2 Sept 2015
Dramatic Escalation, China Sends Five Navy Ships Off Alaska Coast For First Time Ever
'The US has had its ships and carriers to the east and south of China for decades, so it would appear that Xi is intent on giving Washington a taste of its own medicine.'
Submitted by Tyler Durden: Just as China celebrates the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II with an extravagant parade designed to showcase the country’s military prowess and project Xi Jinping’s power to nervous onlookers in the West, the Pentagon says it has spotted five Chinese Navy ships in the Bering Sea, just off the coast of Alaska. 
Five Chinese navy ships are currently operating in the Bering Sea, off the coast of Alaska, the first time the U.S. military has seen such activity in the area, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.
The officials said they have been aware in recent days that three Chinese combat ships, a replenishment vessel and an amphibious ship were in the vicinity after observing them moving toward the Aleutian Islands, which are split between U.S. and Russian control.
Stop What’s That Sound? Falling Markets!
An Article That Almost Gets Rape Culture Right
“Rape culture is an attitude toward women in particular, but not even just to women—to treating all people as sexual objects, nothing more than an opportunity for sex,” Anna Bahr, a Columbia graduate told New York magazine. That’s not “rape culture,” that’s hook-up culture. That’s the post-sexual revolution American culture, and she’s right that it stinks.
I think Charen is absolutely correct that ‘rape culture’ is really ‘hook-up culture’, and the Columbia student quoted above makes an important point that hook-up culture treats all people as ‘sexual objects, nothing more than an opportunity for sex’. Not just women. Everyone. Charen takes a very simplistic, and quite frankly disappointing, definition of rape, excluding most men from coerced or forced sex unless their assailants were other men, gay or not. We know for a fact that approximately equal numbers of men and women report unwanted, coerced or forced sex that involves traditional penis-in-vagina action. When the victim is a woman, the CDC collects those numbers as sexual assault. When the victim is a man, they collect the numbers under the awkwardly worded ‘made to penetrate’ option under ‘other sexual assault’.
How To Treat Him As A Human Being
Here’s the description: “Training a man is really no different than training a canine. It just takes time, reinforced behavior, and a firm grasp of when to use the carrot and when to use the stick. Simply follow the 50 tips in this book and you’ll have a loving and faithful companion for years to come.”
That’s right. Apparently, men are like dogs and can and should be trained. Technically, anybody can be trained, from kids to adults. But you don’t hear men say this about women, let alone write a book about it: it would be immediately banned by the Female Inquisition.
The Primacy Of Jewish Genes
Gilad Atzmon at his cutting best. Be careful what you wish for, really careful.
The Myth Of A Russian 'Threat'
Not a week goes by without the Pentagon carping about an ominous Russian "threat".
So Dempsey admits he does not know what he’s
talking about. What he seems to know is that Russia is a “threat”
anyway — in space, cyber space, ground-based cruise missiles,
submarines.
And most of all, a threat to NATO; “One of the things that Russia
does seem to do is either discredit, or even more ominously, create the
conditions for the failure of NATO.”So Russia “does seem” to discredit an already self-discredited NATO. That’s not much of a “threat”.
All these rhetorical games take place while NATO “does seem” to get ready for a direct confrontation with Russia. And make no mistake; Moscow does view NATO’s belligerence as a real threat.
October 13, 2015 - The Day Digital Privacy Officially Dies In Australia
By Michael Krieger: At least in America, the authorities feel a need to lie to the public while engaging in invasive and tyrannical warrantless surveillance. In Australia, a nation in which you are more likely to die by hitting a kangaroo with your car than in a terrorist attack, government officials have no qualms with doing it right in your face.
We learn from the Sydney Morning Herald:
We learn from the Sydney Morning Herald:The digital privacy of Australians ends from Tuesday, October 13.
On that day this country’s entire communications industry will be turned into a surveillance and monitoring arm of at least 21 agencies of executive government.
The electronically logged data of mobile, landline voice (including missed and failed) calls and text messages, all emails, download volumes and location information will be mandatorily retained by Australian telcos and ISPs.
Intelligence and law enforcement agencies will have immediate, warrantless and accumulating access to all telephone and internet metadata required by law, with a $2 million penalty for telcos and ISPs that don’t comply.