Reviews Category
We don’t just report off-beat news, breaking news and digest the best and worst of the news media analysis and commentary. We give an original take on what happened and why. We add lols, satire, news photos and original content.
Rolling Stone: A Rape on Campus is ok but a bad Hootie And The Blowfish review will get you fired
What gets you fired from Rolling Stone magazine? A story that wrongly branded a frat house violent gang rapists will not get your fired. But a bad review of Hootie and the Blowfish might.
When Senior Editor Jim DeRogatis reviewed the band’s 1996 album Fairweather Johnson, he called it ‘bland’. Lowlights include:
All of the songs overflow with generic jangly guitars that evoke denatured versions of edgier Southern popsters like R.E.M. and the dB’s, whose Peter Holsapple is reduced by the need for health insurance to serving as fifth Hootie on organ, piano, and accordion…
These comfy, cozy sounds–the musical equivalent of Mom’s chocolate chip cookies and a big glass of milk–are paired with lyrics that reek of Hallmark-card sentimentality…
To these ears, Hootie are the blandest extreme of a wave of bands…
His review was spiked, replaced with more favourable review by contributor Elysa Gardner.
DeRogatis told the New York Observer.
The Observer quoted a spokesman for Rolling Stone saying the review swap was a matter of writing quality and not opinion, and DeRogatis saying Rolling Stone Editor and Publisher Jann Wenner is not necessarily a Hootie fan, but “a fan of bands that sell eight and a half million copies” of a record. The day after the piece ran, DeRogatis was fired. (A follow-up piece in the Observer said Rolling Stone would not discuss DeRogatis’s departure for reasons of employer-employee privacy.)
Rolling Stone employment policy might change if the frat house sues…
Rolling Stone and the lie deniers: the unjust ‘choose to believe’ Jackie’s tall story
Jessica Valenti has lots to say about the Rolling Stone story on Jackie, the woman who claimed she’d been gang raped at a University of Virginia frat house in a sickening attack.
There is no proof a rape occurred. But Jessica Valenti begins her story:
Despite documented errors with the reporting and editing of the magazine’s story of rape at the University of Virginia, they’re still blaming the victim
By victim, she should mean the Phi Kappa Psi frat house and all its members who ware labelled rapists (false report rate on rapes is low, between 2 and 8 percent). But she doesn’t mean those criminals-in-waiting. She means Jackie.
Rolling Stone just doesn’t get it. Months after the magazine published a widely-criticized article about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia, the details of which proved unverifiable, those responsible still refuse to take any real responsibility. Instead, editors at the magazine once again placed the blame for their errors where it so often ends up when it comes to sexual assault: on a young woman who alleges she was raped.
Read the rest of this entry »
Sabrina Rubin Erdely apologises to everyone except the frat she falsely branded as violent gang rapists
Sabrina Rubin Erdely, author of Rolling Stone magazine about a rape at a University of Virginia fraternity, has issued a statement. You can read it in full below. And when you do, look out for her apologising to the victims:
“The past few months, since my Rolling Stone article “A Rape on Campus” was first called into question, have been among the most painful of my life. Reading the Columbia account of the mistakes and misjudgments in my reporting was a brutal and humbling experience. I want to offer my deepest apologies: to Rolling Stone’s readers, to my Rolling Stone editors and colleagues, to the U.V.A. community, and to any victims of sexual assault who may feel fearful as a result of my article.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Lucille Ball Statue Is Utterly Horrific
Do you love Lucille Ball? If you do, then you can join the Facebook page ‘We Love Lucy! Get Rid of this Statue‘. The Lucille Ball bronze statue lurks in Memorial Park Celoron, N.Y.
It is terrifying. In years to come, Lucille Ball will no longer be the local woman famed for her charisma and showbiz talents; she’ll be the woman who eats you if you don’t eat your greens and rips the soul from anyone cutting through the park after dark.
Oh, and the last person to put their mouth to that spoon woke up the next morning with their lips inside out. True story!
lucille ball statue
lucille ball statue
Posted: 4th, April 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comment
How anti-Christian bigots made Memories Pizza in Indiana the world’s most profitable restaurant
Gastronauts in search of a rare treat should head to Walkerton, Indiana, the world’s highest revenue restaurant.
In one day, the eatery has earned a whopping $484,600.
