Category Archives: Political Correctness

Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 5, 2023

By Mike London mike.london@salisburypost.com

LANDIS South Rowan head football coach Chris Walsh was out walking the dog when a lady spied his Raider T-shirt and let him know South had zero chance of beating her A.L. Brown Wonders.

She wasnt worried about being diplomatic. She wasnt worried about political correctness. She said what was on her mind.

Were playing yall this year and yall are gonna get beat, she told Walsh cheerfully.

Im sure she had no idea who I was, but she saw my shirt, so she had to say something, Walsh said with a laugh. Its all cool. It let me know theres interest out there in the community. People are jazzed about having a new head football coach in Kannapolis (Justin Hardin). People are jazzed about South Rowan and A.L. Brown playing each other again in football. A.L. Brown has a good football team every year, but thats OK. We play a lot of good football teams. This is a game that means a lot to the community, and we should play em. We need to play em.

The game is scheduled for Sept. 8. You never know. South may be 2-0 (plus one open date) when that meeting occurs.

The schools, neighbors who are 6.6 miles apart, havent met in a regular season game since 2016. The score of that 2016 encounter Wonders 65, Raiders 7 tells you why they havent met lately. It was hard to call it a rivalry at that point. It was getting hard to call it a good way to spend a Friday night.

But there was a time when the South-A.L. Brown game was big in Kannapolis and there was a time when the game meant everything to South Rowan. Back in the early 1980s, the programs actually played three straight overtime games. They both were really good.

Those games were classic battles between the sons of men and women who worked together in the mills, attended the same churches and ran into each at the barber shops, beauty parlors and restaurants.

There are football fans in Landis, China Grove and Enochville who cant name the first three presidents of the United States, but they can tell you the scores of all eight games over the years in which South, almost always the underdog, managed to knock off the Wonders.

Except for me and Coach (Dean) Mullinax, who went to A.L. Brown, the guys on our coaching staff now are South graduates and they have their great memories from those games, Walsh said. Our young guys have watched film of past South-A.L. Brown games. Their eyes get big when they see how many people are in the crowd. How could you not want to play in high school football games like that?

When Walsh was hired in May 2021, he asked what he could do to help the Raiders re-connect with the fan base. The suggestions he heard most frequently were a return to the traditional South helmet and getting the Wonders back on the schedule.

The helmet we were able to handle right away, Walsh said. The schedule took a little longer, but now that game is back.

Walsh describes himself as an eternal optimist, but when he took command at South, he promised no quick solutions, just sweat and blood and a gradual growing process. South went 1-9 in 2021. South went 1-9 again in 2022.

When Walsh was a first-year coach at South, he was joined by a strong freshman class that Raider fans pinned their future hopes on.

A few members of the Class of 2025 took their lumps as varsity freshmen. Quite a few more learned the ropes as varsity sophomores.

Now they are all on the varsity squad as juniors. That one big class accounts for more than 40 percent of the players in Souths program.

Juniors are older, wiser, bigger and stronger than sophomores. So theres not much doubt South will be better than it was in 2021 and 2022. How much better remains to be seen, but there are reasons to believe things are going in the right direction.

We have a color-coded depth chart on the wall, with green for seniors, yellow for juniors, red for sophomores, Walsh said. Last year, the board was just about all red. Now its yellow and green. Practice has been awesome so far, and I do believe that what were doing is working. The coaches are excited. The players are excited. I realize that outside the program expectations for South may not be high and I know well be picked to finish well down in the conference race. But we have guys now who have won football games. Theyve won middle school games and theyve won jayvee games. They expect to win varsity games, and were going to hold them to a high standard and high expectations.

Whats happened to South football?

For one thing, Carson opened five miles away in 2006, fragmenting the southern Rowan talent pool.

Over the last 13 seasons, South is 22-113 in football, winning roughly one of every six games. Ten of those 22 wins came in the four years that South played in the 2A Central Carolina Conference. There were a few nights in the CCC where South had the athletic advantage, but there havent been any of those nights in the SPC.

Walsh knows what the record books says. He has become a student of South football history since he was hired. He knows that winning three or four games this season would be a significant breakthrough. He knows South hasnt won more than three in a season since it won nine in 2009.

How many games we will win, I dont know, Walsh said. I do know well be improved. I do know well be more competitive. We should be in more games and we should have a chance to win more games. But we play in a league (3A South Piedmont Conference) that is a very underrated football conference, and now you add a very strong Robinson team to that league. There are no easy teams in the SPC.

