MOSCOW — For most aficionados, a sparkling wine can be called champagne only if it comes from the region of France with that name and is made under certain regulations. A new Russian law makes the counter-claim that the word can be used only for Russian wine.
The law has sparked controversy and the renowned winemaker Moet-Hennessy said Monday it was suspending champagne shipments to Russia. The law that was adopted on Friday allows the term to used only for “Russian champagne.”
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Read this whole article. It’s a long, interesting, thoughtful, and compassionate view of the current trans movement.
Governments, companies and charities now talk of ‘people who menstruate’, ‘pregnant people’, ‘abortion seekers’ and ‘birthing parents’, where they would once simply have said ‘women’. As such, women are being erased.
The NHS explains that ‘the concept of virginity for people with vaginas has a complicated history’. Teen Vogue offers a ‘no-nonsense, 101 guide to masturbation for vagina owners’. Information campaigns from cancer charities tell ‘anyone with a cervix’ to get regular smear tests. An advert for Tampax enjoins the world to ‘celebrate the diversity of all people who bleed’.
This language depicts women as orifices, providers of genetic material and vessels for growing offspring. This is not just dehumanising: it also obscures the fact that these body parts and functions come as a package.
How much harder it would have been to argue for the vote for women, or for paid maternity leave, or to end the exemption that allowed men to rape their wives at will, if the only way to refer to the beneficiaries of such policies had been to list bodily secretions and sexual organs.
Personally, I’d go for the Ciroc Mango Habanero Glazed Turkey Leg. Yummm….
Turkey Leg Hut – a Houston, Texas restaurant owned by an African-American couple – has been accused of racism after unveiling a lengthy dress code which includes bans on ripped jeans, cleavage, and baggy pants.
The restaurant, which specializes in turkey legs, published its new dress code on Friday to heavy criticism online.
The dress code included bans on cleavage, exposed thighs and buttocks, swimwear, sports bras, tank tops, ripped jeans, clothes with “offensive graphics,” various hats including “bonnets, du rags” and bandanas, and “excessively baggy or sagging pants.”
“Please know that we are a family friendly restaurant that serves all ages from children to adults daily and putting this dress code in place was necessary to ensure that all parties from our guests to our staff are dressed appropriately when in our establishment,” the restaurant declared, adding that it was forced to implement the dress code “due to the attire of some guests” who had visited.
Plans by Ukraine’s defence ministry to have female soldiers march in high heels instead of army boots in a parade next month have caused angry reactions.
Iryna Gerashchenko, an opposition member of parliament, said it was sexism, not equality.
Ukraine is preparing to stage a military parade on 24 August to mark 30 years of independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The defence ministry say the shoes are part of regulation-dress uniform.
Many in Ukraine expressed shock at the plan, with a group of lawmakers calling on Defence Minister Andriy Taran to offer an apology.
“The story of a parade in heels is a real disgrace,” commentator Vitaly Portnikov said on Facebook, arguing that some officials had a “medieval” mindset.
Ms Gerashchenko said she initially thought the pictures of women soldiers rehearsing in combat trousers and black pumps with block heels was a hoax. She said it was sexism, not equality, and wondered why the ministry thought heels were more important than designing body armour tailored to women.
The NCAA adopted an interim policy that will allow college athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness, ahead of legislation going into effect in several states which would allow for such compensation.
“This is an important day for college athletes since they all are now able to take advantage of name, image and likeness opportunities,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement. “With the variety of state laws adopted across the country, we will continue to work with Congress to develop a solution that will provide clarity on a national level. The current environment — both legal and legislative — prevents us from providing a more permanent solution and the level of detail student-athletes deserve.”
The expected approval from the NCAA Board of Directors came a few days after a recommendation from the Division I Council to allow athletes in every state to pursue compensation for their name, image and likeness without jeopardizing their college eligibility.
The NCAA’s decision to suspend restrictions on payments to athletes for things such as sponsorship deals, online endorsements and personal appearances applies to all three divisions or some 460,000 athletes.