Here’s why:
And the best bit is that the pizzeria in small-town Walkerton, is closed. The trick with operating a goldmine is to get everyone talking about you:
When asked by local press the hypothetical question of whether or not they’d prefer to have their family owned business, Memories Pizza, cater a gay wedding, the owner said no citing their own religious beliefs as the reason.
Rather than allowing this family to simply have their opinion, which they were asked to give, outraged people grabbed the torches and began a campaign to destroy this small business in small town Indiana.
All for having an opinion that is rooted in faith.
No one was turned away. No one was discriminated against. It was a hypothetical question asked by a news reporter who had questionable motives to begin with.
Memories Pizza’s chief PR operative is Lawrence Jones, who saw the bigotry in action and set about raising money for the eatery.
What would Jesus have wanted? ‘Deep pan, dude. And a mountain of olives’
And we’ve got a new client for him.
Jim Crow laws forced tolerant businesses to be intolerant of blacks. No one, anywhere, is suggesting that people who want to do business with same-sex couples should be barred from doing so. The argument is whether the government should force a few ardent Christians (or Jews or Muslims) to participate in a ceremony that violates their faith.
In Indiana, the most vocal and arguably the most powerful voices against even the perception of anti-gay discrimination have come from the business community. And, one suspects, there are plenty of people in the wedding-planning industry eager for such business. We could impose a fine on recalcitrant religious wedding photographers.
But the market already does that, every time they turn away paying customers.
It’s dangerous. The media are picking on soft targets. This reporter went to Muslim bakeries in Dearborn, Michigan:
That pizza tastes bitter…
Posted: 3rd, April 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Germanwings: Daily Mail says Andreas Lubitz was killed by anti-depressants
Andreas Lubitz: a look at the Germanwings co-pilot in today’s tabloids.
Daily Star Page 14: ” Killer Pilot Looked for Suicide Methods”
Lubitz is thought to have deliberately crashed a plane killing all 150 people on board. Investigators have looked at his computer history and found searches for ways to commit suicide and how to lock cockpit doors.
He was also on a “cocktail of anti-depressants and tranquillisers”.
Matthew Young says one theses drugs, Lorazepam, “is so strong that users are advised not to drive a car, let alone fly a passenger aircraft”.
One word Matthew: linctus.
The Sun: Page 9: “Co-pilot ‘googled cockpit security'”
Lubitz’s reaserch appears to have helped him. The pilot used the emergency code which should have allowed him to gain access from outside the cockpit – but it failed to work.
Daily Mail Page 22: The Mail makes an error.
The Mail also ntoes that Lubitz was taking “Lorazapam“. But now it is a drug “so strong doctors have to warn patients of the increased risk of suicide”.
If you are going to tell people taking a drug how dangerous it is, then best to identify it correctly. There is no drug called ‘Lorazapam’. But the NHS says of Lorazepam:
Lorazepam (Lor-raz-ep-am) is a medicine which is used in minor dental procedures as a sedative, minor surgical procedures as a sedative and anxiety…
Lorazepam should only be used for the shortest possible period of time as it can cause dependence, tolerance and in some cases, people can experience withdrawal symptoms.
You should try to get at least seven or eight hours continuous and uninterrupted sleep after taking Lorazepam. If you are woken before this time has passed, Lorazepam may cause you to have some memory problems. You may have no memory of what happened from the time you were woken until the time when the effects of this medicine have worn off.
Furthermore, it is important to be aware that sleeping problems can be a symptom of a psychiatric condition, particularly when the sleeping problems have been going on for some time.
Some people, in the course of taking Lorazepam for a sleeping problem, may find that an undiagnosed psychiatric condition, such as depression, becomes apparent. People who have a psychiatric condition and who are taking Lorazepam may experience some changes in behaviour…
You should not take the drugs if you…
have psychiatric problems
have respiratory depression
have a personality disorder
Nowhere on the advice is an increased risk of suicide mentioned.
The US National Library of Medicine says “Lorazepam may cause side effects. Call your doctor if any of the following symptoms are severe or do not go away”:
drowsiness
dizziness
tiredness
weakness
dry mouth
diarrhea
nausea
changes in appetite
restlessness or excitement
constipation
difficulty urinating
frequent urination
blurred vision
changes in sex drive or abilitySome side effects can be serious. If you experience any of the following symptoms, call your doctor immediately:
shuffling walk
persistent, fine tremor or inability to sit still
fever
difficulty breathing or swallowing
severe skin rash
yellowing of the skin or eyes
irregular heartbeat
So. If you are ill and taking Lorazepam, don’t panic. If a loved one is taking the medcine they will not become a mass murderer or a suicide victim. The Daily Mail is scaremongering.
