Originally a comment by Ariel on They all stated without hesitation that it was wrong and forbidden.

Catholics, huh? Well, if you are interested in reactions of people in more distant and exotic parts of the world, here it goes.

Here in Poland we have a nationalist-Catholic organization called „All-Polish Youth”. Sweet people. Soon after the Orlando attack, on their Facebook site you could read the infamous quote from Leviticus (“If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them”), attached to a photo of the Orlando club.

This provoked a lot of outrage and the Facebook post was removed. However, on their Facebook site we read now:

Dear leftists […] we are not ashamed of any quote from the Bible. Our previous post informing about the Orlando massacre was deleted by pure mistake. We didn’t insert it again because Robert Winnicki made a short and blunt comment describing this matter, which we decided to share. Please publish the screenshot with our previous post all over the net. We are not ashamed at all.

In Winnicki’s post, shared by the All-Polish Youth, we read:

Here are the facts. The massacre was done by an Afghan in a club where nobody could defend himself because it was declared a “gun-free zone”.

Let’s sum it up:

– homosexuals

– pacifism and disarmament

– a Muslim immigrant

Here you’ve got everything that the Left loves so much!

By the way, this tragedy is symbolic. It is exactly such a gun-free mess with plenty of immigrants* that you want to create both in the West and in Poland. We will not let it happen.

*Literally: “a gun-free brothel infested with alien immigrants”.

How do you like our Catholic youth, the future of our nation? Yup, I’m sure you are enchanted. Me too. Believe me.

On the other hand, soon after the massacre one of our most popular leftist politicians* has said in an interview that he sees “no difference between the religious radicalism of the Islamists and the radicalism of some Christians”. Literally speaking, this is of course quite correct (note the quantifier “some” in “some Christians”) … but as a political message just after the killings? Hmm…

*Which means that he can count on perhaps 10% of votes in the next presidential election – that is, if he is both lucky and smart enough to abstain from such remarks in the future.

So if you’re a woman in Qatar and you get roofied, you’d better just shut up about it, because if you accuse the roofier of rape you’ll be charged with a crime yourself, and most likely convicted. The BBC reports:

A court in Qatar has convicted a Dutch woman of having sex outside marriage after she told police she was raped.

The 22-year-old was handed a suspended sentence and fined $824 (£580). She will also be deported.

Her lawyer said her drink had been spiked at a Doha hotel in March and she had woken up in a stranger’s flat, where she realised she had been raped.

The stranger was sentenced to 100 lashes for the “sex outside marriage,” and 40 more for drinking alcohol.

The woman has been detained since making the allegation three months ago, but her case only came to light over the weekend when her family decided to go public.

So along with the fine she’s served three months in jail – for being drugged and raped.

The woman was arrested by Qatari police immediately after reporting that she had been raped on the night of 15 March, as was the alleged assailant.

During a holiday in the emirate, she went out with a friend for drinks at a hotel where the sale of alcohol was permitted, according to her lawyer Brian Lokollo.

“She went dancing but when she returned to the table after the first sip of her drink, she realised someone had added something to her glass,” he said.

The woman did not feel very well and she later woke alone in an unfamiliar flat and “realised to her great horror that she had been raped”, Mr Lokollo added.

Doha-based lawyer Najeeb al-Nuaimi, Qatar’s former justice minister, told the Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera the woman’s lawyers would have had to prove there had been “no voluntary actions” between her and the man for him to be charged with rape.

And of course it’s impossible to prove that, so…

In 2013, a Norwegian woman in the United Arab Emirates was given a 16-month prison sentence for perjury, extramarital sex and drinking alcohol after she told police she had been raped. She was later pardoned and allowed to return to Norway.

Just don’t go there. Not Qatar, not the UAE, not the whole damn peninsula. Stay away.

Adele Wilde on Facebook:

I taught a group of Algerian Muslim men here a couple of months ago. Without any provocation from my side, they asked me what I thought about gay people.

I had been warned by my boss (eager not to lose paying students) not to be pro-gay or say anything that might offend them (what like expressing views of a decent, tolerant human being?). He told me that a male teacher had said something to the class that showed he supported LGBT rights. They were deeply offended and told my boss to get another teacher for them, which he did.

So I turned the question on the men and asked them what they thought. They all stated without hesitation that it was wrong and forbidden by the Koran. I am sure many Catholics and members of other major religions would say the same thing too.

These were not extremists or radicals, they were educated, middle-class Muslim men. I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. Let´s face it, patriarchal religion was, and is, like a cancer on this planet. It oppresses women, children and men. We cannot let multi-cultural tolerance become tolerance of the totally unacceptable (and yes that includes women wearing hijab).

We know all too well that many Catholics and members of other major religions would say the same thing.

There are people who identify as victims of an organized group of stalkers, who are everywhere.

At first, Mr. Trespas wondered if it was all in his head. Then he encountered a large community of like-minded people on the internet who call themselves “targeted individuals,” or T.I.s, who described going through precisely the same thing.

