The "What Are You Thinking About Right Now?" PIP

[Limerlight]

3 hours ago, toodarnhot said:

Wisdom tooth coming in and my whole jaw aches.  

Mine were supposed to be removed ~10 years ago  Never did it I've heard it can be really painful though.

 

Hope it works out  Whatever you may have to or not have to do with it

 

Also Canada beat the Swedes  

[toodarnhot]

42 minutes ago, Limerlight said:

Mine were supposed to be removed ~10 years ago  Never did it I've heard it can be really painful though.

 

Hope it works out  Whatever you may have to or not have to do with it

 

Also Canada beat the Swedes  

I had the bottom ones removed ages ago. I opted for just a local freezing and had it done while I was awake and I was perfectly fine- went out for a steak dinner the next night. My sister went under for hers and swelled up like a balloon, so I guess it's really case by case! Hopefully I don't need this one removed! 

 

Let's hope Canada performs better against the States this time around! 

 

 

[Limerlight]

Kentucky high school to drop stallion mascot after people complain it’s sexist

 

Quote

Fayette County school officials received backlash this week after announcing the students at the new Frederick Douglass High School in Lexington would be nicknamed the “Stallions.” More than 200 people also signed a Change.org petition saying a stallion, defined by Merriam-Webster as an uncastrated male horse kept for breeding, is an inappropriate and sexist mascot for the school’s female students.

 

“What message does this send to our daughters and granddaughters? Our sons and grandsons?” wrote the petition’s creator, Diane Cahill, EAGNews.org reported. “We demand that the name be changed to something more gender neutral and more indicative of [abolitionist Frederick] Douglass’ brilliant mind, successful career and vision for equality and to send a message to all students that they are respected and valued.”

 

[Prettyphile]

Piers is correct!

 

Quote

Few things shock me, as a hard-bitten journalist.

But today, I’m in shock.

I just watched a video that didn’t just sicken me, it contaminated every pore of my soul with feelings of pure, unadulterated, raw disgust and hatred.

The short piece of film I endured depicts a gang of four black teenage thugs, two male, two female, abusing and torturing a poor terrified young white man with special needs.

The sheer scale of their depravity appears to know no bounds.

These smirking scumbags tie him up, gag him, kick him, punch him, scalp him by viciously slashing his hair with a knife, and flick burning cigarette ash on the head wounds they inflict in the process.

They laugh, they jeer, then one of them shouts: ‘F**k Donald Trump, n***a, f**k white people!’

Another urges the victim to say, “I love black people.”

And then they force him at knifepoint to say, “F**k Donald Trump.”

This is not a quick, spontaneous assault. The victim is believed to have been held for up to 48 hours. The live Facebook stream itself goes on for more than 30 minutes.

‘Kiss the floor, b**ch!’the attackers howl. Then they shove his face into a toilet bowl.
Their goal is to utterly humiliate him, self-evidently, from their own mouths, because he’s white.

This is payback, again confirmed by their own words, for Donald Trump, a man they presume to be a racist, becoming President.

Yet police in Chicago, where the attack happened, are currently refusing to say if they are treating this as a racially or politically motivated ‘hate crime’.

‘Kids make stupid mistakes,’ said Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. ‘Part of whether or we not we seek a hate crime (is to) determine whether or not this is sincere or stupid ranting and raving. I think part of it is just stupidity. At this point, we don’t have anything concrete to point (toward a hate crime).

Are you bloody kidding me?

First, these are absolutely not ‘kids’. They are all 18 years old.

Second, what they did wasn’t ‘just stupidity’, it was pre-meditated torture of a horrendous nature.

Third, what more did they need to do to justify this being a racially and politically motivated hate crime - tar his body with the words, ‘white boy Trump trash’?

Imagine for a moment that a young black man with special needs had been kidnapped, abused and tortured by a gang of smirking white youths?

Imagine watching a video of this black man’s horrific ordeal streamed live on Facebook?

Imagine seeing and hearing the white assailants systematically torment their black victim, physically and mentally?

Imagine watching them kicking him, punching him, scalping him and flicking burning cigarette ash on the wounds they inflicted with their vicious, sustained assault?

Imagine hearing one of them shouting ‘F**k Barack Obama! F**k black people!’ as they did so?

Then imagine the video of all this emerging and hitting TV screens and news websites across America.

All hell would rightly have broken loose.

There would have been instant huge protests, and probably riots.

The #BlackLivesMatter group would have lit up social media demanding ‘justice’.

