Daily Archives: February 23, 2017

Guccis "pineapples" were born out of some obvious origins. There was the 80s hair metal dude. The nebbish nerd. The Palm Springs grandma. The guy who likes Wes Anderson too much. Japanese paper parasols adorned with flora and fauna motifs in the beginning of the show transformed into oversized velvet lampshades at one point. Bamboo walking sticks became gold-tipped arrows that became a Godfather-esque scepter adorned with a white cat and a brass knuckles. Chinese peony prints decorated a qi pao in Look 9 by Look 112, it was on a ruffled blouse that looked more Swiss than Shanghai. This collection was as much about borrowing Oriental symbols (especially symbols associated with Western depictions of Orientalism, like Chinoiserie, rather than real Asian cultures) as it was about making the argument that parasols, peonies, and bamboo belong to the world, not just one culture. Plus, those elements have been an integral a part of Gucci's historic iconography and Michele has proven to be a master of tapping into Gucci's archive to present old tropes in new ways. It's worth mentioning that this has led to incredible financial and cultural success, even outperforming the cash-cow that was Hedi Slimane's Saint Laurent.

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Is There Space For Political Correctness In Fashion? Gucci Says Maybe Not - Refinery29

Oscar Duke visits albino Africans in Born Too White. Photograph: Sam Clarke/BBC/Dragonfly/Endemol Shine Group

Typically absorbing This World documentary, exploring the shameful plight of albino people in east Africa. Oscar Duke, adoctor previously featured in 24 Hours in A&E and an albino himself, visits Malawi and Tanzania, where albinos are not merely persecuted and shunned but frequently attacked and even killed. Duke meets east Africas albinos and illuminatingly, if enragingly their tormentors, including aman imprisoned for murder. Andrew Mueller

Trevor Phillips delivers another unhelpful polemic. He rehearses the canard that stopping minority groups being demonised has infringed ordinary peoples freedoms; trivial instances of uncertainty or ambiguity are held up as evidence that the effort to curb hate speech has overreached. This mythical suppression is then blamed, to the exclusion of other factors, for Brexit/Trump: he says we gave anti-immigrant views too little attention, not too much. Jack Seale

Madame Tussauds official memoir, as Professor Pamela Pilbeam says here, may be a load of tripe, but it was the product of a businesswoman who absolutely knew the value of a brand. As evinced by this profile, her real-life story, bound up with the French Reign of Terror, the Industrial Revolution and British royalty, was astonishing (and its amusing to discover her original Baker Street exhibit was considered a wee bit pricey, too). Ali Catterall

This new Dutch drama, based on a best-selling novel by Saskia Noort called rather less provocatively New Neighbours, finds writer Peter and pregnant girlfriend Eva embarking on a move to the suburbs. Their new place is opposite that of fitness instructor Rebecca and Steef, a sleazy, corrupt policeman. Soon tragedy strikes. Just because Peter is wearing a Wilco T-shirt, it doesnt make this any-the-less soapy. Its going for Scandi noir, but really misses the mark. Ben Arnold

The enduringly popular murder-mystery series concludes its sixth season. For those not immediately charmed by the scenery and the gentle pace, new lead Ardal OHanlon has proved to be a real incentive to watch, his bemused, quizzical air a good fit with the shows red-herring-strewn plotlines. In tonights finale, a mayoral candidate is murdered while casting his ballot. True to form, DI Jack Mooney discursively uncovers the grudges that all present had against him. John Robinson

Its not clear why this comedy drama by Tom Basden creator of Plebs, writer of Fresh Meat and one quarter of 00s sketch group Cowards is called Gap Year, seeing as nobody involved is on one. Instead, it follows two mates travelling around China over the summer and the people they meet there. Compared with Basdens previous work, this opener feels disappointingly pedestrian - barring every word uttered by annoying Brit Greg (the inimitable Tim Key), that is. Rachel Aroesti

Given that he played for Arsenals youth team and sang backing vocals on his dad Keiths era-defining ladsploitation anthem Vindaloo, Alfie Allen has modern football covered. But hes aware that many children of the Premier League are ignorant about what came before. This series sees him revisit a semi-forgotten world of mud, racism, modest wages and community centrality, and pondering what came after. Did we lose more than we gained? Phil Harrison

Marley & Me (David Frankel, 2008), 11pm, 5Star

Adapted from John Grogans book of memoirs, this winning canine comedy has Marley the cheeky golden labrador moving in with the Grogans (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston) when they relocate to Florida. Youll laugh, youll cry, youll pant and scratch in sympathy with Marleys antics, as a pretty serious account of a sometimes troubled marriage unfolds. Paul Howlett

Snooker Shootout Coverage of the opening days play at the single-frame tournament, which takes place at the Watford Colosseum. 11.45am, ITV4

Premier League darts Action from the fourth round of the season, including Michael van Gerwen v Adrian Lewis. 7pm, Sky Sports 1

Europa League football: Spurs v Gent Last 32 second-leg clash, held at Wembley Stadium. 7.30pm, BT Sport 2

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Thursday's best TV: Born Too White; Has Political Correctness Gone ... - The Guardian

Milo Yiannopoulos, now the former senior editor at right-wing Breitbart News after being forced to resign, has finally found the boundaries of free speech.

After President Trump and others fiercely defended Yiannopoulos' right to speak hatefully about blacks, Muslims, transgender people, and immigrants online and on college campuses, the provocative writer and commentator finally went too far.

In a video released online by the Reagan Battalion, a conservative group, Yiannopoulos condoned sexual relations between men and 13-year-old boys, and joked about Roman Catholic priests and pedophilia. His words not only cost him his job at Breitbart. They also cost him an invitation to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). In addition, Simon & Schuster will not release his book, Dangerous.

In short, Yiannopoulos has been brought low by his own twisted comments.

Which brings me to my point. Limiting one's hate speech is not "political correctness," as some would have us believe. No, limiting hate speech is common decency. That's the price we all should pay for the freedoms we're afforded. But too many on both sides of the aisle have forgotten that simple truth.

We have become a culture where the kind of outlandish behavior that used to bring swift rebuke can lead to fame and fortune. People like Yiannopoulos, a gay man who should have long ago been censured by his own LGBT community for his verbal attacks on transgenderpeople, was allowed to speak hatefully about everyone who was not like himself. As long as his antics entertained, no one, it seems, had the courage to stop him.

Twitter tried. In a nod to common decency, the social media platform banned Yiannopoulos for his relentless trolling of blacks, Muslims, immigrants, and others. Liberals and some conservatives also raised alarms about Yiannopoulos' hate-filled commentary.

But as the young writer and commentator ratcheted up his hate speech to levels that prompted protests at universities where he was invited to speak, his fame only grew.

President Trump, via Twitter, threatened to yank federal funding from universities that would not allow Yiannopoulos to appear. Former Brietbart publisher and current White House Chief strategist Steve Bannon, who counted Yiannopoulos among his protgs, was also a staunch defender. Simon & Schuster, a major publisher, rewarded Yiannopoulos' hate speech with a six-figure book deal.

Then the video from a radio program appeared, and it all came crashing down.

"No, no, no," Yiannopoulos says on the tape. "You're misunderstanding what 'pedophilia' means. Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to somebody 13-years-old who is sexually mature. Pedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty."

In the video, he goes on to call the idea of consent "arbitrary and oppressive" before crediting a Catholic priest with teaching him about sex.

The negative response to Yiannopoulis' comments was swift and sure, but in my view, they were also hypocritical.

We can't be a society in which everything that everyone says or does is OK, and then recoil when someone crosses a line no one bothered to define.

We elected a reality-show star as president even after he bragged on tape about grabbing women's genitals without their permission, called Mexican undocumented immigrants rapists and criminals, and made disparaging comments about blacks, Muslims, immigrants, and refugees.

Now those who were silent during the campaign are up in arms when the president's executive orders reveal that what he showed us on the campaign trail was real.

But the hypocrisy does not only exist on the right. It exists on the left as well.

We elevate people who appear in sex tapes to stardom and call it shaming if anyone dares to say anything about it. We tell ourselves it's OK to use one drug and then wonder why we are in the midst of an unwieldy epidemic when it comes to another drug.

We run to airports to defend the rights of refugees, but refuse to condemn police officers who unjustly take the lives of unarmed black and brown people on our streets.

In other words, Milo Yiannopoulos is not an aberration in our society. He is rapidly becoming the norm.

We can't pretend to be outraged when he pushes beyond boundaries we never set. We can't now be offended when we laughed at his previous stunts. We can't condemn his abhorrent behavior when we helped to create him.

We empowered Yiannopoulos by creating a society in which the lines are invisible. Then we pounced on him when he crossed them.

Freedom of speech is not a pass to act without shame, to speak without limits, or to move without consequences, because freedom of speech is not free. It comes with a cost that was perhaps too steep for Milo Yiannopoulos to pay.

It costs us just a bit of common decency.

Trump's America will be on vivid display at annual conservative gathering Feb 22 - 9:01 AM

Milo Yiannopoulos apologizes for remarks, quits Breitbart Feb 21 - 6:12 PM

Conservative group cancels speech by Yiannopoulos Feb 20 - 9:34 PM

Published: February 22, 2017 9:52 AM EST | Updated: February 22, 2017 11:29 AM EST The Philadelphia Inquirer

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Jones: It's not political correctness, just common decency - Philly.com

In the madhouse built by our ruling elite, supported by progressive cheerleaders, we are literally paying our enemies to wage their brutal war against our civilisation.

