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"The secret not yet told": Women describe alleged abuse by nuns

"It's not abuse, it's education."

Women's March in California canceled over concerns it would be 'overwhelmingly white'

A California Women’s March was canceled because of concerns that its participants have been “overwhelmingly white,” the march’s organizers said.

Organizers announced Friday that the Women’s March would not take place in Eureka, in Humboldt County, California, on Jan. 19 as previously planned due to issues of representation.

“Up to this point, the participants have been overwhelmingly white, lacking representation from several perspectives in our community,” a post on the march’s Facebook page read. “Instead of pushing forward with crucial voices absent, the organizing team will take time for more outreach.”

Eat your own. #Unity

On 29th March we remove ourselves from our local, and very successful, trading bloc, the EU.

I have been preoccupied making plans and making my objections known in a peaceful and democratic manner. I'm afraid that politics and worrying about the future has taken over.

I figured I should brush up on my French and I've made a stash of supplies so that we can eat after the borders close on 29th March. We import most of our food. And that food which we do grow is often picked by migrant workers who will no longer be welcome after Brexit.

We have oil and gas pipelines that cross continental Europe and we buy gas from that nice Mr Putin who only wants the best for his patriotic friends. We also import electricity directly from France via a 2GW cable under the English Channel. Obviously this gets more and more expensive as Sterling continues to lose its value.

Several prominent Brexit supporters, including Jacob Rees-Mogg decided it would be better to move their business to Ireland (in the EU) and the great patriot John Redwood advised his customers to pull their money out of the UK and invest in places like the EU in the light of Brexit.

There's still the unsolvable problem of the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Dinosaur-deniers the DUP are propping up a minority Tory government and staunchly preventing any progress because they don't want a "border" between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, despite the fact there's already a physical one in the form of the Irish Sea.

The Scottish Government brought a case to the European Court of Justice asking for a ruling on whether a country (eg the U) could unilaterally revoke Article 50 (the statement of intention to leave the EU). The UK Westminster government opposed the Scottish governments action, but was unsuccessful. The ECJ ruled that the UK can unilaterally revoke Article 50 without the agreement of the other 27 EU member states. All we need is a vote in the Westminster Parliament (which is sovereign). So it's not over yet!

The banks in the City of London have been making further preparations. About £700M of assets have moved to Frankfurt.

We also have to consider the extra delays at the borders for goods and raw materials coming in and out of the country. Much of our trade goes through Dover, in Kent. In Kent, they're preparing by creating another motorway-lorry-park, this time the M26. Industry will perhaps find it difficult to produce and to sell when things are held up in Kent.

Believe it or not, we have a Kipper in the family. He's also a Baptist. Goodness knows where he got that from. He was shown Father Ted when young but hey ho. I was treated to an entertaining conspiracy theory about Silicon Valley and the EU deliberately suppressing "right wing free speech." A long, convoluted "explanation" followed.

This conversation also confirmed a conclusion that I'd reached over the years regarding Kippers (UKIP members). They have a very naive and simplistic view of countries, nationalism, the modern world, "free speech," "hate speech," conservatism, economics, science, international relations, history (the World Wars and the Cold War, the rise of Nazism) and have precious little clue about "their own country" i.e. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. They get it confused with England and are pretty ignorant about Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

When mentioning that I was now in favour of Scottish Independence and that I didn't want to lose my right of Freedom of Movement, and that I hoped Scotland would join the EU, the classic Kipper ill-informed and patronising reply came back, "I can't understand why you'd want to regain your sovereignty only to give it away again to the EU." It's a trading bloc and it is democratic. It's more democratic that British First Past the Post Westminster Centralised "democracy."

My sister had the right idea. She settled in Germany years ago. The mayor of her town wrote to all British citizens inviting them to apply for German citizenship which she has done and will be sitting her citizenship exam in a couple of months time.

Finally, I asked why UKIP had appointed Stephen Yaxley-Lennon as its advisor for being mean to brown people. That didn't go down well. I got chapter and verse on what a nice man he really is and has brown friends etc.

And don't mention Trump. It'll just get blamed on Obama. And Mr Putin is a very nice man.

Game over UK. We have fallen to the fascists. Run while you can.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
...

Must be hell, locked up in that big old House, huh?

Italy circumcision kills toddler, with one man charged

A two-year-old boy has died from blood loss following a failed circumcision at a migrant centre in Italy. The boy's twin brother also underwent the procedure in Rome's north-western suburb of Monterondo and is recovering in hospital.

A 66-year-old man has been charged with murder, according to Italian media. Some 5,000 circumcisions are performed in Italy each year but more than a third are carried out illegally, according to health charity Amsi.

Cultural non-profit group Arci said the procedures had taken place at a refugee centre it runs with the local council in Monterondo. "It is a tragedy that leaves us speechless," Arci said in a statement on Facebook, adding that it would take civil action once those responsible for the child's death had been determined by police.

The two boys, who have not been named, were born in Italy in 2017 to a Nigerian mother who has five other children in Nigeria. Local media say the mother had asked for the operations in respect for Nigeria's Islamic traditions, despite being Catholic herself.

The medical credentials of the doctor are reportedly being questioned by police. Ansa said the man arrested was an American citizen of Libyan origin.

There's a lot of snark I could put here but I'll just go with "Merry Christmas!"

LG Newsroom

I didn't quite realize these were a thing. Something like this would be nice to replace a family member's old projector (it has 3 VGA inputs but no HDMI), but I'm sure this specific model will be priced out the ass. It might make a lot of sense for some people though since it's much more compact than a large TV and you won't have people blocking the image when they stand up.

LG is also planning to sell roll-up OLED TVs in 2019. I don't see how that approach is better than this short throw projector. Maybe the projector makes some fan noise, or maybe the roll-up has better brightness/HDR.

