Must not disrespect Vegans

A cafe owner has come under fire by the vegan community for posting a message on his Facebook page asking customers to give the cafe advance notice if they required special meals.

Paul Stenson, proprietor of The White Moose Café in Dublin, provoked the ire of vegans from all over the world, who spammed the cafe's Facebook page with hundreds of negative reviews as a sign of their discontent.

The original post which was made on 13 August this year read: ‘Attention vegans. Please do not waltz into our café with no advance notice and look at us as if we have ten heads when you realise that there aren't 50,000 items on our menu that suit your idiosyncratic dietary requirements.

‘Our chef will be more than happy to prepare a number of dishes for you, but a little heads up in advance of your visit would be appreciated. Fair is fair like.’

Unbeknownst to Mr Stenson, his post was shared on various vegan pages by a Facebook user Tee Jay, who also posted a negative one-star review on the page.

She wrote: ‘Absolutely disgusting manners and behaviour. Wonder why I am judging before I’ve even eaten here? Because according to The White Moose Café it is okay to judge people without knowing them. It’s okay to call their beliefs idiotic and belittle them online.

She continued: ‘You are disgusting, disrespectful and ignorant. Get a life and a job because you wont be in this one much longer talking to customers like that!

The negative reviews and backlash from the vegan community have garnered Mr Stenson even more support and publicity with his story being featured in various publications worldwide.

On 25 October Mr Stenson posted: ‘I would like to thank the hundreds and thousands of vegans across the world for all the hard work they have been doing to promote our café over the past couple of days. Thanks to you guys, our café has gone viral in countries as far as New Zealand, Australia, America and Germany (to name but a few).

‘We have been receiving hundreds of messages and fan mail from people saying they will make a point of eating in our café, and the table reservations have been coming in thick and fast

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Mad scientists beat back the politically correct ‘police’

Even nerds aren’t exempt from the PC police — as the kids at Claremont/Harvey Mudd College learned from being slapped as insensitive toward the mentally ill for throwing a “mad scientist”-themed dorm party.

Never mind that the Southern California campus is known as a science school, or that the “Mudd Goes Madd” party was part of a multi-school drive to get students from the five allied Claremont Colleges to mix.

Nope: The student government at Pomona, another Claremont campus, opted to pull its share of funding for the bash.

“We are disappointed at your choice of the name for the event . . . ‘Mudd Goes Madd,’ ” wrote the Associated Students of Pomona College. “Your disregard of the concerns of the mental-health community and their allies trivializes issues that we deem extremely important to our community.”

The Mudd kids threw the party anyway. “This was definitely a win against overzealous PC culture,” student Steven Glick wrote in an e-mail to The College Fix.

In fact, a host of students with mental-health issues wrote in to also denounce the critics. They got the joke.

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Must not advertise for a 'good looking girl' to fill a job  vacancy

Fat feminists would object

A property company who used a modelling agency to advertise for a 'good-looking girl' to fill a receptionist vacancy has been blasted by MPs.

Advertising agency the Modelling Network posted the 'sexist' advert on their Facebook and Twitter pages saying it was on behalf of Kingston Letting Agents in Cathays, Cardiff.

Now politicians - including former Labour leader Harriet Harman - have hit out at the advert. Ms Harman warned the job advert as 'unlawful' - and called for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to step in.

The advert said the employee was needed to 'get students in' for a lettings company in the Welsh capital.

Kingstons Residential letting agents on Wyeverne Road, in Cathays, Cardiff, (pictured) said the post was a practical joke but denied having any association with the modelling company

Jo Stevens, Labour MP for Cardiff Central, posted: 'Shocked by this job advert from one of our local letting agencies #everydaysexism.'

Kingston Letting Agents initially said the post was a 'practical joke' - but denied having any association with the company. They added they are 'extremely shocked' and had 'no knowledge' of the company.

Laura Tresfon, Accounts Manager at Kingstons said the job has been advertised on official job sites and the gender of the person is 'neither here nor there'. The company also apologised on their Facebook page.

The post read: 'The events today where completely and totally astonishing to us as we were caught completely unaware regarding the inapproved advert, that has caused great offence to our clients and to the wider community.

'We fully understand the offence it has caused as we are an investor in people.'

A spokesman for the EHRC said they were investigating the complaint.

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School Paper In Hot Water After Cartoon Offends Black Students



Students at a New York public university are outraged after an illustration in the campus paper showed a stereotypical image of a black man standing in a run-down neighborhood:

The illustration in Cardinal Points, the school paper of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, was made to accompany an article examining admission rates for minorities.