That is the only conclusion to draw from the outrageous case of Jamal al-Harith, sometimes known as Abu Zakariya al-Britani, a Muslim convert and Islamic State fighter from Britain who was reported this week to have blown himself up in a suicide attack on an Iraqi army base near Mosul.

Al-Harith, previously known as Ronnie Fiddler before his conversion to Islam, was not just a terrorist but also the recipient of a reported 1million from the British taxpayer.

GETTY/UNIVERSAL

This vast sum was handed to him by our supine politicians as so-called compensation for alleged mistreatment while he was held in the US detention camp of Guantanamo Bay, having been arrested in 2001 by US forces as a suspected Taliban sympathiser.

The Islamists do not respect us for our self-abasement

Leo McKinstry

Predictably he denied the charge, claiming that he had merely been backpacking in Pakistan, the worldrenowned tourist destination.

More eager to trumpet its liberal virtue than to fight extremism the Labour government lobbied hard for his release, which soon took place in 2004.

When he was freed, along with several other Guantanamo detainees from Britain, the home secretary David Blunkett grandly declared that no one who is returned will be a threat to the security of the British people.

That empty boast now lies flattened by al-Hariths Mosul car bomb. But in this depressing saga our political leaders were as disdainful of the public purse as they were of national security.

For al-Harith was just one of several winners from the compensation racket. Altogether 16 people from Britain received handouts after spells in Guantanamo, with the total sum estimated to be 20million.

Yesterday the press carried pictures of al-Harith grinning widely and he had every reason for his self-satisfaction.

He had scooped the jackpot in the government-sponsored jihadi version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

GETTY

In a morally self-confident society, terrorists and traitors are punished. But our sick system means that people such as him are lavishly rewarded.

Hatred of our values is the cue for riches. Yet the Islamists do not respect us for our self-abasement. They despise our gullibility dressed up as compassion and our cowardice masquerading as tolerance.

There is a revealing contrast between the official generosity towards former Guantanamo detainees and the more miserly approach towards our veterans wounded in the fight against militant Islam.

Such heroes include inspirational paratrooper Ben Parkinson, who suffered devastating injuries to his legs and head while serving in Afghanistan in 2006 but received barely half the compensation that was dished out to al-Harith.

GETTY

Lenin famously described his Western supporters as useful idiots and that term certainly applies to the enablers of this fiasco.

A large part of the guilt belongs to Tony Blairs Labour government, which liked to blather about its belief in the war on terror but failed so pathetically to support the Americans over Guantanamo, which has been a vital facility in that fight.

Labours eagerness to side with al-Harith belonged to the same doctrinaire, anti-British mindset that opened the floodgates on immigration, imposed cultural diversity and introduced the misnamed human rights regime.

But Blair and his ministers were also backed by a host of other elements. One was the gang of lawyers posing as the champions of freedom in order to milk the taxpayer.

Another was the civil rights lobby led by the sanctimonious Shami Chakrabarti of the pressure group Liberty, who built a public career out of shrieking against anti-terrorist crackdowns before she became one of Jeremy Corbyns acolytes.

Typically, when al-Harith was released in 2004, she said she was delighted, even though the American authorities had said, with full justification as it turns out, that he was a known Al Qaeda operative who represented a threat to the USA, its interests and its allies.

Just as offensive were the brigade of Muslim organisations such as the notorious Cage, which continually undermined attempts to tackle extremism by wailing about Islamophobia.

It is absurd that this cynical, destructive brigade should have been allowed such influence. The voice that should really count in the fight against our enemies is that of the security forces.

Unlike the lobbyists and the politicians their entire agenda is to protect the public. They know the tools they need and the action required.

Unlike the ideologues who are obsessed with the concept of Muslim victimhood they recognise that militant Islam is a very real menace to our way of life.

GETTY

The new US President Trump also recognises this. That is why he and his new Attorney General Jeff Sessions are determined to keep Guantanamo Bay open as they strengthen Americas counter-terrorism policy.

Inevitably Trumps policy, which overturns President Obamas executive order to close the camp, has been opposed by lawyers and liberal campaigners.

But the case of al-Harith provides him with powerful ammunition to maintain this military prison.

Trump has been derided by smug European sophisticates for his declaration that he will put America first.

But we need far more of that kind of patriotism in Europe rather than the current anarchy of open borders, social breakdown and cultural cringing.

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Political correctness is to blame for terrorist payout, says Leo McKinstry - Express.co.uk