime whenever it rears its ugly head."

When police searched Helm’s home they found Nazi memorabilia including an SS flag and flags from the British neo-Nazi group National Action. Helm’s twitter account, called "Æthelwulf" – Old English for Noble Wolf – links to the National Action website, which promotes a "free, white Britain".

The account includes a tweet that refers to David Cameron and Ed Miliband as “Jews masquerading as Englishmen” and many references to far-right politics.

[Bolding mine ; links in the original]

Chelsea football fans #racist theguardian.com

Police in Paris and London have launched investigations after Chelsea supporters were filmed singing a racist chant and preventing a black man from boarding the Paris Métro.

...

The footage, obtained exclusively by the Guardian, shows a man repeatedly trying to squeeze on to a busy train, only to be forcefully shoved out of the door and back on to the platform at the Richelieu–Drouot station before Chelsea’s Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain.
The fans on the train are then heard chanting: “We’re racist, we’re racist and that’s the way we like it,” while a black woman is standing in front of them.

...

A Chelsea fan who was on the train claimed the supporters pushed the man off the carriage because he was a PSG fan rather than for being black. Season-ticket holder Mitchell McCoy, 17, from Fulham in London, told the Press Association: “We got on the train and at the station where the man was trying to get on we stopped for a couple of minutes.
“He tried to get on and a few people were pushing him off because there wasn’t much space on the carriage. You couldn’t move.
“People were saying it was because he was black. It’s not true at all. I personally think it’s because he was a PSG fan. Obviously they didn’t want him anywhere with us. That guy in the video tried to force himself on, so they pushed him off.”
Mitchell, who travelled to Paris with five friends, admitted that fans chanted “we’re racist and that’s the way we like it”, but said it was a reference to Chelsea captain John Terry. Asked why that song was sung at that moment, he said: “I’m not sure. I didn’t sing it.”

Meryl Dorey #conspiracy theguardian.com

More venues have cancelled appearances from a US anti-vaccination campaigner, prompting a supporter of the seminars to compare opponents to the gunmen who targeted French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

At least five venues have now ditched bookings for Sherri Tenpenny, who is due to visit Australia in February and March.

An online network opposing her visit, the Stop the Australian (Anti) Vaccination Network (SAVN), has called for venues to refuse bookings and is demanding that Peter Dutton, the immigration minister, reject her visa.

Meryl Dorey, a former president of the Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network, drew a comparison with Wednesday’s attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which left 12 people dead.

“The organisation that is pushing this censorship is a hate group and they are very much like the groups in France that have been carrying out these actions,” she told 3AW.

“No one is forcing people to attend but when you say in a democratic country that you can’t discuss an issue, that’s a problem. There’s an imbalance – 99% of what appears in government brochures is the benefits of vaccination, but not the risks. When someone talks about the risks they are downplayed or ridiculed.”

Bobby Ray Simmons Jr #conspiracy theguardian.com

Bobby Ray Simmons Jr, better known as BoB, American rapper and music producer, believes that the Earth is flat, according to recent tweets from his account.

The rapper – who has released hits Nothin’ on You, Airplanes and Magic – posted dozens of tweets, presenting a variety of arguments as to why modern science is wrong.

“A lot of people are turned off by the phrase ‘flat earth’ ... but there’s no way u can see all the evidence and not know... grow up,” he tweeted.

He argued that if the Earth were indeed curved, evidence of that would be apparent when looking at the horizon in the distance and distant cities would be hidden from view because of curvature.

“No matter how high in elevation you are... the horizon is always eye level ... sorry cadets... I didn’t wanna believe it either,” the rapper tweeted.

He shut down any and all attempts from followers to question his evidence, turning their questions about his theories back on them. When one user asked how no edge of the Earth had been discovered, if it were indeed flat, BoB responded: “Have u been to the edge ? or is that what your science book told you”?

“Well, at least ppl are better at insulting me than they are at thinking,” the rapper added.

[...]

BoB assured his followers that if they simply did the research, they too would come to the same conclusion that he had.

“Don’t believe what I say, research what I say,” he tweeted.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah #fundie theguardian.com

The sultan of oil-rich Brunei has announced the introduction of tough Islamic criminal punishments, pushing ahead with plans that have sparked international condemnation and rare domestic criticism of the fabulously wealthy ruler.

[...]

But 67-year-old Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah – one of the world's wealthiest men – said in his decree that the move was "a must" under Islam, dismissing "never-ending theories" that sharia punishments were cruel in comments clearly aimed at detractors.

"Theory states that Allah's law is cruel and unfair but Allah himself has said that his law is indeed fair," he said.

The initial phase beginning on Thursday introduces fines or jail terms for offences ranging from indecent behaviour, failure to attend Friday prayers, and out-of-wedlock pregnancies.

A second phase covering crimes such as theft and robbery is to be implemented later this year, involving more stringent penalties such as severing of limbs and flogging.

Late next year, punishments such as death by stoning for offences including sodomy and adultery will be introduced.

[Bolding mine]

Nissam Ben Haim and others at Kikar HaShabbat #fundie theguardian.com

For most media outlets a picture of Kim Kardashian, reality television celebrity and wife of rapper Kanye West, would be regarded as guaranteed clickbait. Now, however, the woman for whom the word over-exposed might have been invented has found herself crudely excised from ultra-orthodox Jewish website Kikar HaShabbat.

A photograph of Kardashian in a Jerusalem restaurant enjoying a meal with her husband was doctored, with a receipt placed where she was sitting. In a second image she was rendered unrecognisably fuzzy.

Even Kardashian’s name was left out of the piece by the paper, which referred to her only as “Kanye West’s wife”.

The article from which Kardashian was excised had criticised the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, for dining with the couple at a well-known non-kosher restaurant, Mona, which not only opens on the Jewish sabbath but serves non-kosher dishes mixing meat and dairy, including for the meal in question.

Barkat – the target of the article – had posted a photograph of himself with the couple on his Facebook page, in which he wrote: “Raising a glass to Jerusalem with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West! I asked them to serve as Jerusalem’s ambassadors and spread the word that Jerusalem is an open city and welcomes everyone.”

Nissim Ben Haim, an editor at the Kikar HaShabbat website, said on Wednesday Kardashian had been removed because she clashed with ultra-Orthodox values, not least that women should dress and behave modestly.

Belzer rabbis of Stamford Hill #fundie theguardian.com

Leaders of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect in north London have said children who are driven to school by their mothers will be turned away at the school gates.

Rabbis from the marginal Hasidic sect Belz have told women in Stamford Hill who drive that they go against “the traditional rules of modesty in our camp”.

