Scotland: More Encouragement for Lying, Deception and Dissimulation

We read:

"Screening tests might be used to bar corrupt and bigoted police officers from promotion. Senior officers yesterday said they will look to extend psychometric tests, which will be introduced to identify racist applicants from the spring, to other ethical concerns, in particular sectarianism, sexism and dishonesty.

Source

We have of course known since La Piere's study in the 1930s that attitudes are no guide to actions but that will no doubt not deter the dumb Scottish cops concerned.

Reference:

La Piere, R. (1934) Attitudes and actions. Social Forces 13, 230-237

"Pommy" Still Allowable -- Just

Australians have a mildly derisive name for the English: "Poms" or "Pommies". It has been in common use for around a century, if not more, but it now seems to be under threat as being "racist". Since most Australians and most English are still of the same race (however you cut it) that is pretty crazy but since when did these things make sense?

We read:

"It's OK to call a Pom a Pom at the cricket this summer - as long as it is in good humour. Cricket Australia has given the green light to Aussies chastising the enemy during the Ashes series, but not if it's nasty. According to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, the word Pom or Pommy itself is not offensive -- it depends on how it is used..."

Source

I wonder will the English still be allowed to call Australians "colonials"?

Senator George Allen -- Update

I have just put up here a press release about the enormously biased media hounding of Senator George Allen. I rarely comment on individual Congressional races but I commented on the original episode that led to the media sensing blood -- and their subsequent feeding frenzy -- so I am following that up.

Previous posts here and here

Blacks Attack NY Jewish Clinic over Sabbath Observance

More contemptuous "Hymietown" attitudes from blacks:

"The NAACP filed a complaint accusing a New York dental clinic of religious discrimination because it is closed on Shabbat.

The complaint filed Sept. 6 with the New York state Division of Human Rights accuses the Ben Gilman Medical and Dental Clinic in Spring Valley, N.Y., of imposing its religious beliefs on others by remaining closed on Saturdays

Source

Great respect for diversity there!

"Eagle's Nest" a Bad Name

News from Charleston:

"The elementary school adjacent to River Oaks Middle School was dubbed Eagle Nest Elementary. A giant eagle's nest discovered on the site caused a delay in construction due to environmental regulations, and board members felt the name would serve as a permanent reminder of the school's unique history.

Still, that name isn't without controversy.

District spokeswoman Pat Raynor informed board members of a message she received from a history teacher, who warned the board to consider that "Eagle's Nest" was the nickname given to Adolf Hitler's command center complex during World War II."

Source

Despite their anti-Nazi dedication, modern-day Germans still seem to be happy to live at the original German site. It has not been abandoned just because Hitler was there. Hitler in fact visited it only a few times but thousands of tourists now visit it. And "Eagle's Nest" is a Hollywood name for it, anyway. In German it is called the "Kehlsteinhaus" (House on Mt. Kehlstein).

Blacks Attack NY Jewish Clinic over Sabbath Observance

More contemptuous "Hymietown" attitudes from blacks:

"The NAACP filed a complaint accusing a New York dental clinic of religious discrimination because it is closed on Shabbat.

The complaint filed Sept. 6 with the New York state Division of Human Rights accuses the Ben Gilman Medical and Dental Clinic in Spring Valley, N.Y., of imposing its religious beliefs on others by remaining closed on Saturdays

Source

Great respect for diversity there!

Even Mozart Falls Victim to the Muslims

We read:

"For fear of Muslim anger, the bosses of the world-renowned Deutsche Oper in Berlin have cancelled performances of Mozart's Idomeneo. The decision has unleashed a storm of disapproval from politicians and writers, who claim that Germany has fatally compromised the freedom of expression...

Tenenbom said: "This self-censorship shouldn't be happening anywhere, but least of all in Germany. This is where the Nazis burnt books.

Source

Sad that an opportunity to see a performance of a Mozart opera was lost. People would have come from all over Europe to see such a rare performance. The replacement performance is of a well-known opera that will be much less of a drawcard. Mozart operas, of course, give enormous pleasure to many. A small memoir of my last visit to a Mozart opera is here or here

Fatties suffer 'discrimination, depression'

We read:

"Depression, discrimination and humiliation, not just excess weight, are burdens for people who are obese, a Melbourne professor said today. Monash University Professor Paul Komesaroff is leading a study into the emotional burdens of being overweight. He said the physical risks of obesity were well known, but little had been done on how overweight people felt about themselves and society's attitudes to them. "Overweight people are often reviled and humiliated their whole lives," Professor Komesaroff said. "Public debates and comments often don't help"...

Source

You have two groups -- one group is constantly murdering and attacking people. The other group harms nobody. One group you can vilify at will and the other you dare say nothing negative about. So which are you allowed to vilify, Muslims or fatties? The answer shows how twisted the values of political correctness are.

Why is it OK to hurt the feelings of fatties but not OK to hurt the feelings of Muslims? Should fatties start bombing the obesity warriors? It would give the PC brigade a big dilemma if they did.

Upheaval at the ACLU

Some old-time members don't like the current direction of the ACLU and are organizing to reform it.

"More than 30 longtime supporters of the American Civil Liberties Union are calling for the ouster of the organization's leadership, saying it has failed to adhere to the principles it demands of others

There's a lot to reform. Stop the ACLU has the details.

VeggieTales too Christian for NBC

We read:

"The wildly popular VeggieTales kids videos about vegetables who talk and sing and act out Bible stories are being edited for their run on NBC's Saturday morning educational program time

Source

NBC is trying to weasel out of what they are doing by referring to time constraints but one of the creators of the Tales shows that their excuse is a lie. He says: "The show wasn't too long, it was too religious"

No Tolerance for Anti-abortion Persuasion in Canada

We read:

"In British Columbia, someone who simply prays the Rosary outside an abortion clinic could get arrested. The same thing could happen if that person hands out leaflets or long-stemmed roses.

