Boots & Sabers

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Category: Culture

School District Punishes Parents for Wearing XX Wristbands

by | 1606, 23 Nov 24 | , | 0 Comments

The Trans crowd won’t tolerate any dissent – even the silent and non-aggressive wearing of a wristband.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — School district officials who punished two parents for wearing pink wristbands marked “XX” during a soccer game featuring a transgender player defended their decision Friday at a hearing on whether they can take similar action while they are being sued.

 

Kyle Fellers and Anthony Foote were banned from school grounds after the September game by officials who viewed the wristbands as intimidation or harassment of a transgender player. They later sued the Bow school district, and while the no-trespass orders have since expired, a judge is deciding whether the plaintiffs should be allowed to wear the wristbands and carry signs at upcoming school events, including basketball games, swim meets and a music concert, while the case proceeds.

 

Both men testified Thursday that they didn’t intend to harass or otherwise target a transgender player on the opposing team, and their attorneys have argued they did nothing more than silently express their support for reserving girls’ sports for those born female. But school officials testified Friday that they had reason to believe the men wouldn’t stop there.

 

[…]

 

Kelley also pushed back on the idea that the plaintiffs were simply expressing support for their daughters and their teammates in general, noting that they chose the one game involving a transgender player to begin wearing the wristbands.

 

“This was organized and targeted,” she said. “If we were to allow harassment, we’re liable.”

Maori Protest Equal Rights Bill

by | 2106, 19 Nov 24 | , | 1 Comment

Interesting stuff. I’m certainly not an expert on New Zealand politics, but it appears that, in response to historic injustices against the Maori people, the laws have gradually come to favor them with special privileges. This bill would reset their laws to a status of everyone being equal under the law. The Maori people are opposing equality. This is something we may see in the U.S. some day if/when people get frustrated with the Native American tribes having special privileges under the law.

The ACT Party asserts that the treaty has been misinterpreted over the decades and that this has led to the formation of a dual system for New Zealanders, where Maori and white New Zealanders have different political and legal rights. Seymour says that misinterpretations of the treaty’s meaning have effectively given Maori people special treatment. The bill calls for an end to “division by race”.

 

Seymour said that the principle of “ethnic quotas in public institutions”, for example, is contrary to the principle of equality.

 

The bill seeks to set specific definitions of the treaty’s principles, which are currently flexible and open to interpretation. These principles would then apply to all New Zealanders equally, whether they are Maori or not.

 

According to Together for Te Tiriti, an initiative led by ActionStation Aotearoa, the bill will allow the New Zealand government to govern all New Zealanders and consider all New Zealanders equal under the law. Activists say this will effectively disadvantage the Maori people because they have been historically oppressed.

A Few Thoughts

by | 1904, 19 Nov 24 | , | 9 Comments

I’ve returned home after several days attending to wonderful family things and spending a couple days in our nation’s capital. No, I am not being considered for a cabinet post. Or am I?!?! Here are a couple of thoughts on recent events:

  • President Biden, or someone in his administration, just committed a bona fide act of war against a nuclear power by authorizing Ukraine to use American weaponry to strike deep into Russia. The deliberate escalation of a war by a lame duck president whose party was just resoundingly rejected by the American people is unconscionable. He is risking nuclear annihilation and sacrificing the lives of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians. Why? My guess is that the Biden Administration if trying to make it impossible for Trump to exit the Ukrainian war by escalating it for the purpose of keeping the military-industrial complex fed and to protect his family’s dealings in that rotten country. If there is anything about which Biden has been consistent, it is using his power and office for personal gain.
  • Except for Gaetz and Oz, I rather like Trump’s appointments so far. The American people voted for radical change and Trump is bringing in people who are capable of delivering it. I hope they all have the stomach to see it through for the sake of our children and their children. It is going to get nasty when swaths of bureaucrats are unemployed, and the federal spigots turn off. But for the sake of our children, it needs to happen.
  • This week I visited, amongst other things, Arlington House and Mt. Vernon. Both places gave honorable recognition to the enslaved people who serviced both Lee and Washington while still honoring these complex, yet important, Americans (no, I am not equating the two men, but they are both important parts of our American story). Well done.
  • Also in D.C., it was interesting how prevalent Trump gear was. I even saw two girls in a middle school group wearing MAGA hats. For the bluest of blue cities, Trump support was surprisingly strong.
  • It is insane that some states are still counting votes. Impoverished Third World countries are laughing at us.

Dutch King Responds to Pogrom in Amsterdam

by | 1943, 8 Nov 24 | , , | 0 Comments

There needs to be more than words.

