Must not imitate black people

Why does black behavior become obnoxious when whites do it?  Does that say something about black behavior in general?

As most citizens across the country were celebrating the life and stellar accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. over the federal King Holiday Weekend in a respectful way – some by attending special programs and others by volunteering for community service – a band of students at Arizona State University had less honorable things in mind.

Pictures of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity members holding a so-called “MLK Black Party” reflected almost every demeaning stereotype of African Americans imaginable, including White students drinking from watermelon cups, guests dressed in basketball jerseys and some flashing gang signs.

The off-campus party on Jan. 19 wasn’t sanctioned by Arizona State University administrators – or anyone else who believes in common decency. Once the offensive photos surfaced on social media, they were met with disbelief and outrage by the Black community.

At January 22 press conference in front of Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism on campus, several African-American community leaders demanded action against the offending students and fraternity.

”We regard the behavior exhibited as completely outrageous, extraordinarily offensive and wholly unacceptable,” said James Rund, ASU’s senior vice president for Educational Outreach and Student Services. “This kind of behavior is not tolerated by the university, and we intend to take swift and immediate action. We just don’t have room at the university to tolerate that kind of conduct.”.

Alex Baker, a spokesman for the national fraternity, said the group does not condone racist or discriminatory behavior.

Jocelyn Henderson also a junior, agrees with the revocation of the fraternity and those that participated in the party. “All the students that took part in it should be expelled.”

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The ACLU is siding with the fraternity  -- free speech

Indoor teepees: now offensive in Canada



Heather Abbey did a double-take when she first came across photos on Pinterest of miniature teepees decorating children’s bedrooms.

“To be honest, I was surprised the first time I saw them,” said Abbey, a Plains Cree entrepreneur. “Then I realized they’re all over Etsy, they’re huge in New York, they’re huge in Toronto.”

Teepees are officially trending in the world of interior design. They’re “where the stylish 7-year-old has play dates and story time,” the Wall Street Journal wrote, noting that celebrities such as Nicole Richie and Miley Cyrus had them. High-end décor chains such as Elte, Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware sell them for hundreds of dollars. HomeSense makes a miniature version for dogs. Walmart’s website has multiple offerings, including an indoor/outdoor one that’s “large enough for the entire tribe.”

But critics say turning teepees into furniture is just one more example of cultural appropriation, taking a famous symbol of aboriginal culture and stripping it of all context before selling it. A new Toronto business, the Parkdale Teepee Company, has been the target of social media ire this week. “Couldn’t be Parkdale forts/something less racist?” wrote one Twitter user with the name Erin Styles.

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Facebook shuts Australian  Aboriginal memes page

FACEBOOK has shut down a racist Facebook page which vilified Indigenous Australians with revolting jokes and illustrations, despite earlier telling a complainant the page was acceptable under its 'community standards' policy.

The Aboriginal Memes 2014 page was today shut down after a query from News Corp about why it failed to be classified as 'hate speech' under the social networking site's community standards policy.

It featured so-called jokes referencing the Stolen Generation and poverty among other issues too inflammatory to reference.

Facebook supplied a statement yesterday that said: "We remove content that is reported to us that violates our policies. Our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities that everyone agrees to when they create an account and which are linked to throughout the site explains what is and is not permitted on the site and explicitly prohibits hate speech."

But earlier the site had responded to a complainant with a statement that said: "We reviewed the page you reported for containing hate speech or symbols and found it doesn't violate our Community Standards."

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It's a bit difficult to find out what we are not allowed to see but the two images below appear to be part of it.  One alludes to Aboriginal drunkenness, welfare dependency and foul language usage while the other refers to Aboriginal begging, which can be very intrusive.  "Centrelink" is Australia's major welfare agency and the female wants to get money from them for grog.

Incitement to violence in righteous Canada

But because Muslims are doing it that's OK then

A pro-Israel group says it has complained to Calgary police over Facebook comments made by a former university student group president who urged Palestinians to ‘‘spill blood.’’

“My body and soul are ready to fight and die,” wrote Ala’a Hamdan, former president of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, a University of Calgary student group. “This land will be proud that Palestinian babies are born men and women ready to spill their blood.”

In a battle hymn written to a son, Ms. Hamdan wrote: “I will soak a koffiah with your blood and save it to show to your siblings … I will be named the mother of the martyr.“

Members of the Calgarians United With Israel (CUWI) advocacy group copied the comments and posted them to their website.

The University of Calgary Students’ Union supports the Palestinian group, acknowledging it even won an award for best advocacy club last year.

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'Freedom to Twerk' posters depicting Martin Luther King Jr throwing gang sign provoke outrage

A party celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr day called 'Freedom 2 Twerk' has been cancelled after a poster promoting the event caused outrage.

A Michigan party promotor called Mid-Michigan Teen Parties photoshopped Dr Martin Luther King Jr's head onto the body of a man wearing a heavy gold medallion and throwing a gang sign.

The freedom to twerk was decidedly not one of King's civil rights dreams and the use of his image offended many in the community, especially his descendants.

Bernice King, daughter of the late civil rights icon, called the poster 'appalling' and 'almost embarrassing' in an interview with Fox 5.

'I lost a father who sacrificed everything for them to live a much more dignified and respectful life,' she said. 'And for it to come to this just makes me sad.'

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MLK was a frequent philanderer so I doubt that twerking would have offended him, inspired him, more likely 

Is it really that bad to say someone is sexy?

By Melissa Hoyer

DON'T know about you, but why has it become such a no-no to simply say how good or even sexy someone happens to look?

I'm talking you and me here, not models and celebs and actors whose job often requires having some kind of pleasing aesthetic.

There just seem to be so many faux feminists out there attempting to garner collective outrage, as soon as anyone dares to comment on how 'nice' or dare I say 'sexy' someone looks.

I reckon some of these FFs are purely expressing an opinion in order to garner the troops in a show of united indignation. Oh, and to draw attention to themselves perhaps?

My god, you better not wolf-whistle or smile at anyone, or you may be caught out by the Personality Police.

And before The Collective start clutching their pearls and bashing on their Twitter handles, a lighthearted comment about how good, hell, even sexy someone may happen to look is NOT always a case of sexually objectifying a woman or a men.

Can't it just be taken for what it usually is? A pure acknowledgment that "hey, you look great today". End of story.

Why can't we just say "hey, what a sexy dress" or "your hair is looking hot" (or whatever GEN X, Y or Z lingo you choose to speak) without thinking it is some kind of sexist affront?

It's just a bloody nice compliment for god's sake.

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Naked Buddhas too cheeky for China



Two massive sculptures of the Buddhist sage clambering over a hot pot restaurant in the Jinan city shopping district were taken down by local authorities who deemed them a public offense.

One of the voluptuous statues was snapped climbing the wall, with its bottom facing the street, while another was shown waiting on top of the wall, its hands clasped like in a prayer.

It's not known who designed the sculptures, or why.

South China Morning Post reports a Sina Weibo user posted a photo of the Buddhas on Sunday, which went viral on social media. They were taken down the next day.

The revealing statues left some Zen Buddhist practitioners deeply offended.

"I burst into tears when I saw naked Buddhas climbing over the wall! How come a nation with a thousand-year history has so little respect for its own culture?" a practitioner named Miaoming from the Beihai Zen Monastery in Qinghai province wrote on his microblog.

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South American actor disses homosexuals

Not allowed in the land of the free, of course



GAYS and bisexuals shouldn't have a place on the hit show The Bachelor because it would be "too hard to watch," according to the latest star of the ABC series.

According to the New York Post , Juan Pablo Galavis, 32, claims he respects homo­sexuals - but said putting them on the romantic show would set a bad example for kids.

"They're more pervert [sic] in a sense. To me, the show would be too strong, too hard to watch on TV," he said in an interview.

The show's producers slammed the comments as "careless, thoughtless and insensitive." The former Venezuelan soccer star later apologised on Facebook - claiming he didn't mean to use the word "pervert."

