Washington Free Beacon: Prominent Democratic Feminist Camille Paglia Says Hillary Clinton 'Exploits Feminism'

Prominent Democratic Feminist Camille Paglia Says Hillary Clinton 'Exploits Feminism'
Sam Dorman. May 15, 2017 10:00 pm

Camille Paglia is a woman of seeming contradictions. She’s a lesbian who thinks homosexuality is not normal, a Democrat who often criticizes the party’s 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, a self-described "transgender being" who calls sex changes for children "abuse," and a feminist who says abortion is "murder."

Decades after she burst onto the scene with her best-selling book Sexual Personae, Paglia is back with a timely commentary on sex and gender. Her recent book Free Women, Free Men argues, among other things, that feminism is "stunting the maturation of both girls and boys" and that "if women seek freedom, they must let men too be free."

Paglia talked to the Washington Free Beacon about a variety of topics including Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D., Mass.) alleged populism, Megyn Kelly's performance as a moderator during the first Republican presidential primary debate, and whether misogyny played a role in Hillary Clinton's failed 2016 presidential bid.

Paglia is a liberal Democrat, make no mistake, but she's one of the few that I respect. She does not blindly accept the dogma of the activists in the Democrat party but forms her own, often controversial, opinions based on facts and careful reasoning without regard to what the rest of the world may think of her as a result.

Read the entire interview for very interesting and not-commonly-discussed opinions on many of the issues in today's political scene. Whether or not you agree, it is a very good read.

xkcd: Lunch Order

Lunch Order

Sort of reminds me of the premise of Sid & Marty Krofft's Far Out Space Nuts.

May The Fourth Be With You

Yeah, it's May 4th again. I'm not doing anything special, but GoComic put together a page full of comics related to Star Wars.

Enjoy

The FCC's (lack of) a new rule and government overreach

In the news today, the FCC chairman nixed plans to allow in-flight cell phone usage. That's not worth commenting on. But his reasoning is. He wrote:

I stand with airline pilots, flight attendants, and America's flying public against the FCC's ill-conceived 2013 plan to allow people to make cellphone calls on planes. I do not believe that moving forward with this plan is in the public interest. Taking it off the table permanently will be a victory for Americans across the country who, like me, value a moment of quiet at 30,000 feet.

Please note his rationale. This has nothing to do with airline safety. Nothing to do with overburdening the cell phone infrastructure. Not even to do with airlines keeping their monopoly on in-flight communication. It's because he doesn't want someone next to himself talking on the phone.

What a complete BS answer. I guess he's unaware that people have been yapping on (expensive) AirPhones for over a decade and that anybody today can have data access to the Internet if they want to pay the airline for on-board Wi-Fi. And I guess he's never sat next to a couple having a loud conversation or a crying baby. Or for that matter, the plane's own engines. There is no such thing as a "moment of quiet at 30,000 feet" and never has been.

But that's not even my point. My point is that this is none of the government's business. The FAA is responsible for making sure that our planes safely get where they're going. The FCC is responsible for making sure our communication system works properly. It is not the responsibility of either (nor anybody else) to decide whether or not someone is allowed to talk while in the air.

Only the airlines should be making rules like this. Let them, and let the market decide what policies should be. If United wants to allow cell phones and American wants to prohibit them, both should be allowed to make their respective decisions. If I want to use my phone in the air, then I'll book my ticket on an airline that allows it. And if I don't want to be on a plane with phone usage, then I'll book my ticket on the airline that prohibits it. But under no circumstance do I want a bunch of government bureaucrats to be making that decision if it doesn't affect the safety of air travel or the stability of the mobile phone network.

Center for Consumer Freedom: Former PETA Employee: PETA Killed Adoptable Puppies and Kittens

Former PETA Employee: PETA Killed Adoptable Puppies and Kittens
March 28, 2017

A new document filed in the ongoing dognapping lawsuit against the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) demonstrates the long-term, systemic pattern of trespassing, pet theft, and killing that occurs as part of PETA’s pet slaughterhouse operation at its Norfolk headquarters.

Lest anybody still think that PETA is telling the truth in their press releases, this is a sworn affidavit from a former PETA employee. They routinely steal pets from people's property and immediately kill them.