It shows a smiling black man wearing a cap and gown and carrying a diploma, while walking through an urban hellscape featuring a mangled stop sign, a car on cinder blocks, and buildings with boarded up windows and graffiti.

Students say the image is both racist and ignorant.

“I’m from New York City. There’s no community that looks like that [with a] broken stop sign, burnt down buildings or cars that look that way,” student Antwan Clark told local WPTZ News.

The editors of Cardinal Points posted an apology on the paper’s website.

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The critics seem to have lost sight of the fact that it WAS a cartoon!

U of Wisconsin Bans "Politically Correct" as Politically Incorrect

    The phrase “politically correct” is now a microaggression according to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

    The university’s “Just Words” campaign is the work of UWM’s “Inclusive Excellence Center” and aims to “raise awareness of microaggressions and their impact”—microaggressions like “politically correct” or “PC.”

Enforcing political correctness is a great way of raising awareness of it. But then you have to ban any mention of "political correctness" so that no one realizes you're enforcing it because if you eliminate the word, the problem goes away.

It worked in Orwell's 1984. It's bound to work now.

    The university, however, claims that calling something “politically correct” “has become a way to deflect, [and say] that people are being too ‘sensitive’ and police language.”

Where would they possibly get the idea that people are too sensitive and policing language? Maybe it's from all the language policing. Why then we'll just ban the language.

    The university also claims the word “lame” is a microaggression that somehow both “ridicules and ignores the lives of amputees” and therefore shouldn’t be used.

It's not just a joke. It's also a police state.

    Interestingly enough, while the university’s Inclusive Excellence Center has labeled several common-use adjectives harmful, the man running the campaign, Warren Scherer, the director of the university’s Inclusive Excellence Center, has taken to Twitter to accuse Mike Huckabee of “pandering to Republican Jews” and accused presidential candidate Rand Paul of courting “rich Jews.”

But anti-Semitism is politically correct now. On the other hand, lame offends the lame and politically correct offends the politically correct.

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Rep. Castro Proposes Law to Stop Government from Using 'Alien' to Describe Foreigners

 U.S. Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas) wants the federal government to drop the word "alien" from laws and documents because “when you use the word alien you think of martians and people from outer space.”

Castro introduced the The Correcting Hurtful and Alienating Names in Government Expression (CHANGE) Act last week. The measure removes the term “illegal alien” and replaces it with "undocumented foreign national" in federal law and government documents.

“When we think of immigrants, we don’t think of aliens,” Castro told MSNBC on Friday. “When you use the word ‘alien’ you think of martians and people from outer space. These are human beings that we’re talking about.”

“So, my point is that we can disagree on immigration reform policy but the very least that we could do is have respect for these folks as human beings.”

In a press release announcing the Change Act Castro says, “Words matter, particularly in the context of an issue as contentious as immigration.”

“Discontinuing our use of the term ‘alien’ will help lessen the prejudice and vitriol that for too long have poisoned our nation’s discussions around immigration reform. The recognition of immigrants’ personhood in our laws should bring civility to and prompt progress in our efforts to fix America’s broken immigration system.”

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More belief in verbal magic

Famous British singer faces backlash over "homophobic" comments after admitting he was 'paranoid' about gays – and saying they're not 'normal'

They clearly are not normal.  They are only about 2% of the population

Sir Tom Jones has been blasted by fans after suggesting that he believes homosexuals are not 'normal'.

The ageing crooner admitted he used to be prejudiced towards gay people when he first arrived in London - and that he was so uncomfortable in their company that he even contemplated returning to Wales.

He also said he struggled to accept his first-ever music producer, the late Joe Meek, because of his sexuality, and became paranoid about his own managers and whether they were gay or not.

Sir Tom goes on to express his relief at discovering that most men in the music business were, as he described it, ‘normal’.

The comments have been met with widespread condemnation on Twitter, with fans of the singer lambasting his 'wrong' and 'out of touch views'.

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Storm in a coffee cup: Owner to take down 'offensive' coffee shop sign after landlord threatens legal action



A coffee shop has found itself in hot water over its 'offensive' sign. The manager of F***offee has vowed to remove its name from the shop in Bermondsey, south London, tomorrow after being threatened with legal action by the buildings owners.

The legal letter also warned that the sign could be forcibly taken down by controversial coffee shop's landlord.

'We’ve had fun with it, but I do think it may be time to move on,' manager Adrian Jones, reportedly told the Evening Standard. 'Once I start getting legal threats, that’s when the wife starts to get the hump.'

But it has not all been bad news, with the coffee shop experiencing a 20 per cent increase in sales in a week.

Supporters branded the threats 'pathetic' and said the sign makes them smile.

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Australia: Must not mention that disability is disabling

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham has come under fire for saying he 'thanks his lucky stars' his children do not have a disability.

