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‘Utter stupidity’: Missouri Republican bids to bring back dueling for senators

A Missouri Republican’s proposal to reintroduce dueling to solve statehouse differences was branded “utter stupidity” by a leading historian of political violence.

“Back in the day,” Joanne B Freeman of Yale tweeted, “they were smart enough to take dueling OUTSIDE. The draft that I saw suggests doing it in the chamber. This doesn’t show guts or bravery or manhood – if it’s supposed to. It shows utter stupidity.”

Freeman is the author of The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

Man accused of smuggling migrant family who froze to death at border found living outside Toronto

A man accused by police in India of helping smuggle a family of four through Canada just before they froze to death on the Manitoba border with the United States has been found living freely in a suburb outside Toronto, an investigation by CBC’s The Fifth Estate has found.

Indian police allege Fenil Patel was one of two men who helped transport Jagdish Patel (no relation) and his family to the border during a blinding snowstorm and –35 C temperatures two years ago.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, WTF?

Didn’t they used to call this fraud? Pride Toronto repaying over $505K after federal grant controversy

Pride Toronto is repaying just over $505,000 in grant funding after an accounting firm found the organization could not prove that it completed several projects despite receiving $1.85 million from the federal government.

In a statement sent to CBC News, Pride Toronto Executive Director Kojo Modeste said the organization is repaying $505,504 total to the federal department of Canadian heritage.

This comes after KPMG, which was hired by the organization in 2021 to review its compliance with agreements for three federal grants, found that documentation was lacking.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inBig Gay, WTF?

BBC ‘misrepresented’ Covid risk to boost lockdown support, says top scientist

Corporation accused of reporting rare deaths as the norm during pandemic

The BBC was allowed to “misrepresent” the risk posed by Covid to most people to boost public support for lockdown, the UK Covid Inquiry has heard.

Prof Mark Woolhouse, an eminent epidemiologist and government adviser, lambasted the corporation for having “repeatedly reported rare deaths or illnesses among healthy adults as if they were the norm”.

He said this created the “misleading impression” among BBC News viewers at the start of the pandemic that “we are all at risk” and “the virus does not discriminate”.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China eats weird animals disease", BBC, WTF?

Canada’s health system gave me a choice: years of disability, or $22k for private surgery

My hip pain started around 2015, when I was in my mid-30s. It began as stiffness, then a pinch or tweak. My wife Barbara and I live on an acreage in Sturgeon County, Alberta, with our three kids, where we raise a handful of cows and some chickens. So our lives are very active, and I’m also a park maintenance supervisor at a nearby provincial park. That’s a physical job too, maintaining buildings, outhouses and campsites. I wasn’t exactly used to sitting still, and at first I pushed through the pain—I figured it was something minor, and I just did some extra stretching.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, WTF?

Tucker Carlson brought controversy to Danielle Smith’s Calgary — then took her somewhere dicier

Back at work in Alberta after two weeks of vacation, Premier Danielle Smith chose as her first public appearance in 2024 a conversation on stage with Tucker Carlson, the U.S. commentator whose views and remarks became too much for his Fox News bosses to tolerate.

On Tuesday night, they enjoyed a private dinner together in Calgary, these two former mainstream broadcasters, one now a government leader and one who’s fielded speculation about becoming Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate.

“And had the best time, thank you,” Carlson told Smith at the start of their 17 minutes together at his sold-out speaking event. “Thank you for letting me, a rank foreigner, ask you questions.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Tucker Carlson", Canada, WTF?