{"id":163676,"date":"2024-11-30T11:58:26","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T16:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=163676"},"modified":"2024-11-30T11:58:26","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T16:58:26","slug":"stupid-people-of-the-week-147","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=163676","title":{"rendered":"Stupid people of the week"},"content":{"rendered":"
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’66 Chevy C10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Wicked\u2019 Slapped with Trigger Warnings in U.K.: \u2018Green-Skinned Woman Is Mocked,\u2019 \u2018Talking Animals Are Persecuted\u2019<\/h3>\n

Did they not realize that the origin story for the Wicked Witch of the West would involve her being mocked? If she was normal colored and pretty, she probably wouldn’t have resorted to a life of evil with flying monkeys.<\/p>\n

The British Board of Film Classification has slapped content warnings on Wicked, advising audiences about potentially triggering moments including scenes where a \u201cgreen-skinned woman is mocked\u201d and \u201ctalking animals are persecuted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wicked received a \u201cPG\u201d rating from the the board, which posted its content warnings to its official site. One of the board\u2019s content categories is called \u201cDiscrimination\u201d \u2014 a vaguely social justice-themed category that warns viewers of scenes in which characters experience prejudice.<\/p>\n

\u201cA green-skinned woman is mocked, bullied and humiliated because of her skin colour. A disabled woman in a wheelchair is treated in a condescending manner by able-bodied people. Talking animals are persecuted in a fantastical society,\u201d the board stated.<\/p>\n

Cynthia Erivo plays the \u201cgreen-skinned\u201d Elphaba, the character who grows up to become the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. The movie also stars pop sensation Ariana Grande as Glinda, who becomes the Good Witch of the North.<\/p>\n

Wicked \u2014 which is based on the long-running Broadway musical \u2014 has ridden a wave of popular enthusiasm to become the biggest box-office hit of the fall season. The Universal release is a two-parter, with the second half set to open next year.<\/p>\n

In addition to its popular success, Wicked is also expected to do well at the Academy Award nominations, where the field of competition is rather slim compared to recent years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source; Breitbart<\/a><\/p>\n

Army officer charged after grenade found at airport<\/h3>\n

Oh, was that not allowed? Were we not supposed to do that?<\/p>\n

A senior officer in the British Army has been charged after allegedly taking a decommissioned hand grenade through Scotland’s busiest airport.<\/p>\n

Lt Col Hugo Clark, 54 is accused of taking a deactivated explosive through security at Edinburgh Airport on 16 October.<\/p>\n

A bomb squad was called to the scene and the item, a dummy grenade used in training according to reports, was assessed as “non-viable and posed no threat”.<\/p>\n

He was released from custody at the time and will appear before a court at a later date.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: “Around 08:05 on Wednesday October 16, police were called by security at Edinburgh Airport after a decommissioned ordnance device was found during scanning of a passenger’s hand luggage.<\/p>\n

“A 54-year-old man was arrested and charged in connection and released on an undertaking to appear in court at a later date.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Army said: “A service person was involved in a security incident at Edinburgh Airport on 16 October.<\/p>\n

“As the matter is the subject of ongoing legal proceedings we won’t comment further.”<\/p>\n

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has been approached for comment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source; BBC<\/a><\/p>\n

Mom pulls gun on Lyft car in McDonald\u2019s parking lot – but ends up accidentally shooting daughter<\/h3>\n

A Florida woman was arrested following a dispute with a Lyft driver and his passengers in a McDonald\u2019s parking lot, which resulted in her pulling a gun and accidentally shooting her own daughter, cops say<\/p>\n

Melissa Valbrum, 32, threatened to \u201cshoot and kill\u201d three people who were trying to get into the rideshare after a misunderstanding, according to police, before firing and hitting her own child,<\/p>\n

Valbrum now faces three charges following the Miami-Dade incident on Friday: aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, battery and culpable negligence inflicting personal injury. She appeared in court on Sunday.<\/p>\n

According to Miami-Dade police, officers were called out to the McDonald\u2019s in Pinewood following reports of “a dispute where a firearm accidentally discharged” by a woman. The bullet had struck the woman\u2019s 15-year-old daughter in her left shoulder, according to a police affidavit seen by The Independent.<\/p>\n