'I think we look at some friends who have children with varying disabilities and I thank my lucky stars that's not me,' Mr Birmingham told a Senate committee meeting in Canberra on Wednesday night.  'So I am very conscious of making sure we do what we can in that space.'

The Education Minister and South Australian Senator made the comments during a discussion about potential cuts to funding for students with a disability next year, as a new funding model is introduced.

The 'lucky stars' comment was slammed by advocacy groups, who labelled it 'deeply offensive' to people with a disability.

'They are constantly exposed to significant barriers in education, including constant bullying, and for them to hear that can easily cause harm and further diminish the views that we are trying to stop,' Children with Disability Australia chief executive Stephanie Gotlib said, according to the Canberra Times.

'He is either acknowledging that the education system is causing significant challenges, or is he saying children with a disability themselves are a burden, and aren't a valuable member of a family or community.' [But they ARE a burden.  Whether the burden should be borne and by whom is a legitimate and important debate but denying the reality attacks the need for debate.  Is that ever wise?]

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Some jokes are not allowed these days

I have myself joked about "poofter drinks" (mixed drinks) in my wicked past, so I know it was a joke.  "Poofter" is Australian/British slang for a male homosexual

A MELBOURNE bar owner has “unreservedly apologised” after pub goers took offence at an apparently homophobic sign.

A menu board at Handsome Steve’s House of Refreshment, in Fitzroy, listed items such as “Lemonade of honour”, “Whine”, “Geelong premiership years” as well as “No poofter drinks”, reported the Herald Sun.

The bar’s Facebook page has been bombarded by angry comments after a group of customers complained about the sign hanging in the bar on Saturday night.

“Homophobia is alive and well in this business. Time for management to grow up,” wrote Nic Gwynne. “It's not edgy or cool to bring back being a homophobic bro. It's f**king boring. Try harder next time,” Taylor Di Pasquale added.

Owner Steve Miller said the sign had been up for seven years, was not meant to cause offence and people, including gay customers, found it hilarious.  “If I’ve given offence to anybody, I unconditionally apologise. I unreservedly apologise,” Mr Miller told the Herald Sun.

Convener of the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, Justin Koonin, told news.com.au if it was a joke, it was in very poor taste.  “What seems funny to one person can be most hurtful to another. It is important to think about the impact language can have on those who are most vulnerable.”

Koonin said taking down the sign was the right thing to do.

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"Negro" now not allowed in Australia?

The High Court of Australia ruled in 2002 that the word "n*gger" is not offensive in Australia so there is little doubt that "negro" is also not generally offensive in Australia. People who take their cue from American sensitivities would however object to the term.

Additionally, "Negro" is a scientifically correct term  for a person of sub-Saharan African origin or ancestry.  Leftist hysteria has however moved most scientists these days to use the ponderous circumlocution "sub-Saharan African" instead of "Negro"

"Black" is the customary term in America these days but "Negro" is more accurate than "black" because most American blacks are in fact brown.  And there are a lot of black people (Melanesians and Australian Aborigines) who are black but are not negroes. The Senator below most likely had that latter fact in mind in his choice of words

Australian Government Senator Eric Abetz has bizarrely called U.S. Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas a 'n***o' during a radio interview.  Mr Abetz, 58, used the dated and offensive slur during an interview on Sydney radio, while being interviewed about the push for marriage equality.

'It was completely debunked by Clarence Thomas, the n***o American on the Supreme Court of the United States,' he said on 2UE.

Radio host Justin Smith could be heard quizzically muttering, 'n***o', as the Senator continued with his sentence.  Moments earlier, Mr Smith had asked the Senator about whether a business should be allowed to serve or not serve customers based on gender, race or sexuality grounds.

Mr Abetz was quickly criticised for the comment on social media, with many saying it was an offensive remark.  'And here's me thinking dinosaurs were extinct,' one Twitter user wrote. 'Simply jaw-droppingly offensive that Senator Abetz uses word 'n***o' - walking anachronism,' Tom Allen said.

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New Zealand to scrape three racist location names off the map and replace them with less offensive monikers

Renaming of place-names continues in America too.  An Alaskan mountain known as Mount McKinley since 1917 has recently been renamed "Denali" by Obama, apparently in deference to some native  tradition.  Naming the mountain to honor an assassinated U.S. President was not good enough, apparently.  That the President concerned led his nation to victory in the Spanish-American war and ruled over a period of great American prosperity fades into insignificance compared with honoring a custom of an obscure native tribe

The names of three places in New Zealand could be permanently wiped off the map - for being too offensive.

