Rock legends will be spending the summer together on the Celebration tour. Continue reading…

As part of an experiment, a man asks for help translating a Facebook message he has received.There's a man in Lithuania who speaks only English. The message is in Lithuanian. He can't read it, so he asks some locals to translate it for him.As he asks one person after another to translate the message for him, two things become obvious.1. He's received a message full of hate speech.2. Translating it for him is breaking people's hearts.It's nearly more than these people can bear.There's a sudden, powerful connection between the translators and the man they're translating for. They want to protect him, telling him not to bother with the message.They apologize for the message.They look like they want to cry.Words hurt.Most of us would never think of saying such horrible things. This video shows people realizing in their gut what it must feel like when those words are pointed at them — it's all right on their faces. And so is their compassion.The Facebook message is horrible, but their empathy is beautiful. The video's emotional power is what makes it unique, and so worth watching and passing around.Here it is.The video's in English, subtitled in Lithuanian. Just watch the faces.This article originally appeared on 04.10.15

Here's an article to send to every jerk in your life who denied you the right to complain about your period cramps: A medical expert says that some women experience menstruation pains that are "almost as bad as having a heart attack." John Guillebaud, who is a professor of reproductive health at University College London, spoke to Quartz on the subject, and said that the medical community has long ignored what can be a debilitating affliction, because it's a problem that mostly inconveniences women."I think it happens with both genders of doctor," Guillebaud told Quartz. "On the one hand, men don't suffer the pain and underestimate how much it is or can be in some women. But I think some women doctors can be a bit unsympathetic because either they don't get it themselves or if they do get it they think, 'Well I can live with it, so can my patient.'"And it's a problem that can't just be treated with common painkillers. Some people who experience dysmenorrhea, the medical term for painful menstruation, also suffer from endometriosis, a condition that can cause infertility if it's not treated properly. But research on the subject is scant, so doctors often misdiagnose it, or dismiss the pain entirely. It's estimated, however, that one out of 10 women has the condition.Earlier this month, Girls creator Lena Dunham was forced to take a rest from show promotion and other work duties because she suffers from endometriosis. In a recent edition of her newsletter, Lenny Letter, Dunham wrote a frank essay about her struggle with the condition, and particularly with a medical institution that didn't know how to diagnose her. She didn't know how to put a name to her pain until she turned 24 and underwent laparoscopic surgery, "which is the only way to definitively diagnose endometriosis," according to Dunham.Quartz reporter Olivia Goldhill had the same problem. She suffered from frequent period pains that were as distressing as a slipped disk, she says. But doctors had no answer for her. "Before I had my MRI scans, I told my primary care doctor that the pain seemed to be triggered by my period," she said. "He didn't think this was relevant and ignored the comment."For now, the medical community has been dragging its feet to do research on the subject. Goldhill says the only thing people can do right now is talk about it, to heighten awareness. "Tell your doctor, your friends, your colleagues," she wrote. "We need to talk about period pain long and loudly enough for doctors to finally do something about it."This article originally appeared on 09.14.17

First responders often have a much different view of safety than people who don't handle dangerous situations every day. Police officers, doctors, nurses, firefighters and military personnel see what happens when people put themselves in danger and are often a little more cautious than the average civilian.Situations that seem safe to some can seem like the beginnings of a horror story to someone who works in the emergency room and regularly sees people being admitted for the same types of injuries.That’s why a video by pediatric operating room nurse Josie Rose Mueller should be seen by parents everywhere. As a mother of 3 young boys, who has been working in the operating room since 2018, she shares the 5 things she’d never let her kids do because, as Mueller puts it bluntly: She’s “seen some sh*t.”Although the activities she mentions seem relatively harmless, she’s seen what can happen when things go wrong.Warning: Video contains strong language. @josierosemueller 1. Sit atop a ride-on lawnmower“Without a doubt, I see one person on my Facebook feed doing this every single summer and yes, the photo is adorable, but it is less adorable when I see kids getting their legs cut off from it.”2. Play with fireworks“I will never ever ever let