Daily Expres Page 26: Before his “murderous missions”, Lubitz had been “injured in a car crash which had led to ‘vision problems'”.
A pilot who can’t see all that well?
Such are the facts…
Sick man jailed for possessing ‘medical’ marijuana
David Patterson is serving 60 days in prison for marijuana possession. A Minnesota jury noted Patterson’s seven pounds of marijuana and his intent to distribute it. He’s clearly guilty.
But Patterson says his weed is for medicinal purposes. He planned to refine the cannabis into a healing oil to cure his Crohn’s Disease. He tells the judge that his tinctures can cure skin cancer in four days, which sounds wildly opportmistic – but, then, if you had the terrible disease a marijuana rub would be worth a try, no?
He tells the court:
“I’ve got to watch my relatives die when I can’t make medicine for them. I’m not a criminal. It’s crazy that I’ve been forced to act like I am.”
Seems sane. But what is the law on weed in that state?
Legislation passed during the 2014 Minnesota legislative session created a new process allowing seriously ill Minnesotans to use medical cannabis to treat certain conditions. Medical cannabis will not be available via a pharmacy through a prescription from a doctor. Instead, patients with one of the qualifying conditions will be eligible to enroll in a patient registry maintained by the State. Patients on this registry will be able to get medical cannabis directly from one of eight dispensaries set up around the state.
But why can’t you just grow your own and give it to your ill friends? Why is the State in control of what you can put into your own sick body?
It it because you might use it for an illness not on the approved list:
Cancer associated with severe/chronic pain, nausea or severe vomiting, or cachexia or severe wasting.
Glaucoma.
HIV/AIDS.
Tourette’s Syndrome.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
Seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy.
Severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis.
Crohn’s Disease.
Terminal illness, with a life expectancy of less than one year, if the illness or treatment produces severe/chronic pain, nausea or severe vomiting, cachexia or severe wasting.
Patterson is on watch:
He will be on supervised probation for five years. During that time, he is not to use or possess drugs and must submit to random checks.
A reporter friend was once asked by a policeman, why he was ‘picking on him’. My friend replied that he found it hard to relate to an adult who had vowed to uphold every law of the land, however wrong it was. Could you arrest a sick man for possessing a drug he thought would help his condition?
Note: Patterson was arrested recently for having marijuana in a motor vehicle, 10 days after his trial. That case is pending.
Tabloid Scare Stories: watching TV gives you diabetes
The Daily Express says “Watching TV Gives You Diabetes”.
The Express has a keen interest in diabetes. This year to date the paper has been hot on diabetes, its causes and its cures:
Today’s sensational news is that “scientists” say that watching TV does not give you diabetes. But sitting down for long periods whilst fat might be a contributing factor in contracting the illness.
So. As you were:
Man Gerbil Mike Holpin has 40 kids by 20 women and a thriving media career
Yesterday we wondered if Mike Holpin really did have 40 children by 20 different women. Holpin, a jobless, feckless, self-confessed alcoholic was front-page news in the Sun and Daily Mirror. Both papers agreed that Holpin does have 40 children by 20 women.
After all, the papers had read the fact in a press release for a Channel 5 show called 40 Kids by 20 Women. It was true, all true.
Mike Holpin was Gerbil of the Year.
One day on and the Daily Star says Holpin is “lying”.
We know this because an anonymous souce says Holpin has “only” fathered 16 children.
Readers are left wondering which of the three is the more relaible: Holpin, the tabloids or the unnamed source?
Over in the Sun, there is more Mike Holpin news. There we learn that the “dad-of-40” (still a fact in the Sun), is sperminator for hire. He says has was asked to help a childless couple:
“I have helped them by having sex with her. For all my sins I’ve done one or two things right.”
The other fact about Mike’s life is that he spends 20 hours a day playing Grand Theft Auto. Mike, 56, has “three 48in TV and three £450 PlayStation 4 consoles – paid for with taxpayers’ cash”.
He is “GRANDAD THEFT AUTO”.
His current lover, Diane Morris, “has to watch TV upstairs” at their “squalid” Ebbw Vale, South Wales, home.