Nigger Hill, Nigger Stream and Niggerhead - which lie at the base of the Southern Alps, in North Canterbury - could be changed if a proposal by the New Zealand Geographic Board (NZGB) is given the greenlight.

Under the proposed changes, Nigger Hill will be renamed Kānuka Hills, Nigger Stream will become Steelhead Stream and Niggerhead will be named Tawhai Hill, NZME reported.

The new names were suggested by a member of the public, Stuff cited NZGB secretary Wendy Shaw as saying.

'The proposals... are based on these names being in poor taste, offensive, discriminatory and derogatory,' she said.

The new names represent native trees in the area.

Public consultation on the name changes of the three places at the Southern Alps will be open for three months from October 29.

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Top gym sorry for Nazi graffiti

A LA fitness manager has apologised for his club’s failure to remove graffiti that compares Israelis to Nazis. Chris Smith, regional manager of the leading healthclub’s branch in Kentish Town, north-west London, said the club would now remove a message that read: “Israelis are Nazis”.

The message, which was sprawled on the inside of a locker in the men’s changing room, was spotted by a club member.

Mr Smith said: “It has now been dealt with. The locker’s been locked and [the graffiti] will be dealt with, with immediate effect.”

Composer Benjamin Till, who appeared in Channel 4 show Our Gay Wedding, saw the graffiti on Thursday evening. He said he had initially reported the offensive slogan to another manager three months ago.

The 41-year-old from Highgate, who is Jewish, said he was told that the locker would be permanently shut in July. He said he was surprised to see it again. “It’s astonishing that it’s still there,” he said. “It’s deeply troubling. “To discover that it is still there is offensive.”

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Obama Calls for Amendment Limiting Free-Speech Rights

President Barack Obama endorsed a constitutional amendment that would restrict the free-speech rights of political activist groups by overturning the Supreme Court decision in the landmark Citizens United v FEC case that granted First Amendment rights to corporations.

“Over the longer term, I think we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United,” Obama wrote during a question and answer session on the website Reddit on Wednesday.

“Even if the amendment process falls short, it can shine a spotlight of the super-PAC phenomenon and help apply pressure for change.”

In its decision, the Supreme Court said that the government could not restrict the free-speech rights of organizations during elections, striking down key provisions of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

That law restricted how much money independent political organizations could spend and banned them from engaging in election-related speech 60 days prior to a general election.

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Must not mention that Israel is just defending itself

Former adult actress Jenna Jameson has sparked online outrage after tweeting support for Israel in the wake of recent tension in the area.

The Celebrity Big Brother star, who converted to Judaism after becoming engaged to her partner Lior Britton, urged Israelis to 'stand strong and defend yourself by all means'.

The 41-year-old former porn star's comments, which comes amid fears of a third intifada as violence between Israel and Palestine escalates, has been met with both anger and scorn.

A tweet where she declared to be 'forever Israel', one man responded: '@jennajameson I used to worship you. If you had the soul to feel the plight of innocent Palestinians, I would respect you.'

However, the critique has been drowned by Ms Jameson herself, who has continued to post frequently in support of Israel.

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Conservative French leader should have 'inciting hatred' charges dropped because her comments comparing Muslims to Nazi occupation are protected by freedom of expression, say prosecutors

Freedom of expression in France?  A novel idea.  Le Pen senior and Brigitte Bardot have often been penalized in France for condemning Islam.  Are the French getting tired of defending Muslims?

Marine Le Pen should have her 'inciting hatred' charges dropped - because her comments comparing Muslim street prayers to Nazi occupation are protected by freedom of expression, prosecutors said today.

The leader of France’s far-right Front National - who could face a year in jail - was in combative mood as she told Lyon Correctional Court: ‘I’ve committed no crime. I’m an honest woman.’

It was in the same south-eastern city in 2010 that Le Pen, 47, evoked the Nazi Occupation while referring to Muslim street prayers.

She said at the time: ‘For those who like to talk about World War Two, to talk about occupation, we could talk about, for once, the occupation of our territory. It is an occupation of part of the territory, suburbs where religious law is applied.

'Sure, there are no armoured vehicles, no soldiers, but it is an occupation nonetheless and it weighs on residents.’

The recorded comments were the main evidence against the Front National leader as she was accused of ‘provocation through discrimination, showing violence or hate towards a group of people because of their religion’.

But prosecutor Bernard Reynaud argued that Le Pen should be acquitted because ‘her views did not target the whole Muslim community’. Mr Reynaud said that her views were ‘shocking’ but they ‘amounted to freedom of expression’.

It will be up to judges to decide the verdict in the case, and not the prosecutor.