"Everyone knows English is my second language," he wrote. "What I meant to say was that gay people are more affectionate and intense ... this would be too racy" on TV.

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Restaurant under fire for complaining about public holiday rates



Most of the attacks would have come from Left-leaning unionists who are so fixated on more pay that they fail to realize that mandates for high pay often lead to no pay  -- as we see here, where many restaurants and cafes simply close during the high-pay period.  The holiday pay rates in Adelaide do seem egregiously high.  Some loading would probably be not too disruptive but a multiple of 2.75 is simply destructive to both workers and would-be customers.  A 50% loading is more common Australia-wide

A SMALL cafe in Adelaide has come under fire on Facebook after making public its dislike at having to pay workers 2.75 times the ordinary hourly rate of pay on public holidays.

The Bombay Bicycle Club in Ovingham set up a sign at the front of its restaurant outlining just how much it would cost them to open on a public holiday. They multiplied everything on the menu 2.75 times in an attempt to highlight the "stupidity" of the new rate.

The bread would be $19.25 under the cafe's calculations, while lamb korma was $65, salt and pepper squid $55, chicken schnitzel $48.50 and it would be more than $60 for a seafood pizza.

After receiving negative feedback in person, the cafe took to Facebook to explain the reasons behind the sign - but the instantaneous backlash forced them to pull the picture, and the sign, after just four hours.

"Here's a quick maths formula. Multiply zero (which equals the amount I will now spend at your establishment) by 2.75 and see what it equals," wrote one person on Facebook.

"Interesting to see that wages make up 100 per cent of your costs. While it must suck to have to compensate people fairly for working when everyone else gets a holiday, it must be nice not to have to pay for rent, insurance, or food," wrote another.

"Pay penalty rates you bourgeois swine!" commented someone after giving the establishment a rating of one star out of five.

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British Expat sorry for 'poor' transport call in Singapore

In my recollection of them, Singapore buses can be a bit basic and not well adapted to long Western legs but remarks that might  go down well among friends might upset other audiences.  The offender below did nothing more than speak the truth as he saw it but he greatly offended Singaporean pride and he did lose his job over it.  He has now relocated to Australia.  I hope he realizes that Australians don't much like disparaging remarks about their country either.  If your job depends on goodwill, anything likely to damage goodwill is highly likely to damage yourself.  Free speech is not necessarily wise speech

A PORSCHE-DRIVING British wealth manager in Singapore who referred to public transport commuters as "poor people" has apologised.

Anton Casey, a 39-year-old who is married to a former Miss Singapore Universe Bernice Wong, had also referred to washing "the stench of public transport off me" in one of his posts on the social network.

Furious internet users lashed out at Mr Casey, a Singapore permanent resident, with many subjecting him and his family to verbal abuse.

Singapore has one of the world's highest per capita incomes, with official data showing it stood at $Sg65,048 ($74,000) in 2012. The city-state also boasts one of Asia's most modern public transport systems, with its 150-kilometre metro network carrying about two million people daily.

"I would like to extend a sincere apology to the people of Singapore ... for my poor judgement," Mr Casey said in a statement late on Tuesday.

"I have the highest respect and regard for Singapore and the good people of Singapore; this is my home," he said.

One of Mr Casey's posts showed a picture of a boy, apparently his five-year-old son, sitting inside a metro train with a caption above the photo saying: "Daddy, where is your car & who are all these poor people?"

Another showed a waving boy sitting inside a silver convertible Porsche, with a caption saying: "Ahhhhhhhh reunited with my baby. Normal service can resume, once I have washed the stench of public transport off me."

"This guy is rich materially but poor spiritually," one furious Internet user wrote about Mr Casey. 

"Why oh why do you think you are so much better than others just because you happen to have cash ... Shame on you mate, shame!" said another user.

Mr Casey's employer, Crossinvest (Asia) Pte Ltd, said it does not condone his comments which"`were made in poor taste".  "We are currently investigating the comments made by our employee and will take appropriate action once we are in possession of all the facts," it said in a statement.

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It takes the "compassionate" Left to mock the disabled

Project Veritas is out with a new undercover video showing staffers from Battleground Texas, an organization full of Obama for America alumni with a goal of turning Texas blue, openly mocking Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for being in a wheelchair.

Abbott is running against Democratic State Senator Wendy Davis for the governorship. Battleground Texas supports Davis and is working very hard on her behalf in the Lone Star State. The video shows Davis visiting the Battleground Texas offices where she thanked staffers for their help and refers to the group as "the secret weapon" to winning.

"I really wonder how this is going to work out since he's in a wheelchair since and most of the slogans are 'Stand with Wendy," one staffer is seen saying in the video.

"First of all he's not good looking, he doesn't speak very well, he doesn't have a good personality and he's in a wheelchair," another woman is heard saying as someone laughs loudly in the background.

According to Project Veritas, the comments were caught while investigators were looking into Obamacare navigator fraud.

This isn't the first time Battleground Texas has openly mocked Abbott's disability. In October 2013, the group sent out an email with the "joke," "Greg Abbott walks into a house in El Paso."

Earlier this week, Davis came under criticism for saying Abbott hasn't "walked a day in her shoes."

Attorney General Abbott has been in a wheel chair since he was 26-years-old after a tree fell on him while running and paralyzed him from the waist down.

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British Twitter trolls jailed for abusing feminist campaigner

Two Twitter trolls were jailed on Friday for sending threatening messages to a feminist who campaigned for a woman to appear on a banknote.

Isabella Sorley, 23, and John Nimmo, 25, targeted Caroline Criado-Perez with rape threats and abuse after the Bank of England announced that Jane Austen would be featured on the £10 note.

Sorley, a university graduate who has 25 previous convictions, the majority of them for being drunk and disorderly, sent tweets to the campaigner which described her as a “worthless piece of crap”, told her to “go kill yourself”, and warned "rape is the last of your worries".

Nimmo, who is unemployed, told Miss Criado-Perez to "shut up bitch" and wrote "ya not that gd [good] looking to rape u be fine", followed by "I will find you (smiley face)", Westminster Magistrates' Court heard.

He also directed threats at Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, calling her a "dumb blonde bitch" and writing in sinister terms, "The things I cud do to u (smiley face)",.

Sentencing Sorley to 12 weeks in prison and Nimmo to eight weeks, Judge Howard Riddle said it was "hard to imagine more extreme threats”.

The judge noted that the abuse had had a “life-changing” effect on Miss Criado-Perez and that Miss Creasy had installed a panic button in her home.

He said of the tweets: "The fact that they were anonymous heightened the fear. The victims had no way of knowing how dangerous the people making the threats were, whether they had just come out of prison, or how to recognise and avoid them if they came across them in public."

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Threats of violence are beyond legitimate free speech

Which Liberal Says Secret Service Should Arrest Those Who Speak Badly of Obama?

Does the First Amendment even exist under the Obama administration?

According to prominent liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, it doesn’t, unless of course your speech (or film) involves a heavy liberal bias.

Moore made comments this week that anyone who speaks badly of, or “threatens” Obama, should be paid a visit by the Secret Service.

Moore was referring to comments made by political analyst and scholar, Dinesh D’Souza, who called Obama a “grown-up Travyon” for bullying Congress and the White House into getting everything he wants.

In November 2013, D’Souza tweeted, “I’m thankful this week when I remember that America is big enough & great enough 2 survive Grown-Up Trayvon in the White House.”

D’Souza’s comment was obviously a harsh criticism about how Obama runs the federal government, but to Moore, it was a death threat. He later responded to Dinesh’s tweet with a “threat” of his own—“Yeah, he said that. Dinesh D’Souza called Pres. Obama “Trayvon” — knowing, of course, what happened to Trayvon. Secret Service, your move.”