Well, that’s her story…
Andreas Lubitz: framed by callous liars and saved only by the Facebook truthers
Andreas Lubitz has tumbled down the news cycle.
The Sun waits until page 27 to report on the Germanwings co-pilot who was at the controls when the plane slammed into an Alpine mountain killing all 150 people on board.
The “maniac” is the subject of a story that he is “no devil”. The paper spots the Facebook page ‘We are against the Witchhhunt’. All evidence seen to date points towards Lubitz having committed mass murder. But the Sun picks up on “local media” who say he could have suffered a heart attack. But that is not investigated.
The Mail picks up the same Facebook story and notes:
Friends of killer pilot Andreas Lubitz claim he is being framed for murder as part of an elaborate cover-up by his airline company to hide mechanical faults with the plane.
That would be an elaborate cover-up that has so far revealed Andreas Lubitz was passed fit to pilot a commercial airline depsite a history of poor mental health, failing eyesight and suicidal tendencies. As conspiracies go, it’s more akin to dog sat by a steaming turd than the faked 1969 moon landings.
The Mirror quotes Wolfgang Michales, 50, a designer, who lives close to the family home Lubitz shared with dad Gunter, mum Urusula and a younger brother, who says: “I feel for his parents. First they learn they have lost their son, then this. How could the authorities be so sure?”
Well, they can’t be.
But in hoping to salvage a reputation mired in mass murder, the Facebookers’ theory rests on the idea that Lubitz is innocent and everyone else is a liar who refuses to tell the truth even when faced with the horror of 149 victims and their grieving loved ones.
That’s a pretty far-fetched and insulting premise…
Posted: 1st, April 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Free speech saves Christian preacher who said all gays must die and Mohammed was a paedo
Is the Bible banned? Are some bits of it, to use the dread word of the age, ‘inappropriate’? Mike Overd has been told that reading bits of the Good Book aloud is offensive.
A Christian street preacher has accused a judge of trying to “censor” the Bible after he was convicted of a public order offence for quoting an Old Testament passage condemning homosexuality.
Mike Overd was fined £200 for quoting part of a passage from Leviticus 20 which condemns same-sex relationships as sinful and calls for gay men to be put to death.
We each of us have our prejudices. Old Mr Anorak would instead quote the bit from Leviticus 19:28 about piercings and tattoos: “‘Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.”
Anyhow, instead of ignoring or mocking Mr Overd and pitying the pigeons in the precinct forced to listen to him bang on, he was arrested.
He found himself up before District Judge Shamim Ahmed Qureshi. The Beak wondered why Overd chose the passage he did and din’t opt for, say, Leviticus 18 which calls homosexuality as an “abomination” but fails to demand all gays are murdered.
He acquitted the former paratrooper, who regularly preaches on the streets of Taunton, Somerset, of a separate charge for suggesting that the Prophet Mohammed was a “paedophile”.
At which point we should cheer Mr Quershi who despite the censorious, illiberal stupidity of the police and CPS saw what was stake, stating:
“Whilst we all want to encourage public civility, there is a higher principle at stake. As long as there is no incitement to violence, then people should be allowed to speak freely without fearing legal repercussions.
Free speech has one more champion.
Transfer balls: Liverpool buy Mateo Kovacic after watching him not play
The Daily Mirror says Liverpool are keen on Inter Milan’s Mateo Kovacic. On March 26, the paper reported:
The Reds will send scouts to watch the 20-year-old play for his country Croatia against Norway on Saturday.
The Liverpool scouts had a wasted trip because on the same day Football-Italia reported:
“I saw Kovacic. He has a cruciate knee ligament injury,” chief medic Boris Nemec told 24sata.hr. “He still feels a lot of pain and there is absolutely no chance he’ll be able to play against Norway.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Police helicopter tracks cyclists drinking wine in South Wales
If you wanted something to illustrate how pettty offences are now treated as full-blown crimes, we can point up to the police helicopter tracking a man suspected of riding a bicycle while drinking a bottle of wine in Llanelli, South Wales.
A Dyfed-Powys Police spokeswoman confirms the news:
“A PCSO was on patrol saw a male riding his bike in the centre, he was drinking from a bottle of wine. The PCSO asked him to leave the area and the male became aggressive. The male rode his bike to nearby car park where he threatened the officer and was then arrested. He is currently in custody. During the incident the police helicopter was in the area and monitored activity from the air.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Andreas Lubitz and me: the blind, gay, cheating, mentally ill fitness fantatic I knew
Andreas Lubitz smiles from the front of the Daily Mirror, where the story is that the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 impregnated his lover, Kathrin Goldbach. Jeremy Armstrong says fatherhood “may have led him to crash” the plane and murder 149 people.