Source

The legislation has so far been upheld by the courts but a new legal challenge is underway.

Darwin must not be Associated with Hitler

Hitler's attachment to eugenics is surely one of the best known things about him. And that eugenics (deliberate selection) is a pretty obvious extension of Darwin's ideas about natural selection should not strain too many brains. Wanting to speed up a beneficial natural process was seen as kind and wise by most Leftists -- including American Leftists -- in the 1930s. See here

But a Christian TV program pointing to the connection between the ideas of Darwin and Hitler evoked lots of attacks even before it was aired last month. You must not bad-mouth Darwin, apparently.

Curiously, one of the chief attackers was Abe Foxman of the ADL. Rabbi Lapin points out how curious that is. Jews too believe that the world is a product of creation rather than of evolution so they surely have no particular brief for Darwin. Rabbi Lapin suggests that it is the anachronistic hatred that some Jews still feel towards Christians that lies behind Foxman's attack. Foxman often seems to side with the ACLU so that fits.

Amazing Racism Conviction in the Unhinged Kingdom


We read:

"A member of the British National Party was convicted yesterday of racially abusing an Asian woman, although the victim has never been traced and the exact words that he used could not be heard by the only witness.


Source

The British establishment live in fear of the BNP as it is the only major party that is openly critical of Muslims and illegal immigrants.

Beyonce Knowles a Racist?



We read:

"Pop star Beyonce Knowles has sparked controversy by saying she only makes records for black people.

Since the Deja Vu singer made the astonishing statement sales of her new album, B'Day, have fallen by 70 per cent in the US.

Beyonce, 25, said in an interview with Blender magazine: "I make black records. I write records like I speak, and I don't try to change my songs so everyone else likes them."

Source

What if a white singer had said she only makes recordings for white people? It would get blanket media condemnation for weeks.

Naughty "Fatwa Friday" in Ohio

We read:

"A car commercial proclaiming a "jihad on the US auto market" and offering "Fatwa Fridays" with free swords for the kids is offensive and should not be aired, Muslim leaders said overnight.

The radio advertisement for the Dennis Mitsubishi car dealership in Columbus, Ohio, has "a whole jihad theme," said Adnan Mirza, director of the Columbus office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations....

Mr Mirza said several local radio stations had already rejected the ad and he hoped the controversy would convince the dealership to rethink its sales strategy.

Source

The advertisement has not yet even been aired.

Canadians Silence Anti-Feminist Professor

We read:

"The brilliant Finnish-Canadian computer science professor / blogger Ilkka Kokkarinen has taken down his popular blog, presumably to keep his job after his campus newspaper noticed his heterodox views. His skepticism about the intellectual consistency of lesbian-feminist theory and practice would appear to have been his biggest crime.

Source

He even suggested that lesbians tend to be fat! What a criminal!

Must not Mention Black Abortions

Republican candidate for Colorado governor, Bob Beauprez, said he was appalled at the number of abortions performed on black women.

"Beauprez told a radio audience, "I've seen numbers as high as 70 percent - maybe even more - in the African-American community. That, I think, is just appalling."

Source

To the Left, it is opposition to abortion that is appalling. Beauprez had to apologize, of course, but I am not at all clear why. White nationalists tend to think that black abortions are an excellent thing. So was not Beauprez in the anti-racist camp in what he said?

Racist Revving??

From Scotland we read:

"A driver spent two nights in jail after being accused of "revving his car in a racist manner".

Mechanic Ronnie Hutton, 49, yesterday described his court ordeal which finally ended when prosecutors dropped the allegation of racism.

But he was still convicted of a breach of the peace for revving the engine of his 25,000 pound Lotus.

Witnesses claimed he had been trying to intimidate a Libyan couple on the pavement. Ronnie, of Stirling, claims he was only revving the powerful V8 engine to avoid another 15,000 pound repair bill....

Source

The Amazing Belgians

Belgium is the country that fiercely prosecutes what it calls "hate speech" -- any criticism of Muslims in particular. So note the following comment on Muslim violence by a senior Belgian legal official:

"However, Dominique Reyniers, the spokeswoman of the Antwerp judiciary said: "If violence is used a complaint is sometimes lodged. Verbal abuse, however, is obviously not a crime. Hence, we cannot say that there is a rise in this kind of incidents." Ms Reyniers is saying that intimidating and bullying people is not a crime, unless one beats them up".

Source

What a double standard! Muslims can do no wrong.

An Interesting Report from a NJ College Student

He writes:

"Meanwhile, partisan political expression in schools goes unchecked. Recently, after visiting one of my old high school teachers, a somewhat devout Catholic, he complained how irritating it was that he couldn't place a cross in his office while another man he shared an office with was able to litter his side with liberal slogans and stickers. He had a rainbow keychain, a "more trees less Bush" sticker and my favorite, a "vote for your vagina" sticker. I was tempted to ask him how his vagina would sway his vote on the upcoming election, but alas he was not to be seen.

Source

The Anti-Christian 9th Circuit Again

We read:

"Government libraries can block religious groups from worshipping in public meeting rooms, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The decision came from a case involving the Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries, a Christian group which won a court order allowing them to hold a "prayer, praise and worship" service in meeting rooms open to other groups at a Contra Costa County library branch.

A federal judge said it had a First Amendment right of religion to use the public's facilities."

Source

Special Treatment for Muslims Demanded

We read:

"Non-Muslims should practise self-censorship to avoid triggering violent reactions, a prominent Perth Muslim says.

In the wake of violent attacks over a speech by Pope Benedict XVI that linked the Prophet Mohammed's teachings to violence, Perth academic Samina Yasmeen said religious and community leaders should stop speaking about Islamic icons to avoid causing offence.

