Category: Random Stuff

It sounds like someone decided to publish something outrageous to get it to go viral to bring attention to their newsletter.  If that was the plan it worked:

A newsletter posted on the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) campus is starting to make the rounds on social media and it states veterans should be banned from four-year universities. Several viewers asked 11 News to look into the origin of the newsletter.

The letter states military veterans should be banned from classes and compares the military culture to white supremacist groups.

The newsletter is titled “Social Justice Collective Weekly” and says it is the first issue. A spokesperson for UCCS said the newsletter has nothing to do with the school and does not represent the institution’s views. However, it was approved by the university and posted on a bulletin board. The school says anyone is allowed to post items on the board.

The university explained while this group is not affiliated with the college, they say it is free speech and the group can post what they want.

The article says veterans should be banned from UCCS and other four-year colleges. It also generalizes veterans and says they are unsympathetic to the LGBTQ community. The article says all veterans have far right-wing ideologies.  [KKTV]

You can read more at the link, but I think the real story with this is if the university would have allowed a racist hate group to distribute such a newsletter around campus?

Also of note is that I got to learn from this newsletter what a LGBTQQIP2SAA is.

With the vast majority of Guam’s tourists coming from Japan and South Korea it makes sense that they are unfazed by the recent rhetoric from North Korea which they have grown accustomed to:

Tourists haven’t been deterred from visiting the tropical island of Guam even though the U.S. territory has been the target of threats from North Korea during a week of angry words exchanged by Pyongyang and Washington.

Chiho Tsuchiya of Japan heard the news, but she decided to come anyway with her husband and two children. “I feel Japan and Korea also can get danger from North Korea, so staying home is the same,” said the 40-year-old.

Won Hyung-jin, an official from Modetour, a large South Korean travel agency, said several customers called with concerns, but they weren’t worried enough to pay cancellation fees for their trips.

“It seems North Korea racks up tension once or twice every year, and travelers have become insensitive about it,” Won said. His company has sent about 5,000 travelers to Guam a month this year, mostly on package tours.  [Bloomberg]

You can read more at the link.

Leave it to an idiot neo-Nazi to wear an 82nd Airborne hat to the recent protest in Charlottesville:

The 82nd Airborne Division fought several campaigns against Nazi Germany during World War II. So after a man in a hat bearing the elite Army paratrooper unit’s insignia was pictured throwing a Ku Klux Klan salute (which resembles and is sometimes mistaken for a Nazi salute) during the weekend’s Charlottesville protests, the division delivered a pointed message.   [Yahoo News]

You can read more at the link, but some people actually thought this idiot was in the 82nd Airborne.  Here is the 82nd’s Twitter response to this guy wearing an 82nd Airborne hat:

Anyone can purchase that hat. Valor is earned. pic.twitter.com/qk6rQHBwui

— All American 💯 (@82ndABNDiv) August 14, 2017

Note to all racists out there, if you are going to spew your hatred don’t drag the US military into it by wearing its gear. If anything these racists should dislike the US military considering how it is in my opinion the most merit based organization in the US where someone of any race through performance can rise to the top.

Radio stations on Guam accidentally broadcast a "civil danger warning" – the kind used for North Korean missiles https://t.co/15P8Fsj68W

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) August 15, 2017

When I saw Korea Herald infographics dude had done one on out-of-wedlock births, I knew it would be worth the click.https://t.co/yG6YVtVhXw

— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) July 12, 2017

Bill Maher got away with using the N-word with little consequences which means he can definitely get away with stereotyping Korean-Americans:

Just weeks after he drew widespread criticism for using a racial slur on his HBO program Real Time, Bill Maher once again finds himself on the receiving end of backlash following a recent tweet.

“This N Korean thing is getting tense! I mean, I think it is, I’m on vaca. The ladies at my nail salon are freaking out, that’s what I know!” the comedian wrote on Twitter on Friday afternoon, referencing a recent missile launch by the country.

Following his use of the N-word in June, Maher apologized on-air the following week on Real Time. “I did a bad thing,” Maher said on his show, addressing the backlash he’d received to guest Michael Eric Dyson. “For black folks, that word — I don’t care who you are — it’s caused pain. It doesn’t matter that it was not said in malice, it caused pain, and that’s why I apologized. I’m not that big of an asshole.”

Maher went on to say that he is “just a product of the country, but I don’t want to pretend that this is more of a race thing than a comedian thing. We are trained to get a laugh. This is not the first time I’ve gotten in trouble because that’s what comedians are somehow wired to do. Sometimes we transgress a sensitivity point.”  [Hollywood Reporter]

🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲 pic.twitter.com/Eh4rGyGFWJ

— Christöphér Allen (@CleverGoose) June 30, 2017

When debating North Koreans, it's best to be well-prepared for all contingencies. pic.twitter.com/CbkZHCxruy

— Bruce Klingner (@BruceKlingner) June 4, 2017

America should celebrate the Battle of Midway's anniversary but realize the next Pacific clash won't be so easy. https://t.co/oIqVDLLRlp

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) June 2, 2017

When I hear people say “Happy Memorial Day” I too find it a bit awkward considering the real meaning of this holiday:

Allison Jaslow heard it more than once as the long holiday weekend approached — a cheerful “Happy Memorial Day!” from oblivious well-wishers.

The former Army captain and Iraq War veteran had a ready reply, telling them, matter-of-factly, that she considered it a work weekend. Jaslow will be at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to take part in the annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. She’ll then visit Section 60, the final resting place of many service members who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“You can see it in people’s faces that they’re a little horrified that they forget this is what the day’s about,” said Jaslow, 34, who wears a bracelet bearing the name of a fallen comrade. “Culturally, we’ve kind of lost sight of what the day’s supposed to mean.”

While millions of Americans celebrate the long Memorial Day weekend as the unofficial start of summer — think beaches and backyard barbecues, mattress sales and sporting events — some veterans and loved ones of fallen military members wish the holiday that honors more than 1 million people who died serving their country would command more respect.  [CBS 58]

In my opinion Memorial Day really should begin with a somber tone much like I have seen with ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand.  Communities across both nations meet for morning remembrance services every April 25th.  It is a very big deal and has a somber tone to them.  After the morning service the rest of the day depending on the community there could be parades and other events going on to honor servicemembers and all of them usually involve drinking beer.  So the whole day is not somber, but enough of it is so people don’t lose the real meaning of the day.

It seems if Memorial Day was on a fixed date like ANZAC Day then a tradition like this could be established in the United States as well.  However, as long as it remains at its current last Monday of May it will remain a holiday that represents the unofficial start of summer for most people.