The Other Side of the Obesity Debate

It seems to me that the condemnation of "obesity" in the media now rivals the condemnation of "racism". Since the average American is already wide and getting wider, this would seem to be about as cockeyed as condemning people for preferring other people who are similar to themselves.

An essential prop for what seems largely to be a moral crusade is scientific research which purports to show that fat is bad for you. And research claiming that is about all you ever hear of via the media. Skeptical voices are suppressed. It is largely for that reason that I recently started my FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC blog.

If you go there now you will find a pretty good demolition of the latest "scientific" scare story.

Blonde Jokes Now Out?



I myself dislike blonde jokes and never make them. I know too many smart blondes. But the idea that blondes tend to be dumb seems to me a harmless urban myth that helps non-blondes cope with the fact that "Gentlemen prefer blondes".

But all that may be coming to an end. An Australian conservative politician, Bruce Flegg, was apologizing for various blunders he had made while campaigning when he made an even bigger blunder:

"I think it's just a case that occasionally you have a bit of a blonde moment and I don't expect to have too many more of those," Dr Flegg said.

You can guess the uproar. There is a good comment (by a blonde) on that and various other recent absurdities here.

But it seems to be OK for Leftist politicians to have "blonde moments". Dr Flegg's Leftist opponent has just said that he had "perpetual blonde moments" -- with no apparent resultant outcry.

Big Backdown on Sign of the Cross

We read:

"Prosecutors have taken the unusual step of clarifying the caution given to the Celtic player Artur Boruc after the Catholic Church in Scotland and politicians condemned the decision.

The Crown Office stressed that the 26-year-old goalkeeper was not reprimanded for crossing himself during an Old Firm match last season, but for other gestures he had made to the Rangers fans.

Source

Incorrect to Bless Ohio School

We read:

"About 180 members of four local churches surrounded a public middle school yesterday to bless the building and those who use it, despite objections from the American Civil Liberties Union

Source

The ACLU seems to think that the ceremony somehow constituted the establishment of a religion.

Arnie Muzzles Christians

Schwarzenegger has just signed the Lesbian-sponsored Califonia bill that makes it illegal to condemn homosexuality

Details here

Senior Brit Defends the Sign of the Cross



A player in a Scottish Catholic football team was recently reprimanded by the police for blessing himself with the sign of the cross while on field. It is good to see that one senior member of the British government, Ruth Kelly, has attacked the reprimand on obvious grounds:

"I am surprised because this has traditionally been a country which has valued religious diversity - and cultural and racial diversity as well - and where there has been freedom of expression, both to express religious symbols but also other cultural symbols as well."

Source

Christian Evangelism is "Hate Speech"?



If only because of their history of indomitable resistance to Islam, I like the Sikhs. But the California Sikhs seem to have caught the California disease of wanting to stop religious messages that deviate from the merely feelgood:

"A Contra Costa Sikh leader is denouncing a pamphlet from an El Sobrante church that tells Sikhs their holy book is wrong and warns them they face eternal hell unless they receive Jesus as their savior...

J.P. Singh, president of El Sobrante Gurdwara Sahib, the Sikh Center of the San Francisco Bay Area, said the pamphlet is objectionable because "it belittles another religion." "To coexist in this country in love and peace, I think there has to be an acceptance of other people's religions," Singh said...

Brandenburg said he has distributed the pamphlet off and on for eight or 10 years and that the message it conveys is hardly new. He said he was surprised to receive an e-mail from a local non-Sikh merchant characterizing it as "hate speech." "That message has been around for 2,000 years -- now it's hate speech?" Brandenburg said.

Source

Australian Leftists Still Trying to Prove that they are Kinder and Wiser than Everybody Else



We read:

"Childcare workers have been instructed not to use the words "no" and "don't" because it is feared they will stunt a child's development. The terms "good boy" and "good girl" are also frowned on as they are considered sexist.

The rules -- taught to childcare students -- have angered Australian Family Association campaigners, who say it's another example of out-of-control political correctness.

And some childcare workers fear the guidelines are not allowing "children to be children" and refuse to obey them.

Source

Binding Arbitration not so Binding



Robert Henderson, a Nebraska State trooper, in his private time joined the Ku Klux Klan. There was no suggestion that his membership affected his performance of his duties but he was still fired over it. Under the State government's contract with the State Patrol, the case went into binding arbitration:

"Arbitrator Paul J. Caffera, a New York lawyer, last week overturned the firing. He said Henderson was entitled to his First Amendment rights of free speech and that the state violated the troopers' contract, in part when it fired Henderson"

Source

But Nebraska has dishonoured the "binding" in its contract with the State Patrol and is still fighting the matter in court.

San Diego Cross Battle Continues

As expected, the takeover of the San Diego cross by the Feds has not discouraged the Christianity-haters. I am an atheist myself but I am profoundly grateful for what Christianity has wrought.

In the latest round of the battle, the ACLU is suing the Federal government with a claim that the government is violating the First Amendment by displaying the cross on its land. Given the ACLU rewrite of the First Amendment, maybe the display does violate their First Amendment, but nobody reading the actual First Amendment would think so.

The "Anti-Christian Lawyers' Union" would be the most accurate way of describing the mission of the ACLU

The Iranian Double Standard

Cartoons of Mohammed drive the Iranians hysterical but cartoons about Jews that would do Hitler proud are just fine. See here

Chris Brand

In case readers here are not aware of it Chris Brand is probably the most politically incorrect blogger on the internet today. You won't always agree with him. I don't always agree with him either. But it is good to see someone with a devotion to telling it like it is and damn the consequences.

Like myself, he is a former psychology academic, so is one of a rare breed indeed -- considering how Leftist social science professors tend to be. His academic specialty is the study of IQ. Just that field of study automatically makes him a "racist", of course.