Walsh said Souths football numbers are in the low 70s, which is a reasonable turnout for a school expected to have about 930 students. Not counting Lake Norman Charter, which doesnt compete in SPC football, South and Concord will be the SPCs smallest schools. While it is moving up from the 2A ranks by request, Robinson will fall in the middle of the SPC as far as student population. Central Cabarrus is the largest SPC school, by quite a bit.

Walsh will have an experienced quarterback, which is critical.

A year ago at this time, Brooks Overcash was coming off a devastating injury and competing for a varsity position. Now Overcash is entrenched as Souths starting QB as he heads into his junior year. He had a scintillating finish to the 2022 season, throwing for 294 yards and 295 yards the last two weeks. He broke a long-standing school record for passing yards in a game. Then he broke his own record.

At the start of last season Brooks was understandably nervous, Walsh said. But theres been a growing process, and he puts in the work. Now hes gotten a lot stronger and hes got the arm to get the ball down the field. He ran track but he still got in some football throws in the spring. Hes confident. He knows hes our guy. Hell be asked to lead the offense.

Also keep an eye on the Richards brothers.

Senior Landon Richards will be the Raiders top running back. Junior Conner Richards will be the middle linebacker.

Conner is a stocky kid who likes contact, Walsh said. He could make 100 tackles. Hes a tough, old-school linebacker. We like to say that if he had another 6 inches, hed be Brian Urlacher.

Richards will be a leader for the defense, which is being guided by coordinator Ronnie Riddle. Defensive assistants include Andrew Deal and Mullinax.

Coach Mullinax is our ROTC teacher and Coach Deal is chief of police, Walsh said. Our defense will have some toughness.

Deals late father, Larry, was Souths head coach for many winning seasons in the 1980s and 1990s, including a school-record 11 wins in 1983.

Only time will tell if the Raiders can ever recapture glory days like that, but Walsh is giving it his best shot.

South will scrimmage North Rowan in the Rowan County Jamboree at Carson at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 11.

South will host Monroes Union Academy on opening night. on Aug. 18.

Our first two games are against Union Academy and South Stanly, Walsh said. Sometimes its good to break the mold and go out and play teams that your kids know nothing about. They play enough games against schools where they know every guys name and number.

Season previews for all the Rowan County schools and A.L. Brown will be coming up in the Post as opening night approaches.

Originally posted here:

High school football: Walsh confident South is making progress ... - Salisbury Post

Let me dispense with any political correctness and say it loud and clearly that, any attempt to invade Niger Republic by a Nigerian led ECOWAS Army in the guise of safeguarding democracy, will be a declaration of war on northern Nigeria and its people because we are the ones that will bear the full brunt of this misguided war. We in the region will not support any act of unprovoked aggression against Niger Republic under any pretense.

We in the north are tired of wars, we have been at war with Boko Haram for 14 years and for 9 years with Bandits and kidnappers. Thousands of our people continue to be killed and kidnapped while millions have been displaced from their ancestral homes, including the 300,000 that have sought refuge as IDPs in Niger Republic. Our economy, education, infrastructure and social fabrique have all been devastated. How can we support any foreign war when our house is on fire?

At a time when Nigeria is facing the worst insecurity of our lifetime with nauseating corruption, bad governance, youth unemployment and drug abuse, discontent of the citizenry, excruciating poverty brought about by chaotic economic policies, a military invasion of Niger Republic will be reckless with grave consequences beyond the subregion.

Instead of starting a new war, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should channel all his energy on finding ways to stop the bloodshed in our land by ending the wars on Boko Haram and Banditry as soon as possible, reconcile warring communities, resettle all IDPs and rebuild our communities and the regions economy.

Niger Republic is a landlocked country with a total area of 1,267,000 km. Northern Nigeria shares with it a vast 1,100km long border stretching along Nigerias entire Northwesterly to the Northeasterly border. The seven northern states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe, and Borno share a common religious, cultural and ethnic (Zabarmawas, Hausas, Fulanis and Kanuris) heritage with their kinsmen in Niger.

The conditions that led to the recent pandemic of military coups in the ECOWAS subregion are unfortunately present in all 15 member countries. Military coups though unacceptable and retrogressive, will continue to be a looming danger to democratic governments in the region as long as the political class continue to ignore the sufferings of their people and keep on perpetuating corruption, bad governance, flawed electoral processes, impunity that push their people deeper into poverty, hopelessness and worsening insecurity.