Associate Professor Yasmeen, director of the University of WA's centre for Muslim states and societies, accused the Pope of deliberately provoking the aggression by inviting criticism of Mohammed.

Source

"Articulate" a bad Word??

A prominent black Democrat writing about Condi Rice says:

"That's the way I feel - until I hear some commentator describe her as, quote, articulate, which is code for a black person who speaks standard English. Excuse me, you were expecting the Secretary of State to be inarticulate?

That's when I get this involuntary twitch and I want to defend Condoleezza Rice - when she's patronized, the way black pioneers in all walks of life have been patronized."

Source

We seem to have a black here saying that blacks don't generally speak good English. Does that make him a racist? One guess what would have happened if a white man had said as much.

Attempt to Silence Dissent over Global Warming

Once a stuffy scientific body, Britain's Royal Society is now searching for relevance by becoming a political lobby group. And shutting up debate is their modus operandi -- as we see in the report below from "The Guardian":

"Britain's leading scientists have challenged the US oil company ExxonMobil to stop funding groups that attempt to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change. In an unprecedented step, the Royal Society, Britain's premier scientific academy, has written to the oil giant to demand that the company withdraws support for dozens of groups that have "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence".

Source

Oil companies greatly dislike the way they are constantly demonized (you would too) so Exxon may well cave in.

The Royal Society also pushed their myth about "consensus" over global warming last year. There is in fact NO proof of man-made global warming. The tiny warming observed in the 20th century (less than one degree Celsius) is well within the range of natural fluctuation. It's all speculation.

ACLU Supports Voter Fraud

The recently passed House bill that requires voters to show photo ID before they vote is part of a similar movement in many States to cut down on voting by dead people and illegals. As Al Capone advised his supporters many years ago: "Vote early and vote often".

But the ACLU are fighting such measures tooth and nail and as the arguments they put up against it are demolished they just keep finding more technicalities to resist the measure.

Why? One can only conclude that they WANT people to be able to vote illegally. Stop the ACLU has the details.

U.S. Government Discourages Display of Old Glory??



An Iranian immigrant who got rich in the USA is about to become a space tourist via a Russian rocket. We read:

"Ms Ansari provoked a brief row when she announced she wanted to wear the Stars and Stripes on one sleeve of her space suit and, to inspire women in the country of her birth, the Iranian flag on the other.

She backed down under pressure from the US and Russian governments..

Source

I would have thought that she would have been conveying a very useful lesson to Iranians by what she planned to do.

OK to Stereotype Whites?

A student of apparently Hispanic origins seem to think so:

"Whites, as the ethnic majority in the States, are not as subject to racial restriction as other ethnicities. Yes, they can argue that they are also victims of stereotypes and ethnic jokes. But the fact remains that whites, as the majority, still hold more power in society than other races, making it impossible for them to ever be constrained by a stereotype as other ethnic groups are.

Source

So because SOME whites have power, it is OK to stereotype ME? It seems that this writer can think only in terms of racial groups -- making him a racist.

HT Campus Newspaper Confab.

Rejection of Homosexual Clergy is "Hate"

From New Zealand:

"The executive director of the Aids Foundation, Rachael Le Mesurier, issued a shrill press statement last week condemning the distribution of bumper stickers opposing homosexual clergy in the Presbyterian Church. She was gravely concerned that the law allowed no recourse against "hate campaigns"....

The Aids Foundation, however, thinks the rights of gay people are best protected by suppressing other people's right to free speech. Ms Le Mesurier's statement serves as a reminder that the gay activist lobby, for which the foundation serves as a front, hasn't given up its dream of a law forbidding "hate speech"....

Personally, I would rather live with the occasional distasteful bumper sticker than sacrifice basic democratic rights to the speech police."

Source

The FCC Tyranny

A good comment:

"At July's G-8 summit meeting in Russia, as conflict heated up between Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, a microphone picked up a candid moment between George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Syria, Bush told Blair, should tell Hezbollah to "stop doing this shit."

This spring, the FCC declared s-words, like f-words before them, to be a step beyond merely "indecent." Now they are "profane." That means that these "most offensive words in the English language" will "provoke violent resentment," and that uttering them on the public airwaves is as good as guaranteed to be punished.

The commissioners crossed a line there. For as the president himself demonstrated, shit and its variants are political speech. If Bush had told Tony Blair at the G-8 meeting that Syria needed to get Hezbollah to stop this "humbug" or this "no-no," it would have lost impact. How can you talk politics without these words? Isn't calling bullshit on politicians the essence of free speech and reason in a democracy?

And so the FCC now censors and chills political speech-even that of the president, for most broadcast outlets did choose to bleep him for fear of fines. Mind you, the commission does recognize some constitutionally protected speech. That is why it has not ruled racial or religious epithets to be profane: because those words can be political. In the FCC's skewed logic, then, the n-word is political speech but BS is not

Source

Truth is "Insensitive"

Kinky Friedman, independent candidate for Texas governor, has not being obeying the rules. He has been attacked over certain derogatory comments he made:

"Friedman said a spike in Houston's crime rate was partially due to the "crackheads and thugs" who evacuated New Orleans....

Houston police have reported that 59 of the 262 Houston murders between Jan. 1 and Aug. 26 involved Katrina evacuees, either as victims or suspects."

Source

See also here

Must not Mention Fat

More nonsense from Australia:

"Claims a 17-year-old singer needed to lose a "jelly belly'' to succeed has brought Australian Idol judge Kyle Sandilands under fire from the Victorian government.

Source

Of course, if you are a do-gooder or represent the government, you can talk all you like about "obesity"

Muslims Can Preach Conversion but Christians Cannot

We read:

"Muslims can convert to Christianity here!" read the sign Monday in front of the Congregational Church on Laurel Road.

