Tag Archives: Culture

1 in 5 UK Teens Have Felt Suicidal, Male Suicide Rates Climb.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the United Kingdom released their 2018 suicide report, revealing a dramatic increase in suicides last year – the highest rates since 2002.

Suicide rates had been on the decline since 2013. Yet there were 6,507 suicides registered in 2018 compared with 5,821 in 2017 – an 11.8 per cent increase.

While the general female suicide rate rose, ONS determined the rise to be comparable to previous years at 5.4 deaths per 100,000 people. The rise in female under-25 suicides is considerable:

“Despite having a low number of deaths overall, rates among the under 25s have generally increased in recent years, particularly 10 to 24-year-old females where the rate has increased significantly since 2012 to its highest level with 3.3 deaths per 100,000 females in 2018.”

Nonetheless it appears as though the overall rise in suicides is predominantly driven by men.

Males comprise three quarters of the deaths (4,903 of the 6,507 suicides). The male rate has jumped from 15.5 per 100,000 in 2017 to 17.2 per 100,000 in 2018. 

Research also found 17 per cent of school children ages 11 through 16 have felt suicidal as a result of bullying.

In addition, due to bullying and harassment, 78 per cent of children surveyed revealed feeling anxious and 56 per cent said they have been unable to sleep.

The survey was conducted by The Diana Award, an anti-bullying charity in honor of the late Princess Diana.

The Diana Award has launched an anti-bullying campaign, offering free training to become an ‘Anti-Bullying Ambassador’.

• In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the U.S., the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

Sofia Carbone is a reporter at RaheemKassam.com and tweets at @SiCarbone_

Leading LGBT Website: 50% of Satanic Temple is LGBT… ‘It’s Hard Not To See The Appeal of Satanism’

Leading LGBT website Pink News has made the stunning claim that almost half of the Satanic Temple’s members are from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender community, while claiming “it is not hard to see the appeal of Satanism”.

The recently published piece entitled ‘The Satanic Temple is in favor of equal rights for LGBT+ people’ quotes from an interview the Satanic Temple leader – Lucien Greaves – with the UK’s Attitude magazine, also an LGBT publication.

“It would be a conservative estimate to say that more than 50 per cent of our membership is LGBTQ,” Greaves began before going on to discuss how he believes, despite moves from many Christian denominations to adopt more “inclusive” policies, LGBT people feel “disenfranchised” as if religion were a political party.

“I think that’s because [LGBT people] feel disowned and disenfranchised from the traditional religious institutions. So, you have a population willing to embrace a religious identification that is boldly willing to speak out to the contrary.

“From the start, when one of our early actions was the Pink Mass, a lot of LGBTQ people were looking for another community that didn’t see them as defined by their sexual orientation.

“Within the Satanic Temple, we’re all pretty much one and the same.

“We’re all Satanists and it’s not like we have ‘tolerance’ for trans people or gay people or sex workers, we just don’t f**king care, and a lot of people in those communities appreciate that.”

Pink News said of his comments: “When most major religions still directly discriminate against LGBT+ people, it’s not hard to see the appeal of Satanism.”

This is not the first time The Satanic Temple has ignited controversy.

Co-founder Lucien Greaves appeared on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight to discuss a veteran memorial and free speech debate in a small town in Minnesota.

Carlson questioned the group’s identification as a religion, given the Temple is non-theistic. He also shared his speculations with Greaves that the group was purposely trolling and stirring up controversy.

Greaves stood by The Satanic Temple being a religion, and claimed the organization and its actions are true to its tenants.

Pink News however, the Satanic Temple’s latest major new fan after The Guardian newspaper, says: “A commitment to Satan is not required to join the Temple, although a commitment to trolling anti-LGBT evangelicals is desirable.”

“Satanists don’t actually believe in Satan,” the news site claims.

The Satanic Temple’s website elaborates on the idea: “As such, we do not promote a belief in a personal Satan. To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions.”

The group’s continuous statements and actions on political and social stances – such as the LGBT+ statements in their latest interview – support the idea the organization may be more concerned with trolling than being a genuine religious sanctuary for those lost in other religions.

Sofia Carbone is a reporter at RaheemKassam.com and tweets at @SiCarbone_

Kassam in The American Spectator: Here’s How Dry January Makes Me Better Than You

My American friends gawp at me with a delectable cocktail of envy, anger, and disappointment. For most of them, I’m their heaviest drinking friend. For January, I’m the bane of their existence.

This is my third “Dry January,” a very British phenomenon which began in 2013. If Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, Dry January is surely the worst. But I want to evangelize about it for a moment.

The Wall Street Journal reports that I’m right (of course) to do it. Dry January participants lose an average of 4 lbs. over the month, and their liver function improves while their cancerous…ness declines. We get better sleep. We are mentally quicker on the draw, and by and large we are the most annoying people around all month. I enjoy that aspect, too.

Because, you see, from February 1 to December 31 I’m the guy who’s always texting my entire phonebook at around two in the afternoon.

“Drink? Trump Hotel? Morton’s? For goodness sakes, I’ll bring a bottle of whiskey to your house just let me sit on the stoop and you can talk to me from the window. Just spare me the indignity of drinking alone.” (No, there’s nothing “empowering” about doing that. It’s just sad, guys).

So now I get to exact my revenge for people being totally rubbish at drinking all year long.

Every sip you take, every drunk face you make… I’ll be mocking you.

READ MORE IN THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR

Kassam in The American Spectator: Burka Brawl; Britain Finally Standing Up to Islamism?

The Boris Johnson Burka row has raged much longer than it should have. It is almost becoming boring.

Yes, I’m getting tired of winning.

But like any semi-competent writer, I can still squeeze the last drops of juice from this festering orange of pseudo-shock and intimidatory outrage.

One of the recent protests against Boris — in his constituency and my hometown of Uxbridge — saw a Muslim fundamentalist, niqab-clad, also sporting a sign which read “#MyDressMyChoice.”

The hashtag was popularized in 2014 after a number of Kenyan women were brutally beaten for daring to wear short skirts.

The irony of this caption being co-opted by the adherents of the antithetical position to the victims of abuse has clearly been lost on Britain’s Muslim fundamentalist community, who have engaged in a coordinated campaign of both threats, victimhood, outrage, blasphemy enforcement, and political leverage wielding.

The same gaslighting approach as those predominantly male abusers of Kenyan women, and of other women in Iran, to give another example, who cruise around in public looking for other women to shame and attack for their failure to cover up.

In truth, the reason Britain’s Boris burka saga has continued on so long (apart from the alliterative possibilities that mean tabloid editors don’t want it to die) is that everyone — right, left, center, up, down, and all over the political spectrum — realizes this is a litmus test for Britain.

READ THE REST AT THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR