IKEA Monkey

After a seemingly healthy 16-year-old South Carolina boy died from drinking a series of caffeinated beverages last month, parents are being warned about the dangers of drinking excessive amounts of caffeine in popular coffee beverages and energy drinks. You May Also Like: Forget Coffee: You Can Now Get Your Caffeine Fix From a Bracelet A post shared by davis cripe (@pinksicle) on Mar 5, 2017 at 3:59pm PST On April 26, high school student Davis Allen Cripe collapsed and died ...

While one might think that a subreddit for MGTOWs — Men Going Their Own Way — would be full of men actually going their own way and basking in the glorious freedom of their lives without women, this is not the case! They are still very mad at us, and they want us to know it. And to truly feel the pain and regret of losing them to their own way that they are now going.

Because you see it is not enough for men to just go their own way and be done with it. Their movement is part “taking their toys and going home” but also part Lysistrata. The problem is that no one really wanted to play with their stupid toys to begin with, so the Lysistrata part is fairly ineffective.

But many of them have not lost hope. They are very, very convinced that at some point soon, women are going to wake up, see themselves replaced with super sexy fembots who totally want to play with MGTOW toys all the time, and finally regret all that silly women’s lib stuff and beg to be their obedient and loving Stepford Wives. ONLY BY THEN IT WILL BE TOO LATE, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

This mindset is so perfectly captured in a recent post on the MGTOW subreddit, that I felt the need to share it with all of you.

Behold, a message to all the women who darest wander into their MGTOWpia, from user “MagicVinegar”:

Who have stumbled upon this sub and the whole MGTOW thing via the Red Pill documentary.
You are now seeing the result of feminism on the world. The occultist cause you championed without ever really knowing what exactly your were championing.
You have seen how the feminist movement has destroyed the family, men and also yourselves.
We were calling out for people to listen to men decade upon decade about the suffering men experience everyday and you did not listen or you simply did not care.
Your movement lied to you and used you (hey they are women you should have known that was going to happen ffs).
So this is where we are now, we are walking away from ALL of you because we have seen the constant struggle is not worth the end result, you are all simply not worth it anymore.
We have took our power and sovereignty back we gave to you as part of the relationship dynamic and are now using it for our own individual betterment.
If you want to point fingers then look to yourselves because women are the ones that set this in motion and I honestly don’t think there is anything women can do to stop it.
MGTOW is a logical male response to a stacked deck at a card game, they just get up and leave the table.
You are now on your own at that table ladies and the chips are dwindling fast.
Have fun playing the game.

Oh, no. What ever have we done?

The best thing about MGTOWs is that they are constantly making dramatic exits from parties no one even knew they were at.

Of course, many of those in the comment section did not share MagicVinegar’s hope for a world in which women realize the error of their ways — as women are just too dumb to even know what they have lost. Others worried that the sneaky evil women would just pretend to want to give up feminism and their careers and probably also the right to vote in order to disingenuously seduce men into marriage. Or something!

YEAH! Those ladies will for sure just start pretending to be conservative to be cool. That definitely seems like a real thing that will happen!

But also, again, we are too stupid to realize what we are missing out on.

But oh, haha! We are going to be SO MISERABLE, also, too! Hanging out at home with our cats being all lonely and stuff, drinking wine and definitely sobbing about all the super cool dreamboats on Reddit who are too smart to love us!

Ugh, I hardly know how we will all go on. Clearly, we are the angry, lonely ones in this dichotomy right here! Oh, except that also dating is super easy for us, apparently.

On behalf of women everywhere, I would like to thank every single one of these gentlemen for taking themselves out of the dating/gene pool and not inflicting themselves upon us. In fact, I would have to say that these fellas taking their toys and going home is one of the greatest gifts feminism has bestowed upon us. Truly, I do not think we could be more grateful.

[Reddit]

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The law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest, showing that the probe is reaching into the highest levels of government, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Bong Joon-Ho’s Okja has proven a surprisingly controversial movie – not, presumably, due to its contents, but its origin. The Snowpiercer director’s latest is premiering, unsurprisingly, as a competition title at the Cannes Film Festival, but it comes via the auspices of Netflix Original Films. So its inclusion – and that of Netflix’s The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), from Noah Baumbach – has prompted roars of protest so loud, the festival changed its rules to exclude Netflix titles from future competition slates. Okja and Meyerowitz were kept in this year’s competition, but perhaps for naught; at the festival’s kick-off press conference, jury president Pedro Almodóvar announced, “I personally don’t perceive the Palme d’Or [should be] given to a film that is then not seen on the big screen.”