"If church leaders are really interested in saving people, they would find much less offensive ways to do it," said Ahmed Bedier, director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Religious leaders are adding fuel to the fire. It's a shame."

The group plans on taking photos of the sign to document the incident

Source

"White slut" not a Slur

A story from Australia about the prosecution of an Aboriginal (black) girl who attacked a white woman:

"An Aboriginal girl who kicked a woman and called her a "white slut" did not engage in racial vilification because the slur was common street language.

A magistrate from the West Australian goldfields threw out a landmark race-hate charge yesterday against the 16-year-old, saying the slur against Kalgoorlie woman Melissa Blackney was "the patois of the street".

Source

I guess that calling someone a "n*gger" is street language too. So that would be OK then. Or have I missed something? SCOTUS likes foreign precedents so it would be interesting to see if they take up this particular Australian precedent.

Must not Insult "Turkishness"

Even in fiction

A character in a novel by a famous Turkish novelist refers to the massacre of around a million Armenians by Turks around a hundred years ago as "genocide". Fair enough? Not in Turkey. Turkey is a Muslim country so it is OK for Turks to be violent and then condemn people for calling them violent.

So the novelist is on trial for using that nasty "g-word" about Turkey. Details here.

My previous post on the Armenian genocide was on May 17th.

Who gets offended?

Ray Kraft has a good answer to that:

"It is axiomatic that those with the least to be honestly proud and confident of are the often quickest to take offense at any real or imaginary slight. Those of real achievement tend to ignore their detractors, knowing that criticisms, if true, should be heeded, and, if untrue, are merely displays of ignorance, jealousy, or the hatred that grows from the slacker's internal morass of envy and self-loathing.

Those of little achievement, or none, are the people most sensitive to being "dissed." The greatest underachievers are the most easily offended, precisely because every criticism, especially if true, threatens to penetrate and evaporate their tenuous, false, and exaggerated illusion of self-importance, the illusion by which they justify themselves. They are ostentatiously proud, because there is nothing to them but their ostentatious pride.

Source

UK: "Offensive garden gnome"



We read:

"When Gordon MacKillop saw police coming up his garden path at midnight he instantly feared the worst. But moments later he was told he was in trouble for possessing an offensive garden ornament, and advised to remove it or risk arrest and possible prosecution.

He was informed that his glowing solar-powered garden gnome, dressed as a policeman, offended his neighbour John McLean -- himself a former police officer.

Police then served Mr MacKillop with a notice under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 for 'placing a garden gnome with intent to cause harassment to Mr McLean.'"

Source

Anti-abortion Group Unmuzzled in SC

We read:

"The city of Florence has decided to pay an anti-abortion group $51,000 to settle a lawsuit over whether the group needed a permit for a protest four years ago. 'We decided rather than go on and fight this thing in court to settle it since we weren't enforcing it anyway,' City Manager David Williams said.

The 30-member group Columbia Christians for Life was in Florence in August 2002 to start a statewide tour protesting abortion. Five of its members were arrested. Before the protest, city officials told the group they had to apply for a parade permit.

The city decided to pay the group $51,000 to settle the suit because similar ordinances had been ruled unconstitutional in Charleston and Travelers Rest, Williams said."

Source

An Incorrect Pope

We read:

"Pakistan's legislature unanimously condemned Pope Benedict XVI. Lebanon's top Shiite cleric demanded an apology. And in Turkey, the ruling party likened the pontiff to Hitler and Mussolini and accused him of reviving the mentality of the Crusades.

Across the Islamic world Friday, Benedict's remarks on Islam and jihad in a speech in Germany unleashed a torrent of rage that many fear could burst into violent protests like those that followed publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

By citing an obscure Medieval text that characterizes some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman," Benedict inflamed Muslim passions and aggravated fears of a new outbreak of anti-Western protests..."

Source

"Incorrect" Opinion Leads to Court in France

French nationalist politician Jean Marie Le Pen is in trouble over "holocaust denial" again. We read:

"He said that the Gestapo worked, in the main, to protect the French population and was quoted saying: "In France, at least, the German occupation was not particularly inhumane, although there were some blunders, inevitable in a country of 550,000 sq km."

In the ensuing controversy, M Le Pen refused to apologise for his remarks, accusing the Government of trying to discredit him in the run-up to the referendum on the EU constitution.

"I note that if one compares the German occupation of France with the occupation in certain other European countries, then proportionately it is in France where it was the least painful," he said.

"It is scandalous that, 60 years after the war, one is not allowed to express oneself in a coherent and calm way on these subjects," he said.

Source

Disputes about the scale of the holocaust seem silly to me. Whether one million or six million were exterminated, the crime to me seems equally catastrophic and unforgivable.

And, as far as I can tell, M. Le Pen is right that France got off fairly lightly under the Germans. The fact that the French (unlike the Italians) were in general only too willing to help round up Jews was part of the reason for that.

I guess that in France, I might risk prosecution for saying that.

It had to happen

We read:

"Six American Indian young people from across the country filed a joint petition with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Aug. 11 for the cancellation of the Washington Redskins football organization's trademarked term, ''Redskins.''

Source

If they lose their trademark the team will still be able to use the name, but will not be able to charge anyone licensing fees for use of the name.

What's interesting about this legal action is it's strictly punitive: it doesn't decrease the use of the "derogatory" name but actually increases its use, since now people will be able to sell "Washington Redskins" memorabilia without paying a license fee. The only other effect will be to hurt the team financially.

Schwarzenegger Update

The "leaked" tape of Arnie using wicked "ethnic stereotypes" about "hot" Hispanics etc. appears not to have been leaked by anybody -- not by Schwarzenegger OR by his opponents. Steve Frank reports that the tape was placed on a webserver without appropriate password protection and so was simply downloaded by someone who knew a bit about how web addresses work.

