Articles of Distraction

[awty]

Wow, Beckhams are really shitty parents.

According to Brooklyn Beckham, they are rude towards his wife.


In his defense, Victoria always seemed like a possessive mom who would be jealous of his girlfriends.

Yuck. You should've cut those apron strings yourself and long ago, boyo. That shit's creeptastic.

If I snuggled up to my son like that, he would either have me arrested or put me in a home.

It was a different thing when we cuddled up to read when he was...ten and under.  Yikes.

[Angrboda]

https://www.axios.com/2026/02/17/james-t...equal-time

[Angrboda]

As outlined in the survey, 57% of Gen Z men agreed "we have gone so far in promoting women's equality that we are discriminating against men" and 59% agreed men are expected to do "too much to support equality." These figures differed from older participants, as 42% of male Baby Boomers agreed gender equality is leading toward discrimination of men and 45% agreed men are expected to do too much to support equality.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/heal...018754007/

[Paraselene]

Think of it as female reparations.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

As outlined in the survey, 57% of Gen Z men agreed "we have gone so far in promoting women's equality that we are discriminating against men" and 59% agreed men are expected to do "too much to support equality." These figures differed from older participants, as 42% of male Baby Boomers agreed gender equality is leading toward discrimination of men and 45% agreed men are expected to do too much to support equality.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/heal...018754007/

So, it’s kinda like so-called Christian persecution, but with sex instead of religion. ‘Not letting me be a bigoted arshole is discrimination!’

Boru

[Fake Messiah]

To women, good sense of humor is the most attractive trait in a man, so this guy must be hilarious.

[Angrboda]

Apart from the immense cost of war, the US decision to launch the attack on Iran may have another unintended consequence: a radical shift in Iranian strategy.

For decades, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei maintained a longstanding religious prohibition on nuclear weapons. His assassination on the first day of the war may now motivate the new civilian and military leadership of the country to rethink its nuclear strategy.

There may now be fewer ideological reservations about pursuing nuclear weapons. The logic is simple: if diplomacy cannot deliver sanctions relief or permanently remove the threat of war, nuclear deterrence may appear to be the only viable alternative.

Iran’s actions in this conflict suggest that many leaders now see patience and diplomacy as strategic mistakes. These include the unprecedented scale of Iranian missile and drone attacks across the region, the targeting of US partners and critical infrastructure, and political decisions at home that signal a harder line, most notably the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader.

The choice of Khamenei’s son breaks a longstanding taboo in a system founded on the rejection of hereditary rule and reflects a leadership increasingly prepared to abandon previous restraints.

If a more zero-sum logic of deterrence takes hold across the region, replacing dialogue as the organising principle of security, the Middle East may enter a far more dangerous era in which nuclear weapons are viewed as the ultimate form of deterrence and nuclear proliferation can no longer be stopped.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/...-far-worse

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Apart from the immense cost of war, the US decision to launch the attack on Iran may have another unintended consequence: a radical shift in Iranian strategy.

For decades, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei maintained a longstanding religious prohibition on nuclear weapons. His assassination on the first day of the war may now motivate the new civilian and military leadership of the country to rethink its nuclear strategy.

There may now be fewer ideological reservations about pursuing nuclear weapons. The logic is simple: if diplomacy cannot deliver sanctions relief or permanently remove the threat of war, nuclear deterrence may appear to be the only viable alternative.

Iran’s actions in this conflict suggest that many leaders now see patience and diplomacy as strategic mistakes. These include the unprecedented scale of Iranian missile and drone attacks across the region, the targeting of US partners and critical infrastructure, and political decisions at home that signal a harder line, most notably the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader.

The choice of Khamenei’s son breaks a longstanding taboo in a system founded on the rejection of hereditary rule and reflects a leadership increasingly prepared to abandon previous restraints.

If a more zero-sum logic of deterrence takes hold across the region, replacing dialogue as the organising principle of security, the Middle East may enter a far more dangerous era in which nuclear weapons are viewed as the ultimate form of deterrence and nuclear proliferation can no longer be stopped.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/...-far-worse

I’m less worried about Iran developing nukes than I am about them properly securing their uranium stockpiles. It’s not Iran lobbing nuclear missiles at Israel that concerns me, it’s the radical with a subscription to Popular Mechanics who gets his mitts on 2-3 kilos the stuff.

Boru

[Angrboda]

[I]n the 19th century, a common racist trope held that people of Chinese descent were such alien creatures that they were incapable of integrating into American society. An 1877 message to Congress prepared by seven California state senators, for example, complained that Chinese immigrants “seem to be antediluvian men renewed.” The senators claimed that there was “no hope that any contact with our people, however long continued, will ever conform [Chinese immigrants] to our institutions, enable them to comprehend or appreciate our form of government, or to assume the duties or discharge the functions of citizens.”

Morse’s 1881 treatise relied on the work of Francis Wharton, another prominent 19th-century international lawyer whose writings are heavily cited in Trump’s Barbara brief. Wharton focused on the legal concept of “domicile,” or the intention to remain indefinitely in a particular place, and argued that Chinese nationals were so unlike Americans that they were “not capable of naturalization,” assuming that they “do not expect to remain permanently in this country” and that they all “look forward to a return, sooner or later, to China.”

Thus, by linking citizenship to permanent residence, Morse hoped to exclude people of Chinese descent from US citizenship altogether. If Chinese people were truly incapable of permanently settling in the United States, then a rule denying citizenship to the children of temporary visitors would necessarily exclude Chinese Americans.

The ugly history behind Trump’s birthright citizenship case in the Supreme Court

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

‘A disorderly [Chinese person] is rare, and a lazy one does not exist... They are a kindly disposed people and are well treated by the upper classes, all over the Pacific coast.  No Californian gentleman or lady ever abuses or opposes a [Chinese person], under any circumstances, an explanation that seems to be much needed in the East.  Only the scum of the population do it - they and their children; they, and, naturally and consistently the policeman and politicians likewise, for these are the dust-licking pimps and slaves of the scum, there as well as elsewhere in America.’ - Mark Twain (ahead of his time, as usual)

Boru