In a letter sent to parents last week, seen by the Jewish Chronicle, they say there has been an increase in the number of mothers driving their children to school and add that this has led to “great resentment among parents of pupils of our [Hasidic] institutions”.

The letter says the ban, to come into force in the summer, is based on the recommendations of Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, the Belzer spiritual leader in Israel.

It says that if a mother has no other choice but to drive her child to school – for medical reasons, for example – she should “submit a request to the special committee to this effect and the committee shall consider her request”.

The move has been met with some disagreement within the Orthodox community. Dina Brawer, the UK ambassador of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, said: “What this is really about is the curtailing of women’s freedom of movement rendering them dependent on men. It’s an issue of power and control not one of religious sensibility.

“The positioning of this ban is that women drivers somehow breach the values of modesty, which is absurd, as by any objective standpoint there is nothing at all immodest about a women driving a car.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews distanced itself from the decree, saying the letter was from a marginal and unaffiliated group.

But a statement issued on behalf of women in the sect by a local Belz women’s organisation said they felt “extremely privileged and valued to be part of a community where the highest standards of refinement, morality and dignity are respected”.

“We believe that driving a vehicle is a high pressured activity where our values may be compromised by exposure to selfishness, road-rage, bad language and other inappropriate behaviour,” they said.

“We do, however, understand that there are many who conduct lifestyles that are different to ours, and we do not, in any way, disrespect them or the decisions they make.”

Not all Orthodox sects discourage women from driving. This is believed to be the first time a ban has been imposed in the UK.

The Belz, who originated in Ukraine in the early 18th century and established their headquarters in Israel after the second world war, are one of the most prominent Hasidic sects.

In September last year, there was similar controversy when posters put up by an Orthodox Jewish group warned women to walk on one side of the road for a religious parade. The posters were removed by Hackney council after they were deemed unacceptable.

William Bader, Steven Johnson and the KKK #fundie theguardian.com

Outside the South Carolina statehouse, William Bader stood tall and defiant as he brandished a large Confederate battle flag. It was not unlike the one embroidered on his black shirt, or the one a local honor guard recently removed from a flagpole outside the legislative building where he protested.

Bader, an imperial wizard in the Trinity White Knights, drove hundreds of miles from Kentucky – or, rather, “Klantucky”, as he quipped – to Columbia, all in hopes of defending the flag on a sweltering Saturday afternoon.

“They took our flag, so be it,” said Bader, a member of the Ku Klux Klan for the past two decades. “They’re taking our heritage from us. They’re taking the freedom out of America.”

More than a week ago, South Carolina lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to take down the Confederate flag from its prominent position on the statehouse grounds. The controversial decision, which followed a racially motivated 17 June shooting that left nine African American men and women dead inside a historic Charleston church, prompted competing rallies between white supremacist and black activist groups.

The Loyal White Knights, a North Carolina-based group thought to be the largest KKK faction, scheduled the protest to stop the removal of the flag. The group decided to carry on regardless. They received support from other KKK factions, National Socialist Movement members and Christian fundamentalists.

“The blacks have been out here attacking people, stealing people’s property, taking their flags,” said Steven Johnson, a South Carolina father of two who was among those waving Nazi flags during the rally. “I’m scared of what my family’s about to grow up with.”

Forgoing their notorious hoods, more than 50 protesters brandished flags and yelled racial epithets at minority onlookers from behind the protection of steel barricades, watched by dozens of law enforcement officers. According to Bader, some KKK members had planned to hold a church burning, wearing the infamous Klan uniforms.

Unnamed British Racists #racist theguardian.com

(New figures reveal dramatic increase in hate crimes against Polish people

Tenfold rise in attacks since 2004 blamed on the recession, benefit cuts and stereotyping by politicians)

Damian Citko was attacked outside the Cross Keys pub in Dagenham in January by 15 men as he was about to drive off on his motorbike. The group beat him to the ground with kicks and punches. "They kicked my head so hard that even though I was wearing a helmet I had black eyes," says Citko, 39, a network administrator from Opole, who arrived in Britain shortly after Poland's accession to the EU in 2004. "All I could hear while they were beating me was: 'Go back to Poland, go back home.'" The police arrived and rushed Citko to Queen's hospital, Romford. Luckily his heavily padded biking gear meant he survived the assault without major injuries.

Citko is just one of hundreds of Poles who are victims of race crime every year in the UK. Exclusive figures obtained for Society Guardian through freedom of information requests reveal that, in 2013, police officers arrested 585 people for a hate crime (such as a violent assault, vandalism or a public order offence) against a Pole – one person every 14 hours. That's a tenfold increase from 2004. And the total number of arrests is likely to be much higher, because only 26 of the country's 46 forces replied to the Guardian's request for information.

In the decade since Poland joined the EU, at least half a million Poles have come to Britain. Many say they have suffered some form of xenophobia. In a recent survey of 1,000 Polish people by journalism students at the London College of Communications, nearly three-quarters (71%) said they had been subjected to some form of abuse and knew someone who had been physically attacked because they were Polish.

And the problem is worsening. In Belfast, over 10 days in April, three young Polish nationals were attacked by a gang after being asked for a cigarette; a 23-year-old man was stabbed in the leg and seven Polish homes were vandalised. "It was terrifying, they were throwing bricks through our windows," says Maria Glok, who lives in the one of the vandalised homes. "I really feared for my family. I honestly don't know if I can continue to live here like this."

"It's like people think it is OK to discriminate against [us]."

For Andrzej Rygielski, 51, a retail manager from Kent, these cases are all too familiar. Rygielski says he has suffered from an appalling level of abuse since he arrived in the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, from Inowroclaw in 2005. "For years I have had stones thrown at me and my house", he says. In 2012, Rygielski came home from shopping with his teenage daughter to find "Pollish suck cock" (sic) scrawled in fake blood on the outer wall of his house and, in January this year, he was attacked in his shop by a customer.

In February, 20 Polish community leaders and organisations wrote an open letter to David Cameron criticising the government's approach. "It is truly hurtful that once excellent British-Polish relations are on the verge of being shattered by populist politicians, who are using Poles as scapegoats," the letter said. "We will not allow bigotry and discrimination against our people."

On the same day, hundreds protested outside parliament calling on the government to do more to combat anti-Polish attitudes in the UK. Many blame the media. "The newspapers make us like monsters, like scum. They say we are stealing jobs and benefits. This is simply untrue," says Rygielski.

