Sunday, May 04, 2014

Boston Bruins racists, Japan's pacifist problems and Eddie Sheeran + The Game


- Bring on the bros. The ladies of Pennsylvania’s Chatham University will soon be able to troll for guys on their own campus rather than having to go outside its borders after the school’s board of trustees voted to approve the admission of men to its undergraduate college for the first time in its 145-year-old history. For some inexplicable reason, idiots stuck in the past opposed the move and asked the university’s trustees to delay the vote, but it took place on Thursday afternoon. Chatham was founded as the Pennsylvania Female College in 1869 and has existed as an exclusionary institution of higher learned in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood ever since. The change isn't entirely altruistic, as the freshman class has shrunk nearly 50 percent since 2008 and a college that once had more than 700 students faces the prospect of having fewer than 320 within five years - unless the school goes co-ed. Recognizing that stark reality, Chatham University president Esther Barrazone said last month that with shrinking enrollment and millions spent from the operating budget on financial assistance, her school faced possible closure if it did not adapt and change. Inexplicably, ass-hatted current students, alumni and staff still opposed the decision and preferred shutting their doors over opening them to men. Chatham alumna Sara Grey was one of the measure’s most vocal opponents. “I’d say our graduates feelings more of grief at this point. We’ve been all experiencing that anger for quite a while now. We have attempted to communication with the college, to help find a solution and repeatedly have been ignored or dismissed,” Grey said. “At this point it’s really about grieving for our college which no longer exists.” Glad you’ve accepted reality, femi-Nazi. You and your clam bake friends still have time to adjust, as Chatham won't begin accepting men at the undergraduate level until the fall of 2015………


- The unlikely pairing of Ed Sheeran and The Game doesn’t make a ton of sense on paper, but it will reportedly happen in the form of a joint album that will drop as soon as the latter months of this year. . The Game announced the pair’s plans in an extremely straightforward statement. "I'm working on a joint album with Ed Sheeran that we trying to drop probably end of the year, beginning of 2015. That is gonna be crazy," the rapper said. He added that the project originated after the two exchanged a series of direct messages on Twitter. At first, they planned to record a single song, but their time in the studio was so productive that they eventually laid down seven tracks. "Ed came up with the idea to start working on a joint album, and we started doing it," The Game explained. "That was like in five hours. We was just going. He was on that guitar. Acoustically, he’s a genius, man, so when he does that, what comes out of me is songs like 'Dreams' and 'Hate It or Love It' and 'My Life'. The songs that we got, they're real songs. And I can't wait for people to hear 'em." Sheeran has been a busy guy of late and will release his second album “x,” signifying multiply, on June 23. He recorded that project in Los Angeles with producer Rick Rubin, who advised Sheeran to record the album acoustically first and add further instrumentation afterward. Its title continues a math-centric theme after he dropped his debut project “+” back in 2011. A mash-up with one of the better rappers in the game may not have a title that makes math-letes leap for joy, but it should be interesting………..


- Will Japan renounce its pacifist ways? As the country marked the 67th anniversary of its postwar constitution Saturday, it did so with growing debate over whether to revise the war-renouncing charter in line with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push for an expanded role for the military. The ruling conservative party has long advocated revision, but has gained little traction on a grander scale. In response, Abe is proposing that the government reinterpret the constitution to give the military more prominence in order to circumvent the need for public approval for the revisions. Part of the push is spurred by the United States’ wishes for Japan to bear a greater burden of its own defense. That notion has upset the liberals who view such a move as undermining the constitution and democratic processes. That seemed to be the same thought espoused by hundreds of people gathered at a Tokyo rally commemorating Constitution Day, a national holiday, as they decried the potential demise of Japan's pacifist charter. "We citizens must stand up, take action and raise our voice to stop Abe, or this country could return to a Japan that wages war with Asia as it has done before,” event organizer Ken Takada said. The original Japanese constitution was penned under U.S. direction after World War II and the 1947 document says the Japanese people "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation" and that "land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained." That ban has eroded over the years through the Cold War and American efforts to seek stronger allies in Asia and to allow Japan to have a military to defend itself, dubbed a Self-Defense Force. The ruling Liberal-Democratic Party views the postwar constitution as one imposed by the U.S., which occupied Japan from the end of World War II until 1952. Abe's grandfather Nobusuke Kishi — who was arrested as a suspected war criminal but never charged and later became prime minister — was among the biggest critics of the constitution. In defending his proposal, Abe is painting his idea as a "breakaway from the postwar regime" as a way to overcome the humiliation, education system, social values and historical views set by the occupation. Amending that  constitution will be tough, which probably explains a blatant end-around attempt………