While I acknowledge that this will change college athletics forever, it is just Unamerican to not allow adults to engage in a legal commercial exchange. For the vast majority of college athletes, there is no financial future for them in sport. A few will make a professional league, but even that is limited to a handful of sports that have professional leagues. And, let’s be real, this only impacts the best of the best in any sport.
But I just don’t have a philosophical problem with a star tennis player getting paid to do ads for the local car dealership or get a slice of the pie when the school profits off selling something with their face on it.
“The investigations into the previous fires and these two new fires are ongoing with no arrests or charges,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt Jason Bayda said.
What a selfish, selfish young woman. Forget about her disrespect for her nation for a moment… what about her fellow athletes? Look at the picture of the 1st and 2nd place winners. They are full of joy and pride while Berry throws her tantrum. Berry ruined what I’m sure was a very important moment for the other athletes.
And then her comment about it being a set up. I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that they people running the event didn’t think two seconds about her when they decided to play the anthem. It’s not about her, but she seems to think that the entire thing was designed to affront her. What a self-centered woman.
Congratulations to DeAnna Price and Brooke Andersen, whose superior athletic prowess and class far outshone the antics of Berry.
While the anthem played at the trials in Eugene, Oregon, Berry placed her left hand on her hip and shuffled her feet. She took a quarter turn, so she was facing the stands, not the flag.
Toward the end, she plucked up her black T-shirt with the words ‘Activist Athlete’ emblazoned on the front, and draped it over her head.
‘I feel like it was a set-up, and they did it on purpose,’ said Berry, who finished third to make her second U.S. Olympic team and is an outspoken activist on racial justice issues. ‘I was pissed, to be honest.’
[…]
‘They had enough opportunities to play the national anthem before we got up there,’ she said. ‘I was thinking about what I should do. Eventually I stayed there and I swayed, I put my shirt over my head. It was real disrespectful.’
‘It really wasn’t a message. I didn’t really want to be up there. Like I said, it was a setup. I was hot, I was ready to take my pictures and get into some shade,’ added Berry.
‘They said they were going to play it before we walked out, then they played it when we were out there,’ Berry said. ‘But I don’t really want to talk about the anthem because that’s not important. The anthem doesn’t speak for me. It never has.’
This will be an interesting cultural touchpoint. On the one hand, I can see people throwing their masks back on when flu season hits. On the other hand, I see a lot of people who are just DONE with the whole thing and view masks as a symbol of oppression. As long as people are putting on a mask (or not) at their own discretion and not by order of the government, I’m indifferent.
Sethi says for that reason, masks will be around for seasons to come, and will continue to be commonplace in health care settings.
Rates of respiratory illnesses like the flu and cold were significantly lower in 2020 than they had been pre-pandemic, and this evidence may necessitate masking, Sethi said, though physical distancing also helped reduce respiratory infections in 2020.
In some countries, it is common and socially acceptable to wear a mask when one has symptoms of respiratory illness. In the U.S., the long-term acceptance and use of masks will likely be mixed, but don’t be surprised if you see boxes of masks become more commonplace around the workplace or home settings, like a box of facial tissue or hand sanitizer, Sethi said.
Organizers of the black-exclusive event, coined “Take B(l)ack Pride,” advertised that “white allies and accomplices are welcome to attend, but will be charged a $10 to $50 reparations fee (and given a wrist band as proof of payment.” The ad suggested that the funds raised will go towards subsidizing black and brown trans and queer members as well as performers at the parade.
In an interview with National Review, Capitol Hill Pride Director Charlette LeFevre confirmed her group’s rejection of the initiative and clarified their own mission: “We’re all inclusive, not exclusive.”
After reading Capitol Hill Pride’s statement, Seattle City Council president and mayoral candidate M. Lorena González decided to withdraw from Capitol Hill Pride’s festival.
“I will no longer be attending Capitol Hill Pride after reading their letter to the Seattle Human Rights Commission,” she said.
