As an active duty Soldier who went through BCT in 2002, I have no qualms with the concept of the "phase-based rewarding" scheme. I do, however, have a big issue with the concept of rewarding individualism.

We didn't get a "patch", we got upgraded from a red guidon to a white one. The guidon was symbolic of our group - one guidon for the platoon. The patches are symbolic of the individual - one patch per individual. If you, as an individual, screw up when your platoon is carrying the white guidon, you win "red" status back for your entire platoon real fast. It doesn't sound like much, but a unit carrying a white guidon gets treated far better than a unit carrying a red one.

I can see it now - Private Snuffy, You Screwed Up!!! Give Me Your Patch!!! It pisses me off because in combat, you don't win or lose as an individual. An individual's irresponsible or undisciplined actions can easily cost lives - and it's all too often that it costs the lives of those who are paying attention, making disciplined decisions, and maintaining vigilance.

Free Ottawa yoga class scrapped over 'cultural issues'

BY AEDAN HELMER, OTTAWA SUNStudent leaders have pulled the mat out from 60 University of Ottawa students, ending a free on-campus yoga class over fears the teachings could be seen as a form of "cultural appropriation."

Jennifer Scharf, who has been offering free weekly yoga instruction to students since 2008, says she was shocked when told in September the program would be suspended, and saddened when she learned of the reasoning.

Staff at the Centre for Students with Disabilities believe that "while yoga is a really great idea and accessible and great for students ... there are cultural issues of implication involved in the practice," according to an email from the centre.

The centre is operated by the university's Student Federation, which first approached Scharf seven years ago about offering yoga instruction to students both with and without disabilities.

The centre goes on to say, "Yoga has been under a lot of controversy lately due to how it is being practiced," and which cultures those practices "are being taken from."

The centre official argues since many of those cultures "have experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy ... we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves while practising yoga."

The concept of cultural appropriation is normally applied when a dominant culture borrows symbols of a marginalized culture for dubious reasons -- such as the fad of hipsters donning indigenous headdresses as a fashion statement, without any regard to cultural significance or stereotype.

But Scharf, a yoga teacher with the downtown Rama Lotus Centre, said the concept does not apply in this case, arguing the complaint that killed the program came instead from a "social justice warrior" with "fainting heart ideologies" in search of a cause celebre.

"People are just looking for a reason to be offended by anything they can find," said Scharf.

"There's a real divide between reasonable people and those people just looking to jump on a bandwagon. And unfortunately, it ends up with good people getting punished for doing good things."

There were about 60 students who participated in the free program.

Acting student federation president Romeo Ahimakin denied the decision resulted from a complaint.

Ahimakin said the student federation put the yoga session on hiatus while they consult with students "to make it better, more accessible and more inclusive to certain groups of people that feel left out in yoga-like spaces. ... We are trying to have those sessions done in a way in which students are aware of where the spiritual and cultural aspects come from, so that these sessions are done in a respectful manner."

Scharf offered a compromise, suggesting she change the name from yoga to "mindful stretching," since that would reflect the content of the program and would "literally change nothing about the course."

"I'm not pretending to be some enlightened yogi master, and the point (of the program) isn't to educate people on the finer points of the ancient yogi scripture," she told the Sun.

"The point is to get people to have higher physical awareness for their own physical health and enjoyment."

According to email correspondence between Scharf and the centre, student leaders debated rebranding the program, but stumbled over how the French translation for "mindful stretching" would appear on a promotional poster, and eventually decided to suspend the program.

Student federation official Julie Seguin sympathized with Scharf over e-mail, defending the use of the term "yoga," and saying, "I am also still of the opinion that a single complaint does not outweigh all of the good that these classes have done."

Seguin said "labeling the CSD's yoga lessons as cultural appropriation is questionable (and) debatable" and called on further discussion with the student executive.

Always a effing negative & something to bitch about.

I hope that these individuals of wuss decide NOT to breed due to their own ignorant thoughts and ideas.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1460122593

Gap apologizes for racially insensitive ad



But this one wasn't a problem:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1460125245




I guess this should go in the PC thread, but it's all the same -- bunch of babies.

In the first one I see kids modeling clothes.

In the second one I see a lazy black girl being held up by support from whitey, but that's only because I read the commentary between the first and second picture. Shortsightedness begets unintended consequences.

So, cultural appropriation...

I've got a good one.

Was back at the Trader Joe's wine store this evening. Seriously, this is the greatest store in the entire world. So much so that I've put down the whiskey of late and started educating my wine palate.

Anyway, there's a small section of Sake in the back of the store, right next to the ports and dessert wines. This one caught my eye:


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1460156950

Trader Joe-San? That's cultural appropriation on two levels! For starters, you are not allowed to enjoy the wine of another country whose history you have not experienced. (I mean, we did nuke Japan a total of five times, twice in 1945, and then three more times when the US-designed reactors at Fuku popped.)

But a US company adopting a Japanese naming convention for its own commercial gain? Unbereevabre! I'm offended, and I demand that Trader Joe's immediately cease the insensitive practice and give me a lifetime supply of free Syrah as compensation for the trauma which they have caused me. (It's ok to appropriate Syrah, since French and Australian people are mostly white*.)


* = Yes, yes... I know that Syrah wine is derived from Shirazi, which is originally of Iranian origin. But fuck Iran.

I'm really torn here. I'm of Spanish, Scots-Irish, Welsh, Polish-Jewish and Native American (North American and Central-South American) descent -- and that's just the stuff I know about.

But I like Grappa (Italian) and Chinese chili sauces. Plus, the imperialist U.S. Navy certified me as a nuclear-weapons delivery pilot.

I just can't live with myself anymore! I'll bet I'm not alone. We need a support group.

Why is it not cultural appropriation when Japanese play jazz or Chinese play classical music?

It's only appropriation when you are enjoying some element of a culture which your people have oppressed in the past.

So Chinese people, for instance, are allowed to eat sushi without causing any problems. But restaurants in Japan may not serve dim sum, because that would be cultural appropriation.

Got it?

Trader Joe's is owned by ALDI, which is a German company. That makes it ok.

I seriously can't quite figure out the sex/orientation of anyone in that video.

Nitrodann. Absolutely spot on.

Silly negro acts like no other group was ever enslaved. So educationally depraved. So indoctrinated.

wait, wasn't reparations how the jews got so rich?

I just can't remember if it was reparations from the Germans, Egyptians, or the Babylonians that killed and enslaved them.

Saw that video yesterday. Am I the only one who doesn't quite understand why it is so popular/considered humorous? I didn't find it funny in the least, and the person on the other end was responding about as well as I would expect anyone to in that situation. Maybe it's just me....

it's totally hilarious.

The manager handles it very well, but what the dude was saying was hysterical and was perfect satire.