URLs du Jour

2018-06-21

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  • Hey, how's your summer going so far?

  • Proverbs 11:4 is a little ominous:

    4 Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath,
        but righteousness delivers from death.

    And don't we seem to be living in the "day of wrath" every damned day? I mean, check the news, if you can stand to do so.

    Still, wealth is not currently worthless—I just checked—so I assume things could get (even) worse, wrathwise.

    Which allows me to plug Pun Salad's choice for Best Movie of 1982 as our Amazon Product du Jour.


  • We have a (slight) theme today: what you can and can't say on Twitter. At the Federalist, Jon Del Arroz unintentionally discovered a thing you can't say: After I Said Transgenderism Is A Mental Illness, Twitter Blocked My Account

    Recently I logged into my account after a robust debate with a friend, only to find my Twitter account had been suspended. I had merely stated “transgendered people are mentally ill by definition” in a civil conversation about gender identity.

    Twitter’s response said I was violating their “rules against hateful conduct.” That was further defined as “you may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”

    As usual, I'll revert to my mild Szaszianism: the concept of "mental illness" is deeply flawed. It was invented, in part, to relieve certain oddly-behaving people from moral stigma. If you're sick, it's not your fault. From a transgender point of view, that's a good thing.

    But it also implies dysfunction and the possibility of cure. And that's unacceptable for transgenderists, of course.

    I've become more convinced that someday, I hope soon, people will look back on our current understanding of "mental illness" as hopeless quackery.

    Anyway…


  • OK, so gender dysphoria isn't a mental illness according to Twitter, but you know what is, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)? USA Today tells us: Video game addiction is a mental health disorder. (They hasten to add "but some health experts don't agree").

    The Geneva-based WHO said it will include "gaming disorder" in the 11th edition of its International Classification of Diseases, which is due out this month and is used by professionals across the globe to diagnose and classify conditions. It will describe the disorder as "impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences."

    Ah, but can you say that on Twitter? Try it, and tell me what happens.


  • What (apparently) you can say on Twitter, according to Nina Bookout of Victory Girls Blog: Occupy Wall Street Tweets About Killing ICE Agents And Twitter Allows It.

    The narrative regarding ILLEGAL immigration and kids supposedly being forcibly separated from their parents and locked in cages is scaling new heights of pearl clutching. Facts don’t matter to those on the left and that’s been obvious for the last few days. However, this from Occupy Wall Street is horrific on every level.

    The post in question was entitled "What to do if you encounter an ICE agent", and among the suggested instructions (with graphic cartoon): "Grab the ICE Agent from behind and push your knife into his chest with an upward thrust breaking through his sternum" and "Reach into his chest and pull out his still beating heart".

    It's no longer on Twitter, but it's unclear who removed it. It's claimed that Twitter at least initially said that it "did not violate their terms of service".


  • Our Google LFOD alert rang for a WCAX [Burlington Vermont] story: More NH police departments using license plate readers.

    Well, specifically, one more:

    The Sunapee Police Department is preparing to roll out a new license plate reader for its officers. It will be only the second department in the Granite State to have one since a new state law was passed two years ago. And while many support anything that can help keep their community safe, others say it's just another example of big government busting into people's lives.

    The other community using LPRs is apparently Lincoln.

    But where's LFOD? Ah, here it is, in a non sequitur:

    "Jjust [sic] another way to infringe on our freedoms and our rights," said John Coleman, who is against the scanners.

    New Hampshrie's [sic] state motto is "Live Free or Die," and Coleman is among those that feel the LPRs are too intrusive. "Seems kind of unnecessary. This is supposed to be a free country. There is electronic surveillance everywhere you go," he said.

    John is, as near as I can tell, just some random guy (literally) on the street that the TV reporter decided to interview.


  • And Michael Ramirez with our Editorial Cartoon du Jour: The Pawn:

    [The Pawn]

    [Click through to Mr. Ramirez's website for an uncropped a bigger version.]


Last Modified 2024-02-02 4:52 AM EDT