🐱 Interesting clickbait, op-eds, fluff pieces and other smaller stories

CatParty
102943266-caitlyn.530x298.jpg


http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/24/caitlyn-jenner-halloween-costume-sparks-social-media-outrage-.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...een-costume-labeled-817515?utm_source=twitter

It's nowhere near October, but one ensemble is already on track to be named the most controversial Halloween costume of 2015.

Social media users were out in full force on Monday criticizing several Halloween retailers for offering a Caitlyn Jenner costume reminiscent of the former-athlete's Vanity Fair cover earlier this year.

While Jenner's supporters condemned the costume as "transphobic" and "disgusting" on Twitter, Spirit Halloween, a retailer that carries the costume, defended the getup.

"At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based upon celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes," said Lisa Barr, senior director of marking at Spirit Halloween. "We feel that Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and that she should be celebrated. The Caitlyn Jenner costume reflects just that."
 
From what I understand, the heir to the throne has to be from a lawful marriage, and a surrogate doesn’t count as the king (gay or otherwise) wasn’t married to the surrogate. So if George was gay the succession would go to Charlotte, or whatever the next one is named.

And now I need to go soak in a lye bath for considering the sexuality of a four year old.

No it'll go to Charlotte. They got rid of the 'males first' rule, if Will and Kate's next sprog is a boy, Charlotte would still be 4th in line for the throne.
 
Modist Brewing in MN gets C&Ded over "Dilly Dilly" beer, but somehow InBev does it without being total dicks.

https://growlermag.com/modist-served-cease-desist-bud-light/

Heck, you may have used “dilly dilly” yourself.

But one craft brewer was just served up perhaps the most creative cease-and-desist of the year for using the Bud Light slogan as the name of a new beer released on Friday, December 1.

Just two-and-a-half hours after tapping Dilly Dilly Mosaic Double IPA at their North Loop Minneapolis taproom, Modist Brewing received an unexpected visitor in medieval garb who was there to deliver a message straight from Bud.

Modist settled on using the name Dilly Dilly for its Mosaic IPA brewed with three kinds of hops products (lupulin powder, pellets, and oil) after a search on the TTB database showed the name hadn’t been used for another beer. But soon they thought a cease-and-desist might be coming their way after they found out “Dilly Dilly” had been trademarked by Bud Light after all.

“A couple days ago we realized the slogan was trademarked by Bud Light, not as a beer but just as a slogan, and got a little scared there for a little bit,” says Anderson, “but then we said, ‘screw it, let’s see what happens.’ And that’s what happens.”

Modist will be able to sell the rest of this batch of Dilly Dilly Mosaic IPA at the taproom, but won’t be able to brew it again under the name. “This is by order of the king,” the messenger read from the scroll, “disobedience will be met with additional scrolls, then a formal warning, then finally, a private tour of the pit of misery!”

Bud Light capped off their good-natured warning by offering two tickets to the Super Bowl for Modist to “watch the festivities and enjoy a few Bud Lights,” before the messenger took a bow and received a hearty round of applause.

Dilly, dilly! That was quite the cease-and-desist.
Not sure InBev didn't have this planned out, waiting for a trademark violation, but this is a pretty non-dickish way to defend your trademark. There's not a lot of good will towards them in the industry or among craft beer people in general (a lot of people refused to buy any more Goose Island beer when they bought them, for example), so maybe this will help with that.
 
  • Feels
Reactions: CWCissey
South Korea's official government website for their version of the White House - Cheong Wa Dae - or "The Blue House", was crashed late on Dec 1 and down for several hours, due to an influx of people wanting to sign an online petition.
A petition so important, people world wide were rushing to log on to The Blue House Site, only to be met by an error page.

What earthly injustice where these perturbed global citizens petitioning you ask?

South Korean K-Pop group EXO's award tally from annual award show "MAMA" on Mnet.

Concerned global citizens from the EXO fandom - called "EXO-L's" were deathly concerned that Exo only won 1 major award - Album of the Year. Fuck the North Korean missile crisis. EXO MISSED OUT ON AN AWARD. REEE.

[Maekyung.com MK Sports] Exo fans are outraged at Mnet! Exo fans have complained about the result of the 'MAMA' awards ceremony and have started a 'MAMA' abolition movement.
Their anger has resulted in the situation of fans calling for the abolishment of the annual MAMA awards ceremony via a petition on the Cheong Wa Dae government site.