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‘No Haitians': New York staffing agency posts blatantly racist job ad for nurses

It's pretty clear that the advertisers have had bad experiences with poorly educated Haitians but they were foolish to let Haitians know that.  They should have just allowed Haitians to waste their time applying for a job they were never going to get.  So who is compassionate here?

Nurses in New York state are outraged over a job ad seeking a female nurse, but specifying, “no Haitians,” CBS New York reports.

The ad in a local Pennysaver newsletter was posted for a position in West Haverstraw, a town in upstate New York by Interim Healthcare Inc., a staffing company for home health care, according to their website. The post asks for a “laid back nurse, no haitians” and promises a weekly paycheck.

“It’s very distasteful, hurtful for this day and age, to have this published,” Mireille Leroy, a 24-year nurse and president of the Haitian American Nurses Association of Rockland County said, adding that kind of “racism will not be tolerated.”

New York State Senator David Carlucci told the station his office has been flooded with complaints.

“I’ll be calling on the commissioner of labor and the attorney general to do a thorough investigation to make sure that this form of racism, this form of discrimination is not tolerated in our state at all,” he said.

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Must not be critical of immigrants in Minnesota

I gather this was primarily about Muslim immigration

Harsh words and heartfelt sentiment were exchanged by community members and local officials on racial issues in Central Minnesota at the St. Cloud NAACP Community Conversation with Gov. Mark Dayton.

From the start of the event, Dayton bluntly stated his opinions on the racial tension in St. Cloud and across the state in regards to immigration.

“Look around you. This is Minnesota,” Dayton said. “Minnesota is not like it was 30, 50 years ago. ... This is Minnesota and you have every right to be here. And anybody who cannot accept your right to be here, and this is Minnesota, should find another state.”

Dayton said he was aware of some of the racial issues happening in the St. Cloud area and urged participants to take a stand against what he described as “unacceptable, un-Minnesotan, illegal and immoral” behavior.

“If you are that intolerant, if you are that much of a racist or a bigot, then find another state. Find a state where the minority population is 1 percent or whatever. It’s not that in Minnesota. It’s not going to be again. It’s not going to be that in St. Cloud, or Rochester or Worthington,” Dayton said.

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Governor Dayton sounds pretty intolerant himself

New speech rules in British schools

Being enforced with Fascist zeal

Children as young as five will be told not to use sexist language such as ‘sissy’, ‘cupcake’ and ‘man up’ under new Government guidelines.

Teachers are being urged to treat such words and phrases as seriously as they would racist insults in a bid to stamp out gender stereotyping in schools.

The guidelines, which will be published tomorrow and sent to every school in England, advise head teachers to appoint experienced teachers as ‘gender champions’. Some schools have already assembled squads of volunteer students to report any sexist language and behaviour to staff.

The guidelines were drawn up by the Institute of Physics as part of a bid to tackle stereotypes in schools that lead to fewer girls than boys studying science.

The guide suggests that schools should find strategies to get more girls to study so-called ‘male’ subjects such as economics and physics at GCSE and A-level, while boys should be encouraged to take more ‘female’ subjects including English literature, foreign languages and psychology. [Why?]

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Rapper TI in trouble about his comments on Hillary

But his comment that most people would be more comfortable with a male President is probably right

"Not to be sexist, but I can't vote for the leader of the free world to be a woman," the rapper said. "Just because, every other position that exists, I think a woman could do well. But, the president? It's kinda like, I just know that women make rash decisions emotionally – they make very permanent, cemented decisions — and then later, it's kind of like it didn't happen, or they didn't mean for it to happen."

After expressing concern over whether foreign leaders would take a female president seriously during policy negotiations — despite Clinton doing just that as secretary of state — T.I. tried to qualify his remarks, adding: "The world ain't ready yet. I think you might be able to get the Loch Ness Monster elected before [a woman]. It's not right, but I'm just saying."

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Is The Donald guilty of hate speech?

The woman writing below thinks so. Or is he just being properly cautious about a possible influx of hate-filled Muslims?

What do you define as political campaigning, and what constitutes hate speech?  Donald Trump, I think, constitutes the latter.

He is taking American and World race relations back into the dark ages. His comments are so inciting, so irresponsible, and tragically, he is still the frontrunner in the Republican bid for the White House.

He has been speaking at a rally in New Hampshire and at that rally he said that if he becomes President, he will send home every Syrian refugee.

But what is worse is that he spoke to a school and he said to the children, and I quote “I hear we want to take in 200,000 Syrians. And they could be- listen (he said)- they could be the Islamic State.”

And then he described refugees in America not as people, but as a 200,000-strong army. And he said this to children.

And he told them “if I win, every one of them is going back.”

How would you feel as a parent?