Racial Group Condemns Racial Grouping

Contestants on the next "Survivor" reality show on CBS are going to be divided into four tribes based on race. This has provoked outrage from all sorts of whiners. One is NYC councilman John Liu. We read of him:

"Liu, who is Asian-American, said he was launching a campaign urging CBS to pull the show because it could encourage racial division and promote negative typecasts. He and a coalition of officials, including the council's black, Latino and Asian caucus, planned to rally at City Hall on Friday.

Source

So it's OK to divide councillors up on black, Latino and Asian racial lines but not OK for game show participants to be divided up in the same way??

Is "Meow" Protected Speech?

We read:

"Meow. A district judge has been asked to decide whether that word is a harmless taunt or grounds for misdemeanor harassment. Jeannette police charged a 14-year-old boy for "meowing" whenever he sees his neighbor, 78-year-old Alexandria Carasia.

Source

Seems to me that if meow is a word it should be protected by the First Amendment -- or there are a lot of "offensive" cats around!

Whistling Banned in N. Ireland

We read:

"Aspiring Casanovas in Ballymoney have been strongly advised by the town's police to no longer show their appreciation of the fairer sex by whistling.

They say that wolf whistling is harassment. But last night amused politicians said the warning was political correctness gone mad.

The unusual police warning was issued after a 15-year- old schoolgirl complained to police that she had been whistled at by five men in a car in the Co Antrim town.

Source

Hotel Manager Cleared

When a British hotel manager sacked a black she caught stealing, he accused her of racism and was taken seriously enough for the matter to go to court. Happily, the manager has now been cleared of wrongdoing:

"The tribunal panel said it was satisfied anyone in Mr Coke's position would have been suspended by Mrs Downey, given she believed he was guilty of an offence.

Source

I originally covered this story on 7th..

Don't Marry a Career Woman

Does that sound like good advice? Whether it is or not, you are not allowed to say it. An article offering that advice evoked such protest that it was rapidly taken down. The article is however just up on Political Correctness Watch so you can make your own mind up about it. The fact that the article was soundly based in a lot of scholarly research was probably what made it so obnoxious.

BBC Goes to Water over Comedy Programs

Those cartoon troubles again:

"A radio comedy show containing a joke about Rolf Harris drawing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad has been pulled by the BBC because it was deemed too controversial..."

Source

Rolf Harris is probably Britain's most famous childrens' entertainer and is famed for his lightning-quick sketches.

California Bans Negative Comments about Homosexuality

No room for Christian teachings in California schools from now on

We read:

"California public schools could not demean gay, bisexual or transgender orientations under fiercely controversial legislation approved Monday by the Assembly... SB 1437 would ban teachers, textbooks, instructional materials or school activities from reflecting ''adversely'' upon people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender....

Under Kuehl's bill, public school teachers could not inform their students, for example, that homosexuality is immoral or wrong. Campaign for Children and Families, a nonprofit advocacy group, claims that SB 1437 would ban textbooks that define marriage as between a man and a woman; or sex education that displays traditional examples of male and female sexual development; or homecoming games that feature only a male king and a female queen as campus representatives.

Source

Given the First Amendment, the implicit ban on Christian teachings could possibly cause the bill to be declared unconstitional eventually.

Top British Cop Rejects Racism Charge



Still some realism in the British police

We read:

"The claim that Muslims are discriminated against by the police is undermining the fight against terrorism, a senior Scotland Yard officer has said. Chief Superintendent Simon Humphrey said it is 'wholly unacceptable' to paint Asians as victims and accused police chiefs who do so of undermining the efforts of their colleagues....

Mr Humphrey's sharp rebuke carries particular weight because he speaks on behalf of 330 Met superintendents. His comments appeared to show the majority of senior officers agree with public support for profiling... He told the Daily Mail: ' Unfortunately a small, extremely vocal and potentially very influential minority are trying to hijack the terrorism issue and turn it into a debate on racism. 'They are undermining the objectives of the organisation and rank and file officers who are doing their utmost to police fairly...

'It is wholly unacceptable to continue to portray the Asian community as victims.... 'What is essentially an operational policing issue should not be turned into a debate about race and religion. Although these feature as part of a complex backdrop, let's not lose sight of the fact that this is about criminality and mass murder.'

Source

Blogs and Copyright

Most blogs that comment on current affairs routinely break the law. Copyright law allows you to republish nothing without prior permission other than brief excerpts from the text of an article. Political blogs however routinely republish more than that -- pictures in particular. Time constraints mean that seeking prior permission to republish a picture would be unviable.

I have never however heard of a blogger being prosecuted for a breach of copyright law and I presume that is because most bloggers are willing to take down a post if someone has a legitimate objection to it. Internet publishing is fundamentally different to print publishing because a newspaper cannot withdraw all copies of what it has published whereas a blogger can cease to make available what he has written with just one mouseclick.

This blog has however been holier than most. When Scott was posting here, most of his postings were re-writes (journalists have to be good at those) and my posts normally include only very brief excepts from the original article.

Since I have been posting here, however, I have from time to time included pictures with my posts. Scott, the owner of this blog, is however a journalist so has to be more careful about these things than most of us. So he has requested that I put up no more pictures without permission of the picture owners. So my posts here will be going picture-free from now on.

As most readers are aware, however, I have from the beginning put up mirror sites for all my postings (See here or here) and I will continue to include pictures there -- as those sites are entirely my own responsibility.

Hair Update



The controversy over the actions of cricket umpire Darrell Hair has really taken off. It even got a spot on NPR (which must be a first for cricket) and there is huge outrage in Pakistan, of course. Like the rest of the subcontinent, Pakistan is cricket-crazy.

Unlike most people unfairly accused of racism, however, Hair is not apologizing and says that nobody will force him into retirement. Details here

Update

Champion Australian cricketer Shane Warne has expressed amazement at the actions of the Pakistan team and said Hair was unfairly accused of racism.