EXO won the album of the year at the '2017 Mnet Asian Music Awards' (MAMA) at Hong Kong Asia World Expo.
This year 's award winners and boys' group awards went to BTS (Bulletproof Boys/Bangtan Sonyeondan)
and Wanna One.

Fans of the EXO have begun to complain. They feel that EXO had the most votes in every category so they should have won every award.

There's so much autism in the entire KPOPesphere.

upload_2017-12-3_18-29-58.png


Petition to the President to close a KPOP awards ceremony
. 2017 everyone.
 
https://deadline.com/2017/12/randy-...vermont-senator-race-reality-show-1202218630/

Randy Quaid Vs. Bernie Sanders For Vermont Senator Seat Is Fodder For Reality Show

The veteran actor tweeted a threat/warning Thursday claiming that reps from a superPAC have approached him about running against Bernie Sanders for his U.S. Senate seat next year. And a reality show pitch about that potentially wacky race is making its way around town. Public Spectacle Media is planning an unscripted series that would follow Quaid’s long-shot bid to become the junior senator from the Green Mountain State.

Some very powerful people representing a super pac have approached me about running against Bernie Sanders for senator. 100%
— Randy Quaid (@RandyRRQuaid) November 30, 2017

Amid the Donald Trump era of reality TV’s convergence with politics, the proposed docu-sitcom is in development at Public Spectacle Media. The show would follow Quaid — and likely his wife, Evi, who grew up in Vermont — as he “takes on” one of the most high-profile politicians in the country. Bradford Broyles and Lenny Britton of Public Spectacle and Amanda Raymond are the producers.

While the odds don’t exactly favor Quaid unseating the lefty darling who gave Hillary Clinton a run for her big money last year, it could be a hoot to witness. Quaid, of course, has been out of the Hollywood spotlight for the past decade or so — but he’s been in the news. Two years ago, he and Evi were held by U.S. Customs in Vermont on charges of skipping the country to dodge a 2010 case involving breaking into and vandalizing their former home in Santa Barbara, CA. The couple had fled to Vancouver and were detained at the Canadian border in October 2015 while trying to re-enter the U.S. after officials from the Great White North granted Evi Quaid citizenship but denied Randy permanent residence and said he would be deported. The actor was released days later and allowed to stay in Vermont.

Quaid’s credits include Brokeback Mountain, a Golden Globe-winning turn in LBJ: The Early Years, comedy classics Kingpin and Vacation and his Oscar-nominated early-career role opposite Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail.
 
Florida Man arrested for drawing on child's homework

PORT ST. JOE, Fla. (CBS12) —

A 33-year-old man was arrested Friday for reportedly drawing a "disturbing" picture on a student's homework assignment, the Gulf County Sheriff's Office said.

Robert Paul Alexander Edwards, of Mexico Beach, is facing multiple charges after staff at Port St. Hoe Elementary School contacted the school resource deputy about the picture, according to the sheriff's office. The drawing showed a school house on fire, a person running from the school on fire and several others standing in a line being shot by an individual.

The drawing also included two people on the ground in what appeared to be a pool of blood. The words, “Pew, Pew, Pew,” were written next to the person with the gun.

An investigation revealed Edwards drew the picture.

“Our country has been affected one too many times with horrific school tragedies. We take matters like this very seriously,” Sheriff Mike Harrison said. Harrison and officials with Gulf District Schools have worked together on this matter.

Edwards was interviewed by investigators, the sheriff's office said. Although the actions in the drawing were taken seriously, there's no reason to believe that Edwards was actually going to carry out the threat.

He is now facing charges of written threat to kill or do bodily injury.

11a6efc2-b7cb-4087-97b9-f08dcb082e31-large16x9_schooldrawingmugforweb.jpg
 
Robert Paul Alexander Edwards, of Mexico Beach, is facing multiple charges after staff at Port St. Hoe Elementary School contacted the school resource deputy about the picture, according to the sheriff's office. The drawing showed a school house on fire, a person running from the school on fire and several others standing in a line being shot by an individual.
The funniest part is that typo from the source, which hasn't been corrected as of the time I'm posting.

