Swift global blowback to Trump’s racism

Donald Trump’s racist comments has had swift blowback around the world.

Remarks by Donald Trump describing immigrants from Africa and Haiti as coming from “shithole countries” were racist, the United Nations human rights office has said, as it led global condemnation of the US president.
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The UN human rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, told a Geneva news briefing: “There is no other word one can use but racist. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘shitholes’, whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.”


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Why is ice slippery?

(We are bracing ourselves for a severe ice storm today in this region so I am reproducing a blog post from back in 2006, before I moved to this site, because I thought that readers might find it interesting. I have edited it slightly, because tinkering with my writing is something I cannot help. This question formed the basis of an article by Robert Rosenberg in the December 2005 issue of Physics Today, p. 50-55.)

As you can see from this video, this man was reminded that ice is really slippery.

But why is ice so slippery?
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Trump goes flat-out racist

Donald Trump at a meeting referred to El Salvador, Haiti, and African nations as ‘shithole countries” and wondered why we couldn’t have more immigrants from Norway instead of them. This has made even mainstream media commentators, who usually try to use euphemisms to soft-pedal what presidents say, outright call him a racist. Here’s Anderson Cooper reacting.


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Film review: Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

I wrote recently about how I had abandoned watching the Star Wars series after being disappointed with Start Wars I: The Phantom Menace but a review of the latest entry Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi suggested that it had somewhat progressive politics that might make it worth watching. But my son-in-law, who is an aficionado of the series, suggested that before watching it, I should see Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens because otherwise the plot of the latest film would be hard to follow.
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I hope all wait staff know who Stuart Varney is

There has been a growing movement to make $15 the minimum wage for all employees in any job. Currently the wait staff in restaurants can be paid much less than the federally mandated minimum wage because they supposedly make it up in tips. That is in addition to working conditions that are far worse than in many other professions and lacking many benefits that other people take for granted.
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A breakthrough against Israeli apartheid at the New York Times

The growing worldwide support for the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement to pressure Israel over its treatment of Palestinians has led the Israeli government to ban 20 organizations that support BDS from entering Israel. The list includes Codepink, American Friends Service Committee, and Jewish Voice for Peace. The Israel lobby in the US has also used its clout to try and silence voices that support Palestinian rights and BDS.
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Seth Meyers catches up on the news

It turns out that Donald Trump’s ‘executive time’ (i.e., time to watch TV, tweet, and gossip on the phone with his friends) occupies a much larger portion of his daily schedule than was previously reported, with many such periods included throughout the day. In fact, it looks like being president is just something he does in his spare time, and that may not be altogether a bad thing.

This Trump legal maneuver will fail

One of the methods used by wealthy people and businesses to intimidate people and prevent them from taking action against them is to threaten them with legal action. Even if you, as an individual, are completely in the right and they are completely in the wrong, you will encounter a lot of up front costs and hassle in pressing your case, because the high-priced lawyers on the other side will make things as hard as possible for you. People like Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein use this tactic repeatedly and, sadly, it usually works to silence critics.
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I had no idea that this law existed

A Sri Lankan friend of mine alerted me to the fact that since 1955, there has been a law on the books in that country that women were not allowed to purchase alcohol. I had no idea that such a law existed, probably because it was never enforced. That law has just been repealed.

Sri Lanka is to allow women over the age of 18 to buy alcohol legally for the first time in more than 60 years.

The government said that it was amending a 1955 law that it agreed was discriminatory against women.

The amendment to the law, announced on Wednesday, also means that women will be permitted without prior approval to work in places that sell alcohol.

Critics of the repeal warn that it might lead to more alcoholism among women. Apart from the fact that gender-based legislation is inherently problematic, this concern seems unwarranted. Although alcoholism is a problem in Sri Lanka, no one seemed to be aware of this unenforced law at all before its repeal so practically it is not going to have any effect.