Octopus Overlords

The "Hot Water Challenge," which kids say was inspired by YouTube videos, involves pouring boiling water on an unsuspecting friend — or, in one fatal instance, daring a friend to drink boiling water through a straw.

On Monday, an 11-year-old Jamoneisha Merritt of the Bronx was badly burned when friends poured boiling water on her face while she slept. In July, a 10-year-old Wesley Smith of North Carolina suffered severe burns after he and his step-brother attempted the challenge. And in late July, an 8-year-old Ki'ari Pope of Florida died several months after her cousin dared her to drink boiling water through a straw. Pope burned her mouth and throat, received a tracheotomy, and suffered enduring respiratory problems. The night she died, she told her family she couldn't breathe, and fell unconscious shortly thereafter.

Fresh off her incredibly bizarre and vulgar slam poetry session at the Women's March on Washington to protest the democratic election of Donald Trump, insane Hollywood feminist Ashley Judd went all Lena Dunham and reported an airport worker who apparently had the audacity to call her "sweetheart" and compliment her dress.

Where does this guy think we are? Saudi freaking Arabia?

The horror continues, as the self-styled Nasty Woman recollected the kind employee — trigger warning — complimenting her dress.

“Then when I was setting my things out he said, ‘hey, nice dress."

Unbelievably, the nice guy then told her: "Have a good day, sweetheart."

Here, Judd basically explains that the manager said he had a talking-to with the employee she complained about (for essentially doing his job in a friendly manner) and that she was given vouchers for coffee in recompense for the intense ordeal. Then, framing herself as a modern Rosa Parks, Judd complimented herself on her bravery for speaking up.How deeply entrenched in your own victimhood do you have to be to be triggered by a friendly airport employee calling you sweetheart? Really?

Toe wrote:I think a male calling an unknown female "Sweetheart" is a little sexist and not really appropriate.

Zarathud wrote: If you can't understand that, you're clueless.

Zarathud wrote:It's completely different between a woman calling a man "sweetheart" and a man calling a woman the same thing. If you can't understand that, you're clueless.

Zarathud wrote:It's completely different between a woman calling a man "sweetheart" and a man calling a woman the same thing. If you can't understand that, you're clueless.

LordMortis wrote:Oh, it's happening, sweetheart.

McNutt wrote:In the South at least it's not uncommon at all for people who are helping you to call you "sweetheart" or "dear" or "darling" and it's no big deal. I imagine that Ms. Judd, being from Kentucky, has lived around that her whole life. It can certainly be intended as sexist, such as when Cam Newton called a female reporter sweetheart during a press conference, but usually it's just people trying to be nice. I can't tell you the number of times I've been called that by women I don't know and I've never batted an eye at it.

Toe wrote:I think a male calling an unknown female "Sweetheart" is a little sexist and not really appropriate. I was brought up thinking the sweetheart was what you called someone you were in love with (ala valentines day type of stuff). I can understand women not really wanting to be called that. Heck, as man it makes me uncomfortable when a female service person calls me that (along with the other typical stuff, like "honey","love", etc). That being said, when that happens to me I just ignore the uncomfortableness of it and carry on, not rant about it to managers, complain on social media, etc.

Scuzz wrote: Damn I hate it when some woman I don't know calls me "honey". But I just assume it is a southern cultural thing and I just ignore it.

Jeff V wrote:

Zarathud wrote:It's completely different between a woman calling a man "sweetheart" and a man calling a woman the same thing. If you can't understand that, you're clueless.

It really depends on the context and intent. It could very well be the same innocent platitude it is when a woman says the same thing to a man (or a not-so-innocent flirtation - again, depends on intent and context).

Freyland wrote:Obviously, Ms. Judd should have just poured boiling water on him.

Isgrimnur wrote:Sexism has a lot to do with power.

The blue 1967 Buick Skylark would have been perfect for an all-American road trip.

But Damien Roy, 22, and Bailey Roy, 21, never got that far. Before the two brothers from Nova Scotia could even cross the Canadian border, drones, helicopters, police dogs and a SWAT team surrounded their car. From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Oct. 26, 2018, the checkpoint between Houlton, Maine, and Woodstock, New Brunswick, remained shut down amid a bizarre standoff, frustrating thousands of travelers.

In the end, there was no security threat — just two brothers with a poorly conceived plan and 21 jugs of gasoline. On Friday, Canadian officials agreed to drop terrorism hoax charges against the Roys and release them from jail, and explained for the first time what had led to their arrest. The men, it turned out, had been trying to see if they could make it to Mexico in a car with no license plates, and without stopping for gas or presenting any identification along the way.
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The larger issue, however was that they didn’t have passports or any other forms of ID with them. To avoid having to deal with border agents, the Roys decided that they would take a back road through a remote stretch of the North Country where they were unlikely to encounter checkpoints, and then sneak into Maine.

Their old-school navigation methods evidently failed: At around 10 a.m. on Oct. 26, they found themselves approaching one of the largest checkpoints in New Brunswick.
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Officials on both sides of the border were unnerved. Two officers from the Canada Border Services Agency went over to investigate. One tried to talk to the brothers and ask if they were okay, but got no response: The men just kept staring dead ahead, gazing out over the pine trees and the deep drifts of snow.

Then, the border agents noticed that the back seat of the Skylark was littered with jugs of gas. They quickly backed away, closed down the checkpoint and summoned the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.