Black celebrities, led by the likes of Beyoncé and John Legend, would have made statements expressing their fury at the incident and their solidarity with the victim.

Police, under the huge pressure of such concerted public outrage, would have undoubtedly confirmed this as a hate crime.

Yet as I write this, I don’t see any protests, riots, social media campaigns or celebrity statements.

I don’t even see the police having the guts to call this attack what it is.

The reason is sadly all too obvious; they don’t want to inflame tensions any further in a city that has become the very epicenter of violence in modern America.

In 2016, Chicago had 762 murders and 4,331 shooting victims.

Homicides increased by 57% over 2015.

Many parts of the city have become no-go areas as gangs patrol the streets waging a relentless turf war.

Let’s not hide behind any spineless politically correct rhetoric when it comes to apportioning blame: the vast majority of those doing the shooting and being shot are young black African-American men.

I’m not being ‘racist when I say this, it’s just a simple fact.

And let’s be equally clear about what happened in Chicago on Tuesday: a bunch of racist, Trump-hating young black teenagers exacted an appalling hate crime on a defenseless young mentally disabled white man.

They are a shameful disgrace to their families, their city and their country.

Yet their behaviour is symptomatic of Chicago’s malaise and descent into escalating, seemingly uncontrollable violence.

The city’s young black population has, for decades, suffered from poor education and chronic unemployment.

This is not to excuse the violence, but it goes a long way to explaining it.

With little hope of a job or escape route to any kind of safe, prosperous life, young blacks in Chicago get sucked into gangs where the only currency is drugs, crime and violence.

They are lured by the false illusion of protection and status.

Instead they inevitably find jail, bullets and death.

Next Tuesday, President Obama will deliver his farewell address to the American people.

He’s chosen his hometown of Chicago as the venue for his final words.

Obama says he wants to use his speech to ‘say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you’ve changed this country for the better these eight years.’

Spare me the self-congratulatory claptrap, Mr President.

You’ve done absolutely nothing to stem America’s appalling culture of gun violence that claims 32,000 lives a year.

Even more damningly, for the country’s first black president, you’ve done nothing to reduce racial divisions.

In fact, those divisions are getting wider and worse, not better.

Chicago, your hometown, is a terrible, towering monument to your twin failures with guns and race.

What I witnessed today on that shocking video is what happens when a city (whose Mayor, lest we forget, is Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former White House chief of staff) loses control of a section of its community and hopeless young people in that section of the community turn depraved.

It represents a hideously ugly stain on Chicago, and its most famous son, President Obama.

And yes, I would say exactly the same if it were the other way round and this was a white gang who’d done this to a defenseless black man in the name of white power and anger at a black president.

Racism’s a two-way street.

 

 

[ILUVAdrianaLima]

^ This is such a horrid story I almost don't want to believe how sick some people can be  Such a sad tale of a city with a long history of extreme gun violence that spans over 50 years  My only complaint is people, especially those such as Piers really need to stop blaming Obama over an issue that was and is out of his hands with only a short 8 years in office over an issue spanning longer than Obama has been alive  Murder rates were just as bad, actually, worse on average during the Regan years and yes, even the good ol' oral Clinton years but blame should not be casted on them with such a spotlight. Sadly, this is the result of hideously poor ideology making its way into our government in the form of segregation, Jim Crow laws, and much more, which in turn created isiolated area of underserved minorities called the ghettos  Such a shame that humanity can't learn from its past and keeps repeating these disgusting racial crimes for ignorant ideology! My heart goes out to the victim and his family! What happened in that video is utterly disgusting and atrocious! 

[frenchkiki]

The American society is to blame /The education is the key of everything. Not guns.

As long this country will keep thinking there is "races" among humans and split their own country women & men  in "communities" nothing will ever change.

 

Beauty tutorial

 

In morocco 6 out of 10 women are victims of domestic violence

Do not cover his abuse

 

 

 

show it

 

[ILUVAdrianaLima]

8 minutes ago, frenchkiki said:

The American society is to blame /The education is the key of everything. Not guns.

When this country will keep thinking there is "races" among humans and split their own country women & men  in "communities" nothing will ever change.

 

^ There is much truth to the above and slowly we are headed that way but changes take time and time is not always on everyone's hands though

[Cult Icon]

Wrong, there are 330 M people in the US and they segregate based most strongly on income.  

[frenchkiki]

"Communities" ^^

so not wrong

[Cult Icon]

25 minutes ago, frenchkiki said:

"Communities" ^^

so not wrong

christy

 

it is primarily the income segregation that leads to a degree of the 'racial' segregation.