That still does not tell us why such a personal file was: 1). Made in the first place; or, 2). Placed on a webserver.

So I am still inclined to think that Arnie WANTED the tape to get out -- in order to show himself as a good guy not afraid to be politically incorrect.

If so, it seems to have worked. Steve Frank also notes that Arnie has now increased his lead in the polls.

No Dissent Allowed in the ACLU

Black civil libertarian booted out for not being secretive enough:

"Another American Civil Liberties Union board member who clashed with leaders of the group has been voted off the organization's national board....

"I'm free at last, at least from the ACLU," Mr. Brittain quipped

Last year, the ACLU voted a vocal dissident, Michael Meyers, off its board. Another critic of the organization's leadership, Wendy Kaminer, left in June after choosing not to run for re-election. However, the departure of Mr. Brittain is notable because he was rarely quoted in the press and generally confined his critiques to board meetings and online discussions among board members."

Details here

(HT Stop the ACLU)

A Lesson In Caution

We read:

"At first glance, the posting looked like any number of Internet classified ads explicitly seeking sex. But instead of the 27-year-old woman with long brown hair advertised in the posting, a Seattle-area graphic designer, collected the replies and posted them online - with photos, names and contact information.

Details here

Some argue that what he did is protected as free speech and it may be. More to the point, there is a well-established legal principle that mail is the property of the person to whom it is sent. So was he entitled to do what he did? Perhaps not. I think he was guilty of the Common Law offence of deception.

But what if he had really been a woman? Perhaps a feminist who was willing to "go underground" -- as Gloria Steinem did? I doubt that he/she would have committed an offence then.

So we all now have another lesson to learn, I think: Assume that EVERYTHING you write in mail could end up being read by the whole wide world. It is a sad day when we can no longer trust private communications to remain private but I don't suppose we ever could.

The Wicked BBC

Many readers may by now have heard of a private video produced by BBC staff that has attracted a lot of flak:

"The BBC has come under fire for allowing its senior journalists to make a spoof video which makes fun of war in the Middle East...

it features BBC staff singing and dancing in front of images of missiles being fired and tanks rolling across the Arabian desert.

It also contains crass Arab stereotypes and makes joking reference to Osama Bin Laden, the Palestinian conflict.

The video has been condemned by an Arab rights group as 'insenstive and puerile', as well as being potentially offensive to Muslims.

Source

I think it is rather refreshing to see that not all BBC staff members accept the BBC's usual pro-Muslim stance.

You can watch the actual video via the link given above.

Leftist Advertisements have a RIGHT to be Displayed

Or so it would seem. A public library in Hammond, Indiana, was asked to display a flier announcing an ACLU-sponsored attack on the Bush presidency. When the library refused to display it, that was "censorship"

Details here

Must not Mention Blackness

We read:

"Democrat Barbara Sykes, an African-American candidate for state auditor, is accusing white, Republican opponent Mary Taylor of conspiracy to incite racism.
Sykes filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court citing a poll conducted for Taylorthat asked respondents if Sykes' presidency of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus affected their views of the Democrat.."

Source

Wicked French Dictionary

We read:

"In its edition that appeared this month, the widely consulted French dictionary Le Petit Robert defines colonialism as "valuing, enhancing, exploiting the natural resources" of foreign territories.

This definition has provoked angry reactions from groups representing the French black population and associations against racism.

Source

Must not mention a positive side of colonialism: "Exploiting" is good but "Enhancing" is bad.

There is of course NO WAY black Africa has been hurtling downhill ever since the colonialists left. Zimbabwe, for instance, is still the breadbasket of Africa -- producing so much food that it exports most of it.

Furore over Clinton Drama

An ABC TV series called "Path to 9/11" that shows how Osama bin Laden and the Muslims generally were allowed to carry on their activities unhindered by the Clinton administration has caused a lot of controversy.

The Left have been outraged at having the truth of the matter aired and have succeeded in having the series cut to let Clinton off the hook to a degree.

Michael Moore can air outright deceptions in his films about Preseident Bush but even hinting at the truth of Clinton's negligence is not allowed. There is a coverage of the controversy here.

The Rockwell blog notes that a legal threat was made against ABC by Congressional Democrats in order to get the drama censored. You can see one of the censored sections here

With their usual love of ad hominem arguments, the Left have tried to discredit the series by revealing that one of the people responsible for it has "Evangelical ties". Shock! Horror! I wonder why Michael Moore's "ties" were not a big issue?

Update:

There are more of the censored excerpts here

OK to Slime Christianity

We read:

"Recently published comics in the student-run paper at the University of Virginia have received intense scrutiny and criticism, and not for their journalistic qualities.

The three different comic strips depict the Virgin Mary with a venereal disease, Jesus Christ being crucified on a Cartesian coordinate plane, and Jesus dying alongside a woman in a car crash and then using profanities, images considered foul by most in the religious community....

In a statement released by the editor in chief of the Cavalier Daily, he says an apology will not be issued and the offensive comics will remain on the paper's website.

Source

Try doing similar comics about Mohammed!

Did You Know?

"The ACLU rakes in millions everytime they win a case attacking the public expression of religion. Every time they go after a cross, a ten commandments display, or a nativity scene and win they can have their attorney's fees paid for. A provision in a 1976 law that had the good intentions of helping individuals that could not afford to defend themselves in civil liberty issues has been turned on its head by groups like the ACLU. Now the ACLU uses this provision to threaten small schools and local governments into bowing to their demands."

Stop the ACLU tells you how you can do something about it.

Jewish Prayers Incorrect in Canada



We read:

"An Orthodox Jewish man was removed from an Air Canada Jazz flight in Montreal last week for praying, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation reported on Wednesday.