my kids play with explosive fireworks during the 4th of July. I have seen kids lose fingers, entire hands, teeth, portions of their jaw. I've seen them blow up basically just about anything,”3. Go to a swim party alone“Number 3, I will never let my younger children, who are not very, very confident in water, go to a swim party without me. It is actually true that the more people in a pool, even the more people surrounding a pool, the higher chance there is for your child to drown. There's way too much room for error. There's way too much room for someone to get lost.”4. Ride in a car without a harness or seatbelt“I have seen situations where one kid is buckled in and walks away with very minor injuries and the other kid either passes or walks away with very severe injuries because they were not buckled in from the same exact car crash.”5. Attend a sleepover“I will never let my kids be babysat by or go to somebody's house or spend the night and do a sleepover at a house where I do not know every single person that's going to be there, every single person in the house. I've known them a long time and I can verify that they're good people. I can't even get into the abuse situations that I've seen, but it was enough to really ... and I still question whether I'll ever let my kids have sleepovers at all.”Mueller’s video has nearly 2 million views and she disagrees with those who think she’s being too cautious.“It’s my job as my child’s parent to keep them safe,” she told Upworthy. “I want my children to take calculated risks, and I want them to fall, scrape their knees and make mistakes. I believe that builds character and helps them recognize and deal with adversity. However, when it comes to their life or their limbs being in danger, it’s a parent's job to keep their child away from said dangers.”She believes parents should be short and to the point when explaining potential dangers to their young children.“Kids don’t process long, drawn-out explanations. For example, if my husband is mowing the lawn, the rule is the boys stay inside,” she told Upworthy. “If they request to go outside, I will say, ‘The rule is we stay inside until daddy is done mowing the lawn. This keeps your brothers and you safe. We can go play outside when the lawnmower stops.’ We can make a fun game out of it like counting how many times Daddy passes the window. And the reward would be if they stay inside like I’ve asked, we play outside with Dad when he’s all finished up.”

A celebration of life. The post The song Amy Taylor of Amyl and the Sniffers wants played at her funeral first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

The conviction of former President Trump in the so-called hush-money trial has inevitably led to a lot of speculation concerning whether he will be sentenced to prison. A number of legal experts have suggested that it is unlikely. Normally this would be a reasonable prediction. Trump is, after all, a first-time offender charged with a non-violent crime. Unfortunately, there was nothing normal about this trial. The “felonies” for which Trump was convicted were concocted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg based on a legal theory that had never been used in any court. As to presiding judge Juan Merchan, he is a political partisan bristling with conflicts of interest. This is why Donald Trump loses an occasional battle, but will eventually win the war. He believes in America. None of this matters to Bragg or Merchan. Their common goal was to “get Trump” rather than dispense justice. But in their fervor to assure a conviction they committed so many legal blunders that the verdict is all but guaranteed to be reversed on appeal. At least two of these mistakes involve brazen violations of explicit due process protections enshrined in the Constitution. Judge Merchan trampled on Trump’s First Amendment rights by imposing a gag order on him and refusing to lift it even after the trial. Another egregious violation involves Trump’s Sixth Amendment right to know the precise nature of the charges for which he was being prosecuted. As legal scholar Jonathan Turley explains in The Hill: When the verdict came in, we were still unsure what Trump was convicted of … The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized that the requirement of unanimity in criminal convictions is sacrosanct in our system. While there was unanimity that the business records were falsified [a misdemeanor charge] to hide or further a second [felony] crime, there was no express finding of what that crime may have been. In some ways, Trump may have been fortunate by Merchan’s cavalier approach. Trump may not consider himself fortunate, however, if his conviction is reversed after it costs him the election. And it’s likely that Judge Merchan will sentence him to prison if he believes it will ruin Trump’s chances of winning. Indeed, he threatened to throw Trump in jail during the trial for ignoring his constitutionally dubious gag order. This is why House Speaker Mike Johnson has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. During a Friday appearance on Fox and Friends the Speaker