No wonder it's called Port St. Hoe, because that guy would feel right at home with his pornstache.
 
A Catholic school going voluntarily dhimmi. Link.

College to eliminate 'Crusader' mascot over fear it may offend Muslims
by Isaiah Denby | Dec 5, 2017, 2:25 PM
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Email this article Share on LinkedIn CBS Boston.
by Isaiah Denby | Dec 5, 2017, 2:25 PM
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Email this article Share on LinkedIn
Top 5 quotes from Dennis Prager on Campus Free Speech


Prior restraint: How university officials stop speech before it ever takes place


Young Americans for Liberty sues UC-Berkeley for refusing to recognize them


Watch Red Alert's Campus Free Speech panel discussion on the growing epidemic of speech suppression


Red Alert hosts Dennis Prager and more for Campus Free Speech discussion



The College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts may ditch their mascot, the Crusader, because it could be offensive to Muslims.

The mascot has been an integral part of the Holy Cross community for over a century, but college president Rev. Philip L. Boroughs has his concerns. President Boroughs established a working group which has asked, “In what ways do you think the Crusader moniker and mascot are appropriate, or inappropriate, representations of the College, given our mission, values and identity?”


Different members of the Holy Cross community have different answers to this question.

“The mascot is one of the most important things to the school because it represents who you are,” Holy Cross sophomore Matthew Wolfe told CBS Boston.

Tommy Heinsohn, a Holy Cross Class of 1956 alum, as well as an NBA Hall of Famer, takes issue with the possible mascot change.

Heinsohn told the Boston Herald that the crusade (no pun intended) to remove the Crusader mascot - the same mascot that Heinsohn spirited during his time at Holy Cross - is nothing more than “political correctness run amok.”

“The necessity of this thing is beyond the pale,” Heinson stated. “Get a life.”

“It’s a big deal for the upperclassmen because that’s what we’ve been going as the whole time we have been here,” Senior Susan Kritzmacher expressed to CBS Boston.

A paramount contention the college holds, as expressed in the same publication in the Herald, is that “the image of a Christian warrior might be offensive to Muslims.” The college also stated that they are taking into account the “sensitivities” that may be associated with the Crusader mascot.

“The Crusader name is an undeniable part of the College of the Holy Cross’ history,” the school told the Herald in a statement. “At the same time, as an institution of higher learning, we acknowledge our responsibility to thoughtfully examine the sensitivities and implications this name may bear.”

James Gallagher, Editor-in-Chief of The Holy Cross Crusader student newspaper, wrote an op-ed piece concerning this contentious debate on campus.

Gallagher clarifies that “The Crusader is a secular and non-partisan mouthpiece for the entire student body” and has an inherent relationship with that of the school’s Catholic heritage. Gallagher addressed a recurring argument promulgated by proponents to eradicate the mascot from campus, who claim that the mascot is in some way interconnected with the Ku Klux Klan.

“On the other side of things, however, we reject the idea that an incidental connection to the name of a rarely-read and poorly-circulated KKK newspaper represents a strong reason to make a change,” Gallagher states. “Yet, whether that newspaper’s name serves as evidence that the word ‘crusader’ has not lost its ‘clash of civilizations’ connotation certainly remains up for discussion.”

According to the college’s website, the discussion regarding mascot appropriateness has been going on since last year.
 
American expat living in South Korea triggered by racist chicken restaurant. The place is called Blackies!:lol:

https://www.koreaexpose.com/korean-chicken-blackie-racism/

Black caricatures are surprisingly — or perhaps unsurprisingly — often used without critical discretion in South Korea, deployed as a comic relief on television shows, in K-pop, and most recently, a restaurant selling spicy braised chicken.

On Dec. 7, a software engineer from Louisiana was coming out of a subway station in Suwon, a city directly south of Seoul. His eyes caught the signboard of a restaurant called Kkamdis — literally, “blackies.”

Next to the big sign was a caricature of a black figure with thick orange lips, wearing just a white loincloth and holding a chicken leg — the stereotypical image of a thick-lipped black person with the undertones of being primitive (read: loincloth). “I looked at it, read the sign and couldn’t believe my eyes,” the American expat told Korea Exposé, requesting anonymity.