"He was clearly a Hasidic Jew," said Yves Faguy, a passenger seated nearby. "He had some sort of cover over his head. He was reading from a book.

"He wasn't exactly praying out loud but he was lurching back and forth," Faguy told the CBC.

Source

"Jesus" Defeats ACLU

We read:

"Cobb County Commissioners will not have to exclude the mention of 'Jesus Christ' from the prayers at their meeting under a new Federal Court ruling.

The case was filed in August 2005 by the Georgia Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of seven people who felt references to 'Jesus' were an unconstitutional endorsement of Christianity.

Source

Britain's Political Police

Homosexuality trumps the Bible -- but not the Koran:

"A police force was caught up in a freedom of speech row after its officers arrested an anti-gay campaigner for handing out leaflets at a homosexual rally.

South Wales police admitted evangelical Christian Stephen Green was then charged purely because his pamphlets contained anti-gay quotations from the Bible.

A spokesman for the police said the campaigner had not behaved in a violent or aggressive manner, but that officers arrested him because 'the leaflet contained Biblical quotes about homosexuality'....

The Met Police in London also investigated former Muslim Council of Britain leader Sir Iqbal Sacranie after he gave an interview saying homosexuality was harmful. However, no prosecution followed in that case.

Source

Racist Black Congressmen

We read:

"It is "critical" that the Congressional Black Caucus remain an all-black organization, one of the CBC's founders has said in a strategy memo.

"The CBC welcomes support from others in the House and Senate, especially those with liberal credentials, but it is critical that its membership remain exclusively African American," retired Rep. William Lacy Clay Sr. wrote earlier this year to the CBC....

The Clay letter was written in response to concerns that two Jewish congressional candidates, Tennessee state Rep. Steve Cohen and New York City Councilman David Yassky, both Democrats, would apply for CBC membership if elected from majority-black districts.

Source

What would happen if a group of white Congressmen were trying to keep blacks out of their group?

Arnie's Ethnic "Stereotyping"

Most readers by now have probably heard of the "private" audiotape in which Arnie uses various ethnic stereotypes -- calling Hispanics "hot" and talking about "black blood" etc. Such "stereotyping" (daring to say that all ethnic groups are not exactly the same) normally generates a lot of self-righteous hysteria from the Left but there has been very little of that on this occasion. Why?

Steven Frank knows California back to front and he surely has part of the answer when he notes that the tape was obviously deliberately made by Arnie and deliberately released by him. So did Arnie make the tape just to bait the Left and show what a good guy he is to conservatives? With elections coming up, it looks like it.

Steven Frank has all the details here.

Some Racist Hate Speech

We read that a Democrat Senate hopeful recently said:

"George Bush let people die on rooftops in New Orleans because they were poor and because they were black."

Source

But that's OK if it is conservatives you are condemning, of course.

Don't Grumble: Lend a Hand

I notice that a grumble appears in the Comments on this blog from time to time saying that a particular post is off-topic and really not what this blog is about.

Those who say so are of course entitled to that opinion but it would be much more impressive if they were to be positive rather than negative. A positive response would be to look out for stories that suit this blog and email in to me the link concerned.

What I put up is simply what I come across in my daily reading that seems most relevant to this blog. And if the stories seem more or less central to the theme of the blog that is just the way the cookie crumbles. I don't make up the news. I just report what I find that day.

But I am only one pair of eyes and I am sure that there are many stories I miss. So anybody who feels inclined to moan might ask themselves just what they have done to help out.

And let me say that I greatly appreciate the small number of people who DO email in stories from time to time. All readers of this blog are greatly indebted to them.

Arnie Comes Good at Last

We read:

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday vetoed a bill prohibiting schools from using textbooks and teaching materials that disparage gays.

Schwarzenegger -- who has a mixed record on gay rights bills and received heavy lobbying from conservative groups to oppose the bill -- argued that existing education codes already protect students against discrimination based on their sexual orientation.

Source

So Bible teachings will not be outlawed in California schools after all. A pity he did not veto SB1441 too.

Biased Media Treatment of Senator Allen

There has been huge and repeated coverage from the Left-leaning mainstream media about Sen. Allen's "gaffe" in using what to him was clearly the nonsense-word "macaca". The episode has been seized on by the media to "get" Allen. So I thought a very sensible comment on the matter by a black commentator was worth reproducing:

"Similar insincerity is evident in the reaction to Allen and the macaca episode, in which the Virginia Republican used the word in reference to a U.S.-born Democratic campaign worker of Indian descent. Imagine for a moment that Allen actually knew that a "macaque" is a kind of monkey, or that in French the term is sometimes used as an insult for North Africans (Allen denied having known about either). Who, then, believes that Allen would use the slur against an opposition campaigner aiming a camera straight at him?

The facts of the case would suggest that Allen just made up something silly on the spot -- something especially clear from the video of the incident, in which Allen, as usual, speaks in his jocular backyard-barbecue tone."

Source

What a Charming Teacher!

We read:

"The colors of the American flag may not run but they will burn. That is what some students at the Stuart Middle School in Louisville, Ky., learned a couple of weeks ago. As part of a lesson in his social studies class, teacher Dan Holden burned two small U.S. flags.

The incident has caused an uproar in the school district as well as around the country. Some parents are calling for Holden to be fired while others support his creativity. Holden contends his actions were not politically motivated"

Source

Call for Ethnic Profiling Attacked

Florida GOP Congressional candidate Mark Flanagan is calling for Middle-Easterners to be given priority screening at airports. He is of course being attacked from all sides over that. How dare he ask for a rational use of scarce resources!

Maybe it is progress of a sort that although the word "race" is being bandied around over the matter, the main objection being raised is that such profiling would be "ineffective":

"Advancing racial profiling may be a convenient political tactic, but racial profiling that is targeting people because of skin color or ethnic background has proven not to make us safer," said Muslima Lewis, ACLU Florida's racial justice project director and senior staff attorney. "It's wrong. . . . It's just a misdirection of resources."