said, “I do believe the Supreme Court should step in. Obviously, this is totally unprecedented, and it’s dangerous to our system … This will be overturned, guys. There’s no question about it. It’s just going to take some time to do it.” That’s the problem, of course. The New York Appellate Division is dominated by Democrats who will almost certainly slow walk Trump’s appeal. The only remedy is for Trump’s legal team to convince the Supreme Court to grant an emergency appeal based on Judge Merchan’s multiple violations of his due process rights. This won’t be easy. Only four justices must vote to grant cert for the SCOTUS to hear the case, but they are already under attack by the Democrats, and the specter of Bush v. Gore looms ominously. Still, at least one noted legal scholar has suggested a possible fast track to the high court. Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz proposed the following during Megyn Kelly’s Friday podcast: They should skip the Appellate Division, go to the New York Court of Appeals [the highest appeals court in the Empire State], and ask for an expedited appeal. In the meantime, prepare for an expedited appeal in the United States Supreme Court and say that this was a rush to try to get this case, a verdict of conviction before election, and the Supreme Court of the United States has an obligation to review this case before the election so that the American public knows whether or not Donald Trump is guilty or not guilty of these made up crimes … This is a winnable appeal. This analysis, it should be remembered, was offered by a lifelong Democrat who voted against Trump twice. Nor was he the only liberal legal expert to criticize District Judge Merchan’s conduct of the trial. ABC’s chief legal analyst, Dan Abrams, raised the Sixth Amendment issue on This Week with George Stephanopoulos: “There’s some real appellate issues here that are serious questions … why didn’t the defense even know what the charge was that they were gonna be applying — what law?” Abrams also suggested that Alvin Bragg would never have brought this unprecedented case against anyone not named Donald Trump: “I don’t think that, based on this fact pattern, anyone else would have been charged here.” Nonetheless, his name is Donald Trump and they convinced twelve Manhattan TDS victims that he committed some crime or other. All of which brings us back to this question: Is Judge Merchan dumb enough to imprison the Bad Orange Man? Sunday morning, Trump did an interview with Rachel Campos-Duffy, Pete Hegseth, and Will Cain of Fox News. Eventually, he was asked about the possibility that the Judge might jail him. Trump answered, “I’m OK with it.” Later, he added, “I’m not sure the public would stand for it … You know at a certain point, there’s a breaking point.” But Trump wasn’t talking about violence. He was referring to the uniquely American sense of fairness that ultimately defines us as a nation. This is why Donald Trump loses an occasional battle, but will eventually win the war. He believes in America. His Lilliputian opponents don’t even know what it is. READ MORE from David Catron: It’s the Cost of Living, Stupid! Why Trump Eagerly Accepted Unfair Debate Rules NY Judge May Get Trump Elected The post Merchan Will Jail Trump Unless SCOTUS Intervenes appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Having not been blessed with fatherhood, I have no idea what the boys of today will remember when they get to be my age. Too many will have no literary or cinematic memory to apply to a contemporaneous event. Somehow, I doubt that punches from Mortal Kombat or Assassin’s Creed will provide them with much reflective help. Which was not the case for me last Thursday while observing the Democrats’ mortal blow to 250 years of American justice — the sham conviction of Donald Trump. The Democrats, like the Nazis in the film, crossed the line. They desecrated something sacred in their thirst for absolute power. Like countless patriots, I was nauseated by every element of this rigged trial as already extensively covered: the fabricated crime, the hostile environment (New York City), the partisan prosecutor (DA Alvin Bragg), the compromised judge (Juan Merchan) whose family members targeted Trump for ideology and profit and who tilted the entire procedure against him, and twelve angry jurors with not a Henry Fonda among them. The last point is an allusion to the film masterpiece, 12 Angry Men, that will also be lost on most Millennials and Gen Z members. But other artistic visions ran through my mind that day, foremost among them, Tarzan of the Apes. (READ MORE from Lou Aguilar: The Last Woke Memorial Day) I loved the Tarzan movies growing up, the exciting adventures of a powerful primitive hero (they were all white males back then) violently defending the wilderness against “civilized” — read petty, greedy, immoral — men. His only material reward in this crusade was well worth it for us boys — the shapely, sexy, skimpily clad Jane. The couple’s cozy jungle tree house was our dream home, complete with a pet-servant chimpanzee, Cheetah. Yet the screen Tarzan’s inarticulation and