“After a year that has taken an unbelievable toll on all of our communities, I was looking forward to this opportunity to celebrate Pride in person. However, I simply cannot support an organization that is trying to stop Black people in the LGBTQ+ community from celebrating Pride in the manner that they choose,” she added.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A member of a men’s chorus group unintentionally slammed into fellow chorists at the start of a Pride parade in South Florida, killing one member of the group and seriously injuring another, the group’s director said Sunday, correcting initial speculation that it was a hate crime directed at the gay community.
Wilton Manors Vice Mayor Paul Rolli and Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said the early investigation shows it was an accident. The 77-year-old driver was taken into custody, but police said no charges have been filed and the investigation is ongoing.
“This is a terrorist attack against the LGBT community,” Trantalis said. “This is exactly what it is. Hardly an accident. It was deliberate, it was premeditated, and it was targeted against a specific person. Luckily they missed that person, but unfortunately, they hit two other people.”
Mayor Trantalis should be run out of office for using a horrible accident to accuse people of terrorism and spreading hate in his community.
Yup. Perhaps if he had cast In the Heights with all white people it would have been the kind of avant-garde show that Hamilton was. The fact that some of you rolled your eyes at the previous sentence is evidence of how unidirectional our public discussion about race is.
Bill Maher on Friday night urged Lin-Manuel Miranda to ‘stop apologizing’ and ‘stand up to the bullies’ after his film In the Heights was criticized for not having enough diversity, with Maher declaring: ‘This is why people hate Democrats.’
Miranda’s film, telling the story of a Hispanic community in New York City, was attacked for not having enough Afro-Latino actors.
On Monday the Hamilton creator issued a highly-apologetic statement, promising he would ‘do better’ in the future.
‘Please, stop apologizing,’ said Maher.
‘You’re the guy who made the Founding Fathers black and Hispanic!
‘I don’t think that you have to apologize to Twitter! For f***’s sake.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services says there is a seasonality when it comes to opioid overdoses. However, the department did see a growing trend overall across the state in recent years.
According to the Wisconsin Ambulance Runs Data System, in 2018 statewide, there were 1,268 opioid overdose ambulance runs in the first quarter of the year. In the first quarter of 2019, that number was 1,208. In 2020, that number jumped to 1,869, and increased further in the first quarter of 2021 to 1,963.
When looking at the statewide average number of opioid overdose ambulance runs per month by quarter, the second and third quarters of 2020, and the first quarter of 2021, had the first, second, and third highest numbers in the past three years, respectively. Those quarters correspond with the onset of COVID-19 restrictions and life during the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an alarming increase in the number of suicide attempts by adolescent girls during the pandemic.
Between February and March 2021, the number of emergency department visits for presumed suicide attempts was 50.6% higher among girls aged 12-17 compared to the same period in 2019.
[…]
The data is another piece of the picture showing how much youth have been affected by the pandemic, mentally and emotionally. It also likely underrepresented the true prevalence of suicide attempts among young people, according to researchers. That’s because many people avoided medical settings during the pandemic and children with less severe injuries may have been less likely to seek emergency care.
While troubling, the increase in attempted suicides follows a pattern of adolescent girls attempting suicide almost twice as often as males. At the worst point in the winter of 2021, females were attempting suicide at over four times the rate of young males.
Elections have consequences. It’s a shame that this exodus was not fully captured in the census. Once again, red state representation will be understated until the next census.
The company say Phoenix, Houston and Dallas were the top three cities welcoming new residents while New York City, Anaheim and San Diego in California saw the highest numbers of people leave.
The move away from the likes of New York was driven, in part, by an increased fear of living in densely populated cities amid the pandemic.
In addition to grappling COVID-19, New York City in particular has also struggled with escalating crime and homelessness in recent months.
Police say crime has spiked in Manhattan after hundreds of homeless were rehoused there because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
[…]
‘Northeastern states make up four out of the seven states with the most outbound moves, and none of them make the top eight for inbound moves. New York led the way, followed by New Jersey and Maryland. But California edged out Maryland for fourth place on the outbound list,’ the NAMS report concluded.