The Dutch king says Jewish people must feel safe in the Netherlands, after violent attacks against Israeli football fans in the centre of Amsterdam.

 

Willem-Alexander said “our history has taught us how intimidation goes from bad to worse,” adding that the country could not ignore “antisemitic behaviour”.

 

Youths on scooters had criss-crossed the Dutch capital in “hit-and-run” attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters who were visiting Amsterdam for a Europa League match, authorities said.

 

Police said five people were treated in hospital and others suffered minor injuries. At least 62 people have been arrested.

Liberal Women Join Anti-LGBTQ+ “4B” Movement

by | 1906, 8 Nov 24 | | 3 Comments

What? Liberal women jump on board a fad without knowing what it actually is? Shiver me timbers. As a man, I’m pretty happy that I won’t have to interact with these women.

Donald Trump’s reelection has triggered a wave of social media posts and search interest in the “4B” movement, a fringe feminist trend that started in South Korea in 2018. Partially inspired by the #MeToo movement in the United States, 4B encourages women to cut ties to men altogether.

 

[…]

 

4B (4非) is shorthand for four Korean words that all start with bi- or “no”: bBihon, the refusal of heterosexual marriage; bichulsan, the refusal of childbirth; biyeonae, refusal to date; and bisekseu, the rejection of heterosexual relationships between men and women. The 4B movement essentially encouraged women to boycott all types of relationships with men — both romantic and platonic. 4B was also born out of another Korean feminist movement, tal-corset (“escape the corset”), in which women rejected societally imposed beauty standards by cutting their hair short and not wearing makeup in public.

 

It’s also worth noting that a number of Korean women on social media have emphasized that the 4B movement is pretty radical and not as mainstream as some Western coverage is making it out to be. It also has faced some backlash for allegedly being exclusionary to LGBTQIA+ women since the focus is on cisgender heterosexual relationships.

Election Eve

by | 1827, 4 Nov 24 | , | 3 Comments

I see a lot of people who are filled with angst and trepidation about the election. Some of them are bemoaning how bad life will be for them if their chosen side loses. I will reiterate again that this is a definitive sign that we have given our government too much power over our lives. Our federal government is too big, too powerful, too intrusive, too expensive, and too corrupt. Small government means that we don’t have to care as deeply about the outcome. I hope and pray that we learn this fact and begin downsizing our government forthwith.

Transcript of Biden’s Words Edited by Staff

by | 0740, 1 Nov 24 | , | 5 Comments

This is unconscionable. A hundred years from now when all of us are dead and historians are trying to understand the world as it was in our time, they will read original and contemporary documents to gain that understanding. Altering transcripts of what the President of the United States actually said is a crime against history and a contemptuous slap of our children’s children. Biden said something stupid. Write down what he said. It’s not that hard.

The White House altered the transcript of President Biden’s controversial “garbage” comment despite the concerns of stenographers, Fox News Digital has confirmed.

 

In an email viewed by Fox News Digital, a supervisor sounded the alarm on the White House press office’s “breach of protocol and spoilation of transcript integrity between the Stenography and Press Offices.”

 

“If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently,” the supervisor wrote in the email. “Our Stenography Office transcript — released to our distro, which includes the National Archives — is now different than the version edited and released to the public by Press Office staff.”

German Airline Fined for Discriminating Against Jews

by | 1932, 15 Oct 24 | | 0 Comments

Yikes

The US has hit Lufthansa with a record $4m (3m) penalty after the airline barred Jewish passengers from a 2022 flight because some allegedly refused to follow rules requiring face masks.

 

The Department of Transportation said Lufthansa discriminated against the passengers, treating them “as if they were all a single group”, though many were not travelling together and did not know one another.

 

It said the penalty was the largest it had ever issued against an airline for civil rights violations.

 

Lufthansa said in the consent order that it was agreeing to the payment to avoid litigation but denied discrimination, blaming the incident on “an unfortunate series of inaccurate communications”.

Trump Surges Among Men

by | 1245, 12 Oct 24 | , | 2 Comments

I think this has less to do with Trump and more to do with a cumulative societal response.

Polls indicate the political gender gap among young people has widened since Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee in July. Overall the vice-president seems to be pulling more young people into her camp – but her support among young women has risen faster than her support among young men.

 

Recent research by the Harvard Youth Poll indicates 70% of women under age 30 support Harris, while 23% plan to vote for Trump. Among men in the same age group, 53% back Harris and 36% support Trump.