general ignorance kind of bothered me. Then I read the books. I wish most younger kids could experience something akin to the joy with which 13-year-old me opened a box containing all 24 paperbacks in the Tarzan series, written by the wonderful Edgar Rice Burroughs. I devoured them all in one summer, sharing each finished work with my best friend and neighbor, Victor. Vic and I had a ball throwing out Tarzan’s names for animal species, which I can cite to this day — Numa the lion, Tantor the elephant, Pacco the zebra, Gimla the crocodile, Hista the snake. Best, the literary Tarzan was not merely a near naked savage but the ultimate aristocrat, Lord Greystoke, who spoke perfect English and French. The Tarzan pictures never captured the magic of the books, but they were great fun, most famously the spectacular six made by MGM from 1932 to 1942 starring former champion Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan the Ape Man, Tarzan and His Mate, Tarzan Escapes, Tarzan Finds a Son!, Tarzan’s Secret Treasure, Tarzan’s New York Adventure). These productions were logistically incredible, featuring fantastic studio sets, hundreds of actors (with more black extras than any other series), dozens of wild-looking animals, and one monstrous rubber crocodile which Tarzan battles in a thrilling scene in Tarzan and His Mate. When the films became less profitable for MGM by 1942, the cheaper studio RKO took them over. It was a scene and line from the first of them, Tarzan Triumphs, that leapt into my mind when I heard the disgusting Trump trial verdict. Tarzan Triumphs came out in 1943, with America at war. The U.S. State Department told Tarzan producer Sol Lesser that a Tarzan film would be the ideal way to spread the message of democracy over fascism. And Lesser delivered. For much of the movie, Tarzan is an isolationist, trying to keep out of the global struggle incurring into his African orbit. “Jungle people fight to live,” he says. “Civilized people live to fight.” But when Nazis enslave a native village, abduct his adopted son Boy, and try to kill him, Tarzan has had enough of neutrality. In possibly the most indelible Tarzan film scene of all time, Tarzan wakes up from unconsciousness to learn the Nazis have taken Boy. He stands up, looks determinedly at the camera, and grabs his enormous knife. “Now, Tarzan make war!” he says, clutching the knife. The scene blew me away as a kid. And according to author Gabe Essoe in his superb book Tarzan of the Movies: A Pictorial History of More Than Fifty Years of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Legendary Hero, it electrified the theater audience as well. Essoe wrote that the entire theater let out an enormous, unforgettable cheer. And Tarzan Triumphs became one of the highest grossing pictures of 1943. I can understand the exuberance that one scene inspired. You had a bunch of children and moms in the audience, their dads and husbands risking their lives for them and their country — and now Tarzan on their side. I also realize why it came to me last week. The Democrats, like the Nazis in the film, crossed the line. They desecrated something sacred in their thirst for absolute power, and their hatred for the one man who can thwart them, whose name also starts with a T. And even once detached citizens can see them for the dangerous un-American zealots they are. Two days after the multiple guilty verdicts celebrated by the delusional Left, Trump strutted into the UFC 302 stadium in New Jersey and got a raucous standing ovation, accompanied by cries of “We want Trump!” It must have driven the elitist Bidenistas crazier. And even wiser heads abroad can see the cruciality of the coming election. This is particularly true in England, where the nominal Conservative Party is about to get demolished in an imminent election for betraying the will of the people who overwhelmingly put them in power. “The U.S. election is much more important than ours,” posted actor turned rightist opinionist Laurence Fox on X. “There are profound differences between the GOP and the Democrats. Whereas there is no difference at all between the Conservatives and UK Labour. It’s left to Trump to save the West.” (READ MORE: The Leftist Exorcism Has Begun) Just as Tarzan saved the lost city of Palandrya in Tarzan Triumphs. After last week’s Democratic injustice, we’re all Tarzan now. And “Now Tarzan make war!” The post ‘Now Tarzan Make War’ – On the Democrats appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