And jeez, all Bong Joon-Ho wanted to do was make his movie – which, by the looks of its newly released trailer, is bonkers. It seems firmly in the mold of his 2006 smash The Host, which also found a monster on the loose in a metropolitan setting, though with a bit more of the explicit anti-capitalist commentary of Snowpiercer. Throw in an A+ cast, startling effects, and Jake Gyllenhaal looking like this, and you’ve got one of the summer’s must-see movies, not matter what screen you’re watching it on.

Okja hits Netflix and select cities on June 28.

To see more unmatched reporting, visit theonion.com.

Stacy G.’s daughter was having a meltdown. Her daughter, a sophomore at a prestigious private college, wanted an internship at Boston Children’s Hospital, a plum job that would look great on her applications to graduate school. After four weeks of frantically waiting for the school to arrange for an interview at the hospital, Stacy called her daughter’s adviser at the internships office to complain.

“For $65,000 [in full attendance costs], you can bet your sweet ass that I’m calling that school ... If your children aren’t getting what they’ve been promised, colleges are going to get that phone call from parents,” Stacy said. “It’s my money. It’s a lot of money. We did try to have her handle it on her own, but when it didn’t work out, I called them.”

Whether Stacy is representative of the majority of parents of students at four-year, selective colleges or a member of the dreaded “helicopter parents” club, there are enough parents like her to have spawned a small industry of self-help books on the subject, research papers, and even a new cellphone app. Checking in with their children daily and occasionally contacting school administrators, a contingent of parents of students at these schools have stepped up their involvement levels in recent years, sources told me, because of technology, employment concerns, and the high price of college. And colleges themselves have responded by creating new channels to communicate with parents.

Laura Hamilton, an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Merced, began studying a group of college women and their families back in 2004, embedding herself in the dormitory of a midwestern college and later writing about her qualitative research in two books, Paying for the Party and Parenting to a Degree. As Hamilton explained in a 2016 Atlantic article adapted from the latter book, involvement by the parents varied. Some parents, often those without college experience themselves, had a hands-off approach to their kids’ higher education, while other parents were more involved. Among the most highly involved parents, some helped their kids navigate the school bureaucracy so they could later enter into graduate programs or a solid entry-level job requiring a degree. Others were highly involved with their daughters’ social lives, assuring that they were well-positioned to find wealthy husbands. “The Mrs. degree is alive and well,” Hamilton told me.

While some parents might focus on career goals for their children and others care more about their daughters’ social lives, there is no question that parents’ involvement in the lives of their college-aged kids as a whole has intensified—at least among middle-class and wealthy families whose children attend selective colleges. According to Harlan Cohen, the author of The Naked Roommate: For Parents Only: A Parent’s Guide to the New College Experience, smartphones and social media have enabled parents to stay more hands-on. Cohen, who has worked with college administrators at over 500 colleges and meets regularly with parents as part of his research, added that it’s not unusual for parents to send their kids a wake-up call in the morning to ensure that they make it to their early classes. Stacy, for her part, communicates with her daughter at least three times a day.

Parenting involvement is certainly also driven in part by the rising cost of college tuition. The full cost of attendance at most selective private universities can run around $65,000 per year—a nearly $260,000 four-year bill for parents whose children do not qualify for merit or need-based aid. Between 1995 and 2015, the average tuition at national private colleges jumped 179 percent. Out-of-state tuition and fees at public institutions rose by 226 percent over that same period of time. College is often the biggest expenditure that parents will ever make for their children; they want to make sure that their money is being well spent. Few people would spend $260,000 without expecting some oversight.

What’s more, many parents have a deep fear that their children will be unable to find work after graduation and remain dependent upon them during their 20s. To avoid this fate, some choose to oversee their kids’ academic choices. After all, the “kid in the basement” bogeyman isn’t entirely irrational: Navigating college has become more complicated than ever before, especially at large public colleges where there can be multiple specialized schools and hundreds of majors. Mistakes—such as choosing a major that doesn’t correspond to locally available careers—can be very expensive if they lead to additional time in school.

To make sure that her daughter avoids mistakes and reaches her career goals, Stacy told me that she was helping her daughter prepare for graduate programs by doing her own research on the requirements at those schools. Without minimizing the efforts of the students, she believes that they benefit from efforts from parents like herself. Hamilton’s research also pointed to the fact that kids with more involved parents were more likely to finish college and find good paying jobs after graduation. Other research shows that first-generation students who do not have highly engaged parents take and complete fewer classes and earn lower grades than their classmates.  

* * *

Responding to the growing parental oversight, many colleges are establishing more formal methods of working with parents. Connecticut’s Fairfield University and Texas A&M University, for example, now have tabs on the front pages of their websites targeted at parents. Some institutions provide a parent-and-guardian track during student orientation and create webinars for parents on topics like homesickness and career services. There are parent “leadership councils” at these schools that act as a voice for parents and provide the administration with input. Universities also reach out to parents with weekly newsletters, Facebook pages, and web chats. Fairfield even has welcome events for incoming parents hosted by current parents in their homes or conference centers as far away as California.