According to the arrest affidavit, the teenager and her mom were in the restaurant along with another group prior to the incident.<\/p>\n

When a Lyft arrived, one member of a group waiting on the ride told police they were pointing outside to alert the group the Lyft had arrived. Valbrum\u2019s daughter said a member of the group was pointing at Valbrum.<\/p>\n

This led to an argument inside the restaurant that later continued outside. By that time, the three members of the group were inside the rideshare.<\/p>\n

Valbrum then allegedly retrieved a gun from her vehicle and began threatening to “shoot and kill” all three of them while pointing the firearm in their direction, the affidavit stated. As the Lyft drove off, the passengers heard a gunshot and saw the teen had been shot.<\/p>\n

The Lyft driver told police that Valbrum was acting “extremely aggressive” while pointing a gun at him and other members of the group. He also told police that he saw Valbrum reach inside his car and allegedly assault one of the passengers \u2013 also a minor.<\/p>\n

Valbrum denied that she had pulled out the gun and threatened the passengers, later telling officers that the weapon had been on her waistband during the incident and it “accidentally fell,” causing it to go off and shoot her daughter.<\/p>\n

The police affidavit also noted that police watched surveillance and phone video of the incident that showed Valbrum with a gun in her hand while knocking on the rear passenger window of the Lyft.<\/p>\n

Valbrum was arrested and booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
\nOn Sunday, a judge ordered her to stay away from all of the victims and set her bond at $22,000, which she posted.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source; The Independent<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018I had to get out\u2019: the US military officers filing for conscientious objector status over Gaza<\/h3>\n

Was there nothing in the past…ah…50 years of American foreign policy that might lead even a poorly informed enlistee that they might have to go to the Middle East and do war stuff?<\/p>\n

For Joy Metzler, a second lieutenant in the US air force, joining the military had felt like answering a calling. An adoptee from China who was raised in a conservative Christian family, she believed she owed a debt to the United States.<\/p>\n

But the Hamas attacks in Israel last year, and Israel\u2019s war that followed, rocked Metzler\u2019s convictions. Within months, she filed for conscientious objector status, one of a small number of US military personnel seeking to end their service because of their moral opposition to US support for Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know Palestine was a place before October 7,\u201d Metzler told the Guardian.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden it felt like a light clicking on for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the war in Gaza enters a second year, some disillusioned members of the US military have turned to the Vietnam war-era conscientious objector policy to terminate their military service because of religious or moral convictions.<\/p>\n

There are few avenues to express dissent in the army. Earlier this year, Harrison Mann, an army officer assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency resigned in protest of US support for Israel. In a far more extreme gesture, 25-year-old US airman Aaron Bushnell died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington in February.<\/p>\n

The conscientious objector route is a seldom-invoked alternative that few service members are aware of \u2013 though some advocates say there has been an uptick in interest in the last year.<\/p>\n

The defense department referred questions about the number of conscientious objectors to each branch of the military. A spokesperson for the air force said that it has received 42 applications since 2021 and granted 36. Applications since 7 October \u201care on trend with pre-conflict averages\u201d, the spokesperson added. (The army, navy, and Marine Corps did not respond to requests for comment.)<\/p>\n

But while the numbers remain relatively low, the war in Gaza is top of mind for those service members who have considered conscientious objector status this year, said Bill Galvin, a Vietnam-era objector and director of counseling at the Center on Conscience and War, one of a handful of groups that helps military members navigate the complex bureaucratic process.<\/p>\n

Galvin said his group helps roughly 50 to 70 applicants a year, across military branches, and that there\u2019s been more interest than usual this year.<\/p>\n

The US has subsidized Israel\u2019s war in Gaza to the tune of nearly $18bn over the last year, and is growing more deeply entangled as the conflict spills into the broader region. The Biden administration recently announced the deployment of 100 troops to Israel to man a missile defense system in anticipation of an escalation against Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost everyone that I\u2019ve talked to has at least cited what\u2019s happening in Gaza as a factor in causing them to rethink what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Galvin said. \u201cSome have actually said: \u2018I know that the airplane that I\u2019m doing maintenance on is delivering weaponry to Israel and so I feel complicit.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Metzler said she was raised to believe that Israel is \u201cthe nation of God\u2019s chosen people\u201d and \u201cterrorists were morally bankrupt people, who hate us because of who we are\u201d.<\/p>\n