Others attribute the increase in anti-Polish feeling to senior political figures. George Byczynski, one of the protest organisers and founder of the British Polish Law Association (BPLA), which was created in January to offer legal assistance to Poles who have suffered discrimination, says: "When the prime minister is name-checking Poles as somehow responsible for taking benefits away from this country, it is no wonder people who read those comments believe it and that, as a result, Poles are under attack in their communities. It was utterly irresponsible."

Al-Khanssaa Brigade #fundie theguardian.com

Girls can marry at the age of nine, should ideally have husbands by 16 or 17 and should not be corrupted by going to work, according to a treatise published by female Islamic State supporters in Iraq and Syria.

The document, Women of the Islamic State: Manifesto and Case Study, says women must stay behind closed doors and leave the house only in exceptional circumstances.

“It is always preferable for a woman to remain hidden and veiled, to maintain society from behind this veil,” the English translation says. Fashion shops and beauty salons are denounced as the work of the devil.

The semi-official Islamic State manifesto on women – believed to be the first of its kind – was published on a jihadi forum in Arabic last month and is purported to be by the media wing of the al-Khanssaa Brigade, an all-female militia set up by Islamic State (Isis).

It has now been translated into English by the London-based counter-extremism thinktank Quilliam Foundation.

The introduction to the treatise says it has not been sanctioned by “the state” – meaning Islamic State – or its leadership but is a document to “clarify the role of Muslim women and the life which is desired for them” and “to clarify the realities of life and the hallowed existence of women in the Islamic State”.

The manifesto says: “From ages seven to nine, there will be three lessons: fiqh (understanding) and religion, Qur’anic Arabic (written and read) and science (accounting and natural sciences).

“From 10 to 12, there will be more religious studies, especially fiqh, focusing more on fiqh related to women and the rulings on marriage and divorce. This is in addition to the other two subjects. Skills like textiles and knitting, basic cooking will also be taught.

“From 13 to 15, there will be more of a focus on sharia, as well as more manual skills (especially those related to raising children) and less of the science, the basics of which will already have been taught. In addition, they will be taught about Islamic history, the life of the prophet and his followers.

“It is considered legitimate for a girl to be married at the age of nine. Most pure girls will be married by 16 or 17, while they are still young and active. Young men will not be more than 20 years old in those glorious generations.”

The western model for woman has failed, the treatise says, with women who go to work taking on “corrupted ideas and shoddy-minded beliefs instead of religion”. “The model preferred by infidels in the west failed the minute that women were ‘liberated’ from their cell in the house,” it says.

The manifesto includes a lengthy condemnation of the culture of the “disbelievers of Europe”, urging its readers to disavow “falsity and materialism in civilisation” and to devote oneself instead to religious knowledge.

The ideal Islamic community, it says, should not be caught up with “trying to uncover the secrets of nature and reaching the peaks of architectural sophistication”. They should instead concentrate on the implementation of sharia law and the spreading of Islam.

In a section entitled: “How the soldiers of Iblis [the devil] keep women from paradise”, the authors take aim at the western lifestyle that encourages both men and women to gain an education and employment. The manifesto denounces the wearing of fashionable clothes and piercings, concluding: “This urbanisation, modernity and fashion is presented by Iiblis [the devil] in fashion shops and beauty salons.”

It is the “fundamental function” of a woman to be in the house with her husband and children, the jihadi guide says, adding that they may leave the house to serve the community only in exceptional circumstances – to wage jihad when there are no men available, to study religion, and female doctors and teachers are permitted to leave but “must keep strictly to sharia guidelines”.

“Yes, we say: ‘Stay in your houses’, but this does not mean, in any way, that we support illiteracy, backwardness or ignorance,” the English-language translation reads. “Rather, we just support the distinction between working – that which involves a woman leaving the house – and studying, as it was ordained she should do.”

Janusz Korwin-Mikke #fundie theguardian.com

Dapper in bow tie and blazer, Nigel Farage’s new European ally likes to welcome a woman to his grey-walled, grey-carpeted Brussels office by stooping to kiss her hand. There is a danger, though, that he will follow up this display of old-fashioned courtesy by sharing some old-fashioned views about her inferiority.

Janusz Korwin-Mikke is the eccentric head of Poland’s Congress of the New Right. With his agreement, a member of the party, Robert Iwaszkiewicz, has just joined Ukip’s parliamentary alliance, Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), pushing it over a threshold of 25 parliamentarians from seven countries and thus securing more than £1m in funding for Ukip alone.

A friend in need is a friend indeed. But Korwin-Mikke has the potential to be an embarrassing ally. For instance, he thinks women’s opinions are shaped by the sperm of the men they sleep with, that they are “on average” less clever than men, and that nearly half of women who tell a man they don’t want to have sex with them are feigning reluctance and should be ignored.

“Semen probably is not wasted, because nature usually makes use of the material it has, and there is a hypothesis that the attitudes of men are passed to women by way of the semen which penetrates the tissue,” he told the Observer, in the tone a science teacher might use for a basic lesson.

Giggles only prompt an admonition. “It is not a political statement. There is a very strong argument for this hypothesis, that now when contraceptives are much more in use, the women become much more independent.”

Korwin-Mikke, 72, is an extreme libertarian. A veteran with half a century’s political experience, he throws out his bizarre views in rapid-fire sentences, broken by the easy smile of a man used to deference, which only makes them seem more disturbing. There is no proof Hitler knew about the Holocaust, he has argued for years, and he told the Observer that Mussolini, who stripped Jewish citizens of property and civil rights, then sent thousands to German concentration camps, “was trying to protect Jews”.

He would like to abolish not just the European Union but democracy altogether, replacing it with an absolute monarchy, which he considers the gold standard for government. His main objection to dictatorship is that it leaves open the question of who succeeds a leader.

He hungers for what he says is a lost Europe of dog-eat-dog economic rules, the freedom to buy arsenic over the counter by the kilo, drive without seatbelts and give free rein to the aggression that he says made the continent great. “If someone gives money to an unemployed person he should have his hand cut off because he is destroying the morale of the people,” Korwin-Mikke said, adding that the state should not give anyone a cent either. “Europeans were very aggressive and now the boys are taught not to be aggressive — Give them the pistol, give them a sword.”

Len McCluskey #conspiracy theguardian.com

Intelligence services posing as Jeremy Corbyn supporters could be behind the abuse and intimidation of MPs on social media in an attempt to “stir up trouble” for the Labour leader, the Unite boss Len McCluskey has suggested.

Speaking to the Guardian, the general secretary of the UK’s largest trade union and one of Corbyn’s strongest supporters said he thought “dark practices” would ultimately be uncovered by the 30-year rule, under which classified documents are released into the public domain three decades after being written.

