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Culture Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 07, 2016 13 Comments
It seems every time a cop shoots someone it becomes a national story with charges of racism and excessive force against them. Now the situation has cops deciding not to defend themselves. Chicago Superintendent Eddie Johnson said one of his officers didn't defend herself against the man who beat her unconscious because of the backlash she and the department might receive:
“As I was at the hospital last night, visiting with her, she looked at me and said she thought she was gonna die, and she knew that she should shoot this guy, but she chose not to because she didn’t want her family or the department to go through the scrutiny the next day on national news,” Johnson said while attending a public ceremony honoring heroic officers and firefighters.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 07, 2016 19 Comments
Nothing is safe from race-based drama! This week started with Aleister reporting on Penn State's costume-shaming campaign targeting Halloween garb. However, despite the fact that a Muslim leader originally commissioned the work and the opera has been performed over 1,000 times since its debut in 1886, a British university is shutting down a musical based on Giuseppi Verdi's Aida due amid charges of...cultural appropriation.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 03, 2016 20 Comments
Publisher Ishi Press International has put pictures of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump on its new edition of Adolf Hitler speeches:
My New Order: Volumes One and Two cover Hitler’s speeches from 1918 to 1941. Volume One’s back cover features a picture raising his hand in a gesture similar to a Nazi salute. In a blurb about the book published on Amazon, publisher Ishi Press International claims “There are clear similarities between the speeches of Trump and the speeches of Hitler. “Here are examples: They repeat themselves constantly, saying the same things over and over again. They never admit they have made a mistake nor do they ever take anything back. To any criticism, they respond by insults and name calling. They use a low form of language, with simple sentences even a person with the lowest level of education or with no education at all can understand,” the blurb continues.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on October 01, 2016 4 Comments
In August, I wrote about a proposed rule in Alabama whereby Alabama’s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board wanted personal information on beer buyers.  The requirement that private citizens who buy beer for personal consumption provide their names, addresses, telephone numbers, and dates of birth was rejected; however, some troubling elements of the initial proposed rule stand. WAAY 31 reports:
For taprooms like Old Black Bear, the customer always comes first. So the idea of creating an extra burden for them at the register didn't seem right. "Just seemed like too much of a burden for them not to at least discuss it with somebody first to try and get our side of it," Owner Todd Seaton said. That burden was set to come in the form of a new requirement from the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board proposed earlier this month following a new law passed earlier this year. The law allowed breweries and brew pubs to sell beer for off-site consumption. The new rule would've required them to record the names, addresses, telephone numbers and birth dates for those looking to take beer off site for consumption. . . . .However after receiving a good bit of public comment, during a board meeting on Wednesday, the board decided against the rule . . . .

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on September 30, 2016 11 Comments
In this week's entry in the "public official says dumb things on social media, asked to resign" files, we feature the mayor of a tiny town in Pennsylvania who used his Facebook account to post messages and images deemed racist. According to Fox News, "[Charles] Wasko was elected mayor of the borough of roughly 4,500 residents about 100 miles west of Philadelphia in 2013. Running unopposed as a Republican, he tallied 202 votes, against 78 write-in ballots for others." Fox News continues:
Wasko isn't paid as mayor and votes only to break ties on the council. But he also oversees the police department in the borough, where the acting chief, Matthew Millsaps, said he was "disturbed" by the images. "This in no way reflects the ideology of this department," Millsaps said, noting the department has a Hispanic man and black woman among its eight officers.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on September 29, 2016 20 Comments
As if the election season isn't scary enough, the start of October a few days away and Halloween-themed everything can be seen everywhere. In Southern California, Knotts Berry Farm pulls out all the stops in making its amusement park the scariest place on earth. However, according to some mental health advocates, the newest attraction was too much.
A popular Halloween attraction at Knott's Berry Farm and California's Great America was shutting down, officials announced Wednesday, after some took to social media calling the display "offensive" to those suffering from mental illness.
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