When the war in Gaza started, the images of Palestinian civilians\u2019 suffering disturbed her, but it wasn\u2019t until Bushnell\u2019s self-immolation that she started reading about the history of the conflict and the role of the US government in it. \u201cA lot of the things I had been told about the US\u2019s role in the world were wrong\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

The war pushed Metzler to re-evaluate her time in the air force academy. She recalled laughing with her classmates as they watched footage of people running from a drone \u2013 she wasn\u2019t sure in which country. She felt ashamed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had come out of the academy glorifying the act of warfare,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a certain disregard for human life that you just have to have to be a member of the military.\u201d<\/p>\n

Metzler learned about the conscientious objector option when she met a group of veterans at a pro-Palestine protest at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she\u2019s completing a master\u2019s in aerospatial engineering.<\/p>\n

The defense department first introduced the objector application process in 1962. Tens of thousands obtained the status over the following decade, as the Vietnam war, and a mandatory draft, sparked a mass antiwar movement. But since then, the number of applicants has fallen drastically, with many members of the military unaware that the option even exists.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not common knowledge,\u201d said Metzler. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to advertise to the people that are working for you that there\u2019s a legal way for you to break your contract if you start to feel weird feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the few who embark on it, the process is rigorous and lengthy \u2013 Metzler\u2019s application filled 19 pages and she is still waiting for final word after filing it in July. Applicants must demonstrate that they are opposed to all wars and that their beliefs about military service changed after they enlisted. They have to interview with a chaplain and with a mental health professional before an investigating officer reviews their case and makes a recommendation to a committee that decides whether to grant the status. In the past, the military has approved about half the conscientious objector applications it received.<\/p>\n

Larry Hebert, another US senior airman, said the process was \u201cexcruciatingly long\u201d.<\/p>\n

A six-year veteran, Hebert reached what he called \u201ca moral break\u201d as horrific images of Palestinian children resembling his own filled his TikTok.<\/p>\n

During a leave from his service in Spain in March, he traveled to Washington and staged a hunger strike in front of the White House to highlight the plight of starving children in Gaza. He later applied for conscientious objector status, but as the wait became unbearable, he filed for voluntary separation, another avenue to legally end one\u2019s service. When that was rejected, he took off his uniform and refused to obey orders. He was disciplined and is currently waiting to be released on administrative grounds<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to get out,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be a part of any of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Bettancourt and Hebert [Ed. Note: The Venn diagram of “Shaving waivers” and “Suddenly finding God when war comes calling” is a perfect circle]<\/figcaption><\/figure>Juan Bettancourt, a US airman who also filed for conscientious objector status earlier this year, told the Guardian that many of the service members he has spoken with have fear of speaking out but are privately appalled by US support for Israel. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of deep-seated criticism and moral disgust at the complicity of our government in the genocide in Gaza,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Because dissenting voices are so rare, the military just tries to \u201cbrush them under the rug\u201d, Bettancourt added, noting that Bushnell\u2019s self-immolation was portrayed by the air force exclusively as a matter of \u201cmental health,\u201d Bettancourt said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A lot more of this rubbish at the source; The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n

My personal opinion is that conscientious objector shouldn’t be an option to get out of an\u00a0all volunteer <\/em>military. As with some of the very brave and motivated conscientious objectors I’ve highlighted before, Alvin York, Desmond Doss, Thomas Bennett, Joseph LaPointe (all earned the MoH), Jonathan Spicer (Navy Cross), and Wendell Meade (Dist. Service Cross)<\/a>, unarmed combat roles exist, so it should be a retrain\/reclass situation more than removal from service. The world needs ditch diggers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Wicked\u2019 Slapped with Trigger Warnings in U.K.: \u2018Green-Skinned Woman Is Mocked,\u2019 \u2018Talking Animals Are Persecuted\u2019 Did … Stupid people of the week<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":163678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,185,227,603],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teh-stoopid","category-crime","category-police","category-stupid-criminals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/163678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=163676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=163676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}