Source

I would like to see the evidence that it is ineffective. It could not be more ineffective than targeting elderly Midwestern grandmothers -- which is the sort of thing that happens at the moment.

Are Child-molesters "Perverts"?

There is a short article here which makes the interesting point that "pervert" is now an unsayable word: "It now apparently is more horrid to use the term about someone who is actually a pervert than for that person to be a pervert."

Is NOTHING perverted? Like any word it can be misused, but surely it has legitimate uses too.

"Terrorism" Defined

The latest manifestation of the Leftist doctrine of "moral equivalence" (which flows from their belief that "There is no such thing as right and wrong") is their refusal to recognize terrorism. Only very recently has Australia's major public broadcaster removed from its guide for reporters the advice that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" and, as far as I know, Reuters, the BBC and others still proclaim that.

So the Leftist claim is essentially that you cannot define terrorism. And if you cannot define it you cannot reasonably talk about it. But some people HAVE to define terrorism -- in particular the lawyers who work for insurance companies. Insurance companies need to say whether or not they cover losses arising from terrorism. Below is therefore a lawyer's definition of terrorism taken from an Australian insurance policy:

"For the purpose of this endorsement an act of terrorism means an act, including but not limited to the use of force or violence and/or the threat thereof, of any person or group(s) of persons, whether acting alone or on behalf of or in connection with any organisation(s) or government(s), committed for political, religious, ideological, ethnic or similar purposes including the intention to influence any government and/or to put the public or any section of the public, in fear".

Source

So don't let anyone tell you that terrorism cannot be defined.

Pressure not to Sell a "Rebel" Flag

Sports fans at Louisiana State University have been accustomed to support their teams by flying a flag that blends a symbol of the Confederacy with the purple and gold colors of their university sports teams. But that has come under attack in recent years from the usual suspects.

The university recognizes that the First Amendment prevents it from banning the flag concerned so we read of LSU Chancellor O'Keefe:

"O'Keefe released a letter Friday asking fans to leave them at home: "We will not impede the constitutional right of free speech by banning this flag, but we ask that it not be flown on the LSU campus."

The school also sent letters to wholesalers and local retailers, asking them to stop selling the flag - and strongly implying that the stores could be frozen out in the future on the lucrative sales of franchised LSU flags, banners and other items... The letters included the veiled threat of a lawsuit.

The result, O'Keefe said, has been a sharp drop in the sales of the flags"

Source

Such indirect pressure on use of the flag would probably still be actionable under the First Amendment but it would be a harder case to win.

Indonesian Editor on Trial for Online Mohammed cartoons

We read:

"Teguh Santosa, editor of the online version of daily Rakyat Merdeka, is accused of religious defamation under the Indonesian penal code and risks five years in jail. The International Federation of Journalists has described the trial as an affront to press freedom.

Source

His crime was to publish three of the famous Danish Mohammed cartoons. It was a pretty bold thing to do in a Muslim country but the Indonesian version of Islam is much more tolerant than most. Not tolerant enough, however, it would seem.

Greenie Newspaper Banned

We read:

"The American Civil Liberties Union and a national libertarian group filed suit in a Tallahassee federal court this morning on behalf of a Wakulla County businesswoman who claims she was forced by the Florida Elections Commission to halt publication of her small-town newspaper....

The FEC investigated Hanway after a Panacea resident complained in 2004 that the four-page broadsheet, which includes book reviews, nature photographs, and community news, was a political arm of "anti-growth" candidates."

Source

The Florida authorities must not have heard of the freedom of the press enshrined in the First Amendment.

"Theocracy"?

The Left quite commonly accuse Christians (and conservatives generally) of trying to impose a "theocracy" on America. It is of course just another example of the habitual way they misuse words. It is on a par with their frequent abuse of George Bush as a "Nazi". They should experience some real theocrats and some real Nazis sometime.

Stop the ACLU has just put up an excellent post on who the real imposers of an undemocratic dogma are and noted some examples of "theocracy" that Leftists approve of.

Labor Unions Trying to Silence Wal-Mart

In some States, Wal-Mart has started to air TV advertisements that respond to the criticisms directed at it by unions. Unsurprisingly, the unions don't like the other side of the story being presented. So what are they doing? Are they putting up better arguments of their own to counter what Wal-Mart is saying? No way! They have gone to the courts in an attempt to stop Wal-Mart from presenting its case to the public.

Their pretext for the legal attack is that one of the statements in the Wal-Mart ads is "false advertising". Why? Because a figure quoted there is derived from some research funded by Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart funded the research, the findings must be false, apparently. That is of course the ad hominem logical fallacy but who said unions have to be logical?

To prevent their argument being completely laughed out of court, however, the unions say that the Wal-Mart research findings have been discredited. Discredited by whom? By a union-linked organization! Talk about the pot calling the kettle Afro-American!

Details here

No Derogatory Mention of ANYBODY?

Readers might have seen Scott's posting on Fox News about an advertisement that portrays an elderly lady as unable to give good directions. Some people objected that it portrayed the elderly unfavorably and others objected that it portrayed women unfavourably.

I then asked myself: Is there ANY type of person that you are allowed to portray unfavorably? And I don't think there is -- with ONE EXCEPTION. And the exception is a very small minority of the earth's population, strangely enough -- white middle class males.

When are we white middle-class males going to start protesting?

Google in Trouble in Brazil

They seem less compliant with Brazil than they were with China:

"A judge on Thursday ordered the Brazilian subsidiary of Google Inc. to turn over information on users of the company's social networking service Orkut or face daily fines of $23 million.

Federal Judge Jose Marcos Lunardelli gave Google Brazil 15 days to release information needed to identify individuals accused of using Orkut to spread child pornography and engage in hate speech against blacks, Jews and homosexuals".