Asked if he believed the online abuse of Corbyn’s critics was posted by people trying to discredit his supporters, McCluskey said: “Of course, of course. Do people believe for one second that the security forces are not involved in dark practices?

“I have been around long enough — the type of stuff that we ultimately find out about, about who was involved in who, the 30-year rule.

“We found out just a couple of years ago that the chair of my union then, the Transport and General Workers Union, was an MI5 informant at the time that there was a strike taking place that I personally as a worker was involved in. [In] 1972, I was on strike for six weeks. And 30 years later it comes out that the chair of my union at that time was an MI5 informant.”

Asked again if he believed that classified documents would eventually reveal the involvement of security forces in Corbyn’s leadership difficulties, McCluskey said: “Well I tell you what, anybody who thinks that that isn’t happening doesn’t live in the same world that I live in.

“Do you think that there’s not all kinds of rightwingers who are not secretly able to disguise themselves and stir up trouble? I find it amazing if people think that isn’t happening.”

McCluskey said he believed that MPs and others who had spoken of death threats and intimidation were exaggerating the extent of those threats.

“There’s a hysteria being whipped up,” he said. “A few people say things they shouldn’t and then it’s blown up out of all proportion, to suit the imagery that the Labour party has somehow become a cesspit, and suddenly it’s a crisis.”

McCluskey said he condemned the threats, but he was unsure what politicians could do to stop it. “God knows how you can control social media,” he said. “I know the more vicious elements hide their identities, and all these horrible things like [the Labour MP for Wigan] Lisa Nandy’s baby being threatened are despicable.

“They’re nothing to do with me. And they’re nothing to do with what I believe in. But how can you control them? Who are they?”

Various German xenophobes #racist theguardian.com

Angela Merkel warns against intolerance towards refugees

Chancellor dismisses ‘traitor’ jibes from far-right hecklers at Saxony refugee shelter and thanks Germans trying to help asylum seekers

The German chancellor’s visit to the Heidenau refugee centre, greeted, above, by a placard reading “traitor of the people” came a day after Berlin said it had eased some asylum rules.

Angela Merkel was met by a barrage of whistles, boos and calls of traitor when she visited an emergency asylum seeker and refugee centre near Dresden. She insisted that hatred towards refugees would not be tolerated.

About 50 protesters had gathered outside the disused DIY store turned reception centre in Heidenau, Saxony, as the German chancellor, on Wednesday, made her first visit to a refugee shelter. Her visit reportedly followed criticism that she had failed to openly condemn recent violence against the large numbers of refugees arriving in Germany.

In a protest organised on social media by far-right groups car horns were blown to try to block out her words. Merkel insisted on the importance of “human and dignified treatment” of asylum seekers. “There will be no tolerance towards those who are not prepared to help,” she said. “The more people that make that clear, the stronger we will be.”

Heidenau, which has been housing 600 refugees since Friday, was the scene of violent clashes between police and demonstrators at the weekend, confrontations which, on Wednesday, Merkel branded shameful and repulsive. Right-wing radicals and racist protesters threw fireworks and bottles at police, injuring 31 of them.
German neo-Nazi protesters clash with police at new migrant shelter
Read more

Following the announcement last week that Germany was expecting to receive at least 800,000 refugees this year, attacks against refugee shelters which were already high, have intensified, particularly in the east of the country.

“Germany will help where help is necessary, and of course we need to put this into practice,” Merkel said. “We cannot act as if this situation was a perfectly normal one. And it will only work if we take this new path together.”

Protesters repeatedly shouted “people’s traitor” and chanted “Wir sind das Pack” (we are the mob), a dig at the deputy chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, who called the protesters a mob during a visit to Heidenau on Tuesday. It was also a play on the popular demonstration cry “Wir sind das Volk”, (we are the people) used by pro-democracy demonstrators in the run-up to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 but recently hijacked by supporters of the racist movement Pegida.

Merkel thanked the tens of thousands of people in Germany who have been joining in the effort to help the refugees who have dispersed across the country, after arriving mostly via Bavaria in the south.

She also praised mayors across Germany for trying to care for the refugees, thanking them and everyone who had “had to endure the hatred”. Her closing words amounted to what was, for Merkel, an unusually heartfelt appeal to all Germans to keep talking about the issues and about how Germany could best deal with what she described as the exceptional situation.
Germans greet influx of refugees with free food and firebombings
Read more

At the same time, the German president, Joachim Gauck, visited a refugee shelter in Berlin. He said the attacks belonged to a “dark Germany” and said those who were involved in helping refugees to integrate belonged to a “bright Germany” and offered a clear answer to the rabble-rousers. He added that while it was the job of politicians to listen to the fears of the people, now was a time when the people needed to trust politicians to “master the challenges”.

“I’d like to remind you that during times in the past when Germany was grindingly poor we have faced far greater challenges than this. But people nowadays have of course forgotten this.”

In the first half of 2015 there were about 200 attacks on the accommodation of asylum seekers, a huge increase on last year.

Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock #fundie theguardian.com

Yoga classes do not violate students' religious rights, Californian court rules
Appeals court upholds ruling against lawsuit brought by family who claimed yoga promoted Hinduism and inhibited Christianity.
Yoga taught in a public school is not a gateway to Hinduism and does not violate the religious rights of students or their parents, a California appeals court has ruled.

An appeal court in San Diego upheld a lower court ruling that tossed out a family’s lawsuit that tried to block Encinitas Union school district from teaching yoga as an alternative to traditional gym classes.

“While the practice of yoga may be religious in some contexts, yoga classes as taught in the district are, as the trial court determined, ‘devoid of any religious, mystical, or spiritual trappings,’” the court wrote in a 3-0 opinion.
Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock and their two children had brought the lawsuit claiming yoga promoted Hinduism and inhibited Christianity. They were disappointed with the ruling and considering their options.

“No other court in the past 50 years has allowed public school officials to lead children in formal religious rituals like the Hindu liturgy of praying to, bowing to, and worshipping the sun god,” attorney Dean Broyles said in a statement.

Paul V Carelli IV, a lawyer for the district, said there were no rituals occurring in the classroom and no one was worshipping the sun or leading Hindu rites. The district said the practice was taught in a secular way to promote strength, flexibility and balance.

Yoga is now taught at schools across the US, but the district is believed to be the first with full-time yoga teachers at all schools.

A three-year grant from the KP Jois Foundation, a nonprofit group that promotes Ashtanga yoga, provides twice-weekly, 30-minute classes to the district’s 5,600 students.

About 30 families opted out of the classes begun in 2011.

ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) #fundie theguardian.com

Scientists have known for years that snowflakes are shaped in six-sided, or hexagonal, patterns. But why is this? Some scientists have theorised that the electrons within a water molecule follow three orbital paths that are positioned at 60° angles to one another. Since a circle contains 360°, this electronic relationship causes the water molecule to have six ‘spokes’ radiating from a hub (the nucleus). When water vapour freezes in the air, many water molecules link up to form the distinctive six-sided snowflakes and the hexagonal pattern is quite evident.

Snowflakes also contain small air pockets between their spokes. These air pockets have a higher oxygen content than does normal air. Magnetism has a stronger attraction for oxygen than for other gases. Consequently, some scientists have concluded that a relationship exists between a snowflake’s attraction to oxygen and magnetism’s attraction to oxygen.

Job 38:22, 23 states, ‘Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?’ Considering this scripture, some scientists believe that a tremendous power resides untapped within the water molecules from which snowflakes and hailstones are made.

How can this scripture, along with these observations about snowflakes, show us a physical truth? Scientists at Virginia Tech have produced electricity more efficiently from permanent magnets, which have their lines of force related to each other at sixty-degree angles, than from previous methods of extracting electricity from magnetism. Other research along this line may reveal a way to tap electric current directly from snow, eliminating the need for costly, heavy, and complex equipment now needed to generate electricity.

Jean-Marie Le Pen #fundie theguardian.com

[Hyperlinks in original]

It has been described as a far-right, political death-match somewhere between King Lear and Dallas.

France’s far-right Front National has been plunged into an all-out war between its president, Marine Le Pen, and her ageing father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, after he made inflammatory comments belittling the Holocaust and defended Marshal Pétain, the leader of France’s Nazi collaborationist Vichy regime.

[...]

Then in an interview this week with Rivarol, a notorious far-right weekly, Jean-Marie Le Pen attacked his daughter’s criticism of his Holocaust comments, saying: “You’re only betrayed by your own.”

He defended Philippe Pétain, the leader of France’s Nazi collaborationist Vichy regime in the 1940s, who was convicted of treason after the war. He told the magazine: “I have never considered Marshal Pétain a traitor. He was treated too severely after the liberation.”

He also lamented: “We’re being governed by immigrants and children of immigrants at all levels.” Citing France’s Spanish-born Socialist prime minister, Manuel Valls, he asked: “What is his attachment to France?”

He said France should join with Russia to save the “white world” and said he understood why some fought democracy.

Black_Sun #fundie theguardian.com

“Is Islam incompatible with democracy?”."

Of course not which is why freedom loving liberals living in Western Secular Liberal Democracies don't want Islam or anything to do with it anymore than they would Nazism.

Democracy also allows people the right to be Nazis, Fascists or Communists but it doesn't mean that the rest of us have to put up with them or shouldn't fight them with absolutely everything we have.

BTW, there is no such thing as Islamophobia - a phobia is an irrational fear and there is nothing remotely irrational in fearing the idiot ideology and demented Dark Age dogma of feeble-minded fascists who want to live in a Totalitarian Theocracy.

The real question is what are the overwhelming majority of freedom loving people in a secular liberal democracy who are non-Muslim going to do about about Islam.

Goldino #conspiracy theguardian.com

(On people with cancer being treated)

They should be allowed to die naturally, in peace. It's chemo that causes the pain for cancer sufferers, not the actual cancer.

SillySillyBoy #fundie theguardian.com

This is rubbish. The VAST majority of the violence is being directed from the left and towards Trumpers. Anyone who denies that is either lying or relies entirely on heavily biased progressive media.

For today's hysterical attempt to paint Donald Trump as worse than, like, literally Hitler: Newsflash: school children bully each other in playground, this never happen before Trump go nominated.

The bigger issue is the brainwashing of an entire generation to the point where any complaint or criticism about any foreigner is automatically labelled "Hitler/Nazi/Racist" and dismissed as immoral to even talk about.

There is nothing illegitimate about Americans being concerned with millions of illegal immigrants coming into their country from Mexico. Just like there's nothing illegitimate about uncontrolled immigration being a huge issue in the Brexit debate.

You are absolutely right. This is the progressive media propaganda machine at its worse. The thing is, it's game over for them and they don't realise. These words "Nazi", "racist", "xenophobe" are losing their power because they've been overused to silence debate for far too long. Young people are starting to laugh at these terms, starting to make jokes about them just to trigger the neurotic progressive thought police. They've lost control of the Narrative and we are seeing the final desperate throws before the left sinks into despair (or possibly reacts with their traditional mass violence).

Why do the left never include Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot in these lists? The left's 20th century body count is far higher. A recent survey found half of young people in Britain don't recognise Stalin's name, but nearly everyone knows Hitler. That's what decades of the left's complete control over education gives you: redwash.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh #fundie theguardian.com

Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti has ruled that chess is forbidden in Islam, saying it encourages gambling and is a waste of time.

Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh was answering a question on a television show in which he issues fatwas in response to viewers’ queries on everyday religious matters.

He said chess was “included under gambling” and was “a waste of time and money and a cause for hatred and enmity between players”.

Sheikh justified the ruling by referring to the verse in the Qur’an banning “intoxicants, gambling, idolatry and divination”. It is not clear when the fatwa was delivered.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s supreme Shia religious authority, has previously issued rulings forbidding chess.

Marine Le Pen #conspiracy theguardian.com

Marine Le Pen's public relations efforts to soften the image of the far-right Front National were dented this week after she caused outrage by questioning the beards and scarves worn by returning French hostages.

Le Pen, whose party's trademark is speaking out against immigration and public displays of Islam, said the appearance of the four men who had been held captive by for three years by Islamist militants in the Sahel desert was "troubling".

She told Europe 1 radio: "Two of them had beards cut in a rather strange way. Their clothing was strange. One hostage had a scarf on his face. That all calls for some explanation on their part."

Asked whether she was implying the French workers kidnapped in 2010 from a uranium mine site in Niger might have converted to Islam, she said: "I'm not making allusions. I'm telling you how I felt. I wouldn't go so far as to offer a theory."

The mother of one of the former captives, Pierre Legrand, said her son and the three other men had agreed to keep their beards and scarves in a gesture of solidarity with other French hostages still held in the region. The four, flown back to Paris within 48 hours of their release from harsh conditions in northern Mali, had appeared tired and relatives said they needed time to recover from their ordeal.

