Friday

March 29th, 2024

Diversions

New World Disorder

News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd

By News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd

Published March 11, 2015

New World Disorder

Last year in Middle East school markets, the worldwide publishing giant HarperCollins was selling a popular atlas whose maps pretended there was no such country as Israel. The space that is Israel was merged into Jordan, Syria and Gaza. The company said it was merely honoring "local preferences" of potential atlas purchasers, whom HarperCollins presumed were Arabs wishing that Israel did not exist. (In January 2015, the company finally changed course, publicly "regretted" its decision and recalled all existing stock.) [Washington Post, 1-2-2015]

Montanan John Abarr told the Great Falls Tribune in November that his Rocky Mountain Knights of the Ku Klux Klan opposes the "new world order" pushing a "one government" system on the planet -- but also stands against discrimination based on race, religion or sexual orientation. "White supremacy is the old Klan," he said. "This is the new Klan" (except that, he said, robes and hoods will still be required, along with "secret rituals"). [Great Falls Tribune, 11-3-2014]

The New Normal: In January, Mittens the kitten and Charcoal the Chihuahua mix made news as hermaphrodites whose veterinarians had recommended which gender the since-adopted strays should retain. Mittens, of the town of Heart's Desire, Newfoundland, was scheduled for "gender assignment" surgery to become solely male, and Charcoal, of Boise, Idaho, is recovering from mid-January surgery to leave her exclusively female. News reports did not disclose why "male" was chosen for Mittens, but the doctor said correcting Charcoal's pre-surgery problem, urination, would be less stressful as a female. [CBC News, 1-21-2015] [KIVI-TV (Nampa, Id.), 1-20-2015]

Comment by clicking here.