When he posted photos of the restaurant on Facebook group Restaurant Buzz Seoul, he was surprised at the speed of reactions from foreigners and South Koreans alike. Comments on the post, which is public, were mixed.

There were a few defenders: Some claimed that the syllable kkam in “Kkamdis” did not necessarily refer solely to black people and was also used to describe Koreans with tanned skin. One user tried to argue that the word was innocuous in this case because it was actually a shortened version of the word kkamjjak, meaning “surprise” or “shock.”

But the majority of commenters expressed distaste. To compare the racist undertones, one user posted a photo of the grinning caricature of a black man used to advertise Coon Chicken Inn, an American chain restaurant that went out of service in the late 1950s.

The Coon Chicken caricature is just one of the many stereotypes formerly perpetuated through mainstream American culture. In the 1930s to 40s, several American shows shamelessly portrayed black people with stereotypical ethnic traits such as dark skin, thick lips and wide, jovial grins. For decades, African Americans were reduced in popular representations to simplistic characters with few personality traits of their own — think the Mammy, the fiddler.


In South Korea, some have traced the origin of the racist streak to the Korean War period, when Koreans encountered non-Asians in large numbers for the first time. South Koreans’ racial outlooks have been fueled with “pure-blood nationalism” and “traditional patriarchal mores” distorting the way that Koreans look at foreigners, Seol Dong-hoon, a sociologist at Chonbuk National University, told the New York Times in 2009, in the aftermath of a highly publicized incident of racism against an Indian scholar then living in South Korea.

Ahn Seung-soo, owner of the controversial Suwon establishment, told Korea Exposé that his restaurant was the only remaining branch of the little-known Kkamdis franchise.

Ahn was apologetic. He denied any racist intentions, saying the caricature was meant to look like Dooli, a popular South Korean cartoon character based on a baby dinosaur. Ahn said the figure in the white loincloth is a black chicken, not a black person. The skin was meant to reflect the dark color of his restaurant’s signature menu — chicken braised in soy sauce.

“Who would pour his entire savings into opening a restaurant just to make a racist slur?” he said. “It’s regrettable that we are misunderstood because that was not our intention. We receive lots of foreigners in our restaurant.”

The owner of the Kkamdis franchise itself, who refused to be named, said that he did not have any racist intentions in launching the chain. “If I launched a dish called ‘White Jjimdak,’ all white people would throw a fit,” he said over the phone.

“People shouldn’t scrutinize every little thing. Foreigners who complained have an inferiority complex.”

But intentionally or not, the Kkamdis logo bears a striking resemblance to a caricature that’s historically distinctive and recognizable — a caricature rightfully accused of pigeonholing an entire group of dark-skinned people as simpletons.

Whether the owners intended it or not, the connotation of the word kkamdi, “blackie,” is on par in offensiveness with “yellow monkey,” a derogatory term used to refer to Asians. Kkamdi, or its longer form kkamdungi, is not a respectful term; for example, it would be wildly inappropriate if president Moon Jae-in called Obama a kkamdi.

The Facebook user who uploaded the original post, the engineer from Louisiana, said he was shocked by reactions from the black community in South Korea. “Most of them had a mentality of ‘same day same shit’ or a kind of ‘what else is new?’ attitude. They are so jaded because it happens to them all the time.”

Kkamdis is certainly not the first establishment that’s come under the heat for racist depictions. In 2014, local newspaper Hankoyreh reported that the menu of a restaurant in Itaewon, a neighborhood in Seoul, used the word heukhyeong to describe dark squid ink-battered chicken and other dark-colored food items on its menu.

Heukhyeong, literally “black older brother,” is often used — privately and publicly — to refer to black men in a reverential way, hence “older brother.” The term often goes hand in hand with the stereotypes about blackness : athletic, big and fearsome.

Han Hyun-min, a Nigerian-Korean model and one of Time magazine’s 30 Most Influential Teens of 2017, talked about how he finds the word heukhyeong discriminatory. “We [black people] find the word very offensive but a lot of people use it without knowing,” he said in a December interview with BBC.

Participants in the BBC interview criticized limited representations of black people, particularly in Africa. Jonathan Thona, one of the interviewees, criticized South Korean media for portraying Africa through a lens of primitivism. “They only film the indigenous people climbing the tree — shaping the image of Africa in such way.”