The Incorrect BBC

In a rare departure from form, the BBC is screening a movie called "Shoot the Messenger" that gives an apparently realistic picture of black British life -- with mention of black crime being prominent. It has therefore been accused of "stereotyping" blacks. But "stereotyping" implies that the picture given is fase -- when it clearly is not. The extraordinary high crime rate among people of African ancestry is incontrovertible. But apparently, you still must avoid mentioning it, even though the drama concerned was in fact written by a black writer. Details here

Must not Mention Black Swimming Ability

You don't have to follow the Olympic games for long before you notice something striking: The fastest runners are mostly black and the fastest swimmers are nearly all white. And blacks are more likely to drown in swimming pools too. So for some reason that is irrelevant here, blacks do seem to be at some disadvantage when it comes to swimming. But you are not allowed to mention that. GOP Congessional candidate for Florida, Tramm Hudson recently said:

"I grew up in Alabama and I understand and I know this from my own experiences that blacks aren't the best swimmers or may not even know how to swim".

Source

He is in big trouble over that, of course.

World Vision

The allegedly Christian charity, World Vision, is in the business of censorship. When one of their donors tried to send to the child he was sponsoring some pictures of black soldiers from the child's country -- pictures taken during World War 2 -- World Vision refused to forward them -- allegedly to protect the child! See here

I used to be a World Vision donor until their blatantly anti-Israel bias became too much for me. They are as much a political as a charitable organization. Photos of soldiers may be bad but Arabs blowing up Jews is fine. See here for a quick summary of that.

Tough Umpire a "Racist"



There would hardly be a sports fan alive who has not at some time felt that an umpire or referee has been unfair and biased against his team. And it certainly happens in the world's most popular bat-and-ball game -- cricket.

An Australian umpire, Darrell Hair, well-known for strict adherence to the rules, has however now been called a "racist" for his actions. He made the mistake of suspecting a cheating incident by a Pakistan cricket team:

"Pakistan captain Imran Khan ripped into the controversial umpire... Under the headline "Hair the Hitler does it again", Imran continued: "Hair is one of those characters when he wears the white umpires' coat, he metamorphoses into a mini-Hitler."

Ramiz Raja, another former Pakistan captain who was commentating on the Test, was also scathing of Hair. "The players from the sub-continent universally feel that he is biased, even to the extent of being a racist," he claimed."

Source

"Criticizing the Ref" has always been regarded as poor sportsmanship but this time it is being taken seriously. Darrell Hair looks like he will be doing no more international umpiring.

It may be noted that a past brown-skinned victim (Muralitharan) of Darrell Hair's strict umpiring says the ump is OK. There is an update here and there is a supportive comment about Hair here.

Muslims CAN be guilty of hate speech -- in Denmark

We read:

"A standing room only crowd looked on Thursday as Fadi Ahmad Abdel Latif was handed a guilty verdict for threatening the life of PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen and inciting to kill Jews.

A unanimous panel of judges in a Copenhagen city court found Adbel Latif, the spokesman for the Danish branch of radical Muslim organisation Hizb-ut-Tahir, guilty on all three counts for which he was charged, including for distributing fliers in 2004 urging Mulsims to 'kill their leaders' if they prevented them from helping their 'brothers' fighting in Fallujah.

He was also convicted for threatening the lives of Jews by calling on Muslims to 'kill them all, wherever you find them'.

Source

Ruth Malhotra

There is an excellent article by the courageous Ruth Malhotra -- commenting on her recent victory over the speech code at Georgia Tech. I will not try to summarize the article. It deserves a read in full. But this little excerpt says a lot:

"Our peaceful and respectful protests -- including one against the feminist play "Vagina Monologues" and another against affirmative action - were aggressively silenced. But Georgia Tech has done nothing to stop the blatant personal attacks that we have encountered.

The "tolerant" left has used explicit racial and sexist slurs against us... We have even been physically threatened. All the while the administration stood silent"

Source

Racist Black

Prominent black politician and civil rights activist Andrew Young:

"When asked if Wal-Mart meant the death of mom-and-pop stores, Young told the Los Angeles Sentinel, "They ran the mom-and-pop stores out of my neighborhood, but you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables. "First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs. Very few black people own these stores," Young said.

Source

But blacks cannot be racist, of course -- or so the Left tell us.

No Future for Blacks?

We read:

"Nissan North America Inc. has ended its controversial billboard ad campaign that sparked protests by activists who characterized the ads as an insult to African-Americans. Nissan sponsored billboards in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Francisco and Los Angeles that referred to "Black History Month," with the word "history" crossed out and replaced with "future."

Source

Airport terror scare shutdown 'racist'

We read:

"A Pakistani woman whose daughter's carry-on luggage caused an airport to shut down for nine and a half hours says it was her ethnic background, not a few bottles of suspicious liquids, that set off security officials....

The terminal was evacuated at 11.25am after two bottles of liquid in the bag initially tested positive for explosives residue twice, and a canine team also got a positive hit. Chemical tests of the bottles' contents later turned up no explosives, said Capt. Jack Chambers, head of the State Police Special Operations unit.

US authorities banned the carrying of liquids onto flights last week after British officials made arrests in an alleged plot to blow up US-bound planes using explosives disguised as drinks and other common products".

Source

Another "Tar Baby"



A roadmaking machine that lays tar might reasonably be referred to by its proud owners as a "tar baby", one might think. And putting up a pictorial representation of the name in the form of a black baby would seem to be doing no damage to anyone. But the "sensitive" brigade have called it "a horrible racial slur". Apparently it is wrong to suggest that blacks have black babies. So the machine has now had a repaint job. Details here.

Criticism of Russian Bigshots is "Racism"?

The chairman of a British soccer club recently referred to the owners of a rival club as "a bunch of shysters from Siberia". "Shyster" is British slang for someone operating on the margins of legality. Predatory lawyers are often referred to as shysters. Since the owners of the rival club are in fact Russian "oligarchs", the comment would seem to have some justification but a complaint has nonetheless been lodged saying that the comment is "racist" Details here.