How is it that a school let a campaigning politican speak to students - let alone a twisted, bigoted and globally naïve fool like Trump.

He has crossed a line, I think, and has become fluent in hate speech. Remember he referred to Mexicans, recently, as importers of rape? [See here on Hispanics and rape.]

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VW engineers the new outcasts

You can't say anything derogatory about blacks, queers or women but holding VW engineers up to contempt is fine

They are the elite of British education who have gained a coveted place at one of Cambridge University’s ancient colleges.

But now the students of Gonville & Caius have been lambasted by the Master of the revered institution and damned as the next generation of ‘insider traders, exchange-rate riggers and corrupt Volkswagen engineers’.

Sir Alan Fersht made his astonishing comments after second-year students were caught on CCTV encouraging first years to drink shots as part of a Freshers’ Week initiation ceremony.

The 72-year-old professor was so shocked that he sent an email to all Gonville undergraduates on Friday, demanding that loutish behaviour be ‘nipped in the bud’.

He claimed there was a ‘national scandal of students drinking irresponsibly, indulging in laddish behaviour and sadistic initiation rights, and men plying women with drink and abusing them’

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UK: Internet troll in court for saying disabled people should be exterminated is cleared because punishing him would breach his right to freedom of speech

An internet troll who called for disabled people to be exterminated has been cleared of being grossly offensive because a judge decided it was his human right.

Joshua Bonehill-Paine, 22, was in charged over two articles posted on far-right websites, including one promoting eugenics - the practice of killing people whose DNA is seen as inferior.

A court heard that he said babies with conditions like Downs Syndrome should be killed at birth for the good of the nation.

Bonehill-Paine, who calls himself a 'proud anti-Semite' said that the UK should adopt the practices of Sparta in ancient Greece, where physically imperfect babies were abandoned on a hillside.

He accompanied the story, on a site describing itself as 'Britain's number one nationalist newspaper' with a picture of a Tesco worker with Downs Syndrome.

He was also charged over another article in which he claimed food sold by Tesco contained the deadly Ebola virus.

The articles - posted on two separate websites - resulted in charges of misusing a public computer network to propagate grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing material.

But in a hearing at Stevenage Magistrates' Court this week, district judge Carolyn Mellanby dismissed both charges, saying that his right to free speech protects him from being punished over the stories.

She said: 'Freedom of speech has a very high threshold and I would have breached Article 10 of the Humans Rights Act if I had found you guilty.

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Black hate speech.  Black professor calls Dr. Carson a coon

Dom Giordano

University of Pennsylvania professor Anthea Butler, last week tweeted out about Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. Her tweet was, "If only there was a 'coon of the year' award . . . ." The professor had tweeted at Goldie Taylor, Daily Beast editor at large, whose tweet had highlighted a Sports Illustrated article in which Carson championed Americans' right to fly flags, even the Confederate flag.

The word "coon" is so offensive that I did not even feel comfortable when I reported it on my radio show. According to Online Etymology, etymonline.com, the word "coon" is an offensive term to slander Africans, deriving from the Portuguese word barracoos, which is a hut-like dwelling used to store slaves during auctions. It's an awful, hurtful term.

It seems then because Butler differs with Carson's comments, she feels that he has adopted a slave's mentality. This clearly hateful and derisive comment is not the first time Butler has engaged in, shall we say, "racially charged" comments.

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The Anti-Free-Speech Movement at UCLA

Whites must not wear saggy jeans

Last week, when this controversy began, many news outlets reported that some of the fraternity and sorority members who attended the “Kanye Western” theme party wore blackface. While that offensive behavior would not change the First Amendment analysis to come, there is no evidence for the claim: The Greek organizations deny it and no published photographs from the party depict anyone in blackface.

“We have been asked to respond specifically to rumors that some guests attended the event in blackface,” the fraternity said in a statement. “It is important that we put this rumor to rest. Some of our guests attended the event dressed as miners in reference to the Kanye West song ‘Gold Digger,’ but their attire had nothing to do with race.”

The Huffington Post has published a photograph that seems to confirm this explanation: a group of girls pose with a bit of soot smudged on their faces, but not covering it, and there can be no doubt that they are attempting to dress as miners, or “gold diggers,” because they are all holding plates of “gold” as if panning for it.

Others who objected to the theme party deemed it an example of cultural appropriation, a “microaggression” against black students, or deeply insensitive and hurtful.

“The sagging or baggy jeans that students wore to the party represent one of the most notorious African American stereotypes in fashion,” UCLA student Caleb Jackson wrote in The Daily Bruin. “So notorious in fact, that it has led several cities across the country to make sagging illegal. The racial undertones associated with this clothing style make its cultural appropriation highly offensive to Black students.”