The Coup in Niger resulted from ethnic and geopolitical power play. The ethnic dimension is that the Zabarmawas (Zarmas) who are the second largest ethnic group (22%) after the Hausas (53%), have always dominated the military and power since independence in 1960. Military coups mostly happen each time anyone from the other ethnic groups (Hausa, Fulani, Touareg or Arab) are in power. Mohammed Bazoum is an Arab ethnic group (0.4%).

Resource control and proxy war between Russia and NATO are the geopolitical factors that are in play here. Niger is the world's seventh-biggest producer of uranium which is widely used for nuclear energy radiation, cancer therapy and in nuclear weapons.

In spite of its rich mineral resources, Niger remains one of the poorest countries in the world, it has been plagued by recurrent droughts, worsening climate change and the presence of terrorist groups such as Boko Haram. France has been exploiting the countrys rich mineral resources with little or no benefit to the country or its people.

Another natural resource in play is Nigerian Gas which is to be transported through the Trans Sahara Gas pipeline from Warri, Nigeria, and end in Hassi RMel, Algeria, where it would connect to existing pipelines leading to Europe. Europe sees this project as a potential opportunity to diversify its gas sources as Russias war in Ukraine continues.

America and its NATO partners are unsettled by Russias inroad into Africa through the Wagner Group which is already deployed to African countries like Libya, Sudan, Mozambique, Madagascar, Central African Republic, and Mali, focusing principally on protecting the ruling elites and critical infrastructures. As payment, Wagners boss Prigozhin receives exclusive rights to mining minerals such as Gold.

The ECOWAS has literally declared war on Niger Republic by imposing biting economic sanctions on a country heavily dependent on foreign aid, it has ordered closure of borders with member states and imposed a no-flight zone hoping to curb the juntas influence and hinder any potential allies from providing aerial support. The junta has also been given a weeks ultimatum starting from July 31, 2022 to vacate power or face military action.

Nigeria has unilaterally terminated the treaty between the 2 countries signed in the 60s for Nigeria to provide electricity to Niger in exchange that it will not obstruct the flow of water to the countrys hydroelectric Dams in Jebba, Kainji. This treaty has ensured that Nigeria supplied 70% Nigers electricity. Today, Niamey, the capital city is in darkness.

While many leaders of African Francophone countries are severing ties with their colonial masters France, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his desperate desire to gain international legitimacy for his government, is blindly dragging Nigeria into the dangerous waters of the proxy war between Russia and NATO without consulting with or seeking the consent of the people or their elected representatives.

SUGGESTIONS

1. ECOWAS should take off the table any threat of military action against Niger Republic because it will not achieve the desired goal.

2. Embark on a sincere, well thought through diplomatic option.

3. Nigeriens should be allowed and supported to decide what they want for themselves.

4. The Military Junta should be pressured to give clear time of transition back to democratic rule as soon as possible.

5. Nigeria should restore electricity supply to Niger Republic in accordance with the bilateral agreement.

6. Foreign Aid which accounts for 40% of Nigers annual budget should be restored to prevent it from falling into Russias embrace.

7. The Trans Sahara Gas Pipeline Project should continue as contractually agreed.

8. ECOWAS should insist on good governance, reduction in corruption and the respect for constituted institutions among member nations.

7. Finally, I call on all men and women of goodwill particularly northern elders, traditional rulers, clerics, academics, the media, elected representatives, Labour organizations, businesses leaders, student unions, women organizations and civil society organizations to say no to Nigeria being dragged into this proxy war between Russia and NATO.

Usman Yusuf is a Professor of Haematology-Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation.

Continue reading here:

War On Niger Republic Will Be War On Northern Nigeria, By Prof ... - SaharaReporters.com

Puzzle lovers, rejoice: Reason is now publishing a weekly crossword. The first one is available here.

"Puzzles are having a moment," says Stella Zawistowski, Reason's new crossword constructor. "Just in the last five years, a lot of markets have started to have a crossword for the first time or are expanding their offerings."

Zawistowski is a professional puzzle solver herself and ranks among the world's fastest finishers of crosswords.

"I've been solving puzzles for well over two decades," she says. "A conservative guess is I have solved at least 30,000 crosswords in my lifetime. I do 61 a week."

Her own puzzles have appeared in The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. But Zawistowski has long believed that Reason should run its own puzzles.