We learn that Goldbach planned to leave the “control freak”.
Armstrong adds:
“Friends believe Kathrin’s imminent split from Lubitz and fears he could lose his job due to depression and sight problems may have tipped him over the edge…”
When you see words like ‘believe’ and ‘may’ in the same sentence, you realise that the report is light on facts.
Read the rest of this entry »
Robert Durst: the race against death for a killer TV finale
Robert Durst has been charged with the murder of Susan Berman in 2000 Durst is suspected of murdering two more people: his first wife Kathie in 1982 and Morris Black.
USA Today reports that if found guilty of first-degree murder, Durst could face the death penalty.
Durst, a scion of one an America’s big property dynasty worth over $4bn, says he’s innocent. (His own weath is estiamted at $100m.)
But he seems to have confessed on camera in Andrew Jarecki’s HBO’s six-part documentary The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.
On the final show, Durst is shown an envelope addressed to Miss Berman. The lettering is in Mr Durst’s own handwriting – and it looks very much like the block capital lettering on an anonymous letter sent to Beverly Hills police pointing to a “cadaver” in Miss Berman’s home. That body was Miss Berman. On both letters “Beverly” is misspelled “Beverley”.
Durst suggests that the writer of the first letter must have been Berman’s killer.
Has the TV nailed its star?
Durst starts burping. He then heads to the toilets. The microphone is still on as Robert Durst, 71, mutters: “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course… There it is. You’re caught.”
Durst maintains his innocence.
GALVESTON, TX – NOVEMBER 10: Millionaire murder defendant Robert Durst (C) sits in State District Judge Susan Criss court with his attorney Dick DeGuerin (R) November 10, 2003 at the Galveston County Courthouse in Galveston, Texas. Durst is being charged for the murder and mutilation of his neighbor Morris Black. (Photo by James Nielsen/ Getty Images)
Durst might well be confident of securing an acquittal. As the Times notes:
After Miss Berman’s death, Mr Durst moved to Texas, where he lived in a boarding house masquerading as a mute woman. In 2003 he was put on trial for murder after dismembered body parts belonging to his elderly friend and neighbour, Morris Black, were found floating in Galveston Bay.
Mr Lewis told the jury that Mr Durst admitted to shooting Mr Black, and to using a paring knife, two saws and an axe to dismember his body before dumping the remains.
The lawyer argued however that the killing had been in self-defence and that his client had Asperger’s syndrome. Mr Durst was acquitted of murder.
He served three years for bond-jumping and evidence-tampering.
And here’s the other interesting thing. That allegedly incriminating audio was recorded in 2013. Why didn’t HBO tell the police back then? Well, they claim they didn’t notice until an intern was editing the footage for broadcast.
Mr Jarecki tells ABC News:
“I sat there in the edit room with my partners, and we just sort of shook our heads and it took a while to really understand the impact of it. It was so chilling to hear it.”
Which makes us wonder what would have happened had Durst died before the show aired? What if God had beaten HBO to the punchline? What if the jinx had struck again? What then for justice as entertainment?
Posted: 29th, March 2015 | In: Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment
Drugs confusion: woman arrested for asking if she could carry marijuana in police car
The confused and absurd US drugs policy (plus stupidity) has caused a woman in West Volusia, Florida, to be arrested. An “extermely intoxicated” Michelle Sanford tried to take marijuana into the patrol car of a sergeant who offered her a ride to a safe place.
The officer, who was responding to reports of a domestic row between Sandford, 36, and her boyfriend, first told her that carrying her open bottle of booze in his car was against the rules.
At which point Sanford’s boyfriend, Thomas Laudenslager, 46, piped up:
“Why don’t you take your weed with you?”
Sanford thought this a good idea. She asked the sergeant if she could take her marijuana in the car and smoke a joint at her father’s house. Sanford then showed her stash to the sergeant, was arrested and charged with possession of paraphernalia and a misdemeanor drug offence.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 29th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comments (10)
Katie Hopkins wants Miliband gassed in the oven: do you see Jews?