 

Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life, part of the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, says that the political gender gap mirrors larger social divisions which have left many young men feeling like few politicians are looking out for them.

For at least 20 years, our entire culture has shifted to ignore or outright denigrate men. From school to politics to entertainment, our culture has been trying to rectify the previous generations’ oppression of women by overcorrecting the other way. The result is a generation of men who have been told their entire lives that they are the lesser of the two genders. Of the two major political parties, the Democrats have doubled and tripled down on this cultural shift. The Republicans have actually started to respect men again. Ergo, men – especially young men who are less ideologically inclined and more culturally inclined – are leaning toward the Republicans. Trump is a beneficiary of this trend and is making some effort not screw it up.

Christopher Columbus’ Remains Found

by | 1901, 11 Oct 24 | | 1 Comment

Wow. I didn’t know that we didn’t know where he was.

Scientists have solved the 500-year-old mystery surrounding Christopher Columbus’ final resting place.

 

The team spent 20 years performing a DNA analysis on human bones found buried in Spain‘s Seville Cathedral, confirming with ‘absolute certainty’ they belonged to the explorer who died in 1506.

 

For the past two decades, they have been comparing DNA taken from the samples with that of relatives and descendants.

 

Columbus’ body had been moved several times following his death, with some experts claiming he had been buried in the Dominican Republic, sparking a hunt to track down the navigator’s remains.

Miguel Lorente, a forensic scientist who led the research, said on Thursday: ‘Today it has been possible to verify it with new technologies, so that the previous partial theory that the remains of Seville belong to Christopher Columbus has been definitively confirmed.’

 

Many experts have believed that the tomb inside the cathedral has long held Columbus’ body, but it was not until 2003 when Lorente and historian Marcial Castro were granted permission to open it, finding the previously unknown bones were inside.

Losing Our Digital History

by | 0745, 16 Sep 24 | , | 4 Comments

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

Research shows 25% of web pages posted between 2013 and 2023 have vanished. A few organisations are racing to save the echoes of the web, but new risks threaten their very existence.

It’s possible, thanks to surviving fragments of papyrus, mosaics and wax tablets, to learn what Pompeiians ate for breakfast 2,000 years ago. Understand enough Medieval Latin, and you can learn how many livestock were reared at farms in Northumberland in 11th Century England – thanks to the Domesday Book, the oldest document held in the UK National Archives. Through letters and novels, the social lives of the Victorian era – and who they loved and hated – come into view.

But historians of the future may struggle to understand fully how we lived our lives in the early 21st Century. That’s because of a potentially history-deleting combination of how we live our lives digitally – and a paucity of official efforts to archive the world’s information as it’s produced these days.

It’s not just what gets lost. It’s how things get changed. We have already seen media outlets and others go back years to change the wording or content of old writings. Unless someone printed it out, there is no contemporary record to challenge it.

People who are writing wonderful things with great insight; technical documents that explain how things work; court records; etc… if they are exclusively in a digital format, they are subject to be lost or altered in an instant.

That’s not to say that physical writings can’t be lost too. They can, and have been, for millennia. But while they can be lost, it is not easy to change them.

All that to say, buy books. Print out your important stuff. The digital world is fragile.

We’re Becoming a Nation of Deadbeats

by | 1800, 15 Sep 24 | , | 1 Comment

Yes, if you refuse to even try to repay your debts, you are a deadbeat and a pretty crappy person. You should be shunned.

However, data from a Civic Science student loan study revealed that more than one-third of Americans are saying they don’t plan on making any repayments — a number that increases to 50% for lower-income respondents who are making less than $25,000 annually.

The study also highlighted that, since the repayments resumed last October, only 33% of Americans have actually resumed regular payments of their student loans.

Retailers Reduce Theft By Closing Stores and Inconveniencing Paying Customers

by | 2102, 13 Sep 24 | , , | 1 Comment

This story paints this as a victory, but it is not. It is the acceptance of a culture ruled by crooks and the people who coddle them at the expense of law-abiding citizens.

A year ago, America’s stores declared a shoplifting epidemic. They closed stores in major cities, hired extra security, locked up key merchandise and declared big losses in their financial statements.

 

This year, retailers are telling a very different story — or no story at all. It’s as if the shoplifting crisis suddenly vanished.

 

[…]

 

Last year, Target said a scourge of petty theft and organized groups stealing merchandise dented its profit by more than $500 million. Target also closed nine stores, saying “theft and organized retail crime” threatened worker and customer safety and made business unsustainable.

