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Can a society “progress” too far? For one UK woman, the answer is a resounding, “Yes.” She learned the hard way that when a society champions itself as “progressive,” there are serious consequences. And those consequences can backfire at any given moment. One woman went in for a very private and personal cervical smear test and specifically asked for a female NHS nurse to administer the exam. What she got, however, was something else entirely. She explained that the nurse “had an obviously male appearance … close-cropped hair, a … large number of tattoos and facial stubble.” The patient then...

The commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police says the nationalities of the eight victims in the terrorist attack on London Bridge tell a proud story of London's unique makeup. "It's desperately sad and poignant but among those who died is someone who's British, there are French, Australian, Canadian, Spanish," Cressida Dick told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday. "In terms of our witnesses that we've spoken to so far, out of the 300-odd people, there are about 20 different countries of origin. And the London British population comes from all kinds of backgrounds and every kind of faith and ethnicity."

There are very few events that bring our country and the world at large together the way that the Olympics do. The Rio Olympics are a perfect example. In only a few days, the international community has been inspired and enlightened by the examples of some of the worldÂ’s best athletes who show us greatness both in their respective sports and in their communities.With that in mind, here's a few of the most inspiring stories that have come out of the Olympics so far.The Refugee Team: For some athletes at the Olympics, fighting to participate in the Olympics might have...

A follow-up to this post. My lovely wife, a Red Cross volunteer has been asked to go to the local public swimming facilities to collect those "horribly insensitive" posters. After all, the Red Cross is made up of volunteers who rely on donations. Never mind the flooding still goiong on in Texas and W Va, and that we're in the midst of hurricane season in FL, priorities are priorities, right? And at least 99% of the donors are either unaware of this non-controversy or don't give a rat's a** or are angry that the Red Cross would shamelessly capitulate to...

First Sgt. Katrina Moerk, now the first sergeant of Charlie Company, 741st Military Intelligence Battalion, was browsing a social media network's community page earlier this year, when she came upon a video that she found offensive and sexist. When she commented as much, several respondents attacked her with insults. Some of these respondents were wearing uniforms in their profile photos, the first sergeant said, so she wrote to them directly. "I looked them up, introduced myself and explained to them why they were stupid. And I [copied] the director of the Army SHARP program to help their units improve their...

One government agency has decided that the results of employee ratings are too discriminatory, and eliminated the process entirely. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced on Monday that it will now award all employees the highest rating regardless of performance reviews. The CFPB, which oversees transactions in the financial sector for the federal government, decided to no longer conduct employee reviews because there were just too many apparent “significant disparities” between the races, ages, and locations of its employees. According to American Banker, this new policy is set to cost over $5 million dollars, as it will now pay employees...

Just when you thought American higher learning couldn’t get any more ridiculous, along come demands for warning labels on provocative works of literature. One never knows when a sentence, phrase or word might trigger some buried memory or traumatic experience. Life is a veritable assault on the excessively sensitive, but somehow most of us muddle through. C’est la vie , after all. But literature, apparently, is fair game for those tortured souls who fear that some -ism or another might leap from a page, causing what exactly? A moment of discomfort? An opportunity to sort through one’s emotional attic? Or,...

The family of a Colorado preacher’s wife is still fuming after the director of the city-owned cemetery refused to engrave her final resting place with the name ‘Jesus’ because it might offend people. The city eventually reversed course under public pressure. “We were in disbelief,” said Stacy Adams, the daughter-in-law of Linda Baker. “Who tries to censor Jesus from a cemetery?” “At first they told us it wouldn’t fit,” Adams said. “But after we kept pushing them the cemetery director told us that it might offend somebody. They weren’t going to allow it.” The family was devastated and asked the...

One in four men surveyed for a United Nations study in Asia and the Pacific admitted raping at least one woman. The UN Multi-country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific surveyed over 10,000 men at nine sites in six countries: Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka. At the survey site in China, 23 percent of men admitted to at least one rape. In Papua New Guinea, that figure was 61 percent. To understand what's behind such startling figures, National Geographic spoke with Rachel Jewkes, the lead technical adviser for the study. You've...

A student who mocked Fabrice Muamba on Twitter after he collapsed during a match has been jailed for inciting racial hatred. Liam Stacey, 21, provoked revulsion with comments made while the Bolton star still lay on the pitch. The 23-year-old midfielder was left fighting for his life after suffering a cardiac arrest during an FA Cup tie on March 17. Horrified fans watched live on TV as he fell to the ground during the quarter-final clash at Tottenham. Police were inundated with complaints as members of the public reported the student's comments. Stacey, a Swansea University biology undergraduate, was quickly...

The Army is ordering its hardened combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training. This week, 14 noncommissioned officers at Camp Zama took turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness instructors for pregnant soldiers and new mothers. Army enlisted leaders all over the world are being ordered to take the Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders Course, or PPPT, according to U.S. Army Medical Activity Japan health promotion educator Jana York. Developed...

Mention the words "London" and "Ripper" in the same sentence and most of us will naturally think of the serial killer who butchered English prostitutes in the late 1880s. But after drawing criticism for naming their squad the "London Rippers," officials say that the infamous Jack the Ripper is not the inspiration behind the nickname for their minor-league team based in the Canadian city in southwest Ontario...

A PUBLISHER is planning to release a new edition of two of Mark Twain's classic novels that replaces the racial slurs used throughout the books with less offensive language. NewSouth Books will release a single volume containing both novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, overseen by Twain scholar Alan Gribben, Publisher's Weekly said. In both, the n-word is replaced with the word "slave" and the word "Injun" is removed. "This is not an effort to render Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn colourblind," said Mr Gribben, the head of the English department at Auburn University at...

EL DORADO may never be found. Some of Britain’s leading explorers, including Sir Ranulph Fiennes, have joined forces to accuse the Royal Geographical Society, the launch-pad for epic voyages of discovery since Queen Victoria’s day, of losing its sense of adventure. They claim the society has been hijacked by politically correct academics who have abandoned great expeditions in favour of studying the environment and rising sea levels. Fiennes wants the Royal Geographical Society to organise the sort of voyages undertaken by Livingstone, inset, rather than study the environment The society’s leadership argues that the explorers are living in their own...

Last week, I visited a Muslim place of worship. A schedule for Islam's five daily prayers was posted at the entrance, near a sign requesting that shoes be removed. Inside, a barrier divided men's and women's prayer space, an arrow informed worshippers of the direction of Mecca, and literature urged women to cover their faces. Sound like a mosque? The place I'm describing is the "meditation room" at Normandale Community College, a 9,200-student public institution in Bloomington. Until recently, the room was the school's only usable racquetball court. College administrators converted the court into a meditation room when construction forced...

Channel 4 has been vindicated by the media watchdog Ofcom after police complained about an investigative programme that exposed extremism in British mosques. West Midland's police had faced criticism for targeting the producers of the show rather than the controversial preachers depicted in it. Ofcom added fuel to that debate by praising Undercover Mosque as a "legitimate investigation, uncovering matters of important public interest." advertisementThe watchdog added: "Ofcom found no evidence that the broadcaster had misled the audience or that the programme was likely to encourage or incite criminal activity. "On the evidence (including untransmitted footage and scripts), Ofcom found...

I was dismayed a while back when I learned that a Barna survey found that “less than one out of every ten churched teenagers has a biblical worldview.” But a survey is just that, a survey. Things couldn’t be that bad, could they? Well, I recently heard a shocking story that vividly illustrates just how far relativism has infected the Church—to the point where Christian kids balk at the idea that Christianity would claim to be, of all things, true. Four years ago, the BreakPoint staff and I launched Centurions, an intensive, year-long education program designed to equip 100 people...

Almost two years before its hoped-for release of its first hand-drawn animated film produced under the supervision of Pixar's John Lasseter, Disney has already drawn fire for alleged racial and ethnic insensitivities that were detected in its original announcement of the film, according to Disney watcher Jim Hill. Since the original title, The Frog Princess, might be regarded as a slur on the French, the title has been changed to The Princess and the Frog. The main character, named Maddy -- who was to become Disney's first black princess -- has had her name changed to Tiana, since Maddy reportedly...

Earlier this week I wrote about a Federal Judge which upheld censorship in a public school. The decision came in response to a student who wished to protest the “Day of Silence” which encourages students to show visible support for homosexual lifestyle by refusing to speak during the school day, while conveying written messages in the form of T-shirts, buttons, and stickers, all of which promote homosexual behavior. Yesterday a Michigan student was suspended yesterday for writitng the words “I’m Straight” on a piece of duct tape and placing it on his T-Shirt.....

Attention Fred Flintstone and the Geico cave guys: "Stone Age" is no longer acceptable, joining the list of other words and terms deemed offensive in polite society.