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BBC Trending: Drawing of a 6-year-old Syrian girl, racist?
BBC Trending: Is this manga cartoon of a six-year-old Syrian girl racist?
"I want to live a safe and clean life, eat gourmet food, go out, wear pretty things, and live a luxurious life… all at the expense of someone else," reads the text on the illustration above. "I have an idea. I'll become a refugee."
The image and caption were posted by a right-wing Japanese artist last month. Now, more than 10,000 people have signed a Change.org petition in Japanese urging Facebook to take it down. The petition, posted by an account calling itself the "Don't Allow Racism Group", claims that several people have reported the illustration and demands that "Facebook must recognize an illustration insulting Syrian refugees as racism."
Although the Japan Times reported that Facebook did not take the picture down, saying it did not go against community guidelines, the artist herself removed the picture. But she remains defiant about her motivations for posting it in the first place. Toshiko Hasumi told BBC Trending that she believed the people signing the petition were left-wing activists. "I draw many political mangas [Japanese comics] which are not favourable to them," she said. "This is why they targeted me."
Barrett Brown: Stop Sending Me Jonathan Franzen Novels
The Barrett Brown Review of Arts and Letters and Prison: Stop Sending Me Jonathan Franzen Novels
Another fun piece written by Barrett Brown from federal prison, this time about Purity.
Here are some older articles along similar lines.
Britons, Work Like the Chinese! (Or Else)
Right-thinking Tory Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Freudian-Slip has announced today that the decent, honest, noble, compassionate Conservative Party would like to encourage the poor to work as hard as the Chinese and Americans.
How they'll achieve this is novel and exciting.
A previous Labour government introduced a system of Tax Credits for people in work with families (i.e. children to feed) but on low incomes which, without the tax credits, would mean that they were in poverty. So, the idea is it pays to work hard.
Note that we are talking about tax credits - a rebate of some of your Income Tax (a tax discount) - not a hand-out for "scroungers."
This is the good part. Those intellectual giants of the Conservative Party reason that, if they abolish Tax Credits (which are only paid to those on a gross annual income of under £16,500 or $25,000) those people will be so motivated and empowered that they will move into better-paid jobs!
“There’s a pretty difficult question that we have to answer, which is essentially: are we going to be a country which is prepared to work hard in the way that Asian economies are prepared to work hard, in the way that Americans are prepared to work hard? And that is about creating a culture where work is at the heart of our success.”
Hunt also suggested in the interview that those reliant on tax credits and benefits lacked self-respect. “Dignity is not just about how much money you have got ... officially children are growing up in poverty if there is an income in that family of less than £16,500. What the Conservatives say is how that £16,500 is earned matters.
Meanwhile, in this brave, new, flexible and empowered labour market of short-term and zero-hours contracts, hard-working Britons are so scared of being off sick at places like Sports Direct that they're being taken away by emergency ambulance.
Work harder for your crumbs, plebs.
Disclaimer: I've never voted Labour (or Tory) in my life. But I do always vote.
Last season's anime (incomplete list)
This is a reposted submission with editing.
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Incomplete list.
Overlord. (13 episodes) Too short. Ending yelled "our production budget is too small". Really, felt like an advertisement to learn WRITTEN japanese, and buy the raw manga from amazon.co.jp; to find out what happens next.
Chaos Dragon. (12 episodes) Beautifully dark; at least for the first few episodes. The "happily ever after" ending felt tasteless and disgusting. Doesn't anybody know how to write a good tragedy anymore ?
Normally, I wouldn't submit trash like this; but the queue's empty, so . . .
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Torches and Pitchforks
The inexorable rise of property prices in the UK, especially London, due to a lack of supply of new builds, buy-to-let investments, the selling off of social housing and large numbers of new builds being bought by foreign speculators is finally causing the torches and pitchforks to come out.
In places like London, it's becoming nearly impossible for a "normal" person on an average income to live since renting even the smallest of properties (e.g. a studio flat or a room in a house share) is out of reach, Forget being a teacher, nurse, police officer or fire fighter and living there. It's just not going to happen. Social housing has mostly gone, so the poor renting privately are finding their monthly rents doubling over night and having to leave.
The good Christian Irritable Duncan Syndrome brought in cuts to housing benefit just to remind the poor, sick and disabled that they're a filthy burden on the rest of us. And they can jolly well cut back on food and heating to pay their rent.
So some "motivated" protesters have got out the torches and pitchforks and completely got it wrong.
You couldn't make it up.