- Do NOT f*ck with the American Bird Conservancy. It is one of the nation's leading bird conservation groups and it plans to sue the Obama administration over a federal regulation that allows wind energy companies to obtain 30-year permits to kill eagles without prosecution by the government. The angry bird lovers at the ABC are arguing the Department of the Interior violated federal laws when it promulgated the regulation it says sanctions the killing of bald and golden eagles. "The rule lacks a firm foundation in scientific justification and was generated without the benefit of a full assessment of its impacts on eagle populations,” said Michael Hutchins, National Coordinator of ABC's Bird Smart Wind Energy Campaign. Why is this happening? Because the government announced in December it would allow companies to seek authorization to kill and harm bald and golden eagles for up to 30 years without penalty in a bid to balance the environmental trade-offs of green energy. The resulting rule offers up legal protection for the lifespan of wind farms and other projects if companies obtain permits and make efforts to avoid killing protected birds. Even a provision mandating that companies take additional measures if they kill or injure more eagles than they had estimated they would isn't enough to placate the ABC fools. In its notice of intent to sue the government, the organization claims the rule "undermines the nation’s longstanding commitment to conservation of eagles—unique animals that are ‘ubiquitous in U.S. culture."  It supposedly violates the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act……….


- It would be easy to tell Boston Bruins fans to stay classy….but clearly, some of them never were. At least not the ugly, hateful sect of Bruins supporters who directed racial slurs at P.K. Subban via social media after the defenseman scored in the second overtime to lift the visiting Montreal Canadiens to a 4-3 victory Thursday night in the opener of an Eastern Conference semifinal series. Boston has a history of being a racist place and despite the love and community shown in the year since the Boston Marathon bombing, clearly many of its residents are as hateful and ugly as ever. To be fair, some of the hatemongers likely reside outside of Beantown, but a good chunk likely call the 617 area code home and they made their voices heard online after Subban, who is black, scored his second goal of the game at 4:17 of the second overtime. Twitter trolls posted racial slurs disparaging Subban even though his younger brother, Malcolm, was drafted by the Bruins in the first round in 2012. After the outpouring of despicable thoughts and ideas, Boston Bruins president Cam Neely denounced all of the idiots who tweeted horrible things. Prior to the Bruins’ 5-2 victory in Game 2 of the series, Neely sounded off. "The racist, classless views expressed by an ignorant group of individuals following Thursday's game via digital media are in no way a reflection of anyone associated with the Bruins organization," Neely said in a statement issued by the team. Bruins forward Brad Marchand echoed those thoughts. "It's very disappointing things were said on Twitter," Marchand said. "There's no need, at any point in time, to be racist, and obviously no one in this room or the organization feels that way, and it's very disappointing. Obviously, we have to apologize for that coming from our fans, but hopefully there will be no more of that stuff." Bruins coach Claude Julien noted that the ugly words of a few give all Bruins fans a bad name. Even Boston mayor Marty Walsh piled on, describing the hate tweets as “a disgrace.” Sadly, this is far from the first time. Bruins fans also targeted Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward, who also is black, with racial slurs after he scored the overtime goal that eliminated the Bruins in the first round of the 2011-12 playoffs………

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