 

I spend a lot of time in NYC, which hold some of the most creative people in humanity but it is also a profoundly horrible place with a lot of suffering.  The nature of NYC however, reflectively promotes the genius.  The Diverse aspects, that is.

 

The only way to move quickly towards "a happy one culture" (which is not desirable by many peoples) rather than multiculturalism in the US is to literally have a very equal income and a very identical life experience, education, and inculcated values.  

 

Politicians and commentators tend to emphasis the symptoms rather than the source of the disease to promote their own self-interest and greed with their race-baiting/religion baiting: 

 

Income equality is the biggest source of social problems in the US.  In NYC it certainly is.

This is something that is more easy to obtain in a white nordic country with 10 M people. 

 

[17 Moments of Spring]

1 hour ago, Cult Icon said:

 

Income equality is the biggest source of social problems in the US.  In NYC it certainly is.

 

 

 

[Prettyphile]

 

 

 

Here is a rundown of who was charged with what:

• Jordan Hill, 18, of  Carpentersville, is charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, robbery, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and residential burglary.
• Tesfaye Cooper, 18,  of Chicago, is charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and residential burglary.
• Brittany Covington, 18, of Chicago, is charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and residential burglary.
• Tanishia Covington, 24,  of Chicago, is charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restrain and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

[frenchkiki]

2 hours ago, Cult Icon said:

christy

 

it is primarily the income segregation that leads to a degree of the 'racial' segregation.

 

I spend a lot of time in NYC, which hold some of the most creative people in humanity but it is also a profoundly horrible place with a lot of suffering.  The nature of NYC however, reflectively promotes the genius.  The Diverse aspects, that is.

 

The only way to move quickly towards "a happy one culture" (which is not desirable by many peoples) rather than multiculturalism in the US is to literally have a very equal income and a very identical life experience, education, and inculcated values.  

 

Politicians and commentators tend to emphasis the symptoms rather than the source of the disease to promote their own self-interest and greed with their race-baiting/religion baiting: 

 

Income equality is the biggest source of social problems in the US.  In NYC it certainly is.

This is something that is more easy to obtain in a white nordic country with 10 M people. 

 

"communities" for me  also means : poor & rich

not only "white" & "black" /"Muslims" & Catholics" etc

 

Money is the evil of almost everything and not only in USA

[Cult Icon]

15 minutes ago, frenchkiki said:

"communities" for me  also means : poor & rich

not only "white" & "black" /"Muslims" & Catholics" etc

 

Money is the evil of almost everything and not only in USA

 

what I was saying is that it has little to do with education.  

[Michael*]

On ‎03‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 10:52 PM, Limerlight said:

I concur, usually I can read a headline from there and then I dig further to get more news as it's very slanted and not always correct, still at least it gives something  There's few dependable news sites now

 

Yeah, I think really looking into the issues is getting much more difficult these days. If you don't keep up with the news you're uninformed and if you do you're misinformed. It's difficult to view a lot of journalism now as anything other than opinion masquerading as 'discussion' pieces, where the point isn't really to discuss but to plant a message in enough different places to be easily remembered. Complicated issues are reduced to simplified soundbites, which actually makes discussion redundant, because it nearly always degenerates into a choice of 'with us or against us'.

[Limerlight]

Supposed to snow overnight, and then gotta drive on one of the most dangerous highways in our area tomorrow  So looking forward to that

[Stormbringer]

A chilean recluse spider was just found here... 

[elfstone]

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jan/06/what-learned-sleeping-rough-london

 

Quote

Medical student James Beavis spent his Christmas on the streets of the UK capital, to raise money for – and try to better understand – this marginalised community. His conclusion? ‘Society has dehumanised homeless people’

 

This is my 27th out of 31 days rough sleeping in central London. I’m not using any charity facilities; I am begging for money to survive – so washing and showering has been in cafe toilets with my foot against the door, or sneaking into the hospital as there are no free public bathrooms around.

I’m not homeless. I’ve got a countdown on my hand until I stop this project on Monday, and take a flight back to catch my 9am anatomy lecture in Aberdeen, where I’m studying to be a doctor.

I am raising money for the homeless charity Crisis, which each Christmas offers temporary shelter to more than 4,000 people who have no home. I wanted to do this is because homelessness can affect anybody. The number-one cause is relationship breakdown, while more than 80% of the homeless community report having a mental health problem. And the number of rough sleepers is rising: in London alone, outreach workers saw more than 8,000 people sleeping on the streets between April 2015 and last March.