"There aren't a lot of puzzles with a pro-capitalism, profree market voice out there," she says.

Indeed, broader debates about political correctness and wokeness-run-amok have not left the crossword world alone. In January 2022, Kotaku noted that "at a time when debates about language anchor political discourse and incorrect pronouns spark vicious attacks, the fact that culture wars are being played out in crossword puzzles makes sense."

"Puzzle debates represent a microcosm of larger cultural conflicts surrounding race, class, and gender," wrote Kotaku. "Questions arise: should dictators appear in crosswords? Serial killers? What about Donald Trump? Or Hitler? Are terms like 'hag' okay?"

An August 2020 article in Time, "The Crossword Revolution Is Upon Us," detailed efforts by crossword editors to make the puzzles more "inclusive."

Choice is one of the blessings of liberty, and people should be free to enjoy whatever crosswords best suit their interests. But now, at last, there's one that caters to the libertarian puzzle solver.

"Until today, there was no such thing as a free marketfocused crossword puzzle," Zawistowski says. "I'm very excited."

Go here to see the original:

Introducing the Reason Crossword, a Weekly Puzzle for Libertarians - Reason

Clearly, to tolerate, or respect, people is not the same as to tolerate all their attitudes, beliefs and ideas. Its easy to see how the same can be said about conduct: to be tolerant of a person is different from being tolerant of all their behaviours, especially if damaging to others or lawless. Obviously, restraining someone from engaging in a criminal act does not violate any meaningful standard of tolerance.

Yet it has become a norm for politicians, academics and educators alike to accuse others of intolerance due to mere disagreement on a particular subject. When disagreement is definitionally removed as a key component of tolerance, disagreement itself becomes unacceptable. In that case, no idea or thought can ever be confronted, regardless of how graciously, without invoking a charge of civil offence or hate crime. Any difference in views becomes equated to intolerance or even hatred. This is, sadly, a widespread practice.

With a redefinition a near upending of tolerance, the new normal has become to approve of, embrace or even promote potentially anything, without judgment. One can see how this had to happen for relativism to continue on its course. If tolerance means to have respect for people while practicing discernment and moral judgment, this definition has to go to facilitate the relativistic mindset.

Political Correctnessand Onward to Wokism

Since their pompous entry into university classrooms, relativism and tolerance were turned into ideological weapons through the introduction of yet another related concept, a rival of any intellectual discourse, political correctness (PC) and, more recently, an even more radical descendent.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, PC means conformity to prevailing liberal or radical opinion, in particular by carefully avoiding forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against. To avoid expressing disagreement is essentially the same as to show tolerance. Hence, PC is akin to tolerance, yet not of anyopinion or behaviour one may disagree with; instead, it is externally imposed tolerance towards a designatedview.

Beckwith and Koukl call PC an offspring of cultural relativism. Indeed, if no culture has any superiority in advancing the knowledge of truth, then all opinions become reduced to what a majority (or, in some instances, a ruling elite or a determined opinion-forming minority) in a given culture perceives as correct/incorrect and just/unjust. In this case truth, including moral truth, becomes subordinate to dominant societal norms, varying from society to society and in some cases within a society.

This is in essence what Barbara Herrnstein-Smith, author of Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory, conveyed by saying, all value is radically contingent, being neither a fixed attribute, an inherent quality, or an objective property of things. Further, there is no knowledge, no standard, no choice that is objectiveEven Homer is a product of a specific culture, and it is possible to imagine cultures in which Homer would not be very interesting. Herrnstein-Smith does not seem to have considered the possibility that a culture which cannot appreciate Homer is deficient in some way, because Homer isnt the problem.

Indeed, if discussion of absolute truth was revolving merely around ones literary preferences, Herrnstein-Smiths statement would not be as horrifying. But imagine it equally applied to societally agreed-upon anti-Semitism, child sacrifice or euthanasia. At the end of the day, moral assessment of these matters, along with all others, is limited to an individual culture, isnt it? Herrnstein-Smith would evidently have agreed.

Read the original:

From Relativism to Wokism: A Path of Confusion, Fallacy and Self ... - C2C Journal

Heres a question.

Why are the people who complain the loudest about political correctness and the cancel culture among the first to scream when someone disagrees with them or expresses a contrary opinion?

The furor over country singer Jason Aldeans Try That in a Small Town song and video is but the latest example.

