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OT: The News Thread

JohnnyHolmes said:
No, I won't be commenting on the most recent deranged individual of peace incident, but this one has me baffled.

Man on trial for offending feminists on twitter.

How does something like this even get to the "charges laid" phase of the justice system.

It's just sickening.
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I thought it was ridiculous too, after reading that article. But after looking into it a bit more, it seems like Christie Blatchford's article is a rather one-sided telling of events.

I mean, they all behaved like petulant children, and none of them come off like particularly good people. But after those "feminists" blocked him on twitter and asked him to stop contacting them, he kept obsessively tweeting at and about them for months, ripping them for everything from their political views to their physical appearance.

If those tweets were instead unwanted phone calls or text messages, this story would be a more typical and much less remarkable case of harassment.
 
LeafGm said:
I thought it was ridiculous too, after reading that article. But after looking into it a bit more, it seems like Christie Blatchford's article is a rather one-sided telling of events.

I mean, they all behaved like petulant children, and none of them come off like particularly good people. But after those "feminists" blocked him on twitter and asked him to stop contacting them, he kept obsessively tweeting at and about them for months, ripping them for everything from their political views to their physical appearance.

If those tweets were instead unwanted phone calls or text messages, this story would be a more typical and much less remarkable case of harassment.
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Maybe it seems one sided because it is?

If you block someone on twitter...you can't see what they are tweeting about.

Her feelings of fear "developed over time" and she wasn't "the perfect victim".

They publicly shamed him, accused him of being a pedophile, and all because they didn't like that he didn't agree with them. He lost his job over it.

I'd say that perhaps wrong side is on trial. He's been cyber bullied by two women that don't like anyone challenging their views, as was the creator of the "game".

A tweet isn't like a phone call, let alone a threatening phone call.
 
blacksheep said:
Perhaps you forgot about the one shot down in the recording studio.
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Violence /= gang affiliation

The late, great SRV was basically a homeless guy when he played the Montreaux Jazz Festival, where David Bowie was in the audience. He was the first unsigned artist ever to appear at that Jazz fest. Bowie hired him and made his "Let's Dance" album, which became the first time we ever heard SRV on a commercial recording.
The rest is history.
Van Morrison made several recordings with a group of homeless singers.
Patty Smyth was waiting tables when a band called Scandal recruited her.
Bonnie Raitt had no fixed address for several years.
Hell, even Hendrix was down on his luck while he plucked away at his Stratocaster, teaching himself how to play. And then he taught us ALL how to play...
There are a ton of examples.
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Not even on the same planet. The vast majority of N American musicians outside of hip hop come from lower middle to middle income families. The vast majority of rappers come from lower income families in urban. It's not even the same world. The fact that you've had to break out 40-50 yr old examples is quite telling.


Then perhaps the only ones we ever hear about are the gang-related ones.
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Imagine that. You only hear about the 1% shooting at each other. You're such a consistent opponent of media spin, yet can't get past your usual anti media biases when it has to do with hip hop's place in our culture eh? Weird.


The rest are, thankfully (IMO anyways) under the radar.
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Funny that you would trash hip hop culture, holding up the 1% as the problem with the whole, and then say that thankfully the 99% flies under the radar. Not that I'm surprised, but you have a problem with simple logic.

funny you should mention Indie. I'd rather hear any number of Indie artists than cRAP.
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Indie is short for "independent", aka any music not made under the control of major or mid sized corporate labels. So basically, 90% of the rap music industry, that gets 5% of the publicity.
 
MindzEye said:
Violence /= gang affiliation
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Fair enough, but which rapper was I referring to?
Anthony Spencer was shot and killed in a recording studio.
So was YG.
So was "Slim Dunkin" (just outside of one, actually.)
So was... you get the idea.
In the case of Spencer, and many others, nobody was talking. Even witnesses to the crime kept their mouths shut. Keeping your mouth shut is a sure sign of either gang violence / affiliation, or a mob connection. We both know the mob isn't what it used to be.
And he's not the only one to die under suspicious circumstances.

MindzEye said:
Not even on the same planet. The vast majority of N American musicians outside of hip hop come from lower middle to middle income families. The vast majority of rappers come from lower income families in urban. It's not even the same world. The fact that you've had to break out 40-50 yr old examples is quite telling.
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I chose the "40-50yr old examples" on purpose. cRAP is a relatively new form of music, certainly only a couple decades old, as compared to R&R or others. Showing 40-50yr old examples just shows that down-on-your-luck-artists is not a new phenomenon at all. It's been going on for longer than you and I have been alive, and will continue to be the case.
Perhaps I can add Motown artists and Blues artists to the list? But then we'd have to add the once, VERY prevalent race issue that the music industry used to cling to, that is no longer at play today.

MindzEye said:
Imagine that. You only hear about the 1% shooting at each other. You're such a consistent opponent of media spin, yet can't get past your usual anti media biases when it has to do with hip hop's place in our culture eh? Weird.
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heh. Sar-chasm. It seemed like you were the one suggesting the media only covered the gang-related deaths of cRAPpers, while ignoring the other deaths. The sad part is more cRAPpers have died via "shot and killed" than any other method, and you just can't pin that entirely on their financial circumstances as a child.

MindzEye said:
Indie is short for "independent",
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No shit, sherlock.