What a miserable society it is that can't look after its poor, sick and disabled. Let the bleeding hearts amongst the Little People look out for them, we'll just take our money away and laugh.
Mind you, the other side have got a new leader and they're thinking about changing things.
Persecuted for Being Athiest
The BBC has an article about ex-Muslim Britons who are being persecuted for becoming atheists.
The persecution often comes from close family and friends.
Ayisha (not her real name) from Lancashire was just 14 when she began to question Islam after reading the Koran. She started rebelling over wearing the hijab, but eventually decided she wasn't a Muslim and the situation at home rapidly got worse.
"My dad threatened to kill me by getting a knife and holding it against my neck and saying: 'We might as well do it if you're going to bring this much shame to the family.'"
He used to beat her so badly that eventually she called the police and he was convicted of child cruelty. Ayisha hadn't anticipated the shock of being immediately cut off from her mother and siblings.
Many of the victims are young, vulnerable and powerless. The local authorities where the victims live are often wary of offending Muslim culture and belief which may have hindered efforts to help people in this situation.
London Cereal Café Attacked By Anti-Gentrification Protest
Saudi prince arrested at LA mansion for alleged sex crime
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34358380
Los Angeles police said Majed Abdulaziz al-Saud, 28, was arrested on Wednesday and released the following day after posting a $300,000 (£197,000) bond. He is scheduled to appear in court on October 19 to face a charge of "forced oral copulation". Al-Saud does not have diplomatic immunity, police said.
Relationship Hacking: Part 10 - It's been over a year now.
Well, it's been over a year now since my wife and I decided to open our marriage, so I think it's time for a quick update.
Things between my wife and I are better than ever. Dating other people has just made me realize what I love so much about my wife. We are good. We are still trying to make a baby. No successes there, yet.
My wife has been wearing braces for the last year to fix her teeth. Her teeth weren't too bad to begin with, but they were crowded and causing gum problems, so we needed to get that fixed. My wife hasn't been as active in trying to find new partners, and I think that a big reason for that was that her braces made her feel self conscious. Now that they are coming off (and I'm really excited to see how beautiful she looks now!) I'm hoping that she will actively start looking for dates.
I think that if/when my wife starts dating it will be a little tough for me to see all the attention that she will get, while for me, it feels like a struggle to get even a reply on a dating site. I'm sure she will be flooded with messages, and it will be a little disparaging to see exactly what my competition is. Up until this point, I've been able to live in an ignorant bliss. I have a feeling that seeing exactly how much attention women get will be a little disheartening.
That being said, I really am excited by the thought of my wife going on a date. I've really enjoyed myself on dates, even when things don't work out, so I'm excited for her to have that chance too. I'm excited that once she is in the scene, we can start going to events together, and really start growing our poly social circle, and that might help me get dates. We'll see...
As for poly itself, after doing it for a year, it no longer seems so taboo or strange. It seems really... normal. I find it hard to keep it a secret from co workers. I've almost let it slip on numerous occasions. A lot of plot lines in stories don't make sense... "Why do you have to choose which one you love! You obviously love them both!" The knowledge of being able to have loves enter and leave your life is really a freeing feeling, and after a year, I really don't think I could go back to a normal monogamous relationship.
I like stats, and after year, it seems like a good time to post some, so here we go:
# of dates: 10
# of women: 4
# kissed: 3
Most # of dates with one woman: 4
# of titties suckled: 2
# I had sex with: 0
$ spent on dates: $400-$500 (total, that's a best guess)
# of times the woman picked up the tab: 2 (same girl, but on different occasions)
# of bouquets of flowers bought for wife because I felt guilty: 2
# of women that I actually felt an actual connection with: 1
I had realized pretty early on that finding the right person might take some time... Maybe years. It's really looking like that might be the case. In the mean time, I'm enjoying the journey, even if it is a little slower than I had originally hoped.
--Snow
Republican Debate #2
http://www.cnn.com/ (right on the front page, no Fox BS)
Or an audio stream.
Starts at 5:10 PM PT, 8:10 PM ET.
The undercard broadcast took place at 3 PM PDT, while the main card broadcast will occur at 5 PM PDT. The candidates in the main debate are Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, and John Kasich. The candidates in the undercard debate are Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham, Rick Santorum, and George Pataki. Rick Perry suspended his campaign on September 11, effectively ending his candidacy. The two-tiered CNN broadcasts will be consecutive, with the primetime debate planned to immediately follow the second-tier broadcast. The moderator is Jake Tapper of CNN, with side-by-side participation by Hugh Hewitt of Salem Radio.
Other stuff:
