The increasingly partisan Anti-Defamation League (ADL) interjected itself into the annual Halloween debate this week when the organization advised parents to avoid Halloween costumes that are culturally insensitive and perpetuate gender norms.
Author: Blazingcatfur
Manchester Arena Inquiry: Bomber’s father ‘influenced extremist views’
The father of the Manchester Arena bomber influenced his son’s extremist beliefs, a senior MI5 officer has told the inquiry into the attack.
A senior director general, referred to as Witness J, told the Manchester Arena Inquiry an assessment by the security services found it was “likely” Ramadan Abedi shaped his son Salman’s views.
The court has previously heard Ramadan Abedi has refused to help the inquiry.
He remains a suspect in the police investigation into the atrocity.
Cambridge University to slap ‘trigger warnings’ about ‘offensive’ slavery & racism content on classic children’s books – reports
The University of Cambridge is reportedly adding “trigger warnings” to children’s classics in its archive, flagging “harmful content relating to slavery, colonialism and racism”. More than 10,000 books are apparently under review.
The project, reportedly paid for by a £80,633 grant from the taxpayer-funded UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, will apparently expose authors who have been “offensive to historically enslaved, colonised or denigrated people”.
Dutch consider new coronavirus curbs as infections soar
AMSTERDAM, Oct 25 (Reuters) – The Dutch government may impose new coronavirus restrictions to reduce pressure on hospitals struggling to deal with a swelling number of COVID-19 patients, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said on Monday.
Coronavirus infections in the Netherlands have been rising for a month and reached their highest level since July in recent days, after most social distancing measures were dropped in late September.
Dutch psychologist says he sold ‘suicide powder’ to over 100 people
Wim van Dijk says he wants to fuel debate on assisted dying and does not care about possible jail term
A Dutch psychologist has told an interviewer from a newspaper that he gave “suicide powder” to more than 100 people and that he was speaking out in an effort to provoke debate about the Netherlands’ laws on assisted dying.
Wim van Dijk, 78, said he was unconcerned that he could be jailed over his actions and insisted that the issue needed to be aired.
“I am aware of the consequences of my story. I don’t care,” he told De Volkskrant. “I want the social unrest to become so great that the judiciary cannot ignore it. I don’t really care if they arrest me or put me in jail. I want something to happen.”
Irish Quandary: Who to Blame When Everyone’s Vaxxed?
No one seems curious about the prevalence of the disease in an almost fully vaccinated population.
… In his literally mindless way, Biden said out loud what health officials everywhere have been implying since the vaccines became widely available. Those who are not vaccinated are killing their more responsible peers.
In the Republic of Ireland, however, health officials are running out of people to blame. This has becoming embarrassingly obvious in County Waterford. As reported in the Irish Times, the nation’s establishment newspaper, two of the three most COVID-infected electoral areas in Ireland are located in the county “with the highest rate of vaccination in the country.” In Waterford, a remarkable 99.7 percent of adults over the age of 18 is fully vaccinated.
Privacy Commissioner not consulted over controversial online harms bill
The federal privacy commissioner wasn’t consulted by the Liberal government in developing its online harms bill, proposed legislation that experts say could significantly impact Canadians’ privacy.
The online harms bill would require social media and other online platforms to monitor and take down, within 24 hours, illegal content in five categories. Experts have been warning that the regulatory system the government has proposed, which the Liberals have promised to table as legislation within 100 days of Parliament’s return, would violate Canadians’ constitutional and privacy rights.
France: Can Éric Zemmour Be the Next President?
The Journalist Who Is Reshuffling the Cards in French Politics
The Financial Times calls him “the extreme right-winger“. For the New York Times he is the “right wing pundit“. For Die Zeit, he is “the man who divides France“… Eric Zemmour, journalist and essayist, is not (yet) an official candidate for the French presidency, but because of his popularity, France is already living at election time.
The presidential elections will take place in about 200 days, but not a week goes by without a poll propelling Éric Zemmour higher and higher in the voter projections for 2022. A Harris Interactive poll published by Challenges magazine on October 6 puts him at 17%, ahead of Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the National Rally party (at 15%, having slipped by 13 points since the summer). Zemmour still remains behind incumbent President Emmanuel Macron, projected at 24%. But for how long?