[Bolding mine - links in the original]

wetnap #conspiracy theguardian.com

Social Justice Warriors are not a tiny subset of writers. They infest all the major media venues, all the major forums and even reddit. Mass production of slanted articles has been seen and noted by the likes of youtuber Internet Aristocrat, its not surprise that all those sites came out with their "gamer is dead" articles on the same day. All these sites suppress information, enact mass bans on commenters for making them look bad by criticising them with the truth, and even on reddit, a moderator who had personal contact with Zoe Quinn just mass deleted tens of thousands of comments sight unseen. Its level of abuse of power which is hard to stomach, and its not a small subset, its almost all the major venues, and the rest who are even slightly stand offish on the issue still give their ideas credence, even weak support is support. And of course this is once again amplified by the main stream media, which sources its news about gaming and such issues from the corrupt gaming media.

You see, even when "journalists" try to appear fair by ceding a little ground they aren't. There is no middle ground against the truth. There is only truth. When accusations against gamers are made without any substantive evidence, they should be called on it. Instead we see just tacit acknowledgement that this is just a presumed fact. But its not.

Just some back of the envelope calculations/logic tells you this. How many gamers are there in the US alone? Industry figures say 200 million+, now discount half as women, and you have 100 million. How many supposed threats against Anita? I doubt it was anything more than double digits, if that(her claims are dubious). I'll give you 100 threats for the sake of argument. Whats 100 threats out of 100 million? Its 0.000001%
So we see "journalists" lecturing all gamers over 0.000001% of the population. Ask yourself, how many African Americans are felons? Its 7.7% based on felony disenfranchisement numbers, and yet, we don't start off every conversation involving a black person with a lecture about crime do we? It would be labeled for what it was, bigotry of the highest order, insulting, patronizing and just not something to be tolerated. Yet we see "journalists" lecturing gamers over the supposed behavior of 0.000001% of the population, its simply intolerable.

Anyways youtubers who have covered this entire issue better

Internet Aristocrat
Thunderf00t
JordanOwen42
Dangerous Analysis
Sargon of Akkad
Investig8tiveJoournalism
Gaming Anarchist
The Fantastic Skeptic
Aurini
Karen Straughan -Honey badger radio
Anyone who wants to see what's not being covered...those are a good watch.

Helpers of God's Precious Infants #fundie theguardian.com

Women trying to get an abortion in Albury, New South Wales, have ended up self harming or even attempting suicide because of harassment from protesters outside the only clinic offering the procedure in the area, health workers have said.

[...]

A social worker, who did not want to be named because she has been frequently targeted by protesters, said women had been intimidated about attending the clinic for too long.

“Many women end up travelling to Melbourne or Sydney for the procedure because they can’t face the protesters,” she told Guardian Australia.

“Some teenage girls do self harm because they don’t feel safe going to the clinic here, or they’re worried they will be identified by the protesters and the whole city will know about it.

“They don’t have the resources to go to Melbourne or Sydney, their parents may not know, and they are so stressed and traumatised, they attempt suicide.”

[...]

One woman described how she panicked as the protesters began to approach. “I couldn’t take a step forward,” the woman, who did not want to be identified, said.

“I panicked very badly; my anxiety was so heightened I hyperventilated. I was so distressed knowing they were going to race at me.”

She said the group surrounded her and blocked her entrance to the clinic, telling her she was making the wrong decision and holding up graphic images of dead babies.

“I finally responded that I had no choice, that my foetus was likely both deformed and brain damaged, and that if I continued with the pregnancy that I’d likely leave four children motherless,” she said. “I was told that I should choose death. This ... made me hysterical.”

[...]

[W]omen were being filmed by protesters and that their names were being recorded, shattering their privacy.

[...]

A study conducted by a fertility clinic in East Melbourne found 78% of their patients were more traumatised by anti-abortion protesters than getting a termination.

Anna von Marburg, the co-ordinator for Albury Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, did not directly answer questions from Guardian Australia about claims women were being driven to self harm or being psychologically traumatised.

But she said the group had displayed “exemplary behaviour and incredible courage in the face of very aggressive tactics by abortion advocates”.

“The abortion clinic, abortion activists, police and pedestrians have hundreds of hours of footage of the [group] and have never been able to show evidence of any harassment, blocking, or violence,” she said.

She also dismissed Mourik’s assessment that staff were stressed as a result of the protests.

“Society should feel stress and anxiety that doctors and nurses are using surgical means to solve a largely psychosocial problem,” Von Marburg, who also runs the local Catholic bookstore, said.

“We believe that we can offer a solution that does not involve the destruction of human life.”

When asked why her group could not compromise and carry out protests down the street from the clinic, Von Marburg replied: “Why doesn’t Occupy Wall Street move to Kansas?”

Binyamin Lipkin #fundie theguardian.com

A small Jewish ultra-Orthodox newspaper in Israel has found itself in the spotlight after digitally removing Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel from a photo of this week’s Paris march.

World leaders had linked arms to march in Paris against terrorism after Islamic extremists killed 17 people. At the march, Merkel stood in the front row between the French president, François Hollande, and Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

But readers of the Hamevaser newspaper’s Monday edition didn’t know, as she had been digitally removed, leaving Abbas standing next to Hollande. Israeli media joked it was meant to bring Abbas closer to Israeli premier Binyamin Netanyahu, who was standing nearby.

Within the insular ultra-Orthodox community, pictures of women are rarely shown, due to modesty concerns. In Jerusalem, ultra-Orthodox vandals frequently deface buses and billboards with advertising deemed to be immodest.

The picture in Hamevaser also cut out other women, like the Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, though the newspaper clumsily left her dark glove on the sleeve of a marcher. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, was cropped out.

Binyamin Lipkin, editor of Hamevaser, said the newspaper is a family publication that must be suitable for all audiences, including young children.

“The eight-year-old can’t see what I don’t want him to see,” he told Israel’s Channel 10 television station. “True, a picture of Angela Merkel should not ruin the child, but if I draw a line, I have to put it there from the bottom all the way to the top.”

He also said he did not want to tarnish the memories of the people killed in the attacks.

“Including a picture of a woman into something so sacred, as far as we are concerned, it can desecrate the memory of the martyrs and not the other way around,” he said.