Must not Laugh at Poor English

A late-night DJ made a prank phone-call to a Japanese restaurant during his show and laughed at the poor English of the person who answered the phone. Later he rang a Chinese restaurant and expressed surprise when someone who spoke good English replied. He lost his job over such "racially insensitive remarks". Details here and here.

Must Ignore the Ethnicity of Mobsters

This is an old one but it was new to me so may be new to others:

"A Miss America pageant judge was wrong to ask Miss New Jersey about her views on "The Sopranos," the contestant and some Italian-American groups said.

The judge asked Alicia Renee Luciano what she thought about the show during an interview segment of Saturday night's pageant in Atlantic City. The HBO drama focuses on fictional mob boss Tony Soprano as he juggles organized crime and his family life in suburban New Jersey".

Source

Wow! You've Got to be Careful!

An Australian Leftist comedian made the following joke at an arts festival:

"I grew up playing Cowboys and Indians, which as an adult I can see is very strange - that you market the genocide of an indigenous people as a game for kids," Hughes said.

"Australians are far from perfect - I've never played Cops and Aboriginals, and you wouldn't play Nazis and Jews!

Source

It's not a great joke and equating the settlement of America with the holocaust is obnoxious but the comedian was attacked on the grounds that the joke was antisemitic! How a frantically anti-racist joke can be antisemitic escapes me but there you have it.

Suppressed History

From an expert on America's slavery era:

"What many don't know, she said, is the history of African-Americans selling their own people, toddlers in shackles, and America, including the North, benefiting financially from slave labor".

Source

"Pet", "Dear", "Love", "Darling" and "Sweetheart" Now Incorrect in England

We read:

"The term "pet" has been ingrained in the language of the North East for generations... But in a radical and almost certainly doomed move, Newcastle City Council has instructed its workers to refrain from addressing women in the traditional Geordie manner.

No matter that everyone grows up hearing affectionate greetings such as "Alreet, pet?" and "Howay, hinny", a council edict has proclaimed that they are potentially patronising, sexist and insulting and should therefore be treated with as much contempt as a Sunderland fan at St James' Park....

The trouble stems from an equality and diversity course run by the council for its staff. Its aim is to help them to "treat people with dignity and respect". Part of the course, a council spokesman explained, involves teaching workers "not to use colloquialisms that some may find offensive". "Pet" and "hinny" appear on the blacklist, alongside more universal terms, including "dear", "love", "darling" and "sweetheart".

Source

Must Not Criticize Islam -- Again

We read:

"A Muslim candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates was targeted by a protester who held a sign reading "Islam sucks" and wore a T-shirt with the slogan, "This mind is an Allah-free zone."

Montgomery County police warned the protester, Timothy Truett, after the Saturday incident that he would be subject to arrest on trespassing charges if he steps onto Saqib Ali's property in the next year.

Truett, 46, of Montgomery Village, sat in a folding chair on the cul-de-sac outside Ali's Gaithersburg home, which doubles as his campaign office"

Source

So he wasn't even on the Muslim's property but the police still threatened him about it!

Muslim Hate Speech OK

We read:

"A political storm blew up last night as it emerged a controversial Islamic preacher with radical views is due to speak at one of the most prestigious concert halls in Wales.

Dr Zakir Naik's publicly-expressed views include calling for the execution of Muslims who reject their faith and portraying Americans as people who eat and behave like pigs.

His scheduled appearance at Cardiff's St David's Hall this Saturday has provoked outrage from a Welsh MP who has urged the event be cancelled, particularly at a time of such international tension.

Source

So is his talk going to be cancelled? No way!

A Win for Free Speech at Georgia Tech

We read:

"Georgia Tech announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to remove a policy banning hate speech on campus to end a federal lawsuit filed by two students...

The lawsuit alleged that the school policy discriminates against Christian and Jewish students by barring them from speaking out against homosexuality and other issues.

Ruth Malhotra, a conservative Christian, one of the students represented by the ADF, said she had her free speech "stifled, hindered and threatened" by the policy. The other student, Orit Sklar is president of Hillel, the Jewish student group"

Source

Good to hear that the courageous Ruth Malhotra has finally prevailed.

A Tongue-Tied Movie

Castro-loving moviemaker Oliver Stone has just made a new movie -- "World Trade Center" -- that is good entertainment and which has been praised even by conservative critics of Stone. It focuses on small human dramas rather than on anything political. But, even so, there is still one very strange thing about it. As one viewer comments:

"Still, there was something strange about the movie, and I couldn't put my finger on it. Then I realized: As far as I can remember, it never mentions the cause of the 9/11 attacks: Islam. Specifically, those forms of Islam most closely aligned to the teachings of Mohammed. It's like a Holocaust movie without the Nazis".

Source

A New Bad Word!

At one of his rallies, Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) pointed to an Indian-origin assistant of his rival and said:

"This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great"

Source

The Senator appears simply to have forgotten the guy's name and used a nonsense substitute but some deep delvers have discovered that "macaca" has a derogatory meaning in some European languages. Since Sen. Allen was speaking English, that would not appear relevant but the Senator had to apologize anyway.

Another Mural Controversy

Murals depicting history are too much for those who don't like the truths that history tells us. I mentioned a previous example on April 24. Such murals must be taken down or covered over!

The latest controversy surrounds a historic mural in a historic building in DC occupied by the EPA. We read:

"The mural that is sparking the most debate depicts American Indians brutally scalping and murdering white settlers. All the women are naked, including one who is on all fours as a male Indian stands behind her, seizing her hair."

Source

The murals clash with the Leftist myth of "noble savages": Don't people know that the Indians were wonderful people in harmony with nature? Take down that lying mural!

If you don't like being misled by myths, you might like to read this book (Review here -- scroll down).

