Criminalizing the Drinking Straw

     Yet more proof that the more and more some need to virtue signal their environmental wokeness, the stupider the signaled virtue: Plastic straw bans. But what could be more woke than banning straws? Throwing people in jail for violating the ban!

“The city of Santa Barbara has passed an ordinance that will allow restaurant employees to be punished with up to six months of jail time or a $1,000 fine after a second offense of giving plastic straws to their customers.

“…

“Oh, and each individual straw counts as a separate infraction, meaning that if someone got busted handing out straws to a table of four people, he or she could end up facing years behind bars.”

     California, of late, due to overcrowding in jails has sought fit to turn many felonies into more minor misdemeanors, thus letting a myriad of true criminals out on the streets. That it takes giving out drinking straws to raise to the level of jailable criminality is telling about the twisted values that have destroyed a once golden state.

     Interestingly enough, the ordinance only bans “food providers” and “beverage providers” from handing out straws, and not some enterprising individual who does naught but sell straws in front of such an establishment…

Pictured: Environmental Terrorists and Straw-using Criminal Scum, according to the City of Santa Barbara

     Does this mean that bendy straws will be considered “assault straws” with the thingy that goes up? Or how about those twisty fun straws???

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News of the Week (July 29th, 2018)

 

News of the Week for July 29th, 2018


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The Left Are Obsessed About Childhood Sexuality

     If there is one thing that the Progressive Left have successfully swept under the rug, it is their penchant for the sexualization of children. Some do so ought sheer perversion and many others do so because they are insane; still others because they think it is the ultimate in “equality” (e.g. age is just a “social construct“) or that it is a form of “liberation” from the repressive individuality that prevents a true immanentization of the socialist eschaton. Moreover, their goal is normalization of sexuality and carnality for all ages.

     Perhaps most disturbing is that many of those who are pushing this the hardest are those who are not pedophiles and find no perverse pleasure in this, but seek only to mold the tabula rasa that is the child so that not only is sexuality dissevered from the sexual act (something already achieved in part via the normalization of same-sex “marriage”, but all emotional connection so that carnal pleasure is all that is left, which itself is supposed to wither away in some pseudo-Cultural Marxist sense to into a desexualized world free of biological sex and “gender”.

     This normalization has become increasingly open, particularly within academia, where pre-pubescent sexuality is lauded, such as from the Department of Sociology as the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“Parents and caregivers have a tremendous impact on the sexual development of their children, and should not take this lightly. How parents react to this relatively common activity influences the child’s future sexual behavior. Many children receive typically negative reactions from their parents when they are found masturbating, but self-stimulation is actually a natural form of self-exploration. This behavior should not be punished or discouraged”.

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Quick Takes – Colonization: Decolonizing Indiginous Studies; Colonizing Medieval European Studies; Second Thoughts On Colonialism

     Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.

     The focus this time: Colonies

     First, a little colony drop:

     Carrying on…

     Apparently an objective review of a culture is racist and those who study and teach about other cultures are “settler scholars“.

“Canada’s Mount Saint Vincent University is having second thoughts about assigning a white professor to teach a fall course on the controversial boarding schools that once educated the country’s indigenous children.

“It’s not that Martha Walls is unqualified as a scholar to teach ‘Selected Topics in North American History: Residential Schools,’ according to a Friday report by The Candian Press: She’s an expert in ‘Atlantic Canadian First Nations history.’

“It’s not that Mount Saint Vincent has closed its doors to indigenous faculty: It continues to actively recruit them.

“The problem is that Walls is a ‘settler scholar’ who comes to the subject as an outsider, not an indigenous person:

“‘Critics say only Indigenous people have the lived experience to understand the complex and cumulative ways they’ve been discriminated against, and that they should have the agency to teach their own history. …'”

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Bible Study Banned On Private Property

     Despite persecution of bakers, florists, and photographers for daring to keep their 1st Amendment rights while engaging in commerce, certainly they are still free to read and study what they read outside of business activities in the privacy of their very own private property, especially when the freedom of speech and freedom of associated is become a hat trick with the inclusion of religious freedom, right?

     According to Sewickley Heights Borough near Pittsburgh, they don’t. The borough ordered Scott and Terri Fetterolf to “stop using their 35-acre property to host Bible studies, worship events, religious retreats, or religious fundraisers.” How do they argue that this is acceptable? Zoning laws, unsurprisingly.

“Borough officials filed a Notice of Violation/Cease and Desist Order and seek to impose zoning restrictions such as those applicable to ‘Places of Worship’ like churches and synagogues on the Fetterolfs’ activities. However, secular counterparts to these activities like parties, political fundraisers, and book clubs are not banned.”