This isn't the animal welfare group they claim to be. This isn't even the animal rights group some accuse them of being. This is the act of a bunch of bloodthirsty sociopaths who get off on slaughtering cute animals.

They should be completely shut down and their employees should go to prison for a very long time. There's a special place in Hell for monsters like this.

Mental Floss: Don't "Chai" and "Tea" Both Mean the Same Thing?

Don't "Chai" and "Tea" Both Mean the Same Thing?
by Haley Sweetland Edwards

Almost 5,000 years ago, when folks in China started sipping a yummy, steeped beverage made from dried leaves and buds, different regions had different names for it. Most Chinese languages, including Mandarin and Cantonese, referred to the stuff by a word that is pronounced like “chá.” But other dialects, including Min Nan Chinese, which was spoken around Fujian, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan, referred to it by a word that sounds more like "te."

Fascinating article about the origin of the word "tea". And the fact that "chai" technically has nothing to do with "flavored with milk and Indian spices".

h/t The Devil's Panties:

I'm too nerdy for my survey

I get small surveys all the time from a variety of apps that I run. Today I got one that read:

What's your favorite bird of prey?

• Buzzard
• Caracara
• Eagle
• Falcon
• Hawk
• Kite
• Osprey
• Owl
• Vulture

I took one look at the question, and before I saw any of the choices, my first thought was "Klingon".

Pamela Geller: JDL Facebook page pulled for 'raised fist' logo: Only 'hate speech' when Jews use it?

JDL Facebook page pulled for 'raised fist' logo: Only 'hate speech' when Jews use it?
By Pamela Geller - on February 20, 2014

For the second time in a month, Facebook took down the page of the Jewish Defence League of Canada, citing its “community standards” policy on “dangerous organizations.”The social media giant removed the JDL’s Facebook page earlier this month.

The JDL believed it was because of its well-known logo, a raised fist silhouetted on a yellow Star of David.

Within days, the JDL put up a new page, with a new logo.

But on Feb. 15, Facebook took down that page, too.

Also taken down on Feb. 15 was the public group page “Jewish Defence League of Canada."

Both JDL pages "are not allowed to be on Facebook, so they were correctly removed," Facebook spokesperson Meg Sinclair told The CJN via email.

She sent a link to Facebook’s "community standards" and its section on "dangerous organizations," which states that it does not allow "any organizations that are engaged in the following to have a presence on Facebook: terrorist activity, or organized criminal activity."

So now it's official. Facebook believes that Jews have no right to defend themselves against antisemitism, and organizations that disagree are to be branded "terrorist" or "organized crime" and are to be banned from Facebook.

I am so so so glad I deleted my Facebook account years ago. Every time I read something new about them, it makes me even more disgusted.

Jerusalem Post: How a pro-Palestinian American reporter changed his views on Israel and the conflict

How a pro-Palestinian American reporter changed his views on Israel and the conflict
By Hunter Stuart - February 15, 2017 12:17

A year working as a journalist in Israel and the Palestinian territories made Hunter Stuart rethink his positions on the conflict.

IN THE summer of 2015, just three days after I moved to Israel for a year-and-a-half stint freelance reporting in the region, I wrote down my feelings about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A friend of mine in New York had mentioned that it would be interesting to see if living in Israel would change the way I felt. My friend probably suspected that things would look differently from the front-row seat, so to speak.

Boy was he right.

A great article. Every liberal in America should read this and realize that their opinions on Israel are the product of propaganda, not reality.

Sean Carroll: Entropy and Complexity, Cause and Effect, Life and Time

Entropy and Complexity, Cause and Effect, Life and Time
Posted on November 3, 2016 by Sean Carroll

... I had a very fun collaboration with Henry Reich, the wizard behind the Minute Physics videos. Henry and I have known each other for a while, and I previously joined forces with him to talk about dark energy and the arrow of time.

This time, we made a series of five videos (sponsored by Google and Audible.com) based on sections of The Big Picture. In particular, we focused on the thread connecting the arrow of time and entropy to such everyday notions of cause and effect and the appearance of complex structures, ending with the origin of life and how low-entropy energy from the Sun powers the biosphere here on Earth. Henry and I wrote the scripts together, based on the book; I read the narration, and of course he did the art.

Enjoy!

Please click through to the original article and watch the videos. Each one is about 3 minutes long and is easy to understand even without any scientific background.