But how does a comparison warrant a visit from the Secret Service? Simple, it doesn’t

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All Nippon Airways apologises for TV ad which is accused of racially stereotyping Westerners



JAPANESE carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) is modifying a TV commercial after apologising to customers who complained it used racist stereotyping, but insisted they had meant no offence.

ANA started airing the new 30-second television advertisement on Saturday, aimed at promoting its beefed up schedule of international flights from Tokyo's Haneda airport in March.

In the commercial, two Japanese men in ANA uniform discuss in English how they might boost the image of the airline as an international carrier.

One of them says: "Let's change the image of Japanese people." "Sure," replies the other, who is now wearing a blonde wig and an improbably long rubber nose.

White westerners are often believed in Japan to have big noses, blue eyes and blonde hair, characteristics generally thought desirable among Japanese.

The ad caused a stir among English-language users of social media in Japan.

"I've just seen the new ANA advert...Really? ANA think this is OK?!" Angela Fukutome said in a message posted on ANA's Facebook page.

"If you are a foreigner and have planned to come to #Japan do not choose an openly racist airline like #ANA! Watch their Japanese commercial," tweeted @sibylleito on Twitter.

ANA spokesman Ryosei Nomura said the carrier wanted to express the importance of the planned expansion of international services from Haneda and to call on Japanese to go out to see the world.

"But we have received opinions different from the message that we wished to convey. We will modify part of the advertisement and will release the second version soon," he said.

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It seems that from a Japanese viewpoint they were actually complimenting foreigners.  But to some people no ethnic differences may be mentioned.

'Property of an Aussie Boy' singlet pulled from women's fashion  stores



FASHION label Ice Design have pulled a singlet they designed for Australia Day due to public backlash.

The singlet, which reads 'Property of an Aussie Boy' with a picture of the Australian flag, was a special edition created for January 26, but left many claiming it was sexist and offensive.

One of the most vocal opposers of the singlet were Destroy The Joint, a group who provide "a call to arms for Australians seeking gender equality and civil discourse."

Their tweets - which claimed that "women are not property" with the hashtag #notbuyingit - caught the attention of Trade Secret, one of the stockists of the singlet.

Trade Secret pulled it from their stores immediately:  Soon after, Ice Design followed suit:

News.com.au spoke to Ice Design's CEO Gary Leonard, who said that while he is unsure how many, "there were enough complaints" to warrant pulling the singlet from their ICE stores, stockists and online.

"We realise it did cause offence with some people and we do unequivocally apologise," he said. "It wasn't meant to offend anyone. It wasn't premeditated. Only when it hit the market place did we get a reaction.

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Absurdity and fahion go together so it is no surprise if the absurdity offends some people sometimes

Photos of white editor Dasha Zhukova sitting on 'black woman chair' sparks outrage



A [Russian] magazine has caused outrage after publishing a photo of a white editor perched on a ‘black woman’ chair as the US remembered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

New magazine Buro 247 has been accused of racism after it published a photo of Garage magazine editor-in-chief and Russian socialite Dasha Zhukova sitting on the chair, made of an almost-naked black female mannequin.

In the controversial photos, Zhukova, the partner of Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, is dressed in a crisp white shirt and jeans.

She is sitting in a dominant pose on top of the black model, who wears only gloves, stockings and a garter belt, with her breasts pushed up against her legs.

The image of the fully-dressed, in-charge white editor perched on a near-naked black woman, has sparked outrage and a slew of critical comments after it was posted online.

The image was even more shocking given that it was published on Martin Luther King Jr Day, a US public holiday in honour of the American civil rights leader.

Buro 247 is run by editor and style guru Miroslava Duma. The magazine has since cropped the chair out of the photograph.

Critics say the image highlights casual racism in the fashion industry.

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It was not an actual black woman  -- just a chair made in the shape of one.  It is pretty sick.  But respect for minorities is not big in Russia.

Jesus and Mo cartoon



Is this cartoon offensive?

The BBC thinks so. On their Sunday morning programme The Big Questions on 12th January, the producers opted not to display it to viewers even though the Jesus and Mo satirical comic strip was the very topic of debate. By doing so, they chose to manifest and perpetuate a certain hyper-sensitivity to an imagined sharia compliance with which very few British Muslims actually accord, let alone the vast majority of non-Muslims. By censoring this innocuous image, the BBC is inculcating the whole nation with the belief that depictions of Mohammed are haram - forbidden - and that everyone - people of all faiths and none - must respect and obey this precept.

Setting aside the irrefutable historic fact that Shia Muslims have a centuries-old tradition of depicting Mohammed, and this sort of strict censorship being principally a Sunni assertion of belief (including the malignant Wahhabi-Salafi strain), it is surely not for the state broadcaster to take a dogmatic view of the deeply-held sensitivities of one religious denomination, or to impose a moral view of religious blasphemy when Parliament has abolished the concept.

The fact that the BBC chose to censor a T-shirt depicting this cartoon rather upset Muslim Maajid Nawaz, who was a guest on the show. He proceeded to tweet out the image to his followers with the message: “This is not offensive & I'm sure God is greater than to feel threatened by it.” Mr Nawaz is a former member of the Islamist revolutionary group Hizb ut-Tahrir, and became director of the anti-extremist think-tank the Quilliam Foundation. He is now the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn. Mohammed is his prophet, and Islam is his faith. But he understands perfectly that some people view Islam is a vile ideology and, for many, Mohammed is no kind of prophet at all. And depicting Mohammed saying "Hey" to Jesus does not offend him in the slightest.

No reasonable person goes out of their way to cause offence. In this instance, Maajid Nawaz was simply challenging the BBC's (myopic) interpretation of a particular (narrow) view of sharia, and demonstrating that British Muslims are moderate and do not reach for the nearest meat-cleaver to dismember the apostate or behead the blaspheming kuffar.

Sadly, a few Muslims have now threatened Mr Nawaz with certain 'surprises', and others have been more explicit in what they would like to do to him

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Court: Bloggers have First Amendment protections

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that bloggers and the public have the same First Amendment protections as journalists when sued for defamation: If the issue is of public concern, plaintiffs have to prove negligence to win damages.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial in a defamation lawsuit brought by an Oregon bankruptcy trustee against a Montana blogger who wrote online that the court-appointed trustee criminally mishandled a bankruptcy case.

The appeals court ruled that the trustee was not a public figure, which could have invoked an even higher standard of showing the writer acted with malice, but the issue was of public concern, so the negligence standard applied.

Gregg Leslie of the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press said the ruling affirms what many have long argued: Standards set by a 1974 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Gertz v. Robert Welch Inc., apply to everyone, not just journalists.

"It's not a special right to the news media," he said. "So it's a good thing for bloggers and citizen journalists and others."

Crystal L. Cox, a blogger from Eureka, Mont., now living in Port Townshend, Wash., was sued for defamation by Bend attorney Kevin Padrick and his company, Obsidian Finance Group LLC, after she made posts on several websites she created accusing them of fraud, corruption, money-laundering and other illegal activities. The appeals court noted Padrick and Obsidian were hired by Summit Accommodators to advise them before filing for bankruptcy, and that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court later appointed Padrick trustee in the Chapter 11 case. The court added that Summit had defrauded investors in its real estate operations through a Ponzi scheme.

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Must not portray East Asians as different

"How I Met Your Mother" co-creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas have apologised on Twitter after the latest episode of the hit sitcom was accused of racism.

The show which aired on CBS in the US on Monday night, faced a social media backlash after it depicted several of its title characters in what viewers are dubbing "yellowface".

"I want to say a few words about #HowIMetYourRacism.we set out to make a silly and unabashedly immature homage to Kung Fu movies, a genre we've always loved," series co-creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas wrote in a joint tweet, apologising for any upset that they may have caused.

"But along the way we offended people. We're deeply sorry, and we're grateful to everyone who spoke up to make us aware of it."

The episode titled Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra focuses on one of the show's longest running gags - the slap bet.

In the episode, Marshall (Jason Segel) recalls how he learnt the Slap of a Million Exploding Suns on his "slapquest" from three grand masters; who as it turns out are played by Marshall friend's Robin, Lily and Ted.

The scenes were shot using generic, Asian-looking backdrops and Cobie Smulders, Alyson Hannigan, and Josh Radnor had their faces made-up to appear Asian, complete with black hair, black-rimmed eyes, and wearing Asian silk robes; Radnor even dons a Fu Manchu moustache.

Viewers of the show were quick to voice their disgust over the racial-based joke and created the hashtag #HowIMetYourRacism, which began trending shortly after the episode aired.

One viewer tweeted: "Yeah, seriously, that episode of #HIMYM was so bad I turned it off. I couldn't stomach it.

"Besides the gross orientalizing of the women, Ted wore a f---ing Fu Manchu 'stach! Who thought this was ok?

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British health service sent black woman letter saying her password was set as CHARCOAL SHADE for hospital website

A black woman is demanding an apology from NHS chiefs after she was sent a letter saying her password was set as 'charcoal shade' for a hospital website.

Leanda Probert, 31, from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, was horrified when she discovered the 'highly offensive' password in a letter asking her to book an online appointment with a pain management clinic.

The mother-of-one, who suffers from crippling condition fibromyalgia, said she thought NHS North Somerset was 'having a laugh' and 'taking the mick' when she opened the letter.

She said: 'I was very taken aback and highly offended.  'I understand these passwords are computer generated, but I just think certain words should not be included because they could be offensive to some people.

A spokesman for NHS North Somerset apologised for the blunder.

He said: 'North Somerset CCG would like to apologise for any offence that the password contained within the letter may have caused.

'The password was generated automatically by the central choose and book system with the words themselves randomly selected by an electronic database.'

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I suppose it was a bit unfortunate but being offended seems to be a major industry in Britain.

If someone called me "PAPER WHITE" I don't think I would object -- though I am more pink than white these days.

Madonna apologises for racial slur :

On Friday night, she posted a picture of her 13-year-old son Rocco boxing and used a hashtag that contained a variation of the n-word.["disnigga"]

When fans objected, she defiantly called them haters, but in a statement on Saturday she was contrite, saying: "Forgive me."

Madonna said she was not a racist and she did not mean to use the word as a slur but knew there was no way to defend its use. She said she used it as a term of endearment.

She said she apologised if it gave the wrong impression.

Besides Rocco, Madonna has three other children, including two black children adopted from the African nation Malawi.

Source.

I gather  that "disnigga" is a boastful expression mostly used by blacks.  A translation into formal English would be "This clever person" or the like.  So it's another case of whites not being allowed to use black language, which is racist.  It was Madonna's critics who were racist.

Don’t let abortion cloud free speech issue

"Eleanor McCullen is a 76-year-old grandmother who believes women who have abortions are often not informed about the options available to them. The state of Massachusetts, however, made it illegal for her to stand within 35 feet of an abortion clinic when she calmly talks to women about other options.

The Supreme Court will hear Mrs. McCullen’s case this week and hopefully see through the divisive rhetoric that surrounds abortion. The Court should decide that the Massachusetts law is both an unconstitutional abridgement of free speech and an infringement on the right to peacefully be in a public place."

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Uproar over advertisement featuring a Birmingham (UK) accent

Not quite clear why they don't want to hear their own accent on TV. I guess they think they are being laughed at.  Even more confusingly, they say it is not a real Birmingham (Brummie) accent.  So what's their beef?

I think that the real  problem is that many Britons look down on regional accents -- and regional people know it.  So they are quick to think someone is mocking them

An advert featuring a man speaking in a heavy Birmingham accent has provoked a furious response from the city's residents.

It shows a brightly-dressed couple trying to plan a romantic holiday, with the Hawaiian-shirted man repeatedly responding to the woman's requests with the phrase: 'Anything for you, cupcake'.

But the light-hearted commercial for travel site Hotels4u has riled Brummies, who claim it is 'offensive' and more annoying than the Go Compare advert, which sees a mustachioed opera singer bellowing out the company's name.

They have taken to social media sites to attack the TV campaign, describing it as 'appalling' and criticising the actor's Brummie accent as unrealistic.

'I'm from Birmingham and have never heard any fellow Brummies speak like that!' Angela Dubberley said on Facebook.  Vianney Lawlor stated: 'Not a Brummie accent. That's a Black Country accent.'

And Cactusrogeruk blasted: 'Bloody appalling! I can't believe this is actually a serious attempt to speak like people anywhere!'

However, last night the holiday firm revealed actor Craig Painting who stars in the advert was born and bred in Northfield, Birmingham.

Mike Hoban, marketing director for Hotels4u, said: 'We wanted to create a popular duo that people would warm to. That's why we cast a Birmingham born and bred actor as our lead character.

'We wanted to use a friendly accent from one of the great UK regions to help create a distinctive character so that people remember how easy it is to save money on hotel bookings.'

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Haribo stops selling 'racist' sweets



German sweet maker Haribo has stopped selling some of its liquorice sweets in Sweden and Denmark because certain consumers considered them racist.

The sweets, part of the Skipper Mix salty blend that has been on the market for years, will no longer feature the controversial figures in both Scandinavian countries.

Haribo said it had taken into account the critical comments made on the internet in recent weeks.

"We decided that we could keep the product while removing the parts that certain consumers found offensive," Haribo Sweden head Ola Dagliden told AFP.

The offending sweets are in the shape of ethnic masks or facial representations that resemble primitive African, Asian or Native American art.

They depicted what "a sailor who travelled the world" in days would have brought home in days gone by, Mr Dagliden said.

"It wasn't something we saw as having negative connotations."

A picture of the sweets was removed from Haribo's Swedish website on Friday, AFP discovered.

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Teacher and Principal Tell 6 Year Old Student She Can't Talk About Religion in School

The parents of a six-year-old girl said their daughter was humiliated when a teacher interrupted the child’s one-minute speech and told her to sit down because she’s “not allowed to talk about the Bible in school,” attorneys for the California family allege.

The incident occurred Dec. 19 inside a first grade classroom at Helen Hunt-Jackson Elementary School in Temecula, Calif. The previous day the teacher instructed boys and girls to find something at home that represented a family Christmas tradition. They were supposed to bring the item to school and share the item in a classroom presentation.

Brynn Williams decided to bring the Star of Bethlehem that adorned the top of her family’s Christmas tree. She also worked on a one minute presentation to explain that her family’s tradition is to remember the birth of Jesus at Christmas time.

“Our Christmas tradition is to put a star on top of our tree,” the little girl said. “The star is named the Star of Bethlehem. The three kings followed the star to find baby Jesus, the Savior of the world.”

Before the child could utter another word, the teacher intervened, according to Robert Tyler, the general counsel for Advocates for Faith & Freedom – the law firm representing the Williams family.

“Brynn’s teacher said, ‘Stop right there! Go take your seat,’” Tyler said. “Bryn was not allowed to finish her presentation by reciting the Bible verse, John 3:16.”

Tyler said the little girl was the only student in the class not allowed to finish her presentation.

“She confirmed there was no way Brynn could finish that presentation,” the disappointed mom told me. It was to protect the other students from being offended by Brynn’s presentation.”

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But a talk about the Koran would have been treated with great respect, of course.

‘Vegetarians are rapists’

The US State Department should stop posting diplomats to India who are more interested in denigrating the country than building ties. The American diplomat and his wife who were expelled in tit-for-tat action last week in the Devyani Khobragade case were clearly racist.

Wayne May, who headed the US embassy's security team in New Delhi, and his wife Alicia Muller May, who worked as the embassy's community liaison officer, posted several unflattering comments about India on Facebook.

In their three years in India, the couple let their dislike for the country they served in run freely on Facebook. May’s wife Alicia joined a discussion over an article that claims non-vegetarians are more inclined to commit violence and sexual crimes to say, "It's the vegetarians that are doing the raping, not the meat eaters — this place is just so bizarre."

When another friend said that he had never raped anyone, Alicia wrote, "Applies only to Indians, not westerners!"

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Hmmmm... I am very pro-Indian but I don't think that comment was racist.  Most Indians are vegetarians.  If you have ever seen an Indian meat market you might understand why.

And India does have some rapists  -- mostly very low caste.  And low caste people could not afford meat anyway.

Abortion

Must not praise cosmetic surgery

A Twitter campaign against a children’s plastic surgery game that tells players that liposuction makes people ‘slim and beautiful’ forced Apple to remove the app from its platform last night.

More than 4,000 Twitter users rallied behind a women’s rights group that called the app sexist and damaging to young women’s self esteem.

The app, which could be downloaded from Apple iTunes, instructs children as young as nine to perform plastic surgery on the image of a woman who has ‘so much extra weight that no diet can help her’.

The game tells players they can help this ‘unfortunate girl’ by making cuts on problem areas and ‘suck out the extra fat’.

The women’s rights group, Everyday Sexism, posted the game on Twitter, urging users to complain to iTunes that the app encourages impressionable young women to develop body issues.

The app called ‘Plastic Surgery & Plastic Doctor & Plastic Hospital Office for Barbie version’ was released earlier this month by the developers Corina Game.

It is marketed at users aged nine and above due to ‘infrequent/ mild realistic violence’.

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Twitter trolls who made rape and death threats to Jane Austen banknote campaigner plead GUILTY to sending 'menacing' messages

A man and a woman have pleaded guilty to sending 'menacing' tweets to a feminist campaigner after she persuaded the Bank of England to put Jane Austen on a new bank note.

Caroline Criado-Perez, a 29-year-old student, was told to 'f*** off and die you worthless piece of c***' and 'go kill yourself' and 'rape is the last of your worries' by 23-year-old Isabella Sorley in a series of tweets, Westminster Magistrates' Court was told.

She also sent the message to Ms Criado-Perez: 'I've only just got out of prison and would happily do more time to see you berried!!(sic) #tenfeetunder not scared at what you will do!'

In a separate set of messages sent to Ms Criado-Perez, John Nimmo, 25, told her 'shut up b****' and 'Ya not that gd looking to rape u be fine' followed by 'I will find you (smiley face)' and then the message 'rape her nice a**', the court was told.

Nimmo also targeted Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, with the message 'The things I cud do to u (smiley face)', calling her 'Dumb blond b****'.

Alison Morgan, prosecuting, said Ms Criado-Perez had received abusive messages 'of one type or another' from some 86 Twitter accounts including those accounts attributed to both Nimmo and Sorley.

'Caroline Criado-Perez has suffered life-changing psychological effects from the abuse which she received on Twitter,' she told the court.

'In particular, the menacing nature of the tweets sent by both defendants caused her significant fear that they would find her and carry out their threats,' she said.

She added that Ms Creasy had also suffered a 'substantial impact' as a result of 'these events'.

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I would drive a steamroller over this trash.  What they said  may only be talk but this is a case where it did clear harm.  Threats of violence are just not on.

'Shut up you Harry Potter poofs': Russell Brand uses homophobic slur during Cambridge Students' Union address

Socialist comedians can do no wrong apparently.  The British term "poof" is equivalent to the American "faggott"

Russell Brand called Cambridge University students 'Harry Potter poofs' during a Union address on Monday night.

The comedian had been invited to speak by the student body of the high-brow university, and was looking at the various college crests before making the comment.

He used the derogatory term when telling students from one college to be quiet, after they cheered for Brand when he chose their crest as his favourite.

But many of the students didn't seem too offended by his questionable use of words.  One user wrote: 'Russell Brand @rustyrockets telling a bunch of "Harry Potter poofs" to start a revolution. Not bad for a Monday night'.

Another said: "Shut up you Harry Potter poofs' HAHAHHAA'.

He told the students that he would make his political revolution 'sexy' in order to inspire support, and criticised the current government system for 'ripping people off.'

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Federal Agency: The Term "Redskins" is a "Derogatory Slang"

A company applying for a trademark to name their product "Redskins Hog Rinds" has been turned down by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Why? Because the federal agency considers the term to be offensive and derogatory:

 There will be no trademark for "Redskins Hog Rinds," a bad omen for the Washington Redskins in the legal battle over their name.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected a request from a company to sell pork rinds using the word "Redskins" because it deemed the term to be "derogatory slang."

In a letter dated Dec. 29, the agency wrote: "Registration is refused because the applied-for mark REDSKINS HOG RINDS consists of or includes matter which may disparage or bring into contempt or disrepute persons, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols."

The same agency is deliberating whether to revoke the trademark protection for the NFL team, part of a long-running challenge from a group of Native Americans. A hearing was held in March, and a decision is expected soon.

The Washington Post explains what might happen if the USPTO rules against the professional football team:

 If the board rules against the Washington Redskins, the team wouldn't be forced to change its name but would lose its registered trademark status, which helps protect it from individuals looking to sell merchandise with the word on it.
In other words, anyone could put the word "Redskins" on a product, distribute it, and make money at the team's expense. That would undoubtedly affect the organization's bottom line. And given the Redskin's less-than-impressive season last year, that's probably the last thing they want to let happen.

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Must not look slim

A WOMAN who slimmed down to half her size has had her fully-clothed weight loss photo pulled down by Facebook because it promoted "adult content".  Marilyn McKenna, wife of former Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna, posted the image of her fitting both her legs inside one leg of her old "fat pants" but was told to remove the picture because it was promoting "idealised physical appearances". 

A representative from Facebook emailed her to explain why her "ad" was taken down.  "The image used here is of a woman standing in a large pair of pants holding the waist band out to show weight loss. The images are considered to be promoting idealised physical appearances and are policy violating," the spokeswoman wrote. 

"It is also worth noting that things like before and after photos, images with scales, tape measures, zoomed in body parts are also considered to be promoting idealised physical images and are not allowed." 

She was then told that she was promoting "adult content".

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Black man abused by racist blacks for attending to his children

Father-of-two Doyin Richards has opened up about why he believes a picture of him taking care of his daughters became an overnight internet sensation.

When the Los Angeles, California resident shared a photo of himself cradling his baby three-month-old girl Reeko in an Ergo while brushing the hair of his other daughter Emmyko, three, he was shocked to discover that it sparked nasty comments about his race.

Explaining how the multi-tasking situation came about, he told the hosts that he was on paternity leave when his wife, who was getting ready for work, didn't have time to do their daughter's hair.

Little did he know the passionate response he would inspire by posting the photo on his Facebook and Twitter pages.

Some commenters took issue with the color of his skin, making cruel assumptions about his lifestyle.  'I would bet anything that you're a deadbeat,' one nasty commenter wrote on his blog Daddy Doin' Work, while another said: 'Cute picture. Now why don't you hand the children back to their mom so you can go back to selling drugs or your bootleg rap CDs?'

'He probably rented those kids. They don't even look like him,' one commenter said about his daughters, whose mother Mariko is half-white and half-Japanese.

Surprisingly, Mr Richards notes that many of the people posting racist comments were actually black men like himself, who had negative things to say about his mixed-race wife and daughters.

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'Bisexual men do not exist': Millionaire Matchmaker Patti Stanger offends the LGBT community with outspoken remarks

Seems logical to me.  Anyone who wants to stick his dick up another guy's butt is homosexual as far as I can see  -- and a pretty poor catch to a woman

Outspoken Millionaire Matchmaker host Patti Stanger has offended the LGBT community by saying that bisexual men do not exist.

Ms Stanger was asked `Would you ever marry a bisexual man?' in a backstage interview for Bethenny Frankel's TV show on Wednesday.

She replied: `Uh, never! Never. Never. And if they're bisexual, they're gay!'

