An Idaho church has replaced a stained glass window of Robert E Lee, George Washington and Abe Lincoln with the country’s first black Methodist bishop wearing an LGBTQ scarf.
The late bishop Leontine Kelly, who passed away at age 92 in 2012, had lived in Richmond, Virginia with her family where monuments of former Confederate leaders, such as Lee, had lined Monument Avenue.
The statue of Lee, a former Civil War general and slave owner, was later removed by the city on September 8.
… You might be living through The Turn if you ever found yourself feeling like free speech should stay free even if it offended some group or individual but now can’t admit it at dinner with friends because you are afraid of being thought a bigot. You are living through The Turn if you have questions about public health policies—including the effects of lockdowns and school closures on the poor and most vulnerable in our society—but can’t ask them out loud because you know you’ll be labeled an anti-vaxxer. You are living through The Turn if you think that burning down towns and looting stores isn’t the best way to promote social justice, but feel you can’t say so because you know you’ll be called a white supremacist. You are living through The Turn if you seethed watching a terrorist organization attack the world’s only Jewish state, but seethed silently because your colleagues were all on Twitter and Facebook sharing celebrity memes about ending Israeli apartheid while having little interest in American kids dying on the streets because of failed policies. If you’ve felt yourself unable to speak your mind, if you have a queasy feeling that your friends might disown you if you shared your most intimately held concerns, if you are feeling a bit breathless and a bit hopeless and entirely unsure what on earth is going on, I am sorry to inform you that The Turn is upon you.
“It’s for the greater good…” pic.twitter.com/lDFsO3juk2
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) December 13, 2021
“… Anyone who makes even a notional effort to check the origins of the stuff they grab off the shelves of any big-box store understands that China is the dominant supplier. The less expensive it is, the more likely it is to have been made in a factory in Guangdong, or Jiangsu or Zhejiang. “
The China Class sold us out.
I saw it so now you have to pic.twitter.com/T81zpp6iPO
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) December 13, 2021
The first time I met Jordan Peterson, we disagreed. He had just delivered a brilliant talk for the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship (SAFS), treating in part of the pros and cons of Liberal and Conservative political philosophy. Where we disagreed involved what he considered the pejorative side of Conservatism. Peterson argued that Conservative thinking and practice were a noble endeavor, but regrettably focused on the concept of walls, a kind of insularity that tended to exclude much that was regarded as disruptive or troubling to a sense of unanimity and epistemological coherence; indeed, such novel intrusions were likely to be regarded as a species of “disease.” There could be something closed-minded about Conservative principles, a rejection of the strange, the innovative, the foreign, and the revitalizing effect of infusions from elsewhere.
Allyn Walker, a former professor at Old Dominion University who identifies as non-binary, resigned last month following criticism stemming from Walker’s views on pedophilia. Walker argued that pedophiles should be destigmatized by identifying them as “minor-attracted persons” (“MAPs”) rather than the pejorative term “pedophile,” because attraction to children is a sexual orientation and not immoral.
h/t Marvin
“Facts are not persuasive; stories are,” the famed American trial lawyer Gerry Spence – who claims never to have not lost a criminal case in his 50 years practising – once said when asked the secret to winning over a jury.
If Mr Spence is right, Ghislaine Maxwell may well be in trouble.
After an extraordinarily short opening statement and a shaky first few days, the prosecution seemed to turn it around with blockbuster testimony from three of the British socialite’s alleged victims this past week. Accuser after accuser detailed a pattern of sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and his “partner-in-crime” Ms Maxwell.
During quiet moments, after he has finished lecturing for the day, Dr John Stone has flashbacks. It’s not the blood or the sound of the gunshots that haunt him. It’s the begging. The way people beg for mercy when they die. Begging him. Begging God.
“It’s so painful,” he says, shaking his head with a shudder. “The families of the dead, they will curse you. A curse will be upon your life.”
Dr Stone teaches political science at the University of Benin, in south-east Nigeria. But for decades he was a senior member of Black Axe – a Nigerian mafia-style gang tied to human trafficking, internet fraud and murder. Locally, Black Axe are referred to as a “cult,” a nod to their secret initiation rituals and the intense loyalty of their members. They are also infamous for extreme violence. Images of those who cross their path – dead bodies mutilated or showing signs of torture – regularly surface on Nigerian social media.
The federal government is setting aside $40 billion in its fall economic update for First Nations child welfare as it continues talks on settling compensation claims.
The money is to cover the cost of settling a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal order, two class action lawsuits and long-term reform of the Indigenous child welfare system over a five year period, according to one source with knowledge of the negotiations.
h/t Mauser
The issue of Arab apartheid and discrimination recently resurfaced after a Lebanese minister announced that his country decided to allow Palestinians to work in several sectors that were until now reserved just for Lebanese nationals.
The announcement by Mostafa Bayram, Lebanon’s Minister of Labor, came as a surprise to many Palestinians who have been banned for the past four decades from working in many professions.
Palestinians are hoping that the decision would end decades of discrimination and marginalization by an Arab country — Lebanon.
Scotland’s privacy regulators are investigating a government census asking children as young as 14 a range of intimate questions about their sex lives, including whether they’ve ever had anal sex.
Drafted by the government, the controversial ‘Health and Wellbeing Census’ has already been handed out to secondary school students in 11 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, The Herald reported on Saturday. A total of 14 have declined to distribute it, while others want changes to a controversial section on sexual health.
This section asks children whether they have had “sexual experiences,” including “oral sex” or “vaginal or anal sex.” Other questions ask how many sexual partners the children have had in the past year, and a full list of questions has not been made available to parents.
France’s interior minister is seeking to dissolve an “ultra right” group suspected of attacking anti-racism protesters who entered a campaign rally held by the far-right presidential candidate Éric Zemmour.
The Zouaves, who support Zemmour’s anti-immigration and anti-Islam ideology, are thought to be behind the brawl, which happened eight days ago.
Members from the anti-racial discrimination group SOS Racisme were set upon after they entered the rear of the venue to protest against Zemmour. The group said it had aimed to protest peacefully but five of its members were injured.
Anti-Racists? I think they mean the Antifas who attacked Eric Zemmour.
The abrupt disappearance of a live feed showing Taiwan’s digital minister occurred because the White House panicked over a map showing Taiwan in a different color than China, Reuters