The group was organized around the conviction that its members are victims of a sprawling conspiracy to harass thousands of everyday Americans with mind-control weapons and armies of so-called gang stalkers. The goal, as one gang-stalking website put it, is “to destroy every aspect of a targeted individual’s life.”

Mental health professionals say the narrative has taken hold among a group of people experiencing psychotic symptoms that have troubled the human mind since time immemorial. Except now victims are connecting on the internet, organizing and defying medical explanations for what’s happening to them.

The community, conservatively estimated to exceed 10,000 members, has proliferated since 9/11, cradled by the internet and fed by genuine concerns over government surveillance. A large number appear to have delusional disorder or schizophrenia, psychiatrists say.

Well psychiatrists are part of the conspiracy.

For the few specialists who have looked closely, these individuals represent an alarming development in the history of mental illness: thousands of sick people, banded together and demanding recognition on the basis of shared paranoias.

They raise money, hold awareness campaigns, host international conferences and fight for their causes in courts and legislatures.

It’s a new intersection.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the community is divided over the contours of the conspiracy. Some believe the financial elite is behind it. Others blame aliens, their neighbors, Freemasons or some combination.

What about fluoride?

And now, in Los Angeles…

Authorities in Santa Monica found possible explosives as well as weapons and ammunition Sunday in the car of a man who told them he was in town for the L.A. Pride festival in West Hollywood, a law enforcement source said.

Early Sunday,  Santa Monica police received a call of a suspected prowler near Olympic Boulevard and 11th Street. Patrol officers responded and encountered an individual who told officers he was waiting for a friend. That led officers to inspect the car and find several weapons and a lot of ammunition as well as tannerite, an ingredient that could be used to create a pipe bomb.

The car had Indiana plates. The man, was was arrested, made comments that he was in town for the Pride event in West Hollywood this weekend. The source said they believed there was no connection between the gay nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., early Sunday morning and the Santa Monica incident. The investigation has been taken over by the FBI. The source said the man appeared to be white.

Well let’s hope there’s no connection.

A city official in West Hollywood also confirmed the arrest and stressed that officials were beefing up security at the gay pride event.

“They found him with weapons that were very disconcerting,” said the source, adding officials are “taking the appropriate safety precautions.”

…

One source in West Hollywood said there was discussion of calling off the parade but that officials decided to go forward, with heavy security including undercover officers in the crowd.

The sources spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

West Hollywood City Councilwoman Lindsey Horvath said in a statement that Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials are stepping up security efforts around Sunday’s parade and other festivities. But she said officials do not believe there is any threat around Sunday’s activities.

But, of course, they don’t know.

Everyday Sexism continues to flourish.

A casting call for a new project produced by Quentin Tarantino has caused controversy after a Facebook post invited “whores” to apply.

The post, which has since been deleted, appeared on a casting agency page and began: “Casting Whores for Quentin Tarantino project”. The post later requested that all applicants have “natural breasts” and should put the word “whore” in the subject line.

So the question becomes, do they mean actors who want to play prostitutes? Or do they mean women in general, whom they like to call whores? It’s impossible to tell.

The film doesn’t appear on Quentin Tarantino’s IMDb page. His last film The Hateful Eight drew controversy for its abusive treatment of the film’s female character, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. Writing for RogerEbert.com, Laura Bogart referred to it as “hipster misogyny”.

Last year saw Rose McGowan tweet details of a casting call for an Adam Sandler film that asked women to wear clothing that “shows off cleavage” with “push up bras encouraged”. Earlier this year, Twitter user @femscriptintros shared a selection of tweets of the sexist way that women are introduced in scripts.

Ross Putman @femscriptintros
JANE, 28, athletic but sexy. A natural beauty. Most days she wears jeans, and she makes them look good.

JANE (late 20s) sits hunched over a microscope. She’s attractive, but too much of a professional to care about her appearance.

But is she a whore?

Mike Skerrit asks his son what it means when she says stop.

My son is three years old. My daughter is five. They play. My son is strong and sometimes he gets the upper hand and giggles as he sits on top of his sister. She says stop. He won’t. He’s laughing so hard he doesn’t hear her. I come running. “What does it mean when she says stop,” I say. Silence. There is no missing my message. He is upset. “It means stop,” he answers ruefully. “When does it mean stop,” I say. “Stop right now.” “It means stop right now. Always. We don’t keep doing it, we don’t ignore her, we don’t make her say it twice. When she says stop, we stop.” “Okay.”

He is young and still learning. The lesson remains a work in progress. We will probably have to do it again tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that. We will continue as long as it takes for him to understand that my message is not only about his sister.

Because where once was urgency there is now desperation. When he grows up, my voice may very well be the only one he hears telling him to stop. It won’t be the judge, who sees a white, blue eyed, handsome young man and decides he can’t go to prison because it just wouldn’t be the right place for him. It won’t be the lawyer, who warns against admitting guilt when guilt is beside the point. It won’t be the media, whose fickle masters don’t click for truth. It won’t be the schools, whose stated, budget-minded goal of providing a safe environment for students cannot be maintained amidst the perception that they do not provide a safe environment for students. It won’t be the coaches, who prize his alpha male qualities and have no use for nor interest in his understanding of right and wrong. It won’t be the peers, who are products of that same sphere of entitlement.