White Reporters to be Muzzled by the BBC

If you are a white reporter for the BBC, it looks like you don't have a big future. The BBC's "diversity" Tsar doesn't think you can report accurately:

"Mary Fitzpatrick, who is consulted on all decisions about television content at the BBC, said the 'cultural accuracy' among reporting staff was on her hitlist. She said there were too many white reporters reporting from non-white nations, particularly in Africa."

Source

Gerald Hartup has some good comments and background (Scroll down).

Another Team-name Controversy



We read:

"Some leaders of Buffalo's black community say they consider the new name for the city's minor-league basketball team, the Silverbacks, offensive and racially insensitive. They say a silverback - an adult male gorilla - is an inappropriate nickname for a team with a large number of black players because bigots have referred to blacks as "gorillas," "apes" and "monkeys." ...

The team, which plays in the American Basketball Association, has carried the name Silverbacks since May. The team played as the Rapids last year under former owner Gary Nice, who sold the franchise to co-owners Dan Robbie and Todd Wier last December. The new owners had to change the team's nickname because Nice retained the rights to the Rapids name.

Wier asked the team for input, and Modie Cox - who serves as a player and assistant coach - came up with the winning idea. A silverback is an older male gorilla who is a respected leader of his group, said Cox, a devoted fan of Discovery Channel's Animal Planet network. "We're going to go out there; we're going to demand that respect," he said of the team."

Source

Still One Honest Cop Left in Britain

A retired police chief has at last spoken the unvarnished truth but is said to have "inflamed" the debate by doing so:

"As leaders of Britain's Muslims appealed to Prime Minister Tony Blair to reduce tensions after last week's terror alert, a former London police chief has inflamed the debate by blaming Muslims for terrorist networks in the country.

Source

Everything he said was simple common sense but we know how rare that is these days. In the Army, we would have said that the truth of what he said "stood out like dog's balls", but truth is apparently unimportant in these matters.

"Islamic Fascists" Incorrect?

Some recent remarks by GWB have come under fire:

"The recent arrests that our fellow citizens are now learning about are a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom," Bush said....

The Islamabad-based newspaper "Ausaf" writes today that the words are an "insult to the religion" of Islam".

Source

Since GWB was specifically referring to the London bomb-plotters and their ilk, what he said could surely be an insult to Islam only if the whole of Islam had similar attitudes to the bomb-plotters. The Islamic critique of GWB is therefore rather revealing in what it says about Islam.

Keith Burgess Jackson has argued that GWB's use of the term "Fascist" was incorrect, on the ground that there are some important differences between the Islamists and the prewar Fascists. There were however also large differences between the various groups of prewar Fascists. Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, for instance, initially used to expel from his party anyone who made antisemitic utterances!

The word "Fascist" was coined by Benito Mussolini and he derived it from the "fasci" in his early movement. In Italian, "fasci" is an ordinary word for "bands", in the original sense -- i.e. some things or some people bound together in some way. So Mussolini's original "fasci" were small bands of (generally thuggish) socialist activists bound together by a common aim and cause.

And Mussolini got the idea that having everyone marching together in lockstep was the ideal from German philosopher GFW Hegel, who was also the inspiration of Karl Marx. Mussolini was himself an important Marxist theoretician in his day.

So the Islamic aim of having everybody bowing down together to Mohammed and Islamic law is in fact much the same idea as that put forward by Mussolini and Hegel. Only the details differ. GWB was using the term reasonably.

Christian Evangelists Defeat School Censorship

We read:

"A Maryland school system's policy governing distribution of fliers is unconstitutional because it offers no protection against viewpoint discrimination, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday....

The case was brought by the Child Evangelism Fellowship, a Christian organization that was barred from sending materials home with children."

Source

Prominent British Politician says Immigration Talk not Racist

John Reid is Britain's Home Secretary, one of the most important figures in Britain's center-Left government. So, given Britain's often ludicrous degree of political correctness, it was refreshing to read that he recently said:

"We have to get away from this daft so-called politically correct notion that anybody who wants to talk about immigration is somehow a racist. That isn't the case.".

He is obviously aware that the high rate of immigration into Britain by low-skilled people is very unpopular with many Britons and is clearing the way for more immigration restrictions.

A Dubious Blessing From California

We read:

"Without debate, the Senate on Thursday sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill that would make California the first state to prohibit college and university administrators from censoring student newspapers....

Under the bill, campus administrators still could discipline students for publishing hate speech."

Source

Double Standards About Antisemitism

Victor Davis Hanson sums it up:

"The Western press - usually so careful to condemn hate speech - is utterly silent about Arab racism. But a European paper recently published a cartoon portraying Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a Nazi, secure that no rabbi would issue threats that could cost the editors their heads.

Source

School Sued for Encouraging Diversity

"Outreach" to blacks by officials of mostly white schools is always praised. School officials often go to the limits of the law to attract black students. So, obviously, a mostly Hispanic school that wants to reach out to whites should also be warmly praised -- No?

Not so fast! The mostly Hispanic Preston Hollow Elementary School in Dallas, Texas, has been doing just that. The school is 66% Hispanic and only 18 percent white and the school officials want more "diversity" than that. So they have gone as close to the limits of the law as they can to encourage nearby white parents to choose that school.

And what do the "diversity"-mongers think of that? The school is being sued by a group of Latino parents over its discriminatory procedures. I wonder if the ACLU will be stepping up to defend the school -- as they no doubt would if black outreach was being attacked?

Or is "diversity" just a code-word for "blackness" that only dummies take literally? You be the judge. Details here

Must not Stimulate Muslims



We read:

"Malaysian authorities fined organizers of a concert by the chart-topping Pussycat Dolls for allowing the singers to wear skimpy costumes and for their "sexually suggestive routines," a news report said Wednesday."

Source

"Beauty, Honor, Country" Update



The L.A. Slimes has taken up the story about the twisted motto on the wall of a California V.A. facility. It is a parody of the West Point motto of "Duty, Honor, Country". My original post on the matter was on July 6th..

