Welcome to Redstate’s Water Cooler- an open thread- where Tuesday is dedicated to the happenings in the culture wars where your’s truly brings you the best and brightest it has to offer.

Silly Celebrity of the Week

Amnesty International gave out their annual Ambassador of Conscience Award to unemployed quarterback, Colin Kaepernick.  He accepted the award in Amsterdam with this rousing description of America:

“Racialized oppression and dehumanization is woven into the very fabric of our nation – the effects of which can be seen in the lawful lynching of black and brown people by the police, and the mass incarceration of black and brown lives in the prison industrial complex…”

Yeah…whatever.

The Big Story of the Week

Of course, the big story of the week has to be that infamous Starbucks incident out of Philadelphia where a young, female feminist barista called 9-1-1 to have two black men extricated from the property.  This writer is not commenting on her actions or those of the police other than to say she likely overreacted and mishandled the situation.

But her overreaction pales in comparison to that of Starbucks.  Although she has been terminated, Starbucks- in a classic case of virtue signaling- has decided to close all 8,000 of their locations on May 29th and have their 175,000 employees undergo racial sensitivity training.  Because of one knucklehead in Philadelphia, the entire nation will suffer without overpriced lattes and frappucinos!

More Problems for Starbucks

As if they didn’t have enough problems, police in a suburb of Atlanta are investigating the presence of a camera secretly located in a restroom at a Starbucks.  Although there are no suspects at this time, news of eavesdropping video cameras in a Starbucks restroom could not have come at a worst time.  There is no word yet whether they will shut down on May 30th to train employees on video cameras in public restrooms.

More on Chechen Gays

Last week, I noted that Chechnya may be the most homophobic “nation” on earth (Uganda may be second).  Left unmentioned was the treatment of a young Chechen lesbian named “Marko.”  In order to avoid the wrath of torture and beatings because she was gay, she underwent an Islamic exorcism where she faked writhing on the floor as the local iman read Koranic verses.  She was cured of the seven demons that possessed her. She later made it out of that Utopia and now lives in Canada with her new lover. Of course, she learned how to act possessed from YouTube videos.

A New Bias Discovered

According to the Journal of Business and Psychology, a study of over 20,000 young Americans discovered that very unattractive people earn more than the merely unattractive people and even more than attractive people.  Of course, this negates the belief that attractive people float through life on their looks alone.

There is a simple solution to rectify this inequity: pass a punitive tax on unattractive people to equalize pay between the unattractive and the attractive among us.

NIMBY: California Style

Apparently Orange County, California has a homeless problem…so much so that the county recently allocated $70 million to house them.  The problem is not so much the money but where they are being housed.

According to the LA Times, many Orange County residents support the government’s attempts to help the homeless.  Their only problem is that they wished the county would help them somewhere else as in any place other than their city.  Others have expressed a more robust solution- send them (the homeless) back to Los Angeles where many seem to originate.

What’s Up With London?

We have all read the accounts of the rising homicide rate in London which in both February and March exceeded the number of homicides in New York City.  Surely, the problem isn’t related to gun control– England has some strict laws there proving that a killer gonna kill.  Perhaps, it has to do with its liberal mayor who ceased stop-and-frisk operations or who is more concerned with the depiction of women on the side of a bus.

Whatever the dynamics, when the crime rate in your city is worse than in a city run by Bill de Blasio, you know something ain’t right.

That’s it for this week.  Remember: the Water Cooler is an open thread to comment on these or any other story.  Catch you on the rebound next Tuesday.