Ravi Kulasekere #conspiracy theguardian.com

Sure, now that a pharma consulting company, a bug eyed ball of wool and a bold faced liar have all claimed that there is no association between vaccines and autism (or neurological disorders such as the ones listed in vaccine inserts) then it must be true.. yeah I also believed in Santa for awhile. The study is quite obviously rigged with the study subject selection criteria and until such time as a true unbiased vaccinated versus un-vaccinated study is done vaccines will and should remain unavoidably unsafe, marginally efficacious in most instances and should remain a choice. The only thing that this study shows is that there should NOT be a one size fits all vaccination agenda like the one we have here in the USA where our babies are given a whopping 49 vaccines from the time they are born until age six. Oh yeah we should probably not question that either because some expert (who by the way runs away from peer-to-peer debates on TV) has claimed that a child can take 10000 vaccines at once and be fine. That must be the money talking or the rear end, take your pick. I am so sick of the bullying, coercion and lies on this subject and the fact that intelligent people who ask intelligent questions are being shut down by people who have blatant conflict of interest and love to play god.

jeremycorbynsupport #fundie theguardian.com

[This comment appears under a review of a television show about travel by rail]

Benjamin Creme says speaking on behalf of Maitreya and the Masters says that the only reason we have not had any nuclear attacks on a human population since 1945 in Japan is that the UFO beings have several times prevented such launches, which I find quite plausible, as it seems unlikely the sort of incompetents and despots we have had in power all around the world for the intervening 71 years since WWII would not have launched a nuclear strike by now.

Of course I am well aware a lot of the public does not believe genuine ET UFO craft and beings are here, though a lot now does (over 50% in some polls), but many ex-military and civil aviation people have sworn on oath to their genuine UFO experiences, such as in the Full Disclosure Project Video on YouTube, and I would be very interested to see someone like Mr Portillo do a serious investigation into the UFO issue, because I have seen the UFOs myself, as have millions of others worldwide, and it's time the public knew the truth that apparently various government or military already know - that we are very definitely not alone in this solar system, and that has massive (and benevolent) implications for all people on our planet.

Robert Ménard #fundie theguardian.com

A French mayor backed by the far-right Front National has been accused of racism after using the names of schoolchildren in his town to decide how many were Muslim.

Under France’s strict secularism laws, the government does not keep statistics on people’s religion or ethnicity.

But Robert Ménard, mayor of Béziers in the south of the country, said his administration had used lists of pupils’ names to decide how many were Muslim, and claimed the figure came to 64.6%.

“Sorry to say this, but the mayor has, class by class, the names of the children,” he said on France 2 television on Tuesday night.

“I know I don’t have the right to do it. Sorry to say it, but the first names tell us their religion. To say otherwise is to deny the evidence,” he added.

His comments brought condemnation from the Socialist government, with the prime minister, Manuel Valls, tweeting: “Shame on the mayor”.

[...]

However the town hall of Béziers denied on Wednesday that there was any list of children’s names or that any effort had been made to identify which were Muslim.

“The town hall of Béziers does not have, and has never had, files on its children,” it said in a statement.

Jean-Marie Le Pen #racist theguardian.com

Jewish leaders have called on Le Pen, 85, was to be stripped of his parliamentary immunity as an MEP after acontroversial play on words linking "oven" with a celebrated Jewish singer in a video posted in the FN's website.

Launching into an attack on celebrities who have criticised the far-right party, including Madonna and tennis player turned musician Yannick Noah, Le Pen was asked about the French singer Patrick Bruel.

"On fera une fournée la prochaine fois" (next time we'll make a batch), he said. The word "four" [from which comes the word "fournée"] translates as oven.

[Italizing, bracketing and bolding mine

The word "fournée" can be translated as "baker's batch" and can be colloquially be used to speak about a work shift.]

ID1597567 #conspiracy theguardian.com

Because we all know this is about getting Assange to the USA What is the saying the bigger the lie the easier it is too get people to accept.I for one am insulted that we are expected to take this outrages lie seriously when we all know this is 101 gov. tactic to get someone.What about the raping by UN troops of little african boys.Stop tell to tell me black is white.

ICUASUCME #conspiracy theguardian.com

Emwazi and Bin Laden may have had embarassing things to say about their acquaintances in western intelligence services. That's why they prefer to kill em. We must force transparency of these unelected 'National Security' wonks for a chance to solve this. Terrorism is a useful distraction from the daily robbery of the super rich. Why else insist on a bombing policy as if it's a new thing that we've just got to get down to now. Fourteen years of testing this in practice has led to a massive increase in terrorism. We must surely now get down to the business of doing exactly as we have been doing. Exasperatingly stupid. Follow the money - who benefits!

BradBenson #conspiracy theguardian.com

[Spain's ambassador to Venezuela recalled in diplomatic spat after Spain calls for release of political prisoners in Venezuela]

Yes, unfortunately, Spain now has a right wing government that is denying rights to its populace, restricting free speech and limiting demonstrations. I'm not surprised that Maduro wouldn't want any more scumbag Fascists in his country than those that are already there. He did deport a bunch of US AID and CIA Thugs last week though. Were any of your co-workers in the group?

Gradually, Maduro will rid himself of all the scum if he wants his government to survive. He will and it will. Not only that, the Bolivarian Movement will continue to grow and spread.

As for your list, there is only one country on that list that matters and that is the US. We determine the foreign policy for the UK and Colombia in all matters that concern us. Canada now has it's own Fascist Government and we've addressed Spain above.

So what we have is the US, two of its prime surrogates and two other quasi-Fascist States that are supporting the US efforts to undermine Venezuela. That makes sense. If Netanyahu and Obama got along better, Israel would be withdrawing their ambassador too!

Rodrigo Duterte #fundie theguardian.com

Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines president, appears to have compared himself to Hitler, saying he would be “happy to slaughter” millions of drug addicts in his bloody war on crime.

During a press conference in his home city of Davao, the former prosecutor told reporters that he had been compared to a “cousin of Hitler” by his critics.

“If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have...,” he said, pausing and pointing to himself.

“Hitler massacred three million Jews ... there’s three million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”

More than six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators before and during the second world war, according to historians.

Duterte has spent his first three months in office running a campaign to kill all involved in the rampant drugs trade, including alleged addicts, causing outrage from rights groups and foreign governments.

More than 3,500 alleged drug dealers and addicts have been killed, about a third of them in police operations but the majority by armed vigilante militias. Duterte has publicly encouraged civilians to kill addicts and said he will not prosecute police for extrajudicial executions.

“You know my victims. I would like (them) to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition,” he said during the press conference early on Friday.

Georgian rioters #fundie theguardian.com

A vegan cafe in the centre of Tbilisi was shocked to find itself the subject of far-right ire after a group arrived and threw meat on patrons’ plates, leading to a public brawl.

Customers said a group entered the cafe wearing sausages around their necks and carrying slabs of meat on skewers, before attacking customers and staff.

Witnesses described the attackers as “far-right extremists”, and said the clash spilled onto the street outside after the attackers were asked to leave. Minor injuries were reported but the perpetrators fled before police arrived.

