Trump Will Arm the Kurds, a Jewish Writer Says Debating Holocaust Deniers Was 'Invigorating': P.M. Links

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  Cheriss May/ZUMA Press/Newscom

  President Trump will arm the Syrian Kurds.

• Great read: Free speech is "invigorating," says the Jewish writer who felt empowered after speaking with a pair of pathetic Holocaust deniers.
• A Duke Divinity School professor resigns in protest after administrators chided him for denouncing the institution's diversity training.
• Rep. Mark Sanford defends his vote for the AHCA on grounds that it allows the Senate to debate it.
• This.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Trump will arm the Syrian Kurds.

Finally, someone recognizing the Kurds as worthy surrogates.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

"President Trump will arm the Syrian Kurds."

'Bout fricken time the Kurds get arms support.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'm beginning to suspect you don't even read my comments when you reply to them.

[Rufus The Monocled]

I'm sorry.

And you are? I never noticed you before.

[mattcid]

Oh hell yes. We should have re-established Kurdistan a LONG time ago.

[buybuydandavis]

#FreeKekistan

[Citizen X - #6]

President Trump will arm the Syrian Kurds.

Now THAT is a masturbation euphemism.

[Chipper Mourning Somali Roadz]

That's quite a stretch.

[pan fried wylie]

No, it's more along the lines of a Dutch Rudder. Stretching beforehand couldn't hurt though.

[Chipper Mourning Somali Roadz]

Had to google that. Technically, it should be called a Dutch Tiller.

[pan fried wylie]

"Tiller" doesn't sound nearly as disgusting.

[TheZeitgeist]

President Trump will arm the Syrian Kurds.

Erdogan vs. Trump pay-per-view can't wait.

[Conchfritters]

Trump is playing both sides of this, 5 dimensional wizard chess and what not. He called Erdogan a few weeks ago to congratulate him on establishing a dictatorship. Secular democracy no more.

[Fist of Etiquette]

This.

MORE FALSE EQUIVALENCY.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Pennsylvania judge prompts outrage after telling an 18-year-old boy to pay a symbolic fine of just $1 for each time he GROPED a 15-year-old girl - before waiving it altogether

Nauhaus agreed with the community service suggestion and drastically revised the amount of money the boy would owe, at first declaring he would have to pay a $3 fine.

The judge then appeared to give the idea more thought and asked: 'How many times did he touch?'

The victim replied: 'I'm going to say about six times.' Nauhaus' responses to that was: 'A $6 fine.'

Upon hearing the suggestion, Assistant District Attorney Jeff Tisak tried to fight back, according to reports.

'It is just highly inappropriate to tell a young girl that inappropriate touching is worth a dollar a time,' Tisak told Nauhaus.

The judge, however, repeated the defense's argument that the boy didn't have any money, asking: 'What do you want me to fine him?'

[Citizen X - #6]

The judge then high-fived the boy with one hand while flashing "the shocker" with the other.

[Shirley Knott]

They want him to spend life in prison. Duh.

[Brandybuck]

Only if he refuses public confession and a declaration of shame.

[Fist of Etiquette]

'It is just highly inappropriate to tell a young girl that inappropriate touching is worth a dollar a time,' Tisak told Nauhaus.

Price controls.

[Chipper Mourning Somali Roadz]

The judge was just giving the boy a life lesson.
TANSTAFG, my friends.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

+1 mooning

[mad.casual]

Lucky he wasn't eliminated via the nearest airlock.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

A dollar a touch? Wow, talk about inflation. How's the little guy supposed to make it in the groping world?

[Mickey Rat]

An 18 year old has no money, whatsoever?

Though tbe prosecutur appears to have annoyed the judge by pursuing a "Law & Order: SVU" objection and got the fine waived.

[buybuydandavis]

Why don't we always have compensation from criminals to victims?

I don't care if he has it now. It's always a debt. Let it be extracted from him like money is extracted from divorced fathers.

[Mock-star]

6 one dollar fines? Thats like 500000 dollars after court costs.

[TheZeitgeist]

A Duke Divinity School professor resigns in protest after administrators chided him for denouncing the institution's diversity training.

And he inadvertently inversely increased Diversity.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A Duke Divinity School professor resigns in protest after administrators chided him for denouncing the institution's diversity training.

The cardinal sin of challenging publicly someone from a class more protected than one's own.

[buybuydandavis]

The more privileged must defer to the less privileged. That's the essence of privilege.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

In blow to U.S.-Turkey ties, Trump administration approves plan to directly arm Syrian Kurds against Islamic State

To soften the blow, senior U.S. officials have been in near constant contact with their Turkish counterparts to assure them the Kurds will not be part of the force that enters Raqqa and will not dominate the establishment of a new local government. That force, U.S. officials have said, will be comprised of the Arab fighters who also form part of the SDF.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Free speech is "invigorating," says the Jewish writer who felt empowered after speaking with a pair of pathetic Holocaust deniers.

