What's in the news?

[ShadowFox89]

Muslim family goes to McDonalds in Arkansas, orders 14 McChicken sandwiches. Get home, find pieces of bacon hidden inside all 14 sandwiches.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/08/04/muslim-family-says-mcdonalds-intentionally-served-them-bacon-14-mcchicken-sandwiches/539319001/

Cal McD's corporate, complain.

[Oniya]

McDonalds Corporate is actually quite responsive.  I had occasion to complain to them once myself via email about an incident at a local McDs - didn't even involve employees, but rather a person who was often there (fine, everyone has to eat sometimes) and had moved on to actively harassing customers (the 'Santa Claus' conversation is mine to have with my kid, m'kay?)  By the end of the day, the manager of that franchise had contacted me personally and apologized, dealt with the problem, and offered me coupons.

On top of that, I'm sure that Corporate would love to hear about the fact that a franchise was giving away bacon without an up-charge.  It can be up to 30c to add a slice of tomato to a McChicken.    So, not only were they being dicks, they were costing Corporate money.

[TheGlyphstone]

Since I was bored, I decided to do a comparative analysis of different media site's articles on the above.

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/08/bacon_put_in_muslim_familys_sa.html

-AL.com doesn't mention the statement made by the manager., but since it is the original article that two others cite, it likely just wasnt made yet.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/08/04/muslim-family-says-mcdonalds-intentionally-served-them-bacon-14-mcchicken-sandwiches/539319001/
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/alabama/2017/08/04/muslim-family-says-alabama-mcdonalds-put-bacon-their-mcchickens/540015001/

-USA Today and Montgomery Advisor give the actual recipe for a McChicken sandwich. They directly quote the manager's statement about denying culpability.

http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2017/08/02/muslim-family-says-mcdonalds-employees-deliberately-hid-bacon-in-mcchicken-sandwiches.html

Fox doesn't quote the manager, but does mention he made a statement. And while taking a potshot at Fox News here on E is very low-hanging fruit, it's the only one of the four derivative articles that raises the question about the incident being a hoax.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4753520/Muslim-family-tricked-eating-bacon-McDonald-s.html

Daily Mail is pretty much the same as the others, plus a more clickbaity headline with 'outrage' and "BACON' in all capital letters. It also describes how the bacon was hidden in different places across the sandwiches.


EDIT: And yeah, McD Corporate is going to be dropping the hammer on this franchise. Not only are they costing money by 'giving' away 'free' bacon bits, it's going to be a massive public relations disaster.

[Oniya]

-USA Today and Montgomery Advisor give the actual recipe for a McChicken sandwich. They directly quote the manager's statement about denying culpability.

It's notable because - while McD's doesn't certify any of its products as halal or kosher - they have a conveyor-belt uniformity.  If you have dietary requirements, you can keep a list of what products are going to be 'safe'.  I was mostly being facetious about the up-charge comment, but franchises do have to account for that sort of thing.  (Little Oni gets her McChicken with 'no mayo, add ranch, add tomato', which makes it a smaller version of one of the specialty sandwiches for a fraction of the price - but there's always an up-charge from the original McChicken.)

[Beguile's Mistress]

I order my McChicken with bacon added and have been charged as much as a dollar for the ingredient.  That would be $14.00 for this stunt out of the store owner's pocket.  I'm sure the workers got a laugh out of doing that and it would give them something to talk about during their downtime after I had fired them if they worked for me.

Sometimes people just have to suck or they can't get up in the morning.

[Beorning]

Further craziness from the Polish government: after stoking the Polish people's fears of Muslim immigrants, PiS turns to another target for its hatemongering. And the target is... Germans!

For example, this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/poland-considers-demanding-wwii-reparations-from-germany/2017/08/02/cef35870-7769-11e7-8c17-533c52b2f014_story.html?utm_term=.f3524dc56ca0

Also, some of the government officials and PiS members are now making quite awful statements regarding Germany. For example, the Deputy Minister of Defense, in a recent speech, attacked the current German society and politicinians as being "children and grandchildren of degenerates who murdered Polish people". Ugh!

[gaggedLouise]

Anders Borg, former minister of finance of Sweden and highly respected in that role, has a "mental black-out" (in his own words) at a private party last week near Stockholm, exposes his d*ck and takes it way too close to some of the guests, plus using um, colourful language with them. In a regretful post on FB, he says he has been under serious pressure during the last few months and has been drinking too much. Borg's family partner, former singer and model Dominka Peczynski, hasn't made any comments: I wonder if they had parted ways in the last few months?

Clearly one of the most embarrassing episodes I can remember with a top-ranking politician from this country. ^_ ^

http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/borg-ber-om-ursakt-for-olampligt-beteende-ska-soka-hjalp/

http://dagensopinion.se/ex-ministern-blottade-sitt-k%C3%B6n-barnfamiljsfesten (both of these in Swedish)

[RedRose]

I agree, MacDonalds isn't kosher or halal, if you eat there, that's your own risk. Yet again if they asked whether there was pork in the recipe, and were told no, this is devastating...

[Beorning]

Anders Borg, former minister of finance of Sweden and highly respected in that role, has a "mental black-out" (in his own words) at a private party last week near Stockholm, exposes his d*ck and takes it way too close to some of the guests, plus using um, colourful language with them. In a regretful post on FB, he says he has been under serious pressure during the last few months and has been drinking too much. Borg's family partner, former singer and model Dominka Peczynski, hasn't made any comments: I wonder if they had parted ways in the last few months?

Clearly one of the most embarrassing episodes I can remember with a top-ranking politician from this country. ^_ ^

Admittedly, we don't get this kind of behaviour over here. Back here, our politicians are usually making scandals by being caught drunk 

A more interesting scandal / embarrassment was a few years ago, when Jan Maria Rokita, one of our politicians (well... former politicians - his career was ended by this stage) got into an argument with the authorities on board of a German plane... which ended with him being dragged out of the plane and arrested. The most embarrassing thing about it was that the guy got a bout of a full-on patriotic hysteria when being taken out of the plane, screaming at other Polish passengers stuff like "Save me!!! Germans are beating me!!! Save me!!!". And yes, a recording of these screams made its way to the media

[Oniya]

I agree, MacDonalds isn't kosher or halal, if you eat there, that's your own risk. Yet again if they asked whether there was pork in the recipe, and were told no, this is devastating...

The McChicken is one of their cheapest sandwiches - standard model comes with chicken patty, bun, mayo, and shredded lettuce.  Chicken sandwiches with bacon are 'Select Sandwiches' with a corresponding price boost.  Asking if it has pork/bacon in it would be like asking if the fries come with cheese.  (At least south of the 49th parallel.  )

[Sara Nilsson]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/04/news/martin-shkreli-verdict/index.html

Martin Shkreli found guilty and face up to 20 years in prison.

At least they found something on that fucker.

[Iniquitous]

Republican donor suing GOP for the failure to repeal the ACA (Obama Care)

[Trigon]

Republican donor suing GOP for the failure to repeal the ACA (Obama Care)

I'd say just let them destroy each other.

[Lustful Bride]

British model manages to find freedom after being kidnapped by Human traffickers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/06/model-drugged-kidnapped-italy-revealed-page-3-girl-chloe-ayling/

It breaks my heart to think of all the women who don't get rescued or escape.

[Orval Wintermute]

That story seems very strange and the details that are coming out don't feel "right", she'd met her kidnapper in Paris, they went shoe shopping after she was kidnapped, when he decided to release her they drove to the British consulate but it was closed so they went and had breakfast together before returning together. It just doesn't feel like those things would happen in a kidnapping.

[Lustful Bride]

Tensions between North Korea and the US worsen after NK issues threat that it would destroy Guam with a missile strike.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/nkorea-says-seriously-considering-plan-to-strike-guam-kcna/ar-AApJPYg?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

Sad thing, even if trump wasn't in office....I think this war was inevitable.

[Lustful Bride]

A vehicle attack in France injured several French soldiers. The perpetrator is still on the run.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/paris-attack-police-make-motorway-arrest-after-car-driven-into-soldiers/ar-AApKLKf?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

[Lustful Bride]

China claims US ship violated its waters by sailing through area that is disputed between it and many of its neighbors.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-says-us-destroyer-in-south-china-sea-violated-its-security/ar-AApPC6q?li=BBnb4R7&ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

[Beorning]

*sigh*

After offending Poland's key partners in Western Europe (such as Germany and France), Polish government turns its head to the East and antagonizes both Lithuania and Ukraine:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ukraine-lithuanian-protest-proposed-polish-passport-images-49095005

Seriously, this is so stupid.  Do these people do it on purpose or what??? Lviv is a touchy subject with Ukrainians already - and Vilnius has been a very painful subject for Lithuanians in the pre-WW2 period (considering we Poles basically ripped the city from them by force in 1920). And now, the PiS government tries to put images from these cities into new Polish passports, basically saying that these places are still kind of Polish, too? How did they expect Lithuania and Ukraine to react to this???

And, as one of my online colleagues put it: how would we Poles feel if, suddenly, Germans put images from Gdańsk, Szczecin or Wrocław into their passports..?

PS. According to latest polls, PiS still has about 40% of voters' support. My compatriots are insane. 

[Lustful Bride]

PS. According to latest polls, PiS still has about 40% of voters' support. My compatriots are insane. 

Considering everything else the PIS has done, are you sure those polls are accurate? Or did the PIS help them along?

[Beorning]

Unfortunately... yeah, I do believe they are accurate. We have a few independent polling companies / groups here and the results are constant: about 40% of Poles supports this government.

I've never thought I'd consider moving to another country, but this is just sick...

[Lustful Bride]

Unfortunately... yeah, I do believe they are accurate. We have a few independent polling companies / groups here and the results are constant: about 40% of Poles supports this government.

I've never thought I'd consider moving to another country, but this is just sick...

*pats your back* Im sorry to hear that. It always sucks to have constant disappointment from one's country. :(

In other news. A Georgia gym is under controversy for banning both Soldiers and Police from joining and working out at their gym.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/08/09/gym-owner-makes-no-apologies-no-cops-sign/551843001/


And the Bomb Shelter business has seen a large uptick in sales with the increased tensions between NK and the US.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-bomb-shelter-biz-is-exploding-thanks-to-north-korea%e2%80%99s-missile-tests/ar-AApOw5B?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

[gaggedLouise]

*joins Lusty in sympathy for Beorning and his country, they deserve much better than PIS*

North Korea...It would be fun to watch the bizarre boasts on NK state tv - they sound so silly, both their ultra-cheery way of speaking and their ridiculous taunts, as if they had any chance to stand up in a full-on nuke and air confrontation with the US - if it hadn't been for the seriousness of their toys. I mean, what kind of serious military leadership would tell the whole world that "by mid-August we are planning to have a detailed blueprint for attacking Guam, and then we will launch four nuke missiles...", and adding in lots of information that wpuld normally be top secret? It's fairly obvious that they are fools, and there's a fat chance that their missiles would get intercepted before reaching any targets - but their counterpart in the US (will he actualy be in the White House?) is every bit as onsessed and overwrought as they are, so he will likely act as if the North Koreans were past masters of nuclear strategy. 

[TheGlyphstone]

the north korean government is very well trained. they yell and make noise until someone gives them aid supplies to shut up and go away. they have no mode of non hostile communication because hostility has always worked.

[Iniquitous]

http://bronx.news12.com/story/36108040/bronx-girl-accused-of-dumping-hot-water-on-friend

Brief summary: An 11 year old girl was at her 12 year old friend's house for a sleepover.  The 12 year dumped boiling hot water onto the 11 year old's face and shoulders in the middle of the night as a "prank".  The 11 year has suffered 2nd degree burns and is in the hospital recovering.