The Slimes gives a justification of the altered motto that might wash if we were not aware of the great anti-military hostility among California's movers and shakers. The Slimes did deign to mention, however, a considerable level of hostility to the altered motto among veterans and others.







"Racist" to Bust Black Pot Smokers

Good old NYC again

We read:

"The NYPD disproportionately targets poor, black and Hispanic neighborhoods when enforcing marijuana smoking-in-public laws, according to a hotly debated new study....

The NYPD says that this type of enforcement goes along with its focus on where the heaviest crime patterns exist and is part of the department's successful quality-of-life policing strategy..."

Source

Bible on Trial in New York

Second Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing a case that arose when a Nigerian pastor leased two billboards that simply quoted scriptures from Levitcus about the sinfulness of homosexuality.

Guy Molinari, then Borough President of Staten Island, where the billboards were located, used his official position to press the billboard company into covering up the message. He also obtained and subsequently publicized the name and address of the pastor. The pastor then received death threats.

The police investigated the pastor for "hate speech" but would do nothing about the threats. Christian lawyers are now asking for the official censorship to be declared illegal. Details here.





Leftist Hate-Speech OK

We read:

"Do they want war because they have the devil inside them?" demanded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, speaking of the Jewish state. "I say to them from here, from Iran, once and a thousand times: Murderers! Cowards! Frankly, their fate has been sealed, from the depths of the people's soul."

Source

And when was that comment made? About the same time Mel Gibson made his now-famous remarks. There was a torrent of criticism from the media about Gibson's antisemitism but what did we hear of Chavez's antisemitism? Virtually nothing. And Chavez is a much more important person on the world scene than Gibson is.





Consolation Prize for Losing the Georgia Primary



For a previous comment on McKinney, see here. For a comment on the primary, see here

Dirty Minds

We read:

"A woman in Columbus, Ohio, may lose her longtime vanity license plate because the state now says it's obscene. Pat Niple has had a plate with the letters NWTF. She says it stands for "Northwood Tree Farm"...

At a BMV office, Niple says she was told the letters are an abbreviation popular online. She says a clerk whispered it stands for a phrase beginning with, "Now what the..."

Source

A wonder they allow her to use her own name. "Niple" is pretty suggestive, isn't it?





Horror: Katrina Memorial Bears Jesus' Face

We read:

"Alarmed by newspaper reports that a hurricane memorial in St. Bernard Parish will feature a cross bearing a likeness of the face of Jesus, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana is reminding parish officials of the Constitution's separation of church and state.

Never one to back down, Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez has a simple reply: "They can kiss my ass."

Source

Since the cross will be on private property, the ACLU are way out of line.

"Terrorist" Joke Falls Flat

Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka are three of the countries where there is a big following for the world's most popular bat-and-ball game -- cricket. And cricket does tend to be taken very seriously wherever it is played. But cricketers are sportsmen and, as such, not the world's most sensitive types.

So when Sri Lanka was playing South Africa recently, one of the Australian cricket commenters put his foot in it with what was obviously intended as a joke. One of the South African players, Hashim Amla, is a Muslim of Indian origin and, being devout, wears a large black beard. So he looks a bit like Osama Bin Laden and, in private, he has obviously been nicknamed as "The terrorist". Australians are very big on joky nicknames for people.

So when former Australian batsman Dean Jones was on a TV commentary team covering a match between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Colombo, Jones commented: "The terrorist has got another wicket", when Amla took the catch that dismissed one of the Sri Lankan batsmen.

Jones lost his job over it. Details here






Must not Make Muslims Unhappy

We read:

"Singapore authorities banned a play just hours before it was due to be staged because it portrayed Muslims in a negative light, local media said on Saturday....

In its first banning of a play since its was formed in 2003, the government's Media Development Authority said it was withdrawing the performance licence ...

The media authority, which initially agreed to the public performance ... said it was worried that the play "could create unhappiness and disaffection amongst Muslims", the newspaper reported."

Source

Pictures of Mohammed Banned in India

We read:

"Police have seized and banned school textbooks carrying fake portraits of the noblest messenger of Allah, Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) and arrested the publisher in Uttar Pradesh state after religious authorities demanded the death penalty for him and the book's writer, an official said on Friday".

Source

Must not Refer to the Confederacy

We read:

"The NCAA will consider expanding its ban of championship events in South Carolina, possibly disallowing baseball and football teams from hosting postseason games, because the Confederate flag is displayed on Statehouse grounds.

Source

A college athletic organizaton wants to make policy for a State? Do the voters get a say?






"Crackers", "These people", "Tar"

The good ol' double standard again

Senior California Democrat Don Perata seems to think it is OK for him to utter racial slurs. In one speech recently he managed three of them -- or what would be three of them if it had been a conservative speaking.

San Diego is just over the border from Tijuana so San Diegans see the illegal immigrant flood close up and not many of them like it -- so they do tend to protest about it.

To Italian-American Perata, however, the San Diegans concerned are just "crackers" (lower-class white ignoramuses). It's a term that goes close to being the white equivalent of "n*gger". But Perata is a Democrat so racial slurs against whites are just fine and dandy. I am sure a lot of the good citizens of San Diego who are protesting do not consider themselves as "crackers", however.

Amusingly he also used the word "tar" in a way very similar to "tar baby". He said: "if you start getting engaged with these people, you get tar all over yourself.". When conservatives use the term "tar baby" to refer to something sticky, that is held to be very bad because tar is also black but apparently tar loses it blackness when a Leftist uses the word.

Finally, Perata's use of "these people" would probably be seen as derogatory if a conservative had used it. Third-party Presidential candidate Ross ("giant sucking sound") Perot got roundly criticized for addressing a meeting of blacks as "you people" in 1992. I personally don't think that Perot was "insensitive" for using such phraseology but I am not a Leftist.





"Racist" for Manager to Fire Black Thief

Another nutty story from Britain: A hotel manager watched a black employee stealing money -- on a videotape from a security camera. She showed him the tape and fired him for what he did.