Her commentary has outraged members of the gay community.

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Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: Change the Word 'Welfare' to 'Transitional Living Fund'

Pity it tends to be permanent rather than transitional

In a brief speech on the House floor Wednesday, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) hailed the war on poverty, endorsed government welfare programs, and said the "safety net has to be something for all of us."

"Maybe the word welfare should be changed to something of, 'a transitional living fund.' For that is what it is -- for people to be able to live," she said.

Jackson Lee hailed the Earned Income Credit, food and nutrition programs, jobs training and education programs, Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act as "huge safety nets -- not handouts, but safety nets, she said.

"So today, I honor the 50th anniversary of the war on poverty, Mr. Speaker, and I ask us  not to give up the fight because the American people are looking to us to win the war."

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France wins battle to ban 'anti-Semitic' comedian

The position of Jews in France today is rather precarious so what this guy says could lead to real harm

A top court in France has upheld the ban on a performance by the controversial comic Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, a move the government has hailed as a "victory" over anti-Semitism.

The decision comes less than two hours before the comedian was due to give the opening performance of his national tour in the western city of Nantes, despite his lawyers claiming a breach of his freedom of expression.

The ban had been lifted only yesterday by local judge Jean-Francois Molla who said that a perceived risk to public order could not be used to "justify as radical measure as banning the show". However, France's highest administrative court, the Council of State, ruled that the show should be allowed to go ahead.

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Must not mention that blacks use a lot of foul language

[In a video] a diapered child is bombarded with obscenities and racial slurs by the adults around him.

The African-American toddler knocks down a chair and gives nearly as good as he gets, responding to some of the comments with an upraised middle finger and telling one of the adults at one point, "Shut up, bitch." The adults laugh and prompt him to repeat other crudities.

Just another day on the Internet -- until the police union in Omaha, Nebraska, posted the clip on its website to highlight what it called the "cycle of violence and thuggery" the community faces.

Now, the Omaha Police Officers' Association is under fire from the city's police chief, the ACLU and at least one community leader. They say the move needlessly antagonizes the city's minority communities, who make up about a quarter of Omaha's 409,000 residents.

Sgt. John Wells, the union's president, said the video was "disturbing" and "offensive."

"The focus here isn't on any particular ethnic group. The focus here is on the troubling behavior towards this child," Wells said. "This behavior is going to potentially lead this child down a path that is completely unhealthy."

On the website where the video is hosted, the union said the clip came from "a local thug's public Facebook page."

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Urban Outfitters in hot water over Depression T-shirt



Fashion people often use words and images in silly ways -- which they no doubt see as "creative" -- and this shirt would appear to be an example of that.  It is however just as idiotic to remove the shirts from sale.  Are we going to remove all mentions of the word "depression" wherever it might appear?  -- JR

A T-shirt repeatedly printed with the word 'depression' spurred a 5,000-strong petition to remove the garment from retailer Urban Outfitters' website

Urban Outfitters seems to enjoy toeing the line between selling tasteless and tasteful clothing. Less than one month ago the retailer managed to offend the Hindu community with a pair of "awesome crew-length socks" with Lord Ganesh on the trim.

Just as the clothing vendor had to pull the $8 socks from the site, a T-shirt that repeatedly reads 'depression' is no longer available to buy from the e-commerce pages. The tee, which shoppers viewed as an offensive hint at mental illness, spurred 5,000 individuals to sign a petition on Change.org aiming to halt all production of the unsavoury apparel.

But rather than holding their hand up and admitting their misjudged decision to stock the t-shirts, Urban Outfitters are pointing the finger at the designers, a fledgling brand from Singapore called Depression.

Depression co-founder, Kenny Lim tells ABC News that "I was shocked that after one T-shirt people jumped to this conclusion. We make happy clothes. I got very depressed at work. The clothing line is a reminder that we can be happy every day when we go to work."

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Leftist academics (ASA) whine when their anti-Israel hate speech is criticized

Below is a full reply to the whine

Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) is committed to the civil and human rights of all students and faculty in higher education, including their 1st amendment rights of association and free speech; and we are firmly opposed to all forms of religious and ethnic discrimination, including antisemitism and anti-Muslim discrimination.  Therefore we  strongly oppose calls for academic boycotts designed to stop American scholars from associating with academic colleagues of their choice—in this case, Jews in Israel—whose active and free participation in scholarly debate  is to be prevented, because of the actions of their government and not their own behavior or opinions.  We join some 100 university presidents, eight former Presidents of the ASA, the American Association of University Professors, the American Association of Universities, and nine major Jewish organizations in condemning the ASA’s boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

We also are troubled by unfounded assertions of bias that are used to squelch the free exchange of ideas. For this reason, we must publicly respond to a press release issued by the American Studies Association’s Caucus on Academic and Community Activism on December 21, 2013, six days after the membership voted to implement an academic boycott against Israeli universities. In that release, the ASA bemoaned what it labeled a “campaign of intimidation against the ASA.”

Instead of taking responsibility for their vote, the ASA attacked legitimate criticism by the academic community and general public, who understand the boycott to be a violation of academic freedom, civil rights, and antisemitic.  Rather than addressing these concerns, the ASA accuses “powerful and well-funded academic and non-academic organizations” of mount[ing] a public campaign aimed at destroying the Association.” 

Their statement indicates that ASA members naively believe that they could institute an academic boycott against Israel, call for Jewish academics to be shunned from the community of world scholars, single out and attack the Jewish state as an illegal, colonial occupier on stolen Palestinian land, and tar the reputation of Israeli scholars by making them complicit, and responsible for, the actions of their government in perpetrating the “illegal occupation”— without anyone with opposing views answering back these slanders with counter-arguments.

The ASA claims that the wide condemnation of the boycott vote was not because the boycott’s concept was intellectually and ethically defective, but because ASA “dared to express criticism of Israel.”

The “expressions of hate and intimidation” experienced by the ASA in the wake of its boycott vote, the release said, “constitute part of a larger pattern of attack on anyone who criticizes Israel or Zionism,”—ignoring the possibility that the attacks are a reasonable and justifiable response to slander,  bigotry, and a degradation of scholarship.  Rather than addressing the criticisms, the ASA’s statement is meant to bully critics into silence.

Academic freedom grants faculty the right to spew forth any academic meanderings they wish, but it does not make them free from being challenged for their thoughts.  “Free speech does not absolve anyone from professional incompetence,” said Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute; and those who question the anti-Israel and anti-American “scholarship” parading on campuses as Middle Eastern Studies, or answer back when a work such as The Israel Lobby purports to reveal a sinister Jewish cabal controlling U.S. foreign policy, or correct such notions as the ASA’s assertion, as one example, that “the United States plays a significant role in enabling the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the expansion of illegal settlements and the Wall in violation of international law,” are not trying to stifle free speech or suppress critical evaluation of Israeli policy. They are using their own academic freedom to rebut what they see as distortions, half-truths, propaganda, mistakes about history, or outright lies. That academics do not understand, or choose to ignore, such a fundamental concept is deeply troubling.

Just as the pro-Palestinian activists within the ASA have the right under the umbrella of academic free speech to express their views—no matter how factually inaccurate, vitriolic, or repellent they may be—those within and outside academia with opposing views also have the right, under the same precepts of free expression, to question the ASA’s views, and to call them anti-Semitic, or racist, or genocidal, or merely historically inaccurate or incorrect if, in fact, that is the case. It is naive and unrealistic, at best, for ASA leadership to think it could call for such a potentially damaging boycott, which seriously violates fundamental academic principles, without any response from a great many people with opposing views about the wisdom of such an action.