MindzEye said:
aka any music not made under the control of major or mid sized corporate labels. So basically, 90% of the rap music industry, that gets 5% of the publicity.
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Actually, that has more to do with "hip-hop" or cRAP no longer being the darling of the record companies. They went the way of Boy Bands, Milli Vanilli and Rick Astley: simply a manufactured fad by the companies themselves, but no longer fitting the mold of what the majority of iTunes and Spotify users want to download or stream today.
It's not media spin. It's just not the flavour of the week anymore.
Remember how 2 Live Crew had to start their own record label to be able to release the overly vulgar garbage they made? Yeah... it's like that for many other cRAP artists as well. The companies don't like lawsuits or being affiliated with chumps cRAPping about rape and violence all day and night. Today's cRAPper is on their own because they HAVE to be, and because with the advent of online music streaming, they have a better means to put out whatever they want, without the control and dictator-style management of the likes of Sony Music.
Enjoy the cRAP. I'd rather many other Indie artists.
 
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LeafGm said:
I thought it was ridiculous too, after reading that article. But after looking into it a bit more, it seems like Christie Blatchford's article is a rather one-sided telling of events.

I mean, they all behaved like petulant children, and none of them come off like particularly good people. But after those "feminists" blocked him on twitter and asked him to stop contacting them, he kept obsessively tweeting at and about them for months, ripping them for everything from their political views to their physical appearance.

If those tweets were instead unwanted phone calls or text messages, this story would be a more typical and much less remarkable case of harassment.
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Behaving like petulant children doesn't quite equate with criminal harassment charges.
 
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/51c8...-restore-full-diplomatic-ties-after-5-decades

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a half century of Cold War and lingering enmity came to an abrupt but quiet end on Monday as the United States and Cuba restored full diplomatic relations.

The new era began with little fanfare when an agreement between the two nations to resume normal ties on July 20 came into force just after midnight Sunday and the diplomatic missions of each country were upgraded from interests sections to embassies. When clocks struck 12:00 in Washington and Havana, they tolled a knell for policy approaches spawned and hardened over the five decades since President John F. Kennedy first tangled with youthful revolutionary Fidel Castro over Soviet expansion in the Americas.

Without ceremony in the pre-dawn hours, maintenance workers were to hang the Cuban flag in the lobby of the State Department alongside those of other nations with which the U.S. has diplomatic relations. The historic shift will be publicly memorialized later Monday when Cuban officials formally inaugurate their embassy in Washington and Cuba's blue, red and white-starred flag will fly for the first time since the countries severed ties in 1961. Secretary of State John Kerry will then meet his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, and address reporters at a joint news conference.

The U.S. Interests Section in Havana plans to announce its upgrade to embassy status in a written statement on Monday, but the Stars and Stripes will not fly at the mission until Kerry visits in August for a ceremonial flag-raising.

And yet, though normalization has taken center stage in the U.S.-Cuba relationship, there remains a deep ideological gulf between the nations and many issues still to resolve. Among them: thorny disputes such as over mutual claims for economic reparations, Havana's insistence on the end of the 53-year-old trade embargo and U.S. calls for Cuba to improve on human rights and democracy. Some U.S. lawmakers, including several prominent Republican presidential candidates, have vowed not to repeal the embargo and pledged to roll back Obama's moves on Cuba.

Still, Monday's events cap a remarkable change of course in U.S. policy toward the communist island under President Barack Obama, who had sought rapprochement with Cuba since he first took office and has progressively loosened restrictions on travel and remittances to the island.
 
link
GATINEAU, Que. - Canada's small Internet service providers are promising "faster speeds, better service, affordable pricing" following a decision by the country's communications regulator that will force the big telecom firms to open their fibre optic networks to competitors.

The new requirement, announced Wednesday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, will give independent ISPs access to much higher speed networks.

The move should also foster greater competition in the broadband Internet market, the CRTC said in releasing the decision.

"Large incumbent companies will now have to make their fibre facilities available to their competitors," the regulator said in a statement.

"This measure will ensure that Canadians have more choice for high-speed Internet services."

The big telecom companies, including Bell, Rogers, Telus and Shaw, have so far made fibre optic services available to about three million homes across the country.

But they have limited smaller ISPs to access of their slower networks, through cable or copper wire connections.

During hearings into Canada's wholesale wireline services conducted last fall, the big players warned that allowing competitors access to their fibre optic networks would deter investments in equipment needed to deliver better service and faster speeds to Canadian homes and businesses.

But smaller ISPs dismissed the warning, accusing the big players of shutting them out of fibre networks in order to protect their market share.
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Everyone say farewell to the big three oligopoly, and good riddance.
 
Yeah, amazing that a racially motivated killing could happen after that tremendous olive branch was extended.


Oh....they don't have the faintest **** what this guys motive was and not a single ****ing person suggested that removing the confederate rag would, as a stand alone gesture, eliminate mass shooting incidents in the US (racially motivated or not)?

Try harder Johnny.
 
So you mean focusing on something completely unrelated to the Charleston shooting (the Confederate flag) didn't do anything to address the actual problem.

Incredible.
 
JohnnyHolmes said:
So you mean focusing on something completely unrelated to the Charleston shooting (the Confederate flag) didn't do anything to address the actual problem.

Incredible.
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Has anybody actually said anything close to what you are suggesting?

The only thing people have said is that a racist flag shouldn't be flying on government grounds..I know, totally unreasonable and wild idea.
 
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