“We are constantly engaging the parent community,” said Jennifer Anderson, the vice president of marketing and communications for Fairfield. She sees it as a positive trend, one that benefits the school. Keeping that engagement high “gives parents the feeling that the college cares and that their kid is on the right track.” Because students are so busy today, she added, parents who learn about events through the weekly newsletter can then nudge their students to attend those events.

In an email response to questions about Texas A&M’s parent-focused efforts, Libby Daggers, an associate coordinator in new student and family programs, wrote: “Our philosophy is that the university, students, and their families are all a part of a collaborative relationship which leads to student success … By providing specific information and easy access to resources we feel we can equip our families with the tools necessary to support their student throughout their time in college.”

But Hamilton had a slightly different take on universities’ motivations for incorporating parents more zealously into the college experience: State support for public higher-education institutions has been declining precipitously in recent years, and schools have been forced to cut administrative expenses. At University of California campuses, as Hamilton noted, only about 10 percent of revenue comes from the state; most of the revenue comes from tuition, in particular from out-of-state students. These state colleges, she believes, are using parents to spot mental-health and academic crises early on, which then helps them maintain a high retention rate and save costs with advisement.

* * *

Is it possible for parents to be too involved in their children’s lives when they go to college? Parents have to help their kids without overpowering them, Cohen said. Kids need to become “comfortable with the uncomfortable” and learn to navigate tricky academic and social challenges on their own. He travels to schools around the country, including my neighborhood’s high school, giving talks to parents about when and how to get engaged in their children’s college lives.

Excessive parental involvement in the lives of their college-aged children, Hamilton said, extends the timeframe for parenting past the 0-18 years. It delays adulthood in children. And, most importantly for Hamilton, it exacerbates socioeconomic inequality. Students without helicopter parents, she’s found, are less likely than those with them to translate their higher-education degree to a slot in the middle class or get enough support from their college.

These drawbacks don’t faze Stacy. Her daughter is growing more mature and independent, she said; supervising her academic choices was critical. Oftentimes Stacy urges her daughter to first check with her adviser about professional questions, after which she’ll step in to do her own research. She compared her input on her daughter’s college choices to getting a second opinion for a medical procedure.

“It’s a lot for them to navigate, and it wouldn’t be fair to tell them to navigate it on their own,” she said. “It’s not called helicopter parenting. It’s called Parenting 2017.”

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch passengers on KLM flights might have recognized the co-pilot's voice when he introduced himself on the airline's Cityhopper services.

You know that McDonald’s ad where the fast food chain implies that the best way for a child to get over the loss of a loved one is to scrarf down a square fish patty on a bun? It’s been pulled, for reasons that should be immediately clear if you read that first sentence.

CNN Money reports that McDonald’s pulled the ad — which first began airing in the UK on Saturday — after receiving feedback from consumers who felt the 90-second spot was distasteful and glossed over the seriousness of childhood bereavement.

For those unfamiliar, the commercial features a young boy going through the belongings of his deceased father. The boy then asks his mom what his dad was like, the two discuss him on a walk through town, with the boy wondering if he had anything in common with the man.

They eventually reach McDonald’s where the boy orders a Filet-O-Fish, to which the mother replies, “that was your dad’s favorite, too.”

While McDonald’s apologized yesterday for upsetting anyone with the commercial, it didn’t pull the ad. Instead, it said it would review customer feedback on the commercial.

“We didn’t intend to cause any upset and we’re currently reviewing all customer feedback on this advert,” the company replied to customers on Twitter.

That changed Wednesday as the company noted on Twitter that it had made the decision to cease airing the ad.

McDonald’s tells CNN that while the ad has been pulled, it could still air on Wednesday as some broadcasters already have it cued up.

Despite putting the ad, CNN notes that McDonald’s could have further repercussions from the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, which as received complaints from more than 150 consumers.

The agency says it is currently assessing whether or not to launch an investigation into the ad.

Donald Trump did not know where the intelligence he shared with Russian officials was from, the White House has revealed in an admission that stunned many in an already reeling Washington. US National Security Adviser HR McMaster made the admission at the tail end of a heated press conference over reports that the president had revealed highly classified national security information to Russian officials. The intelligence is said to have come from an American ally in the Middle East, via a sensitive intelligence sharing arrangement.

Officials in President Donald Trump's administration have expressed despair after a series of scandals rocked the White House. The New York Times reported on Tuesday the President had asked former FBI Director James Comey to end an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn during an Oval Office visit in February. The newspaper said Mr Comey recorded the conversation in a memo written shortly afterwards.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia is ready to provide US Congress with a transcript of the talks between President Donald Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Illinois Democrats praised former FBI chief Robert Mueller being named special counsel to oversee the federal probe into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Early Wednesday, Kinzinger was...