Both the tune and the video are a messy mishmash of MAGA-style chest-thumping, assertions of victimhood that somehow are supposed to justify violence and vigilantism. Logically and factually, the song and its pairings in the video with incendiary images make about as much sense as an old Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon.

The lyrics threaten dire retribution for those who:

Cuss out a cop, spit in his face

Stomp on the flag and light it up

Yeah, ya think youre tough.

If anything, the video is less subtle. Its filled with images from, one presumes, Black Lives Matter protests, intercut with footage of Aldean and his band lip-syncing before a courthouse festooned with a giant American flag.

The courthouse, it turns out, is one from which a Black man was lynched in 1927.

Thats not surprising. The MAGA crowds understanding of history seems to have been gleaned from 1940s comic strips and old movie serials.

Curiously, both the song and the video ignore one high-profile instance of police officers being disrespected, assaulted and attackedthe Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol that escalated quickly into a riot and then an insurrection.

Maybe thats because many of those who ransacked the temple of American democracy were from small townsand embraced the values celebrated in the song and video.

But then, the purpose of the song wasnt to persuade.

It was to inflame.

Which is what it has done.

Country Music Television CMT has pulled the video from its rotation, prompting the easily wounded MAGA crowd to whine that theyre being persecuted. They even say Aldean is being censored.

They arent.

And he isnt.

The people who run CMT have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else. That means they can choose to say what they wish and choose not to say things they dont wish to say.

If theirs was a completely open forum, theyd be playing rap or soul and not limiting their offerings to endless and often nasal celebrations of pickup trucks, lost loves and illusory vanishing lifestyles.

CMT likely made the decision to drop Try That in a Small Town from the playlist because encouraging people to settle political differences by grabbing grandpas gun wouldnt advance the brand or the business plan.

The MAGA mob has responded by yelling they will give CMT the Bud Light treatment.

By that, they mean that theyll punish CMT by trying to hurt its sales and perhaps even drive it out of business. These same MAGA voices were so upset by a rainbow-themed can of beer itself an expression, somewhat like a song that they initiated a national boycott and took to shooting up cases of the brew.

Senses of irony and self-awareness apparently are beyond the capacities of these folks.

Whats dumbfounding about this dustup is its complete disconnection from reality.

No one has suppressed Aldeans noxious earworm. If anything, hes likely to sell more copies because hes made himself the latest poster boy for the ongoing MAGA self-pity party. Hell be able to feel sorry for himself all the way to the bank.

No, the misfortune here is not that a country stars management team figured out a slick hustle to elevate his act from the pack for a moment.

Rather the greater harm is that this song continues and reinforces the slur that people in small towns are simple folk with primitive moral compasses, souls untroubled by racial injustice, gun violence or the travails of others.

The fact is that life in a small town is just as complex as it is in the biggest metropolis on the planet. The people who live in small towns wrestle with the same demons and seek the counsel of the same better angels of their nature that we all do.

Treating people who live outside cities as fully functioning human beings capable of subtle reasonings and conflicted feelings and not as stick figures is long overdue.

Showing respect for people because theyre people?

Try that in a small town.

John Krull is director of Franklin Colleges Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. The views expressed are those of the author only and should not be attributed to Franklin College. Send comments to [emailprotected].

The rest is here:

John Krull: Try this in a small town - Pendleton Times-Post

By Vincent Czyz

Poe Ballantine is often compared to Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac. Id say hes closer to the former than the latter, but hes more polished than either and funnier than both put together.

Rodney Kills at Night by Poe Ballantine. Independently published, 205 pages, $9.99.

Fate can be described as a circle, but then again, so can a CHEESEBURGER [all caps his]

Rodney Kills at Night

Poe Ballantine? Is that a real name? (No.) Wheres he from anyway? Born in Denver, Colorado, he grew up in San Diego, and after years of drifting across the US, staying weeks to months in one town or city or another, he settled in Chadron, Nebraska. Nebraska? Are you kidding me? he writes in his memoir/noir mashup, Love & Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere. Most people would live in an outhouse in Bangladesh before they would voluntarily move to Nebraska. (If the mystery of how he ended up in Chadron is too much for you, pick up the book; its worthwhile reading and, as a bonus, the audio version is narrated by Ballantine.) If hes so good, why havent I ever heard of him? A lot of superb authors, more than ever before Id wager, go unrecognized by the literary-industrial complex and populate the margins i.e., the small presses and lesser-known literary magazines with their work.

Ballantines published some 13 books (Goodreads puts the number at 20, but theres some double counting), including six essay collections, six novels, and a short story collection. Ive read four, two of them twice. My first book-length encounter of the Ballantine kind was with 501 Minutes to Christ. The eponymous essay was included in Best American Essays 2006 and clearly belonged there. So did several of the other essays; it must an oversight on someones part that theyre not. Since Ballantine has a penchant for writing about his adventures and mishaps on the road, eccentric characters (many of whom hes actually met), far-flung towns Ballantine imagines Rod Serling describing, struggles with addiction (Methamphetamine for Dummies in 501 Minutes may be his finest hour in nonfiction), hes often compared to Bukowski and Kerouac. Id say hes closer to the former than the latter, but hes more polished than either and funnier than both put together.

Rodney Kills at Night, published in November of last year, traces an unlikely trajectory that joins Las Vegas and the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota (Chadron, Ballantine notes on the back cover, is 26 miles from Pine Ridge). Despite the ominous-sounding title, the novel doesnt recount the gruesome exploits of a Hannibal Lecter knockoff. The last three words are simply an Anglicized surname (think Kevin Dances With Wolves). While its true Rodney is an adept hunter, not necessarily nocturnal, the name comes to be something of a double entendre (youll see).

Another of Ballantines oddball outcasts, Rodney lives on the rez in a trailer home that leaned like a cardboard box in the rain and was surrounded by five stripped Pontiacs, hoods up in surrender. Pine Ridge, as you may have surmised, is not on any magazines list of Most Desirable Places to Live, particularly not in the early 1980s, when the novel takes place. The Sioux generally inhabit lopsided shacks or dilapidated mobile homes like Rodneys and rarely have the luxury of indoor plumbing or electricity.

Rodney, however, doesnt just want off the rez; he fantasizes about becoming a stand-up comedian. The barriers are manifold, not least among them the fact that there were more ducks on the moon than Indian comics. In fact, There were no Indian anything except revolutionaries, sidekicks, powwow dancers, and Buffy Saint-Marie. And then theres white bias, which the narrator sums up this way: Rodney was an Indian, you see, unreliable, shiftless, sinister, probably drunk. His people were arrogant, volatile, belligerent, stubborn.

Rodneys fifth stepfather, Kimo, is a a mixed-blood sellout who, as an underling of infamous tribal chairman Dick Wilson, had made a lot of money terrorizing innocent people and stealing government funds. (For more about Wilson, his goons, and the evils of life on the Sioux reservations, get hold of Lakota Woman, an eye-opening memoir by Mary Brave Bird). Rodney punches out Kimo during an argument, accidentally killing him, but decides against turning himself in: The government was content with Indians killing each other or Indians dying by their own hand but kill one of theirs, a toka [mixed-blood] loudmouth and a friend of Dick Wilson and it was like dialing up the Federal Bureau of Investigation yourself.

Seizing his chance to put the rez in his rear-view, Rodney thumbs his way to Las Vegas, mugs drunken gamblers to pay his bills, takes his shot at stand-up comedy with a bunch of other amateurs, tanks miserably, gets beaten to a pulp by a gang of Mexicans whose turf he encroached on, and is taken in by Orianna, a biracial transplant from Wales. Once a singer, Ori was caught in the disastrous 1980 MGM fire and so badly burned that shes become an invalid. She has a great heart, however, and she and Rodney connect on a level that, depending on the metaphysical school you belong to, might be called spiritual, platonic, or plain old human.

Rodney goes on gathering material for his act and showing up on amateur night until he develops something of a following. Still fearful hell be nabbed by the cops, he makes a habit of altering his appearance, eventually cutting his hair and dying it blond while performing under one assumed name after another. Sure enough, just when hes hitting the big timea tv spot no lesshis past catches up with him, and hes suddenly the most wanted man in Vegas.

Writer Poe Ballantine. Photo: Dave Jannetta

Theres a lot to admire in this novel, including the way Ballantine handles issues facing the Sioux without resorting to self-righteous whining or a screed marinated in political correctness. Instead, Rodney works his grievances into his stand-up routine, blunting them with humor.