The Sun’s to-deadline harridan Katie Hopkins invites Labour Party leader Ed Miliband to stick his wife Justine in the oven and gas her.
Add in the fact that Ed Miliband is a Jew and you have a little problem with Katie Hopkins’ call to murder…
Spotter: @federicacocco
Posted: 29th, March 2015 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment
Did Andreas Lubitz murder for fame? Maria W. should not be believed
Did Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz see mass murder as his route to eternal fame? The BBC says he did. Maybe. It repeats a line someone billed as Maria W. gave to German tabloid Bild. This source says Lubitz told her:
“One day I’m going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone will know my name and remember.”
We are left to wonder why such a comment is not fully attributed? If “Maria W”, who says she dated Lubitz for five months, wants to speak to the Press, why not use her full name?
Whatever the truth of her story, the BBC has been willing to amplify it. It should be careful. As USA Today writes on the same matter, the woman is only Lubitz’s “purported former girlfriend”. The BBC makes no such claim for circumspection. It simply states that she had been his girlfriend:
Behind an internet paywall, Bild’s front-page story makes Lubitz’s apparent words the main reason why he did it and so many people died:
He threatened: “One day, everyone will know my name”
All facts say Bild and the BBC. But USA Today notes:
The claims could not immediately be verified independently.
The Daily Mail reports on Maria’s W’s words:
She said he even warned her that he was going to commit an act so heinous that his name would be remembered for ever.
The woman, known only as Maria W, revealed to German newspaper Bild how he ominously told her last year: ‘One day I will do something that will change the whole system, and then all will know my name and remember it.’
When she heard about the airliner crash, she remembered Lubitz’s menacing prophecy.
‘I never knew what he meant, but now it makes sense,’ she said.
With so many innocent people killed, it would be a sound idea to check the source before reporting her words as fact.
The Telegraph repeats more from knowing Maria W.:
“He did it because he realised that because of his health problems his big dream of a job with Lufthansa; a job as captain and as a long haul pilot was as good as impossible… We spoke a lot about work and then he became another person. He became agitated about the circumstances in which he had to work, too little money, anxiety about his contract and too much pressure.”
Lubitz began work at Lufthanasa back in September 2013. Did he so soon after scoring his dream job job kill 149 people becaue of the pressure? Lubitz had previously worked at a Burger King behind a carwash, “flipping Whoppers and frying fries and talking to co-workers about his dream”. And after working as a fast food wallah he found his dream-job soul-destroying?
Carsten Spohr, chief executive of Lufthansa, has gone on the record:
“The co-pilot interrupted his training for six years, I would be interested to know why. I cannot tell you anything about the reasons of this interruption, but anybody who interrupts the training has to do a lot of tests so the competence and fitness would be checked again.”
Do we believe without question what the ex-lover says?
A Germanwings colleague who worked with Lubitz, one Frank Woiton, contradicts Maria W’s view:
“He wasn’t a person who you thought would commit suicide. He seemed very happy, and he wanted to become a captain for long-distance flights. He was very good at his job.”
Such are the facts…
Police burning massive pile of marijuana get entire own stoned
There’s something in the air over Palmerah, a sub-district of West Jakarta. And that something is the smoke from a 3.3-ton heap of marijuana.
When masked police torched the seized mega-stash they didn’t bank on what the smoke would do to air quality. As the cloud drifted over the town, locals got a free blowback.
It turns out that you can dope an entire town without any need for mirrrors.
Spotters: reddit Males Banget
Posted: 28th, March 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
These racist cakes have caused a row in France
To Grasse, France, where the local magistate is eyeing cakes which are an “attack on human dignity”. Baker Tannick Tavolaro’s “Gods” and “Goddesses” cakes are in the forms of two obese people fashioned from gingerbread and chocolate mouse enrobed in dark chocolate. The tips of their primary sexual characteristics are in a pink fondant.
“It’s pure and simple racism,” says Louis-George Tin from France’s Representative Council of Black Associations (CRAN), a twist on the “obscene slave trade caricatures that tap into the tradition of colonial racism… We are in a country where the word equality is part of the constitution, which means it doesn’t allow for racism. Does he think these treats adhere to the values of the French Republic? We must fight this kind of racism. I cannot imagine what would be said (rightly) if an African baker decided to represent Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary in a similar way.”
Tannick Tavolaro is defiant. “At first I thought it was a joke. It’s absurd and hurtful. These pastries have absolutely no racial connotation at all,” he says.