South Korea is still largely homogenous. Only 3.4 percent of the entire 51 million population is foreign, according to the government data as of 2016. But that’s not an excuse. The government frequently brands the country as multicultural, advertising racial diversity and tolerance. An increasing number of foreigners are travelling to and living in the country — foreign residents in South Korea increased threefold from 2006 to 2016 from less than 537,000 to over 1,760,000 according to the government statistics.

Racial sensitivity still leaves much room for desire, especially when it comes to those that aren’t white. In 2014, a bar in Itaewon briefly banned “Africans” during an Ebola virus outbreak (in West Africa, that is). More recently, another bar in Itaewon — typically perceived to be one of South Korea’s most multicultural areas — came under fire, when a bouncer told an Indian student, “It is a rule. No Kazakhstan, no Pakistan, no Mongolia, no Saudi Arabia and no Egypt.” (The owner apologized to the student.)

Surprisingly, the ‘global phenomenon’ of K-pop isn’t always better. Artists are often criticized for appropriating black culture without the appropriate cultural and historical understanding: The offenses are as subtle as Taeyang of popular idol group Big Bang fetishizing black suffering.

“I’m not black, so I’ll probably have to have more experience and go through more pain if I want to express the sentiments, emotions, and soul that black people have through my music. That’s why I believe that pain and suffering will make my music richer,” he wrote in his 2016 photobook.

Sometimes, the offenses are outright obvious. For example, girl group Mamamoo performed in black faces at a concert earlier this year.

Outside South Korea, Koreans are sometimes stereotyped for their own ethnic traits — the shape of their eyes being one of them. In 2012, U.S. media reported that a Starbucks barista in Georgia, U.S., had drawn a caricature with slanted eyes to identify two Korean customers. A similar incident occurred in 2016 at a branch of Starbucks in Germany. When such things happen, the nation erupts in collective rage at perceived injustice.

But awareness doesn’t seem to apply when the offense is directed at other people.

“There’s no impartial mediator between foreigners and locals in South Korea ,” Professor Kim Hyunmi of Yonsei University told online media outlet OhMyNews in 2014.

“In foreign countries, if one has racist thoughts, merely expressing them can be considered a form of crime. But in South Korea, unlike outside the country, there has yet to be a system that curbs this kind of practice,” Kim said. “Anti-multiculturalism and racism are deepening under the state’s neglect and silence.”

Take a good look at the first half of that last paragraph.

“In foreign countries, if one has racist thoughts, merely expressing them can be considered a form of crime. But in South Korea, unlike outside the country, there has yet to be a system that curbs this kind of practice,” Kim said.

Being guilty of thoughtcrime is bad enough here. I know Koreans can be racist. But if they are in their own country they don't have to abide by the rules of tourists and expats from other countries. Sure it could become a problem if they get more immigrants. But when you move to a new country you have to expect that people are going to have different sensibilities and you are going to learn to have to live with it.

It's bad enough that every Kpop star is constantly scrutinized by western fans for cultural appropriation of American black culture. I posted about this here before. A Kpop artist being slammed for cultural appropriation by American fans. It's amazing how one minute he's your Korean husbando and the next he's racist for having the wrong hair and clothes. There was another Kpop artist who did a video where he's in an asylum. I can't remember what it was called. But again, it triggered some Tumblr kids with self diagnoses and they ranted about it for weeks.

Now this definitely is racist to most modern day Americans:
kkamdi_1.jpg


I don't buy that it's supposed to be inspired by Dooli the dinosaur or a black chicken. It's obviously based on old time cartoons of black people. The ones that are banned from TV. But racist or not, it's stupid for Americans to try to tell people in other countries what is and isn't allowed to be used as a mascot because feelings. Why not use that energy to raise awareness of human rights violations instead of little Black Sambo selling you chicken? South Korea is mainly made up of South Koreans and is very insular. So they aren't going to see this mascot, be triggered and immediately storm social media demanding the the owner kill himself. BLM isn't going to have a riot over it. Yeah it's racist. To westerners. If the owner wants to change it he can. But he doesn't have to. Because I doubt there's much pressure in Korea to do so.

The comments here are priceless by the way: https://nextshark.com/racist-south-korean-restaurant-racist-dont-even-know-racist/
 
Back