Someday my children will enter a world without shepherds. Just as we must teach our daughters that they are not sheep, we must teach our sons that they are not wolves. That responsibility and entitlement cannot coexist. That self-worth comes from what is earned, not what is taken. That alcohol is neither an alibi nor a key to unlock the basic inviolate rights of others. That accepting rape culture is unacceptable, no matter how many winks and nudges they get.

They will not learn these lessons unless we teach them. Diligently. Emphatically. Lovingly, but angrily if necessary. And, immediately. As in, right now. Today. If they are old enough to make demands, they are old enough to be told no.

For now, my son’s world is his sister. My job is to keep it that way.

Peter Walker reports:

Went today to the LaVoy Finicum site on Hwy 395 to see what’s happening. An ongoing source of tension and anger. The memorial has been toned down. William C. Fischer of Idaho and a local friend watch it 24/7 from an adjacent legal (if symbolically problematic…) campsite. They told me they’ll stay until a permanent solution is found. They want the memorial set back off the road with a few parking spaces and a path to access the memorial from the camp. Being set off the road is key: others don’t have to see it. Possibly better than leaving it as a festering source of anger, potential conflict, and recruiting. Would require federal USFS authorization.

They want a “memorial” on public land for a guy who was part of a criminal seizure and occupation of more public land, carried out by heavily armed men who threatened violence for weeks and did tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage.

Why the hell should there be a memorial to him on public land?

Those flags are a joke, given the criminals’ attitude to the actual government of the actual country.

“Don’t tread on me” doesn’t mean “give me the public land.” Get out.

Because of this claim in a comment:

Does Elizabeth Warren actually have any Native American ancestry?

If she claimed in public she did, but in reality didn’t, then she lied, didn’t she?

Here is Vox explaining the non-issue:

Trump’s comment may be racist against Native Americans, but he’s using it here to sarcastically suggest that Warren really isn’t Native American. (Which, oddly enough, proves that Trump can also be racist while trying to insult someone for being white.)

Trump is referring to a controversy Warren faced over her ancestry during her 2012 Senate campaign.

Warren says she grew up being told that she had Cherokee heritage. “Everyone on our mother’s side — aunts, uncles, and grandparents — talked openly about their Native American ancestry,” she wrote in her 2014 book, A Fighting Chance. “My brothers and I grew up on stories about our grandfather building one-room schoolhouses and about our grandparents’ courtship and their early lives together in Indian Territory.”

Saying you grow up being told X isn’t the same thing as claiming that X is true. I think we all grew up being told a lot of things that weren’t true. I was told that Santa Claus was real.

This became an issue during her campaign when reports emerged that Harvard had once touted her Native American heritage as proof of its faculty’s diversity. Warren, however, couldn’t produce definitive proof of her Cherokee ancestry, and neither could genealogists.

Big woop. She said she was told it. People get things wrong.

This led to speculation that Warren had been a fake “diversity hire,” or that she had abused the affirmative-action system to gain an advantage over other candidates.

However, as Garance Franke-Ruta reported for the Atlantic in 2012, there’s no evidence that Warren ever used claims of Native American ancestry to help her get a job.

And there is, by contrast, evidence that she did not use claims of Native American ancestry to help her get a job.

While Warren was listed as a minority in the Association of American Law Schools Directory of Faculty, she had declined to apply as a minority to Rutgers Law School, and had listed herself as “white” while teaching at the University of Texas. The head of the committee that recruited Warren to Harvard also said he had no memory of her Native American heritage ever coming up, and the 1995 Harvard Crimson article reporting on her tenure made no mention of it.

It’s true, Franke-Ruta learned, that Warren wouldn’t meet the criteria to officially qualify as Cherokee. She only claimed to be 1/32 Cherokee, which is too little to qualify for citizenship in two of the three major Cherokee tribes. She also doesn’t have a known direct ancestor listed on the Dawes Rolls, which is a strict requirement for membership in the Cherokee Nation, or on the Baker Rolls, a requirement of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

But just because Warren can’t find hard evidence of Native American heritage doesn’t mean she doesn’t have any, Franke-Ruta said — and even if she doesn’t, that wouldn’t make her a liar. Hazy oral histories about Native heritage are especially common in Oklahoma, where Warren grew up, and she would have no particular reason to disbelieve the stories she was told growing up.

Franke-Ruta notes that the shaky reliability of oral history has confounded other public figures — like Madeleine Albright, who didn’t know until reporters discovered it that her own parents had escaped the Holocaust, or Marco Rubio, who mistakenly believed that he was the “son of exiles” from Castro’s Cuba when his parents actually came over before Castro took power.

We don’t always know much about our ancestors, in some cases even our grandparents.

So no – Warren’s saying she was told she had a tiny amount of Cherokee ancestry wasn’t necessarily a lie even if she didn’t in fact have any such ancestry.