I admit I was somewhat put off by his interim career choice (rolling drunks) and the way Rodney soothes his complaining conscience (Its not stealing if your survival depends upon it.), but he doesnt lose too much sympathy as a character, partly because the Mexican gang administers a beat-down worthy of any inner city, but also because theres something else going on. Throughout the novel Rodney is scrupulous about refusing handouts even a free meal when hes famished a commentary on Lakota (Sioux) mentality: they are, as Ballantine reminds us, a warrior people, and stalking drunks might indeed seem more honorable to them than a fast-food windfall.

Midnight muggings aside, I enjoyed this novel for its quirkiness. For its accurate portrayal of the Lakota (dont take my word for it; Ballantine got the imprimatur of people like Lee the Bullrider). I enjoyed it for its humor, present both in Rodneys act and his daily interactions. For its unsentimental take on Oris personal disaster, the ruin the reservation system has made of the Lakota and Rodney, on life in general. Moreover, the characters are engaging company, and in the end, while the novels plot moves along at a good clip, this is a character-driven book. Finally, I enjoyed the writing, which is polished, concise, and quietly lyrical.

Does Rodney eventually give those flatfoots the slip? Does it matter? As Mr. Kills at Night reminds us, a happy ending is just a story cut short.

Vincent Czyz is the author of Adrift in a Vanishing City, a collection of short fiction that was awarded the Eric Hoffer Award for Best in Small Press; The Christos Mosaic, a novel; and The Three Veils of Ibn Oraybi, a novella. He is the recipient of two fellowships from the NJ Council on the Arts, the W. Faulkner-W. Wisdom Prize for Short Fiction, and the Truman Capote Fellowship at Rutgers University. His work has appeared in many publications, including New England Review, Shenandoah, AGNI, Massachusetts Review, Georgetown Review, Tin House, Tampa Review, Boston Review, and Copper Nickel.

Read the original here:

Book Review: "Rodney Kills At Night" -- Engaging Company - artsfuse.org

Aerial photo taken on Aug 12, 2020 shows a China-Europe freight train leaving for Milan, Italy from the Xinzhu Railway Station in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

Italy made an "improvised and atrocious" decision in joining the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) four years ago, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said in an interview published on Sunday, claiming the initiative had done little to boost Italy's exports. This is believed to be the strongest message from the Italian government on the country's future in the BRI framework.

In contrary to Crosetto's assertion, Italy's export to China surged by 58 percent year-on-year in the first five months of this year. Admittedly, Italy's participation in the BRI, as Crosetto claimed, has increased Chinese exports to the country. But this is not bad news for Rome. Cost-efficient products from China mean Italians have more options in consumption, and thus can alleviate the impacts of inflation on local people.

The Italian government should not make the mistake to regard that the BRI benefits China in a unilateral fashion, Marco Donati, deputy general manager of the China Ocean Shipping Company in Italy said in an interview with Xinhua, adding that his country should be "smart enough" use the BRI to make the Italian market more competitive.

Since the signing of the BRI memorandum of understanding in 2019, both China and Italy have achieved numerous tangible outcomes in trade, economy and business cooperation. Under the BRI framework, Italian products can reach the Chinese market known for its huge consumption potentiality in a smoother and faster way. The improvement in logistics is vital for Italy to be more competitive in the international market. In addition, the BRI means more opportunities for small and medium-sized private firms in Italy.

But despite the fruitful results, the Italian government has, on several occasions, signaled its intention to exit the initiative. It is worth noting that Crosetto made the remarks just days after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met US President Joe Biden in the White House. Apparently, Italy's shifted stance on BRI is, to a large extent, a result of US pressure.

Since its decision to join the BRI, the Italian government has been bombarded by Washington. The New York Times bluntly criticized Italy as a "Trojan Horse," "allowing China's economic and potentially military and political expansion to reach into the heart of Europe." As the only G7 member in the BRI, Italy has been repeatedly labelled as the "traitor" of the West.

Under US pressure, former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi froze the BRI agreement in 2021. "Since the Ukraine crisis, there is a stronger demand for political correctness and unity between the United States and its Western allies," said Wang Shuo, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University's School of International Relations.

Now, with the new government in place, Washington has intensified efforts to woo its ally to quit the initiative. Clinging to the Cold War mentality, American politicians insist on discrediting the multi-win BRI as a security "threat" and an attempt by China to split the West. Against the backdrop of intensifying geopolitical confrontation against Beijing, Washington has seized every opportunity to draw allies into its anti-China club, and pulling them out from the BRI is the first step.

