Fake Race Change Gets White Poet Published

A library worker and amateur poet in Allen County, Indiana named Michael Derrick Hudson made over 40 unsuccessful attempts to publish a poem he had written, but then found success after he adopted the Chinese-sounding pen name Yi-Fen Chou.  The poem, entitled "The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve", was rejected 40 times under his real name and then 9 more times under his pen name, before being published by Prairie Schooner, and later being included in the anthology The Best American Poetry 2015.

Although Hudson never tried to pass himself off as Asian in any way analogous to Rachel Dolezal's attempt to appear black, he has understandably drawn some angry reaction from Asians.  As poet and Chapman University professor Victoria Chang told The Washington Post:

“And it diminishes categorically all of our accomplishments. He sort of implies that minorities are published because we’re minorities, not because of our work. That’s just insulting because it strips everything we’ve worked so hard for.”

I would beg to differ with Professor Chang.  I would submit that Mr. Hudson did not imply anything, but instead exposed a willingness within the publishing business to publish minorities because they're minorities, or at least a desire to include minorities in their publications out of fear of being accused of racism they don't.

Read more at The Washington Post (mentioned above), The Independent and The Guardian.  In their write-up, Hot Air includes an excerpt of Mr. Chou's, er, I mean, Mr. Hudson's poem.

Mumbai Bans Meat For Four Days

From Reuters:

Mumbai, India's financial capital, has banned the slaughter and sale of meat for four days this month following a demand from the strictly vegetarian Jain community, sparking outrage among meat-eaters already upset by a permanent beef ban imposed this year.

The ban has drawn quite a bit of flak, since it effectively forces non-Jains to follow Jain practice.  Some reaction:

From First Post, why should the Mumbai government "impose one religion's practice on everyone else"?

From Business Standard, the meat ban is the "latest step in state-sponsored intolerance".

From Daily O, vegetarians should not worry, because meat-eaters will not burn down your house of worship.

My opinion?  As I have said before, when lions and tigers and bears, oh my, stop eating meat, so will I.

Buried Stone Monument Found Near Stonehenge

Archaeologists in England using ground-penetrating radar and a mobile magnetometer have discovered a row of 90 buried stones at a site called Durrington Walls, one of the largest henge-style sites in Great Britain, located about two miles northeast of Stonehenge.  The stones are thought to have been put in place over 4,500 years ago.

Read more at The Guardian, BBC News and The Telegraph.

European Migration News

Some stories about the migration into Europe, and some tangential items:

From Channel NewsAsia, the Hungarian prime minister states that quotas on how many immigrants each European country must accept are meaningless as long as the EU's "outer borders" are not secure.

From Vice News, the Hungarian PM also says that since the migrants are not staying in the first EU country they reach, they should be seen as immigrants, not refugees.

From CNN, Germany and Austria say that they "can't keep up".

From The Telegraph, the French president tells the U.K. prime minister if you want reform, take care of some refugees.

From CP24, migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos face tensions and cause them, too.

From Ekathimerini, Cyprus offers to take in 300 preferably Christian refugees.

From The Austrian, an Australian bishop say that Christian refugees "should go to front of queue".

From The Last Refuge, an English translation of an article in Niezależna describing the behavior of migrants at the Italian-Austrian border, as witnessed by a Polish traveler.  Ostrzeżenie: to nie ładne.  (Warning: it ain't pretty.)

From Reuters, the United States has asked Greece to deny their airspace to Russian flights to Syria.  (From what I know about the geography of southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean area, I don't really see why Russia would need to overfly Greece on the way to Syria, unless Turkey has already closed their airspace to them.)

And from DEBKAfile, a Russian submarine armed with an arsenal of nuclear weapons is heading for Syria.

"In God We Trust" On Police Vehicles Draws Complaints

Like dozens of other police agencies around the United State, the police department of Childress, Texas have recently added the motto "In God We Trust" to their vehicles, but they have drawn complaints from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.  From the Chicago Tribune:

A police department in a rural Texas Bible Belt community has placed large "In God We Trust" decals on its patrol vehicles in response to recent violence against law enforcement officers, but a watchdog group says the decals amount to an illegal government endorsement of religion.

The decision by police this month to unveil the phrase in Childress, an agricultural community of some 6,100 people at the southern edge of the Texas Panhandle, follows a similar move by dozens of other police agencies elsewhere in the country.

Read the full story, and if you have a problem with what the policemen are doing, please also read your coins and dollar bills.