Statement festival: 'Man-free' event found guilty of discrimination

Statement, a women-only festival in Sweden, has been found guilty of discrimination by Sweden's Discrimination Ombudsman (DO).

The DO said that describing an event as "male-free" breached the country's anti-discrimination laws.

The publicity issued in the run up to the event "discouraged a certain group from attending", the regulator added.

The event's organisers said in a Facebook post that they are "too busy changing the world" to respond.

"It's sad that what 5,000 women, non-binaries and transgender experienced as a life-changing festival made a few cis [cisgender] men lose it completely," the post added.

[...] The DO's ruling acknowledged the man-free rule was not enforced at the festival, held earlier this year, adding that "no differentiation based on sex was made between visitors at entry".

As nobody suffered damage from the festival's restrictions, it added, no financial penalties would be imposed.

Journal for K.

She lost her school job after refusing to sign a pro-Israel pledge. Now, she’s filing a lawsuit. (archive)

Bahia Amawi, a speech pathologist who has worked as a contractor in a Texas school district for nine years, received a new contract agreement to sign in September for the upcoming school year. The agreement asked her to affirm that she did not boycott Israel and assert that she would not while working for the school. She declined to sign it. Amawi, an American citizen of Palestinian descent who was born in Austria, said the statements infringed on her principles: her stance on Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and her belief in the First Amendment. So she was forced to stop working with the district.

The contract, which stems from a 2017 law passed by the state’s Republican-held legislature and governor that prohibited state agencies from contracting with companies boycotting Israel, is the subject of a lawsuit filed this week by Amawi in federal district court in Austin.

Amawi says the state’s enforcement of the law violates her right to free speech. “My first reaction was shock,” Amawi told reporters Monday. “Why is the government restricting me from boycotting a certain entity?”

Amawi started working for the Pflugerville Independent School District outside Austin in 2009. Her work entails doing evaluations of Arabic-speaking children, according to the complaint she filed. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the school district are named in the lawsuit. [...] Glenn Greenwald, a columnist and co-founding editor of the Intercept who writes frequently about Israeli politics as they intersect with those of the United States, wrote harshly of the contract. “The language of the affirmation Amawi was told she must sign reads like Orwellian — or McCarthyite — self-parody, the classic political loyalty oath that every American should instinctively shudder upon reading,” he wrote. “In order to continue to work, Amawi would be perfectly free to engage in any political activism against her own country, participate in an economic boycott of any state or city within the U.S., or work against the policies of any other government in the world — except Israel.”

Also at The Hill and The Daily Beast.

Meanwhile, Congresstards are trying to add Israel anti-boycott legislation into a spending bill that prevents a government shutdown:

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is scrambling at the eleventh hour to include controversial language in a year-end spending bill prohibiting U.S. companies from joining boycotts of Israel launched by the United Nations or similar groups.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and other members are pressing congressional leaders to attach his Israel anti-boycott legislation to a sweeping omnibus spending package — a move that could complicate efforts to prevent a government shutdown.

“There is bipartisan interest in this issue, but everything is still being negotiated and nothing has been decided,” said one senior House Republican aide.

[...] “This bill sets a precedent for penalizing First Amendment actions because they’re unpopular or because the government doesn’t agree with them,” said Manar Waheed, senior legislative and advocacy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “This is a step on a road to the erosion of First Amendment rights in a way that will impact movements and viewpoints for the future.”

See also: How Democrats are helping the right stifle debate on Israel

So, you all know I post my relationship stuff here. I this space as a place to collect my thoughts and share things that I normally can't share in my day to day life. Ready? Here we go.

My sister texts me Friday night. She's pretty upset about something and wants to meet with me and my brother ASAP. We arrange to meet for breakfast the following morning. I have no idea what she wants to meet about, but I'm assuming it's something about my Mom (who I think has started drinking again occasionally...). She made a slightly odd request about meeting somewhere other than her house, so I was kinda suspicious that maybe something is up with her relationship... But probably it's just something about Mom.

So we meet up, we start eating breakfast and she tells us that she's been having an affair for the last 6 months and her husband caught her with the guy the previous day. She's apparently been dating her boss (the CEO). This guy is fucking 60 years old! (She's 30) Oh, and they are in love.

Meanwhile... this guy is also married and has 5 kids (some that are the same age as my sister). My sister has a 9 month old infant, meaning this whole thing started when the baby was ~3 months old. Apparently this guy was going to tell his wife about the affair yesterday, but I have my doubts. I am skeptical that he'll give up 1/2 of everything -- including his company I'm assuming -- to his wife. We'll see I guess.

So my sisters marriage is over. She can't go back to her job that she loved. She's basically a single mom now. Stupid fucking choices.

My sister's (future ex) husband has been working really hard lately. He had a full time job, while simultaneously working toward an MBA, while also having a newborn. That's a full workload. My sister said that she felt that he wasn't spending enough time with her and felt lonely, so she went to find affection elsewhere. I get that, but there is a right way and a wrong way.

I'm pretty pissed off for a couple reasons. 1) This guy is twice her age. 2)Her husband got royally fucked over. 3) Her baby will never know her parents together and will have to perform the 'divorced parent shuffle' for the rest of her life.

Are you having problems in your relationship? TALK TO THE PERSON YOU LOVE! Tell them how you feel. Feel lonely? TELL THEM. Want more touch? TELL THEM! A relationship runs on trust, and that includes telling your partner when you are unhappy about something. How can your partner make you happy if they don't know what you need?

Will delete if it doesn't.

Edit: Amazing! It did work. The previous JE ended on my info page with the word that was struck through followed by the ellipsis. Because of that, all the text on the page was struck through. The new JE clears it all up. Just a strange thing I thought was worth mentioning.