 

[…]

 

Stores have also added ways to prevent theft, which may have been effective at reducing the problem, even if they frustrated shoppers. Companies locked up products and removed self-checkout stations.

Parents are Stressed

by | 0728, 6 Sep 24 | | 2 Comments

I get that parenting is stressful. We raised 4 children and for a good chunk of the time, we didn’t have a pot to pee in. But come on… people need to toughen up. We have created a culture of coddled whiners.

In a new advisory report, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is sounding the alarm on the realities of parenting today, revealing just how dire the situation is for millions of parents of children under 18. In his report, Murthy cites a bleak statistic issued by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2023: 41% of parents say that most days they are so stressed they cannot function and 48% call their stress “completely overwhelming.”

It seems the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated or worsened stressors that were already there, also creating new financial, childcare, and health concerns for so many parents. These stressors disproportionately affect low-income families and those in marginalized communities, who face increased discrimination and a lack of resources that only contributes to mental health concerns, including anxiety and depression.

California’s Homeless Problem Persists

by | 0811, 2 Sep 24 | , | 0 Comments

In this story, herein lies the cause of California’s pervasive homelessness problem.

“We can’t simply wave a magic wand and make encampments disappear. We also have to offer people a place to go,” San Jose’s Democratic Mayor Matt Mahan said. “My fear with the [Supreme Court] decision and the governor’s executive order is we could create a race to the bottom in which cities and counties focus their taxpayer dollars on simply shifting people to other jurisdictions.”

There are a few people who are homeless because of dire straits. A few more are homeless because of mental illness. The vast majority are homeless in California because they are drug addicts who choose to be homeless. They enjoy the transient, vagabond lifestyle that allows them to wallow through life in a drug-fueled haze.

Where these politicians fail is that they think that it is their responsibility to “offer people a place to go.” No, it isn’t. If you are an elected official, your responsibility is for the safety and well-being of your citizens, residents, and taxpayers. It is your responsibility to maintain a safe, clean, stable community for the benefit of the people living there. You don’t owe the homeless anything. There are a bevy of services, programs, and shelters available. They choose to eschew them because they prefer the homeless lifestyle.

Furthermore, it is not the duty or responsibility of the government to “offer people a place to go.” It the responsibility of those people to find a place to go. To work. To pay for housing. To pay for food. By easing the burdens of being homeless with free stuff, liberal politicians are not helping these people. They are making their lifestyle just comfortable enough for them to keep doing it. When being homeless becomes intolerable, then they will either get themselves together or they will end up in prison or dead. Hopefully they get themselves together. Either way, it is still ultimately their responsibility – not the responsibility of a community.

Were I a mayor (and this is probably one of the many reasons I am not a mayor), I would make it so uncomfortable to be homeless in my community that they move on to the next community. If enough communities do that and there is nowhere comfortable for them to be, then the homeless will start to fix the homeless problem.

Lowe’s Changes DEI Policies to be More Inclusive

by | 2139, 29 Aug 24 | , , | 0 Comments

Good.

Starbuck said Lowe’s is committed to ending identity-based employee resource groups and replacing them with a single group for employees of all backgrounds. Lowe’s also plans to limit its sponsorship to issues related to its business, such as affordable housing and disaster relief; end participation in Pride and other socially related community events; and stop submitting data to the Human Rights Campaign, he wrote.

 

The company joins firms such as Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply and Deere in reining in their DEI programs in recent months after being targeted by Starbuck amid a broader corporate reassessment of a fast-shifting legal landscape marked by rising risk. Companies are increasingly facing pressure to scale back or do away with DEI initiatives from both external critics and U.S. courts as a wave of legal action challenges policies at scores of companies, including giants such as Starbucks, Meta and Pfizer.

Wave of Anti-Tourism

by | 2107, 25 Aug 24 | , | 1 Comment

Interesting.

It feels like this was the year that tourism turned nasty – and local communities started pushing back.

Venice has started charging daytrippers an entry fee, while one busy Swiss town has announced it wants to follow suit. Locals have staged protests in Mallorca and Barcelona.

And while it has come to a head in Europe, this is a global phenomenon. A Japanese town overlooking Mount Fuji erected view-blocking barriers in May (then removed them in August). Bali introduced a tourist entry tax for foreign visitors in February. And US national parks are full to bursting – with 13 million more visits in 2023 than in 2022, according to NPS numbers. In peak season, visitors must book ahead to enter.

[…]

“The tourism industry forgot about its most precious asset: the goodwill of locals. The edifice collapses without that. It’s been lost in many places and will be hard to win back.”