Actor Sentenced For Killing Rabbit

Actor Dimitri Diatchenko, who appeared in Sons of Anarchy and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, has been sentenced to community service, probation and animal cruelty counseling after pleading guilty to animal cruelty.  His crime?  Skinning, cooking and partially eating his ex-girlfriend's pet rabbit.

This makes me think that Elmer Fudd might wish to reconsider his longtime desire to cook up some wabbit stew.

Read more at The Wrap, Sky News and Fox News.

West Point Cadets Injured In......Pillow Fight?

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY has acknowledged that during their annual freshman pillow fight this past August, 30 cadets were injured, 24 of them with concussions.  Some freshmen reportedly packed their pillows with hard objects such as helmets.  The pillow fight is a tradition that goes back at least to 1897.

Read more at The New York Times, Yahoo News and Russia Today.

UPDATE:  From ABC News, the pillow fight has been under investigation.

Friday Links

As the first weekend of the NCAA football season gets underway (which actually started with a few games yesterday), here are some other things going on out there:

From FrontpageMag, what's really going on with the Syrian refugee crisis.

From the New York Post, Kansas University has lifted their lockdown after reports of a possible gunman on campus.

From LifeNews, an abortionist conducted research on the brains of aborted babies who had Down syndrome.  (If a baby has Down syndrome but the mother doesn't, wouldn't that imply that before birth the baby is not part of the mother's body?)

From the New York Daily News, shoe thieves are apprehended after posting pics of themselves with the goods on Facebook.

From Vermont Watchdog, the state of Vermont (or as I call it, the other VT), long known for its lack of billboards, has more recently been experiencing solar sprawl.

From CNN, a report on the Boeing 777-9X, which has folding wingtips.

From Fox News, the Chinese warships sailing near Alaska earlier this week reportedly came within 12 miles of the coast, thus entering U.S. waters.

From the Daily Mail, New York City has 80 encampments for the homeless.  (via End Times Headlines, and H/T Kristy Lonestar for Tweeting this)

From NBC Chicago, this month's upcoming lunar eclipse will be a supermoon.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, an 11-year-old boy fatally shoots a 16-year-old allegedly invading his home.

From the Washington Post, a look at who led on September 4 of the respective year preceding the past few presidential elections.

From Wired, the latest Transporter movie has a different leading actor than the previous three.

From ABC News, the Spanish prime minister calls the migration Europe's "top challenge".

From Deutsch Welle, the UN calls for the EU to accept as many as 200,000 refugees.  Poland says stop the illegal migration.  (via Refugee Settlement Watch).

From FiveThirtyEight, today's Significant Digits.

From CNS News, while the unemployment rate decreases, the participation rate stays at a record low for the third straight month.

From Townhall, a report in President Obama's "Alaska Global Warming Field Trip".

And from Reboot Illinois, cartoonist Scott Stantis takes a swipe at Chicago Mayor (and Obama friend) Rahm Emanuel (D).

Columcille

Columcille Megalith Park is located in eastern Pennsylvania a few miles north of Bangor, and is inspired by the Scottish island of Iona, where an Irish monk named Columba established a monastery.  In Irish, his name was Colum Cille, from which the park gets its name.  Columcille is privately owned, but open to the public.  There is no admission charge, but the park has several places where donations may be left.  Walking in from the small roadside parking area, I could see these stones and a circular tower.

A circle of standing stones surrounds a sitting boulder.

Here's a closer shot of the tower.

This trilithon is so big that you can walk through it.

A pathway leads downhill from the trilithon and past another group of stones.

This particular dolmen reminded me of the Poulnabrone Dolmen in Ireland.

This small pedestrian bridge is partially in shadow.

The Chapel of St. Columba may be used for gatherings, with prior permission from the park's owners, or for quiet meditation by individuals.  Be sure to close the door on your way out.

Set on a small mound, this off-white stone has an interesting surface.

At the park's eastern end are these three large stones.  I called them the "three monsters".

Renaming Mount McKinley Shows Obama's Inconsistency

As President Obama flies off to Alaska, an editorial in the Washington Examiner notes his inconsistency when it comes to honoring local wishes.  In changing the name of Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, back to the native Denali, Obama gave many Alaskans something they have been seeking for several decades.  But as the editorial points out, he and his administration have not always been so respectful toward the locals.

If Obama would go this far to honor local wishes — stripping honor from a war hero and predecessor who was murdered in office — perhaps he could consider honoring those wishes when there are matters of actual substance at stake. For example, Alaskans have unsuccessfully sought for decades to exploit certain oil resources that exist in their state.

Read the full article.