‘Pennsylvania and Michigan also made the list, and both states have made the top 10 fairly consistently for the past few years. Maryland has made the list for outbound moves since 2015, and it has ranked between second and fifth places. In 2020, it took fifth place.’
The moving company data showed that states that have much less densely populated areas were a big draw card for people looking to relocate amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Supreme Court on Monday called for President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice to weigh in on a pending case over affirmative action at Harvard University, signaling the court’s interest in a dispute that could scale back the widespread use of race in higher education admissions.
In an unsigned order, the justices requested a brief from acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar expressing “the views of the United States.” Such a move is often a prelude to the court ultimately deciding to hear a case, though not always.
Monday’s move also has the potential to delay the litigation, even if the court eventually votes to consider the case. If the court agrees to hear it in its term beginning in October, a decision would be likely by June 2022. If the court doesn’t hear the case until the term after that, the decision may not appear until the summer of 2023. It requires the votes of four justices to take up a case.
The dispute, known as Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard, No. 20-1199, was brought by a group led by the anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum. Students for Fair Admissions said that Harvard’s limited consideration of the race of its applicants discriminates against Asian applicants in favor of white applicants. That runs afoul of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, they argue.
A federal appeals court rejected the group’s arguments in November, finding that its “limited use of race in its admissions process in order to achieve diversity” was consistent with Supreme Court precedents. In February, Students for Fair Admissions filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking the justices to hear its appeal of that decision.
Toth’s bill, which has passed in both chambers of the Texas Legislature and is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk for signature into law, states that social studies and civics teachers are not allowed to discuss the concept that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex,” or the idea that “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.”
The bill also states that teachers cannot be compelled to talk about current events, and if they do, they must “give deference to both sides.” While supporters say this provision promotes objective teaching, critics counter that it limits honest conversation around the deep-rooted issues surrounding the history of race and racism in the U.S.
“The more people learn about critical race theory, whether Republican or Democrat, the more they oppose it,” said Toth, who noted that he is also a preacher, and said God led him to write this bill limiting the teaching of what he termed “an offshoot of critical theory and Marxism.”
Yet he also said his bill wouldn’t prevent a discussion about critical race theory, but would prevent teachers from endorsing what he sees as its conclusions.
“We’re not saying you can’t talk about critical race theory,” he added. “We’re saying you can’t tell a kid they should feel shame because of the color of their skin.”
Welcome to Minneapolis, a city well on the way to eclipsing the violence that once saw it called Murderapolis.
One year after the death of George Floyd saw this city become ground zero for the defund the police movement, its people are paying for it with their blood.
Last night the city erupted in violence and flames once more as news that police had shot dead a black man wanted on a warrant was met with yet more looting and riots.
[…]
There have been 36 homicides so far this year, more than double the number at this point last year and more than four times that seen in 2019.
Car-jackings are up a staggering 222 per cent. Shootings have risen 153 per cent. Eighty per cent of the victims are black.
At time of writing, 211 people had suffered gunshots wounds so far this year. This time last year that figure was 81.
Gun theft from vehicles is up more than 100 per cent while the police department has seized 100 fewer guns this year than they had at the same point in 2020.
And while crime soars Minneapolis Police Department has lost one third of its force.
Disenfranchised and de-humanized, more than 200 police officers have either permanently left the already stretched department or signed off on disability.
Two points. First, the glib over-made point that we can seem to name every variant after the location in which it originated but we are told that it is racist to identify the original virus by it’s origin.
Second, after the last year, the entire public health establishment and media has blown their credibility. This variant could be the next Black Death and 70% of America won’t believe it until the bodies are clogging the rivers. That is the price America will pay for the duplicitousness of quacks like Fauci.
A coronavirus variant that first cropped up in the nation of Nepal has been detected in the U.S, a health expert claims.
Known as Delta+K417N, the variant is said to combine mutations from the Indian and South African variants.
This means that, like the Indian variant, it is more transmissible and, like the South African variant, it is more evasive of COVID-19 vaccines.