Source

Is a criminal act worse when the criminal hates?

Robert Kelly comments:

"The U.S. Supreme Court in 1992 and in 1993 ruled that state laws establishing hate crimes could be constitutional. Because of these rulings, a crime of murder, for example, becomes worse if the murderer hates the victim. The ruling apparently assumes that some murderers are friendly chaps.

And the law can also be applied against a person who is found innocent of the alleged crime, but is found guilty of the hate that motivated the non-crime. Duh?

In other words, thoughts can be illegal -- you can be sent to the pokey because you hate me even though you have not been found guilty of hurting me.

Source

The Confederacy Revisited

Well, here I am back again! I didn't stay away for long, did I? I am back only to remedy an omission, however. I feel I should mention that I received a HEAP of emails about my comments on America's North/South war. My comment was that from my perch in faraway Australia, it looked to me like the war was about power, not slaves. Cynical old me!

Only one of the emails I received disagreed with me. The rest were supportive and some were -- Ahem! -- decidedly robust -- suggesting that Lincoln differed from Hitler only in that Lincoln was the bigger hypocrite etc., etc. A lot of people really gagged on that "malice towards none" in the Second Inaugural address. So I feel that I should post here at least one of the emails I received. The one below seems short and sharp and to the point:

"Actually, "The War for Southern Independence" was started when the Southern Territories seceded from the Union over unfair taxation policies. Slavery was not really brought into play until Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation which freed slaves ONLY in the Southern regions he no longer had legal control over. This was done to gain the support of blacks both free and enslaved. Lincoln was the first President to never have owned slaves, only because his family was too poor, but he was openly segregationist. If you look into the history, not the basic BS taught in public schools, the Northern states received almost all of the slave ships. Also compare the dates that the Northern States abolished slavery".

I stress that I am NO expert on American history and you could fill a whole library with books that have been written about the war so I acknowledge that any generalization about it is bound to have its problems. I do however note that EVERY other country in the world (as far as I know) freed its slaves WITHOUT a war. So that suggests to me that the American war was about a lot more than slaves.

What I think that truly sensitive people (as distinct from pseudo-sensitive Leftists) might do well always to be aware of, however, is the depth of feeling that the war still evokes among many Southerners. And that feeling is not going to go away soon. Go to Yorkshire in England and ask the typical Yorkshireman what he thinks of Lancastrians. You will get an earful. And THAT goes back to the Wars of the Roses, which ended around 500 years ago. It almost helps you to understand the Irish! (And I have got a lot of Irish in me -- of which I am proud -- so I can say that!).

I am still getting lots of good-humored email from people who are proud to be called all sorts of names as grandparents and quite a few people have had fun with my suggestion that sporting teams might have to be named after flowers in the future. A couple of people have pointed out that "Gladioli" would be no good as a team name because the word is derived from "Gladius", the word for a sword in ancient Rome!

Incorrect Astrophysics

I HOPE this is satire:

"Democratic leaders, still smarting from the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to overturn a Florida law banning the term "dark matter" as hate speech, were in the forefront of the movement to cut Pluto loose".

Source

Anti-Communist Protest is "Hate-Speech"?

First this happened:

Two men entered Latino Books y Mas in Palm Springs on July 5 with video cameras and confronted the principal owner of the store, Tonia Bustamante-Ramirez, because she sells books and posters featuring Mexican revolutionary heroes Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, and Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.

So the Cuba-lovers and their ilk struck back:

About 100 people marched through downtown Palm Springs on Thursday night to demonstrate against what protesters said was anti-Latino hate speech and intimidation at a store that sells Latino books and crafts.

But the "hate speech" charge did not stick:

Several protesters called on Palm Springs police to investigate the bookstore occurrence as a "hate crime." Sgt. Mitch Spike said police looked into the matter and determined that, although the incident was "unfortunate," no law was broken.

More details here

Another Attempt to Silence Christians

We read:

"In perhaps one of the most egregious cases of anti-Christian discrimination in America to date, the Minneapolis Police Department, at the behest of pro-homosexual activists, has suspended a "highly rated" psychologist, Dr. Michael Campion, because of his past affiliation with a Christian group, the Illinois Family Institute.....

"This official government action by the Minneapolis Police Department is a transparent and egregious violation of Dr. Campion's First Amendment rights to both freedom of association and religion," Barber said."

Source

Muslims Censor Dead Homosexual Singer



We read:

"Organizers of a 60th gala birthday party for the late Zanzibar-born rock star Freddie Mercury, have cancelled the weekend event after outraged Muslims threatened to disrupt it."

Source

Don't hold your breath waiting for homosexuals to protest about that. It is only Christians who are not allowed to criticize homosexuality.

Politically Offensive Speech Protected

We read:

"A US student who sued school officials after he was made to censor his T-shirt that labelled President George W Bush "Chicken-Hawk-In-Chief" and a former alcohol and cocaine abuser won an appeal yesterday to wear the shirt to school.

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favour of Zachery Guiles, who through his parents claimed his free speech rights had been violated".

Source

The verdict is right and proper. Speech about politically contentious matters must be protected, no matter how much it might offend part of the population. But I wonder what would have happened if the shirt had borne an equally derogatory message about homosexuals? Judging by recent California precedents, the outcome would have been very different.

Fear Silences Harmless Speech



We read:

"An Iraqi architect on Tuesday said he was forced to change his t-shirt before boarding a flight in New York because the shirt had "We will not be silent" written on it in Arabic and English.

Source

Apparently a lot of other travellers were freaked by the idea of getting on a plane with a guy proclaiming something in Arabic. The airline was acting to protect its business. If there were intelligent government screening of passengers instead of the present "random" nonsense, people might not have been so nervous.