You know who else was empowered after speeches?

[DanO.]

Who?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'll give you a hint. This person stood in front of a large group and spouted nonsense which was eaten up.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Joel Osteen?

[DanO.]

Ah, General Cheeto himself.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

Chef Boyardee?

[Mickey Rat]

That does not narrow it down at all.

[Kivlor]

Well, we can rule out Hillary Clinton, she couldn't get a crowd to show up, even with bribery.

[Chipper Mourning Somali Roadz]

Stephen Hawking?

[MarkLastname]

*stood.* also, *spouted*, not *drooled.*

[Aloysious]

Chelsea Clinton?

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

In Kenya, Phones Replace Bank Tellers

This has made a difference. Access to M-Pesa "increased per capita consumption levels and lifted 194,000 households, or 2 percent of Kenyan households, out of poverty," a recent study estimated. Almost all the affected households were female-headed ? and therefore, the most vulnerable.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Coffee Shops Skip Wi-Fi to Encourage Customers to Actually Talk

"It's about creating a social vibe," he said. "We're a vehicle for human interaction, otherwise it's just a commodity."

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

In an email, she added that other businesses, such as the Blue Bottle Coffee, are known for lacking Wi-Fi, but that does not stop people from coming with laptops. To really get people to stop, some coffee shops enforce laptop-free zones, she wrote.

[Chipper Mourning Somali Roadz]

Why would you name your coffee shop after a shit eating blow fly?

[mad.casual]

Floating Terror and Portuguese Man o' War Coffee were already taken.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

When I go to a coffee shop, I'm not there to talk to the strangers around me. No thanks.

[crufus]

I would like to see coffee shops, restaurants, and movie theaters with shielding installed to prevent reception of Wi-Fi and cell phone signals. so that I don't have to listen to some a-hole watching a movie, listening to loud music, or making annoying phone calls.

[Jerry on the sea]

Free speech is "invigorating," says the Jewish writer who felt empowered after speaking with a pair of pathetic Holocaust deniers.

He didn't dare speak to the most excellent Holocaust denier David Iriving?!

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Andrew Rannells Opens Up About Lena Dunham's Harsh Critics: 'It Feels So Unjustified'

"She does take a lot of flack, and I'm not exactly sure why that is," he told host Andy Cohen. "She never set out to say that she was supposed to represent every young woman in America, she was just representing this character that she created ? so I'm confused about a lot of the criticism."

"If I'm going to be honest, I'm mostly confused by other women who criticize her physical appearance," he continued. "I get very defensive about that on her behalf. She has such grace and such a great sense of humor about all of that, that she sort of lets it all roll [off her back], but I get defensive about it. Like, how can you possibly be critical of that?!"

[Meh.]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence... maybe she never explicitly said she was supposed to represent every young woman in America, but by going along with all the media and thinkpieces claiming she was the champion of millennial females, she seemed to accept that lofty title. I think a lot of people got offended by being told, "See? You're just like this!"

[Conchfritters]

She is just a gay teen boy (her words) trapped in a penguin's body. Why the hell is it so difficult for people to understand her?

[gaoxiaen]

She sort of lets it all roll off her back, like Ahab's whaleboat.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"The long and short of all of this," he writes, "is that this bill represents an earnest, if rushed, attempt to protect people with pre-existing conditions while at the same time helping people who have seen dramatic increases in their insurance costs."

"Give the monkeys in the House 435 typewriters and they'll bang out a bill that I will be willing to debate."

[DanO.]

How about those Yankees.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

Damn. Oh.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Is attempting to be annoying on the internet an addiction?

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

There's a Decades-Old Boner War Raging Inside Nudist Camps

While Hoffman recognizes that sometimes a little wood may make an unexpected appearance, and while many groups offer men a bit of leeway with them, "we certainly don't want a bunch of men walking around sporting erections," she said. A boisterous, bobbing boner could be taken as a sign of unwanted sexual attention, or the result of sexualized gawking that could make others feel uncomfortable. So, Hoffman said, the usual protocol is for a man with persistent peckerwood to just put on a towel or some other cover-up. Nudists typically always carry around a towel to put on bare surfaces before they sit down and keep some garments handy to deal with weather realities.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

This seems simple and fair enough. But not every nudist is down with the idea. On lifestyle forums, young men complain about how these mainstream nudist rules still force them to view a natural bodily function as taboo, even shameful and inconveniencing to others. Critics point out that many men get rigid as a matter of reflex (rather than sexual desire) several times a day, sometimes because of the rushes of blood associated with emotions like stress and sometimes due to automatic hormonal fluctuations, especially in young men. Taking all erections as potentially unwanted sexual attention and seeking to hide them, in their eyes, betrays the core philosophies of nudism.

I stand firmly in the pro-boner tent.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

It's a big tent.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Aw shucks.

*kicks the pebble alongside my boner*

[Jerry on the sea]

It's a tent that can hold itself up.