Now he is claiming that his firing was "racism" and a British government tribunal appears to be taking the claim seriously. Details here

How Do We Talk about FAT?

We read:

"Is it OK for doctors and parents to tell children and teens they're fat?

That seems to be at the heart of a debate over whether to replace the fuzzy language favored by the U.S. government with the painful truth - telling kids if they're obese or overweight.

Labeling a child obese might "run the risk of making them angry"."

Source

When I was a kid at school, fat kids got called "fatty" and if you were being derogatory "fatso". They all seemed to survive it pretty well.






The "Indian Names" Nonsense Bubbles on

The Methodist McMurry university in Texas seems to be the latest victim of the strange compulsion to avoid naming college sporting teams after anything Indian. See here. They have long called their athletic teams "The Indians" but the NCAA has both banned that and now rejected an appeal against the ban.

Apparently their team name was an example of 'nicknames that demean and offend our Native American sisters and brothers.'. The reasoning supporting that conclusion must be mightily convoluted. It certainly escapes me. The following comment by a McMurry graduate seems a lot more straightforward to me: "'Forcing a school to get rid of its Indian mascot,' he added, 'does nothing more than discriminate more against Indians.'"

The idea that "must not mention Indians" is respectful of them is reminiscent of Orwell's inverted "Newspeak". It seems disrespectful to me.





What is a "Christianist"?

Andrew Sullivan defines "Christianism" as politicized Christianity. The intention is clearly derogatory.

Funnily enough, I used that term too -- way back in 1970. But I used it to refer to people who were not Christian believers but who were nonetheless culturally Protestant -- as I am. So Sullivan uses it for people who ARE Christians and I use it for people who are not.

Objecting to politicized Christianity is nothing new. Many fundamentalists reject involvement in the affairs of "the world" -- Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Exclusive Brethren etc. After all, Jesus said to Pilate: "My Kingdom is not of this world".

But Sullivan is clearly not of that ilk. Although he defines it as politicized Christianity, he uses the term much more loosely -- usually to refer to anybody who is both a conservative and a Christian. See his recent diatribe against Hugh Hewitt and Hewitt's reply. In particular, he uses it to refer to anybody who rejects homosexual marriage on Christian grounds. He claims to be a Christian himself but that claim would seem as shallow as the rest of his thought. Romans chapter 1 makes it clear that homosexuals are condemned by God. So unless you can be a Christian without accepting the New Testament, ALL Christians are "Christianists" and Sullivan is not a Christian.

So much for a silly usage which serves essentially as no more than a hate-speech term for conservative Christians.

Keith Burgess Jackson has a few words on Sullivan's motivations too, as has Dean Barnett.

Censorship by Florida Cop

A black schoolteacher, Jauhnisha Oliver, was handing out at an anti-gang rally a free magazine she had created that was designed to promote community involvement. Some of kids pictured in it were recognized by a local cop, Gregory Kirk, as gang members. So he took it on himself to obstruct distribution of the magazine. He obviously thought he was cop, judge and jury all rolled up into one. He had certainly never heard of the First Amendment.

So what's one rogue cop, you say? Get this: His police chief, Eugene Savage, is backing him up! "Savage defended Kirk's actions, saying Oliver needed police permission to hand out the magazines"

He will lose though. The NAACP is onto him. Details here






A "Safety" Excuse for Censorship

Arizona State University tried to block a student anti-abortion group from holding a meeting on its grounds to publicize their cause. At first the students were told that it was just not allowed, then they were told that they would have to pay a $350.00 fee.

When the students pointed out that other student groups had not been similarly restricted, the university backed down but then said that the students would have to take out an insurance policy in order to hold their event. That stumped the students so they are now suing the university for violating their free speech rights.

The University's lawyer "said the group wasn't allowed to host the event for safety reasons". Only abortion opponents are "unsafe"? Any idea that the university might DEFEND the free speech of their students against those who would attack it was of course right off the planet. Universities regularly give a lot of lip-service to free speech but the only "free speech" they actually defend is Leftist speech.





Just One Word Can Lose you your Job

But we all know what that word is. If you are black, you can (and probably will) use it all the time but if you are white you must never, never use it, even in anger and only in America. The High Court of Australia has recently ruled that the word "n*gger" is not offensive in Australia.

But an NYC legal employee of apparently Italian extraction used the word in an angry post on his MySpace page and Bloooie! He might as well have murdered someone.

I wonder what would happen if somebody used the word in its original Latin form: "niger". "Niger" is, of course the ordinary Latin word for "black". So anybody who spelt the word with one "g" would have an interesting legal defence.

Details here

"Te*nager", "Husb*nd" and "B*chelor" Wrong

It's Google again, I am afraid. A guy had the unmodified forms of the above words on his site so Google pulled their advertising from him. Apparently those words in conjunction sounded "pornographic" to Google's all-wise alogrithms. And you can't use a certain word meaning "to cause someone to die", either -- which rather limits a lot of news stories! And an article that mentions "sk*nheads" is automatically "racist". See here.

Advertising is big business of course and some people get significant revenue from ads that Google places on their web pages via its "AdSense" program. So when Google pulls its ads from a page it really hits some people -- generally those who can least afford it.

If Google does not like a page, they don't cancel all advertising. That would be too obvious. Instead they put up "public service" ads -- ads that make no money. I think you will see a few such ads here -- which is why the advertising revenue from this site is small.

I have never received a cent from advertising and I never will. I don't need the money. The revenue from the Google ads on this page goes to Scott, who uses it to pay the costs of the site. With over 100,000 comments up alone, this site does need a fair bit of webspace.

So Google censorship is doing what official censorship cannot: It is bowdlerizing the internet. Any web publisher who needs a buck has to be super careful of what he/she puts up. The lesson is of course an age-old one: Always diversify your sources of information as much as you can.

Fortunately, there are many websites -- particularly blogs -- that don't rely on advertising revenue so you can still find the good stuff if you look around.