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Aldi cops backlash after advertising 'inflammatory' Australia Day shirts



Australia as we know it today undoubtedly began in 1788 when the first British settlers arrived.  And their descendants plus a continual stream ever since of migrants from Britain and Western Europe made Australia what it is today.  Aborigines have made virtually no positive contribution to what Australia is today.  Their main achievement has been to suck up a lot of welfare money.  The slogan on the shirts is therefore perfectly reasonable.  There was no Australia before whites arrived  -- just a scattering of  tribes who were mostly hostile to one another.  The name "Australia" is of Latin origin -- from "Australis", meaning Southern -- JR

SUPERMARKET chain Aldi has announced it will remove a range of t-shirt designs after copping backlash over advertising "inflammatory" and culturally insensitive Australia Day shirts in its latest catalogue and online.

Users on social media called for the shirts, designed with a slogan that reads "Australia est. 1788", to be pulled from stores after deeming it profoundly racist.

The shirts are advertised on the Aldi website and through its catalogue.

While the First Fleet landed in Australia in 1788, Australia's indigenous population have inhabited the land for at least 40,000 years prior. Many still call Australia Day, Invasion Day.

The shirts in question were not yet on sale, but the remainder of the range, without the offending slogan, is advertised to hit stores on January 11 and "will still be available", according to Aldi's statement.

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Danish Muslim Apostate Faces Hate Speech Charges

“Muslims love to take advantage of” free speech, Danish-Palestinian poet Yahya Hassan says, “and as soon as there is someone else saying something critical against them, they want to restrict it.”  In an action previously indicated by this writer, Hassan is now personally facing this double standard in Danish “hate speech” charges for his anti-Islam comments.

Following Danish-Iranian artist Firoozeh Bazrafkan’s conviction under Danish Penal Code Section 266b (in Danish here) for condemning Islam as misogynist, a local Muslim Aarhus politician demanded a similar prosecution of Hassan.  His poetry “says that everybody in the ghettos like Vollsmose and Gellerup steal, don’t pay taxes and cheat themselves to pensions,” the Somali-Dane Mohamed Suleban stated after reporting Hassan to the police on November 27. “Those are highly generalizing statements and they offend me and many other people.”  Authorities are currently considering Section 266b charges for, according to one English translation, any public “communication by which a group of persons are threatened, insulted or denigrated due to their race, skin color, national or ethnic origin, religion or sexual orientation.”

The 18-year-old Hassan’s eponymous debut book contains about 150 poems, “many of which are severely critical of the religious environment he grew up in” according to Wall Street Journal reporters Clemens Bomsdorf and Ellen Emmerentze Jervell.  Written in all capital letters, Hassan’s poems treat “issues like the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, child abuse, and the interplay between violence and religion” with “[p]rofanity and vivid analogies.”  Yahya Hassan has sold 80,000 copies following an October 17 release in the comparatively small Danish market and is expected to exceed 100,000 copies by Christmas.  Hassan’s publisher Gyldendal reports that Danish poetry books are fortunate to sell 500 copies.  A recent book forum honored Hassan as the debut author of the year and an English translation of his poetry is underway.

Hassan now wears a bulletproof vest and receives protection from Denmark’s domestic intelligence agency PET at speaking engagements.  A November 26 reading by Hassan from his book in a school in the Danish town of Odense, moreover, required an estimated one million kroner in security costs, more than the amount spent on a high-risk soccer game.  Several hundred policemen had observed the school for two days before the event occurred with road checkpoints, a bomb sweep, and a five kilometer no-fly zone around the school.

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Shocking racial slur left on couple's valet ticket

SERGEANT Major Samuel Aarons is white. His wife, Candea, is black.
In the 21st century, you wouldn't expect that to be a problem. But Mr and Mrs Aarons couldn't even celebrate New Year's Day at a popular restaurant without being subjected to a racial slur.

The couple had dinner at Spondivits Bar and Grill in Georgia on the evening of January 1. Their car was parked by a valet, local station WSB-TV reports.

When Mr and Mrs Aarons got home, they noticed a tag had been left on their key ring by the valet, with the words "jungle fever" written on it.  "Jungle fever" is a derogatory slur used to describe interracial couples. Needless to say, the Aarons were outraged.

Sgt Major Aarons is a military veteran who has recently returned from a deployment in Kuwait. He was deeply upset by the note.
"We have never been so blatantly described in such a blatantly appalling manner ever," Mrs Aarons said.

The valet who allegedly wrote the slur was employed by a company called APS Valet, not the restaurant. The unnamed man, who has been described as black, has been fired...

The chef went on to explain that it's common for a valet to write a description of a car's owner on the ticket so they can spot the customer when they return.

"This valet wrote an unacceptable description on this customer's ticket, but it was not him trying to send a racist message to the customers. He just has poor taste and this cost him his job."

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Race is an extremely touchy matter in America so the couple were right to be upset -- and no firm wants upset customers.  Unlucky that the offender was black, though.  If he had been white it would have made the front page of the NYT for at least a week.

Comedian Natasha Leggero refuses to apologize mocking Pearl Harbor survivors on NBC

The 31-year-old comedian angered some audience members during NBC's 'New Year's Eve With Carson Daly' when she made an offhand remark in regard to a tasteless tweet that SpaghettiOs had posted on Pearl Harbor Day.

'I mean, it sucks that the only survivors of Pearl Harbor are being mocked by the only food they can still chew,' Leggero quipped.

Deluged in angry Tweets, most of which can't be published, Leggero responded in a post on her blog on Friday, reported the New York Daily News.  'I'm not sorry,' she wrote.

'I don't think the amazing courage of American veterans and specifically those who survived Pearl Harbor is in any way diminished by a comedian making a joke about dentures on television.'

'Do we really believe that the people who fought an defended our freedom against Nazis an the Axis powers will find a joke about SpaghettiO's too much to bear? Sorry, I have more respect for veterans than to think their honor can be impugned by a glamorous, charming comedian in a fur hat.'

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I think she is right not to apologize for a harmless joke that had an element of truth in it.  Most vets probably laughed too.

Leftist double standards repented

MSNBC anchor Melissa Harris-Perry learned her lesson the hard way last week after she and her guest panelists mocked former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his family for adopting a black grandson. After facing backlash for her offensive comments, Harris-Perry tweeted a string of apologies to the Romneys. But, social media users criticized her method and insisted a true apology would be best made on-air.

So, Saturday morning, she did just that.  Before addressing the latest headlines, Harris-Perry began her weekend show by telling the audience she would like to offer a “genuine” apology to the Romneys. She kept her composure through most of her statement, but by the end she started to choke up when discussing the importance of transracial adoption:

“Allow me to apologize to other families formed through transracial adoption, because I am deeply sorry that we suggested that interracial families are in any way funny, or deserving of ridicule. On this program, we are dedicated to advocating for a wide diversity of families, it is one of our core principles. And I am reminded that when we do so, it must be with the utmost respect.

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Leftist intolerance: Young Woman Attacked For Her Beliefs

A fairly balanced Christian commentary on homosexuality by a vlogger called iEmanuella elicited such vicious comments from Leftists that she took her channel down rather than host or encourage such comments.  She has thus been largely silenced by hate

Homosexual intolerance is now State-supported

Surely there are plenty of bakers who would bake a cake for David Mullins and Charlie Craig, the gay men who wanted the cake. But they went to Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Denver, CO. When Phillips declined because of his religious beliefs, Mullins and Craig went to the ACLU, which in turn complained to the state that Phillips was discriminating.

There will be no accommodation between gay rights activists and those seeking religious freedom to opt out of the gay rights movement. Gay rights activists demand tolerance for their lifestyle, but will not tolerate those who choose to adhere to their religious beliefs.

Increasingly, courts around the country are siding with the gay rights movement against those relying on the first freedoms of the country. While many would prefer to sit this out, they will be made to care.

Evil preaches tolerance until it is dominate and then it seeks to silence good. We are more and more rapidly arriving at a point in this country where Christians are being forced from the public square unless they abandon the tenets of their faith. In our secular society, Christianity is something you do on a Sunday and who you sleep with defines you.