[Shirley Knott]

With periods of down-time.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Please don't say 'periods' when talking about boners.

[Chipper Mourning Somali Roadz]

I am sure Crusty doesn't mind bloodying his rapier.

[gaoxiaen]

I guess that I wouldn't be allowed to wake up.

[Chipper Mourning Somali Roadz]

Most American nudist beaches are just old men. How come we don't hear the feminists complain about how underrepresented women are at these things? Such blatant discrimination shall not stand.

[mad.casual]

I think the real important question is can a private club, in observance of its own rules, compel an 'erect' trans-man to detach/switch penises?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

The real issue is if we're not supposed to ban or curb public breastfeeding (natural biology of a mother!) why would we do the same to boners, which are 100% natural.

[Chipper Mourning Somali Roadz]

As is bonerfeeding.

[pan fried wylie]

bonerfeeding, thrice daily, bacon/eggs/oatmeal/blackcoffee.

[TheZeitgeist]

I approve Emma Watson flaunting conventions with her gender-neutral physique at one of these places. Girl ('girl' being gender-spectrum) Power.

[MarkLastname]

Maybe the nudists are being too hard on them?

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Unquestionably, words can, and do, cause harm. I'm not interested in lending support to policies that I despise. But free speech is an important value, one that protects everyone with unpopular views: critics of Israel, defenders of revolutionary movements, anti-vaccine activists. Those who run from unpopular views, moreover, may ultimately harm themselves.

You don't say?

Truth be told, it was invigorating. They were so deluded, so sad, and so alone in the world. Their lives were tangled webs of failed ambitions, failed ideas, even failed marriages. They weren't well. I was. It was heartening to listen to my enemies respectfully, and conclude that in a country that permits free inquiry, they would never win.

If you resort to attacking them personally...

[Meh.]

"Edgy" isn't really the word that comes to mind when I think of Chelsea Clinton. But after that, the second-best part of the tweet was when people started seriously fighting about who had more privilege in the replies.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

John most hurt.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

"Unkind as it is to say, reading anything by Chelsea Clinton?tweets, interviews, books?is best compared to taking in spoonfuls of plain oatmeal that, periodically, conceal a toenail clipping."

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Amazon fires back at Wal-Mart by slashing free-shipping threshold to $25

Amazon is fighting back against Walmart by dropping its free shipping minimum requirement down to $25. The move comes after a number of challenges by Walmart, including the added support for free two-day shipping on orders under $35 with no membership required, announced in January, and the more recent rollout of a new program called "Pickup Discount" that offers lowers prices if you ship items to the store instead of your home.

Okay, we need to start regulating these industries even more heavily - this competition cannot stand!

[Not a True MJG]

Wasn't it $25 a couple years ago? And I thought Amazon raised it to $35. I don't recall ever seeing a $50 minimum.

Am I in a different universe?

[ChipToBeSquare]

It doesn't feel like a US presidency until we're arming people in the Middle East

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Back in my day, it used to be folks in Central America.

[ATXChappy]

Do we have to pick just one. Why not both!

[Palin's Buttplug]

AG Sessions fires FBI man Comey.

The fucking Fundie Freak Christ-Fags are running the GOP for sure.

[MarkLastname]

Um ok?

[buybuydandavis]

A Duke Divinity School professor resigns in protest after administrators chided him for denouncing the institution's diversity training.

Likely NeverTrumper. Thinks that firing yourself so the SJWs don't have to is a bold stand against the SJWs. Has a future on National Review staff.

A well-executed SJW hit, by Vox Day

[MarkLastname]

You're still pretty bitter about your guy winning, aren't you.

[Cyto]

The dude had some awesome things to say. Among them was this nugget:

These disciplinary proceedings are designed not to engage and rebut the views I hold and have expressed about the matters mentioned, but rather to discipline me for having expressed them

.

The link is from "The American Conservative", but consists primarily of reprinting emails from each of the major players, including the professor, his boss, another SJW professor and a like-minded professor who defends him. So a good source to find the meat of the issue.

Summary: Administration urges everyone to attend a training on the history and significance of racism. Professor sends email calling it a waste of time, citing reasons. Administration responds with "hate speech and racism is inappropriate". Original professor tries to meet about it, but is rebuffed, delayed and diverted. Then is disciplined because he wouldn't meet with his boss. Other professor chimes in on his side, saying it is impossible to describe his complaints about a particular training initiative as hate speech or racist. A different professor files a complaint because he's so racist. He asks to see the particulars of the allegations against him, and they decline and ban him from all faculty meetings. He eventually resigns.

[Cyto]

Certainly not a made-up controversy. Although it is only a single dude out of a sea of millions. I suppose it is extra surprising because it is at a school of divinity, where everyone is supposedly focused on making better Christians rather than enforcing progressive values.

[Stormy Dragon]

From the "Well, that's not good" Department:

Tunnel collapses at Hanford nuclear site; emergency declared