"Tar Baby" Update

That good ol' double standard again

Taranto documents uses of the term "tar baby" by various Leftist sources. Needless to say, nobody in the media criticized them for using the expression. It is only conservatives who are not allowed to use it.





Readers Here Might Like to Know...

"When the ACLU wins a case against the Boy Scouts, the public display of the Ten Commandments, veterans memorials, and other symbols of American history and heritage guess who pays them? You do! However, there is current legislation going before the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, as well as a companion bill going before the House that is designed to put a stop to this.

(From Stop the ACLU)

"Stop the ACLU" wants you to help get the bill passed.

Another "Tar baby" Downfall

The latest person to use that incorrect expression is none other than Mitt Romney, the RINO governor of Taxachusetts. See here.

"Tar baby" just means a "sticky problem" but tar is black, you see, and that is a VERY touchy color. I have mentioned this dreadful problem before. Romney is probably in good enough standing with the Left to be forgiven for it, though.

In commenting on the Romney affair, Taranto notes that you have to be careful about using the word "slope" as well. Some people call Asians "Slopes". So DEFINITELY don't use the expression "slippery slope" any more! You might be a "racist" if you do.





San Diego Cross Victory

Both the House and the Senate have now voted to acquire the San Diego cross memorial as Federal land. GWB will no doubt sign so those who were trying to get the cross taken down will now have to go back to square 1. Details here

Stop the ACLU is cheering.






Importance of English Controversial In New Zealand Too

The leader of New Zealand's main conservative party (Don Brash) said in a speech that prospective immigrants should "have a good command of English, or be willing to learn". See here. The Leftist New Zealand government called the comment "pejorative and insulting".

One of the representatives of New Zealand's Indians however gave the rather mild response that Brash's comments "showed he would prefer [immigrants] to come from English-speaking countries". Why so mild? Because a lot of Indians DO speak reasonable English so would get preference as immigrants if Brash were in charge!

Hate Speech Against Ann Coulter OK

The usual double standard

As documented repeatedly on this blog, Leftists are always finding "hate speech" in things that conservatives say, even when a big stretch is needed to find some basis for the charge. But if calling someone an "evil crazy bitch" is not hate-speech, what would be? No stretch is needed to find the hate there. Yet that is just what Ann Coulter was recently called on the Letterman show. Details here.






"Yankee" and "Zulu" Incorrect

Apparently this is a story from last year but it was new to me so may be new to others:

There is a "spelt out" alphabet used in radio transmissions, on the telephone and on any occasion when speech may not be entirely clear. So A is Alfa, B is Bravo, C is Charlie etc.

And you can guess what Y and Z are. I am struggling to guess why but apparently those words are "insensitive" or something and are replaced in some quarters by Yellow and Zebra. Since Zebra is pronounced differently in American and British speech, that is a really dumb idea but who ever said that political correctness was smart?

A bit more on the story here.

Disturbing Censorship

I guess most readers would have heard by now that Australian-born movie man Mel Gibson was arrested recently for drunk-driving. You might also have heard that he did a lot of mouthing off to the arresting officer -- including some classically antisemitic remarks.

Make of that what you will, but what do you make of this:

"Deputy James Mee's original arrest report was withheld from reporters by the Los Angeles County sheriff's department, however four pages were leaked yesterday to a Los Angeles gossip website....

Deputy Mee wrote a full report describing Gibson's behaviour and alleged anti-Semitic statements but superiors decided it was "inflammatory" and asked the officer to rewrite it."

Source

The truth is "too inflammatory" even in police reports?? What price justice if that is the case?

There is now to be an investigation into the coverup. I hope that "investigation" does not mean "whitewash" but, whether it does or not, the chances of senior police suffering any serious penalty for their actions are vanishingly small. And practices that are not penalized are highly likely to continue.

Update

I have received the following thoughtful email from a reader:

"I disagree with your assessment of the Mel Gibson arrest. While I believe in the importance of a non-corrupt police force, it does not bother me that the cops tried to change a police report to protect Gibson's career.

Gibson drove drunk and acted extremely disorderly, but that happens hundreds of times every night across the US. I'm pretty sure that cops don't write down in detail everything a drunk says as he's getting hauled off to jail. Instead, police note the criminal facts of the case and describe whether that person co-operates or is belligerentt.

I assume that the senior officer after reading the report realized the magnitude of what could happen to Gibson, and determined that Gibson's anti-Semitic remarks would not make a difference in the DUI/resisting arrest case against him. He then changed the report to protect Gibson - not from the arrest, but from his (drunken) beliefs.

While many may argue that the senior officer should not have done this, just look at how the public reacted to this story. No one is upset at Gibson for the DUI. Very few are angered about the police changing the report. The majority determined that Gibson's number one crime is his antisemitic remarks made while he was wasted. These remarks, while wrong and offensive, are still not criminally punishable in the US. At least for now."






Dual Citizenship Debate Denounced as "Bigotry"

Once again we see "bigotry" and "racism" charges being used as a means to suppress debate -- this time in an article by someone named "Waleed Aly" writing in Australia's most Leftist mass-circulation newspaper -- the Melbourne "Age" -- also known for its heavy pro-homosexual bias.

The hostilities in Lebanon have brought to light the fact that a lot of Lebanese Muslims have gained Australian citizenship but also retain Lebanese citizenship and have gone back to live in Lebanon. They are only technically Australians. See, for instance, here.

The people concerned nonetheless seem to think that they have a right to be evacuated from Lebanon by the Australian government when the going gets tough. Lots of Australians however doubt that the Australian taxpayer should be paying for the welfare of such nominal Australians and have called for dual citizenship to be ended.

I can't see why that is not a reasonable question to be debated (I myself can see some merits in dual citizenship) but Mr Waleed Aly and "The Age" want to shut the debate down. Rather than take part in the debate they express horror at it and that is apparently meant to settle the matter.