For Christians defined by their faith, this paradigm of being defined by your sexual preference instead of your faith is deeply troublesome and will see more and more of these stories crop up.

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There's no racist like a liberal racist

The inimitable Pat Condell again

Hate speech against black Republican

Libs hate the idea of black women Republicans so much that one of the best-known black Democrats in Congress is threatening to go to war with a black Democrat president over the prospect of a black woman being named a federal judge because she’s a Republican.

U.S. Rep. John L. Lewis, the Georgia Democrat whose aides falsely claimed was spit on by conservatives opposing Obamacare back in 2010, is accusing the president of selling out his political base by naming Eleanor Ross as a federal judge. She is, literally, not politically correct enough.

What’s interesting about the column is that Wickham describes opposition to five other nominees Obama put forward based on their record – one voted as a state representative to keep the Confederate battle flag on the Georgia state flag, another is an attorney who defended Georgia’s common-sense voter ID law.

The opposition to Ross’s nomination, though, appears to be based entirely on her race, her sex and her politics – in that order.

The first black president names the first black woman to the federal bench in Georgia and “civil rights leaders” who’ve made skin color a primary way of judging people for decades are furious because she’s not their kind.

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NASA slams Beyonce over Challenger audio on new song 'XO'

NASA officials have criticised Beyonce's use of an audio grab from the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster, saying the event "should never be trivialised".

In the grab, which features on new Beyonce song XO, a NASA official describes a "major malfunction".

The space agency issued a statement on Tuesday after the pop star first received criticism from the families of the seven crew members who died when the shuttle broke apart on takeoff.

"The Challenger accident is an important part of our history; a tragic reminder that space exploration is risky and should never be trivialised," NASA said in the statement.  "NASA works every day to honour the legacy of our fallen astronauts as we carry out our mission to reach for new heights and explore the universe."

NASA's response comes after Beyonce explained the use of the short snippet but stopped short of an apology.

"My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster," Beyonce's statement said.  "The song XO was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you.

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We live in the age of offence:  Everything seems to offend someone these days

British pacifists offended by patriotic coin



A new £2 coin launched to commemorate the start of the First World War has been criticised for being too jingoisitc and glorifying war, after the Royal Mint chose a design featuring an army recruitment poster.

Former War Minister Lord Kitchener is shown on the coin in military uniform pointing towards the viewer and saying 'Your country needs YOU' - an image which symbolised the early optimism of the war, which would claim almost a million British lives.

But while the Mint described the image as 'powerful' and 'instantly recognisable', sceptical users took to social media to accuse them of attempting a 'rebrand' of the conflict.

Predicting 'wall-to-wall jingoism', users said the Mint made a 'shameful' decision to glorify a military leader, rather than honouring the loss of rank-and-file soldiers.

The coin is being produced by the Royal Mint as part of a collection designed specifically for events in 2014.

The former War Minister, who is also associated with the use of concentration camps in the Boer war, has proved a controversial decision with those who view the image of a red poppy as a more fitting tribute to the conflict.

Twitter user Andrew Reid wrote: 'Just saw the Kitchener £2 coin. The official rebrand of WWI is apparently underway. It's going to be wall-to-wall jingoism, isn't it?', while Adam Murray said: 'That's not a sombre symbol of WW1 Remembrance. Should be a poppy or a soldier.'

Trevor Warner added: 'Shameful that the Royal Mint are issuing a £2 coin in 2014 with a portrait of Lord Kitchener, the man who gave the world concentration camps.' Another said: 'New £2 coin glorifies ad campaign that led young men to needless death.'

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We live in the age of offence:  Everything seems to offend someone these days

Must not notice that blacks are different



US television host Melissa Harris-Perry apologised on Tuesday for a recent segment on her show that joked about former US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's adopted African-American grandson, Kieran.

Ms Harris-Perry said that the segment on Sunday's Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNBC was meant to celebrate diversity and not disparage it.

The segment asked a panel to humorously caption a photo from the past year. One of the photos was of Romney holding his adopted African-American grandson alongside his wife, Ann, and other grandchildren.

Actress Pia Glenn sang "one of these things is not like the others", and comedian Dean Obeidallah joked that the photo "really sums up the diversity of the Republican party".

"Whatever the intent, the segment proceeded in an unexpected way that was offensive," Ms Harris-Perry said in a statement. "Without reservation or qualification, I apologise to the Romney family and to all families built on loving transracial adoptions."

Ms Harris-Perry, who is African-American and a political science professor at Tulane University, is the third MSNBC host to apologise for insensitive comments in the past two months.

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France May Ban Black Comedian for Hate Speech

There is real harassment of Jews in France these days  -- not unlike early 1930s Germany -- so there is reason for concern.  The "comedian" could be seen as engaging in incitement to violence

France is considering banning performances by a black comedian whose shows have repeatedly insulted the memory of Holocaust victims and could threaten public order, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said on Friday.

He said his ministry is studying legal ways to ban shows by Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, a comedian repeatedly fined for hate speech who ran in the 2009 European Parliament elections at the head of an “Anti-Zionist List” including far-right activists.

Valls announced the move after Jewish groups complained to President Francois Hollande about Dieudonne's trademark straight-arm gesture, which they call a “Nazi salute in reverse” and link to a growing frequency of anti-Semitic remarks and acts in France.

“Dieudonne M'bala M'bala doesn't seem to recognize any limits any more,” Valls said in a statement announcing the legal review aimed at banning his public appearances.

“From one comment to the next, as he has shown in several television shows, he attacks the memory of Holocaust victims in an obvious and unbearable way,” he said.

France has Europe's largest Jewish minority, estimated at about 600,000, but also sees a steady emigration to Israel of Jews who say they no longer feel safe here.

In the worst recent anti-Semitic incident, a French Islamist killed a rabbi and three pupils at a Jewish school last year in the southwestern French city of Toulouse.

Dieudonne, as he is known on stage, has responded to the  criticism from prominent Jewish figures by threatening to sue them for linking his gesture - a downward straight arm touched at the shoulder by the opposite hand - to the Hitler salute.

He calls the gesture “la quenelle” - the word for an elongated creamed fish dumpling - and says it stands for his anti-Zionist and anti-establishment views, not anti-Semitism.

The gesture has gone viral on social media recently, with mostly young fans displaying it at parties and sports events. Some do it while in the audience at live television shows.

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Fury over British rape poster that portrays victims as 'reckless drunks' who 'put themselves at risk'

A bit too close to the truth?



An advert aimed at deterring binge drinking provoked anger among rape campaigners last night, who said it implied sex attack victims were to blame for their ordeal.

The seasonal advertisements feature a scantily-clad young woman who appears to have suffered a traumatic ordeal following too much alcohol.

The message attempts to dissuade female revellers from putting themselves at risk during the festive season.

While it doesn’t mention rape, Karen Ingala Smith, of the anti-violence charity Nia, said the message was clear and the campaign was a mistake.

‘The only ones being helped by the anti-rape campaign poster are rapists and the only ones who can stop rape are rapists,’ she insisted.

Calderdale Council in West Yorkshire says it hopes its campaign will reduce crime and shock revellers into thinking twice about how much they drink.

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So a picture of a drunken woman immediately makes feminists think of rape?  So who exactly is doing the stereotyping here?

‘Duck Dynasty’ critics are not intolerant?

Gary Varvel and many of his fellow conservatives do not seem to understand the meaning of the word intolerant. In many instances we see a conservative make a homophobic, sexist or racist comment and then when liberals criticize the statement they are accused of being intolerant. Criticizing a person’s statement is neither intolerant nor a violation of that person’s free speech rights.

My dictionary defines “intolerant” as “unwilling to grant equal freedom of expression especially in religious matters.” No one is trying to deny the “Duck Dynasty” guy his rights of free speech. He is being criticized for his position.

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Except that such criticism threatens his employment.  Leftist "criticism" is more than criticism.  It's a demand for punishment.