     Rather than the expectation that freedoms the government is barred from infringing shall not be infringed, this brave new mindset declares that all is forbidden unless the government allows otherwise. If you have to ask permission, then you are not free.

     That religious activities were specifically targeted indicates an animus that would certainly not stand-up to scrutiny, especially in light of Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

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The Normalization of Medical Homicide

     When euthanasia was declared a medical procedure it was inevitable that it would be wielded by doctors, nurses, and hospital staff not only against those with a terminal disease who were in pain, but as a tool to eliminate undesirables. There has been no more clear example of this than the U.K.’s National Healthcare System (NHS).

“The report of The Gosport Independent Panel into Gosport War Memorial Hospital found that only 45% of those administered terminal quantities of diamorphine (which can be appropriate in alleviating severe pain at the very end of life) were said to be in pain. Many of the case studies showed that even where pain was noted, it was not properly assessed, and the effect of medication was not monitored.

“In 29% of cases, no reason or rationale was given for prescribing the lethal doses. In 26%, reasons were given that would “rarely, if ever, be regarded as appropriate indications,” such as deterioration, distress, or agitation.”

Death, Rx

     Some of the reasons are horrifying.

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“So, just so you all know: Trans. Girls. Get. Periods.”

     Biological reality is not a strong area of understanding for those who buy into the entire “transgender” thing. People are told that gender is a completely different thing from biological sex, yet mutilating one’s body and doping up on hormones is called “gender affirming surgery”. But even then one would think that the actual physical differences between the sex organs of the two biological sexes would still be acknowledged. Apparently not

     The entire “trans” agenda is about deceiving people, inveigling institutional pillars of society, and obfuscating basic biological reality.

     A “period” is the menstrual cycle involving female reproductive systems and is related to a females reproductive capacity to gestate a baby. Without the requisite reproductive organs, a period can’t happen. Lack of menstruation is not lack of “one symptom” of having a period. Menstruation is having a period.

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News of the Week (July 22nd, 2018)

 

News of the Week for July 22nd, 2018


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Witchcraft to be Taught in College

     The increasing trend in many African nations is to engage in “decolonization” by purging Western civilization and science from the continent. This includes colleges where magical lighting bolt throwing witches are defended as being as valid as Isaac Newton, if not more so.

     Now UNESCO is funding studies involving witchcraft at the University of Zambia.

“Report has it that UNESCO has given the University of Zambia $340,000 to develop a Degree Programme to safeguard Intangible Heritage with the first intake comprising of 20 students.

“… Intangible Heritage comprises of practices such as Witchcraft, social practices such as expression through music, Knowledge, skills-as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts and rituals, the Zambia National Commission for UNESCO has explained.”

     The University of Zambia has said that the degree program will not actually train students in witchcraft and the program is purely a cultural study; practicing it is illegal in Zambia, which according to its Constitution is a Christian nation.

     However, not everyone in Zambia agrees with that:

“In November last year, Higher Education Minister Professor Nkandu Luo announced that Zambia should consider research and the study of witchcraft as a science that can be used productively for the benefit of the country.

“Professor Luo said Zambian scientists can learn from the South African counterparts who have commenced studies in witchcraft in some universities.

“‘I could not help but think of witchcraft when I saw a mobile phone put into a box and it turned into a lady’s pant!’ she said during the commemoration of the World Science Day for Peace and Development dubbed: ‘Recreating interest in science, technology and innovation’.”

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Quick Takes – Toxic Masculinity: In Kindergarten; In Video Games; In Pseudo-Defense of Not-so-toxicity

     Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.

     The focus this time: Toxic Awesomeness

     First, a little mood music:

     Carrying on…

     Apparently “toxic masulinity” is so endemic, that it must be stopped as soon as the woke educational elite can get their hands on the little Patriarchs…

“A University of Wisconsin-Whitewater professor is urging schools to implement ‘Men’s Projects’ to fight ‘toxic masculinity’ in children as early as kindergarten.

“In a recently published issue of On The Horizon, Kathleen Elliott argues that ‘finding ways to promote healthy masculinity early and to teach boys and young men to recognize, reject, and challenge simplified, toxic masculinity is essential for creating cultural change.’

“Men’s Projects—which typically probe participants to reflect on the ramifications of masculinity—are increasingly commonplace on college campuses, and Elliott suggests that ‘many of goals and methods can be adopted in k-12 schools.’

“Citing the now-defunct University of Wisconsin-Madison Men’s Project, Elliott explains that such programs educate male students on ‘intersectionality and the complexity of masculinity identities’ while helping them ‘challenge simplified definitions of masculinity.'”

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