A statement issued on Facebook by the Kiwi Cafe on Monday described the incident as “an anti-vegan provocative action” accusing the attackers of being “neo-Nazis” who support “fascist ideas”.

According to the statement, the attackers “pulled out grilled meat, sausages, and fish and started eating them and throwing them at us... they were just trying to provoke our friends and disrespect us.”

The statement also alleged that memberes of group had come to the neighbourhood a month earlier and asked a nearby shopkeeper whether foreigners or members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community frequented the cafe.

Launched a year ago, the cafe has become a popular meeting place for foreigners and had been showing English-language episodes of the animated sci-fi sitcom Rick And Morty when the violence broke out.

xGxxVx #racist theguardian.com

(Camera women filmed attacking refugees)

I doubt you'd see the same outcry if she tackled an armed robber on the street.

Has the media has spun this story to the point that we don't even see these people as criminals anymore!?
worrying

Oxford University Labour Club members #racist theguardian.com

The news that the Oxford University Labour Club co-chair has resigned due to claims of antisemitism within the club may have been shocking to some. To Jewish students at Oxford, it was not. The student left produces the most aggressive and virulent propagators of antisemitism on campus.

Alex Chalmers’ resignation statement was clear, emphasising that: “A large proportion of both OULC and the student left in Oxford more generally have some kind of problem with Jews.” The Oxford University Jewish Society noted that it was “not the first time that it has had to deal with antisemitic incidents within the student left and it will not be the last”. The Labour MP John Mann, chair of the all-party parliamentary group against antisemitism, has called for the party to sever all ties with the club.

Following Chalmers’ resignation, further allegations have appeared. Other OULC members, including past executive officers, approached Oxford University Jewish Society with a list of antisemitic incidents they had recorded. One OULC member argued that Hamas was justified in its killing of Jewish civilians and claimed all Jews were legitimate targets. A committee member stated that all Jews should be expected to publicly denounce Zionism and the state of Israel, and that we should not associate with any Jew who fails to do so. It has been alleged that another OULC member organised a group of students to harass a Jewish student and to shout “filthy Zionist” whenever they saw her.

This type of rhetoric is not confined to OULC. Leftwing student leaders have rallied against “any Rothschild” and “Zios” in their Facebook statuses. One of Oxford’s online political forums removed members with Jewish sounding surnames from the group. In another group, a member called for Jews to pack their bags and leave the Middle East. One notable far-left student politician said, “I don’t like being smeared as antisemitic, but I don’t bleed from it either.”

Mohamed Nagy Shehata #fundie theguardian.com

The judge who sent three al-Jazeera English journalists to jail in Egypt has accused them of being in league with the devil in a 57-page explanation of his verdict.

Judge Mohamed Nagy Shehata sentenced Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed last month to between seven and 10 years in jail on charges of aiding terrorists and falsifying news. At the time, diplomats and rights observers described the charges as baseless, the process as flawed and the trio's jailing as an attack on free speech.

In his first statements since the trial, Shehata said "the devil encouraged them to use journalism and direct it towards actions against this nation".

Unnamed Islamists from Birmingham #fundie theguardian.com

Concerns over how some of [Birmingham]'s 430 schools were being run first emerged when an anonymous letter known as Operation Trojan Horse was leaked to councils and teaching unions, claiming that a small but radical group of Muslims were pursuing their own agenda in the classrooms, with non-compliant headteachers and governors forced out.

The document, which is unsigned and undated, claimed to have caused "a great amount of organised disruption" in the city, crediting the plan with forcing a change of leadership at four schools.

Since the letter came to light, anonymous whistleblowers, including former staff, have come forward, making claims that boys and girls were segregated in classrooms and assemblies, sex education was banned, and non-Muslim staff were bullied. In one case it was alleged that the teachings of a firebrand al Qaida-linked Muslim preacher were praised to pupils.

Afghan government #fundie theguardian.com

Afghan government officials have proposed reintroducing public stoning as a punishment for adultery, Human Rights Watch said, even though the practice has been denounced both inside and outside the country as one of the most repugnant symbols of the Taliban regime.

The sentence for married adulterers, along with flogging for unmarried offenders, appears in a draft revision of the country's penal code being managed by the ministry of justice.

There are several references to stoning in a translated section of the draft seen by the Guardian, including detailed notes on judicial requirements for handing down the sentence.

"Men and women who commit adultery shall be punished based on the circumstances to one of the following punishments: lashing, stoning [to death]," article 21 states. The draft goes on to specify that the stoning should be public, in article 23.

66Applicationsperjob #conspiracy theguardian.com

London only brings in the extra money because a) it has raided it from all other regions within the UK and has even stolen money sent by the EU; b) the immigration policy which encourages immigrants to want to live and settle where the money is (in the South) making demands for people who live there to move out, so they can move in owing to favoured conditions thanks to the EU (Government creates the conditions remember e.g. the bedroom tax) who are against nationalism and by making all other immigrants illegal even those from the Commonwealth c) favouring certain countries and their natural resources for exploitation by the EU and to ensure expansion of the EU capturing wealth and then paying itself handsomely with the rewards even to the point of printing money in trillions and then awarding austerity onto populations who pay for it.

Gordon Ferguson #fundie theguardian.com

A Ukip candidate who sent a letter to his constituents calling for pro-Europe leaders to be hanged has apologised, saying he has not had media training.

Gordon Ferguson, who is standing in the Cambridge ward in Southport, said in an email to the Guardian: "In retrospect I can see the language I used and ideas I alluded to may be perceived as rather strong. However, it's a reflection of how strongly I feel about the growing undemocratic power and influence of the EU over UK affairs. I am by no means media trained but an ordinary chap who wants the best for Britain."

He said the media were looking for any way to embarrass the party by going after "ordinary men and women who wish to stand proudly for Ukip at local level". He said he "regretted any embarrassment he had caused the party at this crucial time".

In the letter to constituents, Ferguson wrote: "The Lib-Lab-Cons have conspired with a foreign power the EU and all are thereby guilty of treason. They have sold Britain with the world's fifth largest economy illegally into increasing slavery inside the EU dictatorship. Those responsible should be brought to trial and those found guilty of treason should be hung by the neck until dead (Blair illegally changed the penalty to save his neck)."

He went on to claim it was unlikely that treasonable acts by politicians would be brought trial because most police officers, judges and the Crown Prosecution Service were "almost all exclusively freemason", adding: "Britain's courts have been corrupt for many years. They are all almost in the pocket of the EU."

Ferguson has appeared in a YouTube video denouncing opponents of Ukip for pulling down posters and throwing paint over a Ukip van