In the last month alone, there have been two headlines about homeless people being set on fire in the UK. Homeless people are 17 times more likely to be a victim of violence, mostly at the hands of the public.

Four years ago, I decided to sleep rough over Christmas for one week to raise money for charity, so this time had to be longer to be more impactful. It is not a vanity project; I believe that this way – sleeping rough, leaving friends and family behind, begging for food to survive – gives me a better perspective on the issue, and could even act as a bridge to others understanding this marginalised community better. If nothing else, at least I’ll have raised some money to get people into shelters over Christmas where they’ll get warm food, a place to rest and a route into longer-term support.

The reality is that society has dehumanised homeless people. They are seen as intimidating – but during my time on the streets, it’s not the homeless community I’ve felt afraid of; it’s some of the general public who have made me feel intimidated and vulnerable. I’ve been spat on, and endlessly ignored. There have been times when not a single person has looked at me for at least two hours.

To sit on a cold, hard pavement and get out the words “please do you have any change?” is tough, especially the first time – you start so quietly. It immediately puts you in a position of isolation.

A few days ago, when I was sitting outside Hamleys toy shop on Regent Street, someone accidentally knocked over the cup I was using to beg. The woman turned back to apologise, saw who I was, and immediately turned around again without saying a word, seemingly inconvenienced and annoyed.

This is most people. They pull their daughters and sons away from you. You feel dirty, grubby. Because of this, you become extremely paranoid when you sleep on the streets. A Crisis report released before Christmas highlighted the shocking levels of violence and harassment aimed at homeless people, with more than one in three rough sleepers being deliberately hit or kicked.

I can’t sleep with my sleeping bag closed because, if someone comes to attack me, I’ll be trapped. A guy once threw a glass bottle right next to me when I was sleeping. I’m not so scared of being beaten up, but I worry about knives or sexual assault. All it takes is for someone to put something in the food they give you.

But I feel less vulnerable when there are other homeless people around. I’m obviously fresh on the streets, and only 26, so others have brought me extra cardboard to sleep on. I was even given a Christmas present by another homeless man – a clean sports shirt that had been donated to this man who has nothing.

You have to consider your vulnerabilities – both to the public and the weather – when you’re finding a spot to sleep. You need a place that’s sheltered to keep dry, and ideally out of the wind. If your cardboard gets wet it’s useless, and that’s what stops the concrete from sapping the heat out of you.

At most, I’ve been living off two-to-three hours’ sleep a night, because of the noise, the paranoia and the cold. When the weather reached minus temperatures after Christmas, I spent my begging money on foil to wrap around my wrists, ankles and tummy. It keeps you insulated, but falls apart quite quickly.

There are nights when it’s been so cold I’ve had to make myself a cardboard tunnel – it leaves you defenceless, but it helps keep the wind out. I’m short of breath, my chest is tight and the weight has stripped off me. Recently I heard about two deaths of rough sleepers in the cold in Chatham, Kent, just before the opening of a winter centre there. Those deaths were preventable.

Every night you get through without an incident makes you more attached to that particular sleeping spot. I started improving my last place, under some scaffolding near Regent Street. I put a roof on it with bits of cardboard – it was becoming more like Bear Grylls than sleeping on a pavement – but suddenly it was sealed off and taken away.

Waking up in the morning with no money, I have to go out and beg. It’s hard having to do that before you can eat because you feel frantic, you get more desperate – and then people don’t give you as much.

If you can get a sign it helps, but I’ve found that you have to keep you head down; if someone catches your eye, they’ll walk away quickly. If you walk around asking people directly, it can be dangerous because you’re forcing strangers into a situation where they have to react to you – they have no choice but to acknowledge you. If that doesn’t work, you search for leftover food in bins.

Over the last eight years of working with homeless people, and especially over this past month on the streets, I’ve gained an enlightened perspective of a community that is completely excluded from mainstream society. And I’ve also seen a darker side to London; a side that lacks empathy and compassion.

But it’s not always the case. I have woken up to find someone has left food near my head. A stranger once brought me a cup of tea they’d made at home. And on most evenings, I see volunteers giving care packages and warm drinks to rough sleepers. You don’t expect everyone to give you a couple of quid – but just by smiling or saying hello, they can help bridge the widening gap that society has created.

 

[Prettyphile]

Another shooting; Fort Lauderdale airport. 5 dead, 8-9 injured

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/gunman-opens-fire-fort-lauderdale-airport-killing-1-n704001