The change of the Italian government with far-right populist Brothers of Italy party being the dominant force is an opportunity that Washington cannot miss to drive a dredge between Rome and Beijing. The incumbent government, according to Zhao Junjie, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of European Studies, tends to stand with the US on political and security issues. This, to some extent, could influence Rome's final decision on the BRI.

Since its establishment, the BRI has been a platform to build a community of shared future for mankind, with all parties' needs and interests having been taken into account. This means the initiative is not an anti-West geopolitical club or a military alliance as some Westerners hype. It is open to the international community, including all Western countries.

The BRI's inclusiveness is widely recognized. Kostas Gouliamos, former rector of European University Cyprus, said earlier that contrary to protecting the narrow interests of a group of countries that divide the world, China's endeavors to promote multilateralism via the BRI. However, the US, out of Cold War hysteria, insists on viewing the initiative from a zero-sum perspective.

It is not time for confrontation. Almost all international players, including Italy, are clear about it. It is worth noting that despite some unfavorable remarks on the BRI, both Meloni and Crosetto stressed the necessity of preserving China relations. Meloni, after the meeting with Biden, said her government was still deliberating on the final BRI decision and announced a trip to Beijing in the near future. Clearly, Italy does not want to ruin ties with Beijing, and has no intention to pick sides between the two powers.

However, while China is actively offering its solution to build a community of shared future for mankind, the US has been forcing Italy and other Western allies to make a choice. Washington wants to stoke conflicts. Whether Italy will fall into this trap is waiting to be seen.

More:

US stokes divisions on BRI, but will Italy fall into trap? - China Daily

Whoopi Goldberg blows up over political correctness: 'We don't know everything you're not supposed to do!'  Fox News

Continued here:

Whoopi Goldberg blows up over political correctness: 'We don't know everything you're not supposed to do!' - Fox News

'They mad over a forehead kiss?': Fans Cry Hypocrisy as Disney - Bastion of Political Correctness - Edits Out Ayo-Aneka Kiss Scene in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever  Animated Times

See the rest here:

'They mad over a forehead kiss?': Fans Cry Hypocrisy as Disney - Bastion of Political Correctness - Edits Out Ayo-Aneka Kiss Scene in Black Panther:...

In the stupidity known as political correctness, the plural pronouns have been used to refer to a single individual who requests them. because such person is non-binary or makes some other idiotic claim. For anyone with an understanding of the English language, such can be jarring to read.

by Christopher Leach | Friday, October 7, 2022 | 9:03 AM EDT | Updated 4:56 PM EDT

An investigation is underway after an inmate reported being sexually assaulted by another inmate at the Fayette County Detention Center, a jail spokesperson confirmed Friday.

The victim reported the incident to a corrections officer Wednesday afternoon, said Maj. Matt LeMonds from Lexingtons Department of Community Corrections. The inmate told the corrections officer they were the victim of a sexual assault committed by another inmate.

The Division of Community Corrections and the Lexington Police Department are actively investigating this incident and criminal charges have been filed, LeMonds said in an email to the Herald-Leader.

LeMonds didnt give specific information on how jail staff responded to the incident but said the jail does have protocol in place for when a sexual assault occurs.

I cant speak to specifics as far as the individuals involved in this incident, but in the event of an alleged sexual assault we do transport the victim to a local area hospital for a proper examination, LeMonds said. The alleged offender would also be subject to internal disciplinary sanctions in addition to criminal charges.

You can read more of the story here.

Like so many other municipalities, Lexington is experience staffing shortages, and the alleged incident occurred while one of the corrections officers was on break.

This is really laughable. Prisoners are segregated by sex, so the use of the plural pronoun they to refer to the allegedly assaulted inmate is a silly way for the Herald-Leader to try to conceal what we all know anyway: the alleged sexual assault was a homosexual sexual assault.

It could, I suppose, be a reference to a victim who claimed to be non-binary, but the victim would still have been placed in custody in the prison which matched his biological status, and the article made no reference to the victim being non-binary.

In English, properly understood, the masculine subsumes the feminine, and in a situation in which the specific individual to whom a pronoun refers is unknow, the masculine pronouns are properly used, and do not imply that the person is male. For weaker minds, the writer, Christopher Leach, could have reconfigured his sentences to avoid the use of pronouns, but he did not do so. It is possible that the Fayette County Detention Center did not specify the sex of the inmates involved, but that is no excuse for the rotten grammar in the article.

Read this article:

The silliness of political correctness THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL.