We read:
"A couple of chatty employees have earned a ban on gossiping for all 64 people who work at county-operated liquor stores. Gene Webb, general manager of the Cumberland County Alcoholic Beverage Control system, issued an order that bans gossip and threatens to fire anyone who spreads rumors on the job".
Source
No free speech for gossipers? What to one person might be gossip might to another be important information. Dictating what people may talk about certainly seems pretty totalitarian to me.
You Mustn't Call Whites Black
Apparently to do so must always be derogatory -- even when it isn't. The Chi Omega sorority at Kent State University is in big trouble over a bit of lightheartedness. We read:
"The Kent State University chapter of a national sorority is on probation over some comments that have angered some of the university's black students, NewsChannel5 reported. The controversy surrounds an award given out at the Chi Omega formal last Saturday. A student who was catering the event heard an award given out for the "blackest Chi Omega." Candace Poole said she was shocked to hear applause in the room as a white member accepted the award.
A group of black students met Thursday with sorority members, who said the award was meant as a joke and was the idea of just a few students, including the black date of the recipient. He said his date received the award because she was motherly and nurturing."
Source
To me, the "award" conveys no clear meaning, though I would have probably smiled, assuming it to be self-parody. It is interesting to note that the whole sorority has to undergo racial sensitivity training, rather than the individuals involved. It is providing a notable opportunity for everyone to pile on the presumed oppressor class.
And what happened to black pride? Did I miss something while I was out of the room? Is black pride now "out"? Old dodo that I am, I kinda thought blacks might think that being black could be a good thing. Oh well! I live and learn.
"Hell" and "Damn" as Forbidden Words at a Public Event
We read:
""A school in Reno, Nevada, has attempted to ban a 14-year-old boy from reciting "The More Loving One" by the gay British poet on the grounds that the verse contains "profanity" and "poor language".... The lines in question might appear fairly innocent by the standards of some literature. "Looking up at the stars, I know quite well/That, for all they care, I can go to hell", was one example that the school found unacceptable. "Admirer as I think I am/Of stars that do not give a damn", was another....
Cheryl Garlock, the dean of the academy, said that her policy was to present children only with "pristine" language"
Source
Quite aside from free speech issues, fussing about such trivial words seems to me to be a wasted effort, when there are much more important moral issues -- such as abortion -- to use one's energy on.
Anyway, both "hell" and "damn" are Biblical words! I suppose the prissy Nevada school would also forbid its students from reading out Mark 16:16, for instance.
And what the wonderfully wise Cheryl meant by "pristine" language rather escapes me. The basic meaning of "pristine" is "primitive". Didn't Og and Ugg swear? A strange claim, at best.
The kid did get a court to overturn the ban -- as violating his First Amendment rights.
The Volokhs have a comprehensive post on the legal issues involved -- including the point that the event was not a school event so was outside the jurisdiction of the school in any case.