Meanwhile, critics of the critics insist that West is a famous celebrity, not a stand-in for black culture; that stuffed butts were a reference to Kim Kardashian, who is white and of Armenian descent, not black; that there is nothing wrong with appropriating the dress of hip-hop culture, which is not the same as black culture; that it’s myopic for privileged student activists to focus on a frat theme party while living in a city plagued by police killings, homelessness, housing discrimination, and other injustices; that activists are giving Greek organizations too much power to set their agenda; and that college kids these days are oversensitive to the point of self-parody.

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Must not mention that blacks are the main perpetrators of gun crime

A tweet by Randy Pullen, former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, is garnering major attention.

During the first Democratic Presidential Debate on Tuesday, a viewer in Iowa asked the presidential candidates if black lives matter, or if all lives matter.

Pullen tweeted his response, which stated:

Yes black lives matter. The best way to end the slaughter of young black men is to take guns away from blacks as they are the main killers.

The tweet quickly garnered attention, including from many people who called him racist.

Pullen told the Phoenix New Times Wednesday that he was being sarcastic and that guns aren't the cause of violence.

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Government-Mandated Speech: Jerry Brown Signs Law Forcing Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers to Promote Abortion

Gov. Jerry Brown (D.-Calif.) signed a law on Friday mandating that all licensed pregnancy centers in the state “disseminate to clients” a message promoting public programs with “free or low-cost access” to abortion and contraceptive services.

The new law makes no exception for pro-life and faith-based crisis pregnancy centers.

Critics of the law say that it violates the right to freedom of speech, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment.

AB 775, known in the state legislature as The Reproductive FACT Act, requires all pregnancy centers that are licensed as clinics to post the following notice:

“California has public programs that provide immediate free or low-cost access to comprehensive family planning services (including all FDA-approved methods of contraception), prenatal care, and abortion for eligible women. To determine whether you qualify, contact the county social services office at [insert the telephone number].”

According to the legislation, pregnancy centers that fail to disseminate this message “are liable for a civil penalty of five hundred dollars ($500) for a first offense and one thousand dollars ($1,000) for each subsequent offense.”

However, the legislation was dubbed “the bully bill” by its pro-life opponents who argued that the bill forces pro-life pregnancy centers to violate their conscience rights by participating in an abortion referral.

"Does the government have a right to tell a newspaper what to write, a preacher what to preach, a private school what to teach? Of course not,” said Assemblywoman Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) in a statement following the bill’s passage in the State Assembly.

“So why is it okay for the government to force pro-life pregnancy centers against their will to advertise and promote government abortion services?” she asked.

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'Stepford student' culture threatening free speech

Opportunities for debate are being denied to students because a minority believe that shutting down the debate is akin to winning

Unfortunately, the recent decision by the University of Manchester’s students' union to ban radical feminist Julie Bindel and right wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos from participating in a union debate on free speech, is just another example of the ludicrous "Stepford student" culture - a term coined by journalist Brendan O'Neill - that is engulfing our universities.

The event, ironically entitled: “From liberation to censorship: does modern feminism have a problem with free speech?” had originally been intended to provoke a challenging debate among open minded students.

However, following outcries from sections of Manchester’s student cohort, who accused Ms Bindel of transphobia, her involvement was declared unsuitable as it broke the unions “safe space policy”.

Manchester University’s women’s officer, Jess Lishak, commented on the union’s decision via Facebook in a post that has now been deleted, stating: “Julie Bindel is a journalist and activist who’s been on a crusade against the trans community, and trans women in particular, for many years.”

Miss Lishak’s comments were in relation to Ms Bindel’s article in the Guardian from 2004 in which she wrote: “I don't have a problem with men disposing of their genitals, but it does not make them women, in the same way that shoving a bit of vacuum hose down your 501s does not make you a man.”

Undoubtedly some contentious views. But why ban her from the debate?  So she has some difficult to stomach views, it doesn’t change the fact that she’s been a lifelong contributor to the feminist cause, and could rightly be regarded as an expert in her field. By all standards a good addition to a healthy debate.

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UK: Must not comment on the ethnicity of politicians' wives

A Labour MP triggered fury last night after questioning why Jeremy Hunt’s Chinese wife had come to Britain.

Helen Goodman faced a backlash over an apparent response to the Tory minister’s suggestion that tax credit cuts could encourage Britons to work as hard as people in fast-growing Asian economies.

Miss Goodman, MP for Bishop Auckland, tweeted: ‘If China is so great, why did Jeremy Hunt‘s wife come to England?’

Her remarks were described as deeply offensive and ‘bizarre’ last night – and come just weeks after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for a ‘kinder’ politics and an end to online abuse from Twitter trolls.