Francis puts it down to a combination of factors: the growth of low-cost airlines, vacation rentals, social media (which creates stampedes to “in” destinations) and expanding economies – meaning more people can afford to travel.

I am an incurable tourist with a pounding wanderlust disorder. I love to travel and I travel a lot. I have certainly witnessed some of this phenomenon.

I get where many of these people are coming from. It’s one thing when your town depends on tourism. It’s another thing when you are in a city that has its own thing going on and also happens to be a tourist destination.

But I think the problem with rude, inconsiderate tourists is just another facet of our culture. In almost every arena, our global culture has become less considerate, less polite, ruder, crasser, and generally less… cultured. This story isn’t about tourism. It’s about the decline of society.

Raw-Dogging

by | 0818, 11 Aug 24 | | 1 Comment

What a silly harmless trend that the “experts” need to crap all over.

Mr Bailey is part of a new travel trend, known as “raw-dogging”, where passengers spend long hours mid-air just staring straight ahead.

 

The longer you do it, the tougher you have apparently proven yourself to be.

 

“Just raw-dogged it, 15 hour flight to Melbourne,” boasts Australian music producer Torren Foot on TikTok, blinking hard as if to stay awake.

 

“No music, no movies, just flight map.”

 

[…]

 

“They’re idiots,” says Dr Gill Jenkins, a GP who also works as a medical escort in air ambulance work. “A digital detox might do you some good, but all the rest of it is against medical advice,” she says.

Venezuela Erupts After Fraudulent Election

by | 0702, 30 Jul 24 | , , | 2 Comments

I hate to say “I told you so,” but I did. You can’t oust communist at the ballot box. They don’t allow it.

Protests erupted in the Venezuelan capital the day after President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory.

 

The opposition has disputed Mr Maduro’s declaration as fraudulent, saying its candidate Edmundo González won convincingly with 73.2% of the vote.

 

[…]

 

A heavy military and police presence was on the streets of Caracas with the aim of trying to disperse protesters and prevent them from approaching the presidential palace.

 

Crowds of people chanted “freedom, freedom!” and called for the government to fall.

 

[…]

 

In a speech on Venezuelan state television, Mr Maduro said it is his “obligation to tell you the truth”.

 

“We are all under the obligation to listen the truth, to gear up with patience, calmness and strength because we are familiar with this movie and we know how to face these situations and how to defeat the violent.”

 

[…]

 

Mr Maduro has accused the opposition of calling for a coup by disputing the results. “This is not the first time we are facing what we are facing today,” he said.

 

“They are trying to impose in Venezuela a coup d’etat again of fascist and counter-revolutionary character.”

 

The Venezuelan attorney general warned that the blocking of roads or breaking any laws related to disturbances as part of protests would be met with the full force of the law.

Does that rhetoric look familiar? The claim to speaking the “truth” and labeling all opponents as liars? The claim that opposing an obviously fraudulent election is a “coup?” The rigorous enforcement of laws against political opponents while allies run wild? All of this after disarming average citizens in the name of “safety.” Only those ignorant of history don’t know what’s going on. This is the classic Communist playbook and we are seeing it here in America.

Racial Segregation is All the Rage Again for Democratic Party

by | 1930, 28 Jul 24 | , | 2 Comments

This is disgusting on so many levels.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Kamala Harris is using potential veep candidate Pete Buttigieg to woo “white dude’’ voters — “who need to be honest with ourselves and each other about the role we’ve played in our nation’s history.’’

 

Buttigieg, transportation secretary and one of Harris’s top supporters, will appear virtually at a Zoom event at 8 p.m. Monday with the group “White Dudes for Harris.”

 

[…]

 

The group does not say explicitly whether non-whites will be allowed to attend, and a Post request for comment was not immediately returned.

It is disgusting that, once again, the Democratic Party divides people by race and, interestingly, gender. They are perpetuating the racist trope that people should be treated according to racist stereotypes instead of as free-thinking individuals. It is racism to its core.

It is also disgusting that they have chosen to single out white men for struggle sessions. In the racist Democrats’ view, having white guys “be honest with ourselves and each other about the role we’ve played in our nation’s history” means that they must apologize and repent for crimes against women and other races. That is the only correct “honest” discussion allowed for white dudes. Any attempt to show pride or celebrate the positive contributions of white men in our nation’s history will be silenced as “dishonest.” That’s how this works. White men share the exclusive collective guilt of the nation and must atone for their sins. Collective guilt. Collective punishment. Not based on actual behavior, but assigned because of the color of their skin and for having a Y chromosome.

Racism and sexism are revolting.

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