America’s attention is entirely focused on the criminal conviction of Donald Trump by a New York court. Yes, it’s enormously important and a travesty that stains the American justice system. But there is a lot going on that demands our attention including the war between Israel and Hamas. Biden’s $320 million pier … a lifeline to food and medical supplies, is the perfect metaphor for the Biden administration.” On Friday, saying “It’s time for this war to end,” President Biden told the world that Israel had made a three-part peace proposal which would begin with a six-week cease-fire and withdrawal of Israeli forces from the most densely populated areas of Gaza, a flood of humanitarian relief would flow, and an exchange of some hostages — including Americans — for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Our Border and the Gotaways) The “new” plan is supposed to lead to a permanent truce and reconstruction of Gaza. In a surprising move that may end his political career, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to the plan on Sunday. Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s chief foreign policy adviser, said it was “a deal we agreed to — it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them.…There are a lot of details to be worked out.” He added that Israel remains committed to “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization.” Israel cannot have it both ways. It cannot destroy Hamas if it accepts Biden’s plan. Hamas is supposedly looking favorably on the “new” plan. But Hamas has never accepted any terms which would releases any hostages before total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. It has yet to agree to Biden’s plan. There are three problems with Biden’s “new” plan. The first problem is that it was Biden’s plan, not Israel’s. It was simply a restatement of Biden’s earlier plans which both Hamas and Israel had rejected. The “new” plan, same as the old plans, would leave Hamas able to govern Gaza and continue its threat against Israel. Please remember that Hamas’s leaders have promised more attacks like the October 7 attack which killed 1,200 Israelis and others and in which Hamas took about 240 hostages. They promise to keep up such attacks until Israel is destroyed. The second problem is that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government may collapse because of his agreement to Biden’s plan. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said they are opposed to striking any deal before Hamas is destroyed. The two represent part of the right-wing coalition that Netanyahu assembled shortly after Hamas’s October 7 attack. Ben-Gvir vowed to take Netanyahu’s government down rather than accept the Biden terms. Netanyahu has repeatedly said that he was also opposed to any truce before Hamas was destroyed and no longer a threat to Israel. This deal is a major retreat from that position. On the other side of the Israeli political coin former Israeli chief of staff and former general Benny Gantz said he’d quit the coalition if Netanyahu didn’t come up with a post-war plan for Gaza by June 7. Gantz, who is close to the Biden administration, may yet quit the coalition and possibly bring about another Israeli general election. He has already filed a bill to dissolve Israel’s parliament and cause a general election, the sixth in less than five years. He would need at least sixty-one votes in parliament to dissolve it, a simple majority of the 121 members. There is no indication that he has anything close to that number in support of his bill. The third problem is that Israeli forces have discovered several tunnels going between Gaza and Egypt. As we have heard repeatedly, Egypt’s President el-Sisi has refused to accept any would-be immigrants fleeing Gaza. The discovery of the tunnels — which the el-Sisi government must be aware of — indicates Egyptian sympathy (and possibly Egyptian cooperation) with Hamas. The discovery of the tunnels is enormously significant, pointing — possibly — to Egypt’s willingness to provide a means to smuggle arms and supplies from Iran to Hamas. In short, Biden’s “new” plan cannot succeed unless Hamas agrees to release the hostages — both alive and dead — among those it took on October 7. The key to any peace deal is for Hamas to release its remaining hostages. About one hundred have been released so far, and an unknown number — including five Americans — may still be alive. Hamas is also holding the bodies of the dead hostages. Israeli forces have recently found three of the hostages’ bodies in the fighting that continues in the hundreds of tunnels Hamas carved under Gaza. Has has — so far — refused to release the living hostages, and the bodies of the dead, until Israel withdraws entirely from Gaza and makes its withdrawal permanent. To Biden, the lives of the hostages — including the five Americans believed to still be alive — is an afterthought. He should, instead, be pressuring Hamas with every diplomatic and military means at his disposal. But so far Biden’s efforts — even his Gaza relief pier — have failed to obtain the release of any of the hostages. Biden’s $320 million pier, which was supposed to give Gazans a lifeline to food and medical supplies, is the perfect metaphor for the Biden administration. It broke apart in the first big storm that came to it. You would have thought that the engineers would have taken weather into account but you’d be wrong. (READ MORE: Biden Wants Hamas ‘Refugees’) Whether Hamas agrees to the latest Biden plan is unresolved as this is being written. Even if it does and if it lives up to its obligation to release the hostages the war between Hamas and Israel won’t end. The post Biden’s Latest Gaza Deal appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.