Two Polish border guards hospitalized after illegal alien invaders on Belarusian frontier attempt to storm fence
Two Polish soldiers have been taken to hospital after asylum seekers staged an assault on the frontier with Belarus, throwing stones at the border fence. The group of migrants has been stuck in no man’s land for over two months.
According to the Polish Border Guard, the “attempts of violent crossing into Poland were thwarted.”
“Over the weekend, two attempts at a border assault were recorded. Aggressive groups of about 60 and 70 people threw stones and branches at border guard officers and soldiers of the Polish army. Two soldiers were hospitalized,” a statement said.
Industry Insiders Predict Double-Digit Price Hikes on Food and Consumer Goods
Industry insiders and experts are predicting double-digit percentage price hikes on certain food and consumer goods in 2022, continuing the current trend of a rising cost of living.
Canadians can expect to see a minimum 20 percent price increase on groceries and essential products, such as food, toilet paper, pharmaceuticals, home building materials, and gasoline due to supply chain challenges, said Ron Foxcroft, founder and CEO of Fox 40 International Inc., a Hamilton, Ont.-based company specializing in sporting and marine products that are sold in 140 countries.
Germany: Meager 10 year sentence for ISIS bride who watched as slave girl died of thirst in scorching sun
… The 30-year-old and her “Islamic State” (IS) husband Taha A.-J. “purchased” a Yazidi woman and child.
They were kept as household “slaves” while the couple were living in “Islamic State” (IS) occupied Mosul in 2015.
“After the girl fell ill and wet her mattress, the husband of the accused chained her up outside as punishment and let the child die an agonizing death of thirst in the scorching heat,” prosecutors said during the trial.
“The accused allowed her husband to do so and did nothing to save the girl.”
In Canada I pay for a public broadcaster that hates me
On election day, I greeted people who voted for parties that hate people like me
… During the first hour of my shift, an elderly white woman came in with a walker. After skimming over her voter identity card, I informed her that, unfortunately, she was at the wrong polling address. The correct address was next door but their parking lot was full, she told me. I apologized to her for the inconvenience; she thanked me profusely for directing her to the right place.
I was buoyed both at her dedication to her civic duty as well as her kind words. However, after she left, I couldn’t help but wonder whether — despite our pleasant interaction —she was one of the people who hate people like me.
Shorter CBC columnist – If you didn’t vote as this Muslima dictates you’re a racist islamophobe.
MALCOLM: The uninspiring sameness of Canada’s political parties
The most striking feature of the recent federal election was the amount of overlap between the parties when it came to their platforms as well as their overall governing philosophies.
We’ve come to a point where the Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats, Bloc and Greens all have the same opinion on virtually every political issue that matters to Canadians.
Alec Baldwin was practicing pointing revolver at camera during fatal prop gun mishap
Two new witness accounts made public by the Sante Fe Sheriff’s Office on Sunday night describe the harrowing moment the 42-year-old director of photography was shot inside the church building on the New Mexico set of the film “Rust.”
Baldwin was rehearsing the gun-retrieval method from a pew of the mock church at Bonanza Creek Ranch when he aimed at the camera, while both Hutchins and 48-year-old director, Joel Souza stood behind it.
… He added the crew that had walked off, who were reportedly replaced with non-union workers and threatened with “security” if they didn’t immediately leave, had previously penned a “letter to production on disagreements.”
Ontario reports 326 new Covid cases … and school board staff luv their vaxx medical exemptions
Ontario reports 326 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths
Ontario is reporting just over 300 new COVID-19 cases today and no new virus-related deaths.
Officials logged 326 new infections on Monday, down from 370 on Sunday and 373 one week ago.
Ontario school board staff claiming medical exemptions for COVID-19 vaccines at far higher rate than expected
Employees at 45 of Ontario’s largest school boards have presented medical exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine at a rate 42 times higher on average than the exemption rate the province’s top doctor says would be expected in the general population.
A Star analysis of immunization data at these boards has found that 521 staff members have provided a documented medical reason for not being fully vaccinated out of 247,335 total individuals covered by the boards’ vaccination disclosure policies. That works out to a rate of about one in 475 people.
Ontario court issues interim injunction against UHN vaccine mandate
The Ontario Superior Court has issued an interim injunction against the University Health Network’s (UHN) attempts to terminate a group of unvaccinated employees.
Not a lot to be excited about… it’s temporary, applies to a small number of staff, and it’s not even a given if the court has jurisdiction to hear a case of this type.