“They are made of chocolate mousse, which is why they’re black. The characters are little human beings, a man and woman but not a black man and a woman. These people who attack me don’t know my story or my career or who I am. It’s just intellectual terrorism. I am not racist. I do not belong to any political party. I just argue for freedom of speech.”
We’ve been here before:
Posted: 28th, March 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Germanwings Flight 9525: Andreas Lubitz’s act of madness
CAN we says that Andreas Lubitz was nuts? What about insane? Mad? What word can you use to describe the man who flew Germanwings Flight 9525 into a mountain killing all 150 people on board? His actions appear to have been deliberate. So. Let’s review another word. This wasn’t a killing. This was murder.
The tabloids pick up on the news that Andreas Lubitz had a history of depression.
Is that relevant? Do you want an ill man to fly the plane?
We don’t yet know if his politics, religion, sex or favourite books affected his thoughts. Many things could have shaped the man and made him do it. The reason why anyone does anything is never simple. But in the rush to construct a comfortable narrative readers can live with, the media focus is on Andreas Lubitz’s depression. (If he had been black, religious or right wing, say, any of those factors would be the main driver.)
The Mirror and Mail make a direct link between Lubitz’s illness and his actions:
If suicide was the intent for this young pilot who, like many, appeared to have everything going for him and to be doing his dream job, we have to ask ourselves as a society what we could have done to help him. We can’t undo this appalling tragedy but we might just prevent another.
Depression doesn’t make you violent, or mean, or dangerous. It doesn’t make you capable of doing things you wouldn’t otherwise be capable of doing. And it certainly doesn’t make you likely to take a plane full of people and crash it into a mountain… I can’t say what was going on in that pilot’s mind when he crashed his plane. But one in four people will suffer from a mental health problem in any given year, and I can guarantee they’re not all ticking time bombs, just waiting to explode in a shower of mad at any moment.
Of course they’re not. Depression is the excruciating crippling black abyss. It is an illness you’d not wish on anyone.
But in looking for clues isn’t it valid to look at the killer’s health and state of mind?
The tabloids’ disastrous treatment of depression in the last couple of days is yet another reason why no-one should buy these papers. Ever.
— Father Diego ن (@frdiego80) March 27, 2015
The Sun shifts the tone. It sees not a depressive. It sees a madman.
The man’s actions killed, sorry, murdered, 149 people. Does that sound mad to you? One voice blogs:
I think that the Sun trumped the headlines I have seen this morning, simply writing “Madman in cockpit”. Nice to see them flying the flag for reducing stigma. It seems that the UK press missed the memo this morning that says that tackling stigma is everyone’s business. It would also appear that they momentarily forgot the fact that they can have such a massive impact on people’s perceptions of different issues, mental health included.
Another adds:
…our press have already started having a field day, monstering people with depression, even suggesting that people struggling with mental health shouldn’t be allowed to fly planes (or surely by that account, drive, work heavy machinery, do any kind of job where the lives of others are in their hands). All this is going to do is seriously distress people who are already suffering, make it harder for them to talk to their loved ones about their illness, make it harder for them to seek help. There are probably some people out there who’ve been agonising over whether to go to a Health Professional about their depression or anxiety or panic attacks, who have seen the newspapers today and decided it’s better to try to ignore it or suffer in silence than to be perceived as a potential mass murderer, to have people want to take away jobs that they love, freedoms that they love, responsibilities – children, or other vulnerable family members. These front pages aren’t merely offensive, they’re potentially hugely damaging.
Gee, can’t imagine why the dude didn’t tell anyone he had depression issues, what with how he’s being held as a murderer and criminal. — Too Mirai Cooks (@theMirai) March 27, 2015
Sources close to the investigation say Lubitz was being treated for depression. They say he concealed his treatment from his employer. Many voices say he did this because depression is so misunderstood and he feared the reaction. Look at the Press coverage, they say, who’d want to be be called mad?
In The Depths: The Evolutionary Origins of the Depression Epidemic Jonathan Rottenberg writes:
Because depression is so unpleasant and so impairing, it may be difficult to imagine that there might be another way of thinking about it; something this bad must be a disease. Yet the defect model causes problems of its own. Some sufferers avoid getting help because they are leery of being branded as defective. Others get help and come to believe what they are repeatedly told in our system of mental health: that they are deficient…
People still feel inclined to whisper when they talk about depression. Depression has no “Race for the Cure”; this condition rarely spawns dance marathons, car washes, or golf tournaments. Consequently, the lacerating pain of depression remains uncomfortably private.
In the Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression, we read:
Perhaps what we call depression isn’t really a disorder at all but, like physical pain, an alarm of sorts, alerting us that something is undoubtedly wrong; that perhaps it is time to stop, take a time-out, take as long as it takes, and attend to the unaddressed business of filling our souls.
Depression is complex, a debilitating mood of heightened awareness.
But this article is about the media. The Sun didn’t say depression was the trigger for the “killer co-pilot”. It says a man who, as it seems, consciously piloted a plane carrying 149 other people into a mountain was “crazed”. It does seem odd that we cannot agree that murdering 149 people is an unhinged act of madness.
Daily Star Forum Watch: Mrs Hugh Jarse and and Corrie’s ‘Fat Faye’
Daily Star Forum Watch: a look at highlights from the Daily Star’s ‘FORUM’ page. Today the page turns into an contact magazine for men seeking ‘cuddly’ women. Mrs Hugh Jarse is away:
In other ‘fat women’ news:
More every week day…
How the tabloids cover the Cameron v Miliband v Paxman leadership debate
Anorak Towers marked the televised leadership debate in much the same way we do the Super Bowl: we went out. What did the tabloids do? Did they feature the big showdown between Labour Party leader ‘Red’ Ed Miliband and Tory Prime Minister ‘Blue’ Dave Cameron? And why was Cameron sat by a skip?
The Sun:
Politics fans need to wait until page 6 for any news of the Channel 4 and Sky show. Over half a page, readers learn that Cameron says he’s “not Chairman Mao”, the dead Chinese leader. Cameron wasn’t refetting to his hairstyle or suit, rather his resolve not to go on and on and on as the country’s political supremo.
As for Miliband, all Sun readers learn is that he won the coin toss and chose to go second. Also, he “flew in a US PR guru to help him”.
Page 10: The Sun’s editorial says Ed Balls is “only the oil rag” to an” economic train crash” powered by “engine drive” Gordon Brown.
Ed Balls was not on the debate.
Daily Mirror:
The review covers pages 6 and 7. Readers see three photos of “chicken” Cameron, one with his eyes closed. We learn that he is “clueless on food banks”. His chat with Jeremy Paxman was “humiliating”. He is a “lame duck”. It’s not until paragraph 11 that Ed Miliband appears. The Mirror only has one photo of him – and it’s an odd one of him pointing as if ordering the restaurant bill.
The Mirror mentions ‘Cameron’ by name 7 times; and ‘Ed’ just 4 times.
Page 8: David Cameron is “pitiful” and a “faintheart”. Ed gets no adjectives. He’s just ‘Ed’.
Daily Mail:
Wait for it… wait… News appears on Page 12 and 13.
We learn that Ed Miliband “came under pressure” on immigration.
The Mail cites a Guardian poll, saying 54% of people who respond to polls think he won the night.
Quentin Lett’s says Cameron “soaked up Paxman’s aggro, narrowed his eyes.. and refused to respond in kind. Miliband flared right back at the monster…”
But was it really that interesting?
Daily Express:
Page 9: The news is all about immigration. There is one picture of Cameron. There is not a single photo of Miliband.
Number of mentions of ‘Cameron’ by name: 6
Number of mentions of Miliband by name: 1
Daily Star:
The only front-page story on the debate. And the story is that “Paxo has stuffed Ed and Cam”. They both lost.
Page 2: It was a “snore draw”.
It was “drab”.
Verdict: the Daily Star nails it.
Note: The Guardian manages to conjure 11 stories from the debate. Does anyone read them?
Posted: 27th, March 2015 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment
CNN produces this tasteless report on the Germanwings crash
So. How does CNN repoft the news that the co-pilot locked the pilot out off his cockopit and steered German A320 Airbus flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf and killed all 150 people on board?
French investigators say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz sent it into a dive intentionally.
Families of the victims might like to look away:
Daily Star Forum Watch: Mandy the Page 3 belly dancer
The Daily Star ‘FORUM’ is the most rewarding page in British newspapers. In today;s ediution, ‘cornish blue’ shares his thoughts on ‘mandy page 3’:
mandy page 3 would also make a very good cup of tea…
