New Yorkers call for removal of Met painting that ‘sexualizes’ girl…

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Date: December 21, 2017

01) New Yorkers call for removal of Met painting that ‘sexualizes’ girl

“New Yorkers launched a petition demanding that the Metropolitan Museum of Art remove a 1938 painting of a young woman with her underwear exposed due to the “current climate around sexual assault” — but the Met refused Sunday.

[…]

“The artist of this painting, Balthus, had a noted infatuation with pubescent girls and this painting is undeniably romanticizing the sexualization of a child,” writes Mia Merrill, 30, a New York City entrepreneur who started the petition.

[…]

“Ultimately, it’s a small ask in consideration of how expansive their art collection is … how overtly sexual the painting is, and the current news headlines highlighting a macro issue about the public health and safety of women.”

[…]

But a rep for the museum said it won’t remove the painting because art is meant to reflect many time periods — not just the current one.

“[Our] mission is to collect, study, conserve, and present significant works of art across all times and cultures in order to connect people to creativity, knowledge, and ideas,” said spokesman Kenneth Weine.”

For The Metropolitan Museum of Art…


Applause

Nun says Mary likely was not a virgin…

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Date: December 20, 2017

01) Nun says Mary likely was not a virgin

“A nun in Spain has received death threats from angry Catholics after suggesting that Mary likely had sex with husband Joseph – much like any “normal couple” would.

Sister Lucia Caram – a self-described “restless and disturbing” nun on her Twitter profile that boasts more than 183,000 followers – seemingly contradicted Roman Catholic faith by suggesting that the Virgin Mary might not have been celibate after all during a television appearance in Spain on Sunday.

“I think Mary was in love with Joseph and that they were a normal couple – and having sex is a normal thing,” Caram told the Chester in Love Show, according to the Guardian…

Caram, who lives in a convent in Catalonia, said the church has long held a “poor attitude” on the subject and has “swept it under the carpet,” according to the Guardian.”

Gee…Mary was not a virgin?…

…Who would have thought?!…

You know what I find so strange about the whole “virgin Mary” thing?…

…As kids of the church, we wasn’t supposed to know anything about sex…especially at younger ages…and yet they kept pushing Mary’s “virginity” into our faces…They kept reminding us of “the miracle”, that Mary supposedly gave birth without ever having sex…when we kids weren’t even supposed to have a clue, as to what that meant.

…awkward…

I don’t think they thought that one through, to well.

Personally…I think it’s all a ploy…to glorify virginity and celibacy.

…”The person who was most intimately close to Jesus, on an intimate level, was a celibate virgin”?…Think about it…

Waking Up with Sam Harris #106 — Humanity 2.0 (with Jennifer A. Doudna)…

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Date: December 20, 2017

01) Waking Up with Sam Harris #106 — Humanity 2.0 (with Jennifer A. Doudna)

“In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Jennifer Doudna about the gene-editing technology CRISPR/Cas9. They talk about the biology of gene editing, how specific tissues in the body can be targeted, the ethical implications of changing the human genome, the importance of curiosity-driven science, and other topics.

Jennifer A. Doudna is a professor in the Chemistry and the Molecular and Cell Biology Departments at the University of California, Berkeley, investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and researcher in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She is internationally recognized as a leading expert on RNA-protein biochemistry, CRISPR biology, and genome engineering. She is the author (with Samuel Sternberg) of A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution.”

Rolling Stone: Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal…

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Date: December 19, 2017

01) Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal

“Inside the web of conspiracy theorists, Russian operatives, Trump campaigners and Twitter bots who manufactured the ‘news’ that Hillary Clinton ran a pizza-restaurant child-sex ring.

[…]

The revelations overcame Edgar Maddison Welch like a hallucinatory fever. On December 1st, 2016, the father of two from Salisbury, North Carolina, a man whose pastimes included playing Pictionary with his family, tried to persuade two friends to join a rescue mission. Alex Jones, the Info-Wars host, was reporting that Hillary Clinton was sexually abusing children in satanic rituals a few hundred miles north, in the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant. Welch told his friends the “raid” on a “pedo ring” might require them to “sacrifice the lives of a few for the lives of many.” A friend texted, “Sounds like we r freeing some oppressed pizza from the hands of an evil pizza joint.” Welch was undeterred. Three days later, armed with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, a .38 handgun and a folding knife, he strolled into the restaurant and headed toward the back, where children were playing ping-pong. As waitstaff went table to table, whispering to customers to get out, Welch maneuvered into the restaurant’s kitchen. He shot open a lock and found cooking supplies. He whipped open another door and found an employee bringing in fresh pizza dough. Welch did not find any captive children – Comet Ping Pong does not even have a basement – but he did prove, if there were any lingering doubts after the election, that fake news has real consequences.

[…]

Alefantis thought he’d finally scored a victory when The New York Times published an article debunking Pizzagate. He learned what the Clinton campaign found out too late. As Harvard’s Benkler puts it, “The right-wing-media ecosystem had become so hyperpartisan, so self-referential and so superinsular it often simply ignored information that’s disconfirming.” Instead, right-wing social media referenced mainstream coverage as a way to “legitimate” their claims. On November 21st, the day the Times published its story, our sample shows Twitter traffic about Pizzagate hit unprecedented levels: some 120,000 tweets.”

Twitter suspends white nationalists as it enforces new rules…

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Date: December 19, 2017

01) Twitter suspends white nationalists as it enforces new rules

“NEW YORK (AP) – Twitter suspended the accounts of well-known white nationalists Monday, moving swiftly to enforce its new rules aimed at reducing what it deems abusive content.

The account of far-right group Britain First, a small group that regularly posts inflammatory videos purporting to show Muslims engaged in acts of violence, was among the first to go dark. The individual accounts of two of its leaders, Jayda Fransen and Paul Golding, were also suspended.

[…]

Twitter said it would not comment on individual accounts. The company has emphasized that it takes into account many factors before making any enforcement decision, including context of the post, cultural and political considerations and the severity of the violation.

[…]

Twitter is also prohibiting users from abusing or threatening others through their profiles or usernames. The company also now bans accounts affiliated with “organizations that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes.”

[…]

Emma Llanso, director of the free expression project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the new guidelines represent a substantial change for Twitter’s policies. But, he added, it’s not going to be immediately clear to all users what falls within the new prohibitions.”

There is a ton of weasel in there.

…First…they’re coming for the white nationalists…

…Who is next on their list?…

…Despite whatever I may think about white nationalists…I can see this is a terrible move on the part of Twitter.

Short of credible threats and fraud…no company should provide a communications service, just to turn around and interfere with the communication…concepts, unpopular findings and opinions should remain protected.

Twitter has such a massive user base…it’s essentially a public utility, in function.

Pamela Gredicak: Control Over My Death…

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….

Date: December 19, 2017

01) Pamela Gredicak: Control Over My Death

“Living Life Until the End

I don’t want to stop what I’ve been doing; I still have so much left to do. I want to live my life until I can’t for another moment. I want quality for as long as I can have it and then I want to stop putting the people I love through this pain.

I will do anything I can to share this important message with the world: that it is as important to choose the way we die as it is to choose the way we live.

I don’t believe there are many who would choose to struggle through those last horrible days, weeks or months while our loved ones feel obligated to visit us in places that feel and smell like death. I want my husband to not be so scarred by my death that he can’t go on living. These are some of the reasons that the Death with Dignity law is so very important to me.

Control over Death

Opponents believe that it’s the depressed and weary who are convinced Death with Dignity is the only option. That’s not the case for me. I have been in control of the way I lead my life, as much as I am allowed by my illnesses. I believe I should have control over my death.”

 ….