Urging British workers to copy the work ethic of the Chinese and Americans, Health Secretary Mr Hunt had told a fringe event at the Tory conference last Tuesday that his wife, Lucia, was Chinese and he knew China well.

The Hunts have three children but the minister has kept his family largely out of the limelight. Miss Goodman, 57, who was shadow minister for welfare reform under Ed Miliband, responded six days later via social media.

The time-lapse caused some observers to wonder if her Twitter account had been hacked.

Nadhim Zahawi, a Tory MP who works on policy for No10, called on her to apologise, tweeting: ‘Helen that is a terrible thing to say I hope you delete and apologise to Mrs Hunt. have you been hacked?’

Labour peer and former MEP Lord Cashman tweeted: ‘Helen this is not an acceptable tweet. As politicians we are fair game, not our partner nor their origins.’

Labour’s leader in the Lords, Baroness Smith, called the remarks bizarre and said she should apologise.

A Labour spokesman said last night: ‘This does not represent the views of the Labour Party.

‘Helen will be reminded of her responsibilities as an elected Labour politician.’

Late last night, Miss Goodman finally deleted her tweet and said: ‘Wish to absolutely apologise for earlier tweet.’

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Why we must fight for free speech for people we loathe

Today’s backlash against censorship just isn’t good enough

At a glance, it seems a fightback against censorship has finally kicked off in Britain. Headlines inform us of a ‘feminist backlash against the censors’, proof, apparently, that the ‘tide [is] turning in the free-speech debate’. Even the Guardian has taken a five-minute breather from demanding restraints on Page 3, lads’ mags and sexist comedians to publish a piece criticising student officials’ No Platforming of radical feminists, telling us that ‘college is about learning to think’. The University of Warwick’s students’ union was forced to backtrack on its scandalous ban on Iranian secularist Maryam Namazie after liberal newspaper columnists raised hell. And the news that Bahar Mustafa, diversity officer at Goldsmiths Students’ Union, will shortly appear in court partly for having tweeted the hashtag #killallwhitemen has been met with near universal condemnation.

On one level, this feels good. At last people are taking seriously a freedom that spiked has been championing since we were founded, which we describe as ‘the foundational freedom upon which every other right we enjoy is built’. But on another level there’s a serious problem with this supposed backlash against censorship, something that ought to make all true free speechers feel uncomfortable. Which is this: for the most part, and certainly in all the recent flashpoint cases mentioned above, people are only defending free speech for people they like. In fact, their new interest in freedom of speech was kindled only when a colleague, comrade or mate of theirs faced censorship. They aren’t defending freedom of speech; they’re defending friends’ speech. And today’s various, distinct, disconnected calls to ‘let my friend speak!’ could actually damage rather that boost that most pressing cause of the 21st century: the fight for the right of everyone – literally everyone – to say, sing, write, depict and think whatever they like.

What we’re witnessing is not a new movement for freedom of speech, but the rise of cliques that deploy the language of freedom in a quite cynical way to defend people who espouse ideas they agree with. So feminist commentators are currently arguing against students’ unions’ banning of Julie Bindel, yet say nothing about the banning of Dapper Laughs by Cardiff University, or the NUS’s nationwide clampdown on ‘laddish banter’ (speech), or the ban on the Sun and ‘Blurred Lines’ on campuses across Britain. They aren’t defending freedom of speech, which is, by definition, undiscriminating, and should apply as equally to a sexist rugby club leader as it should to Julie Bindel; instead they are merely defending speech, in this case Bindel’s speech, the content of which they admire and support.

Likewise, the secularists who defended Maryam Namazie said nothing about the banning of a homophobic Islamist preacher at the University of East London. And Bahar Mustafa and her friends might be terribly concerned about Mustafa’s arrest for tweeting #killallwhitemen – as they should be – but, as I discovered when I debated Mustafa in London last month, they don’t support anyone else’s right to be offensive: not lads, not ‘transphobes’, not people who are critical of Islam – no one.

Indeed, many of those fighting for friends’ speech actively support restrictions on non-friends’ speech. The defenders of Bindel include people who campaigned to end Page 3. In a letter to the Observer denouncing the No Platforming of feminists, various activists and academics called for a return to that time when No Platform was ‘a tactic used against self-proclaimed fascists and Holocaust deniers’. That so many can use the language of freedom of speech to defend people they like while simultaneously giving the nod, or turning a blind eye, to the censorship of people they don’t like – fascists, sexists, Islamists, pornographers – should leave no doubt that we are not witnessing a new fight for freedom of speech. If anything, the ideal of freedom of speech is being damaged, badly, by those who use the language of freedom in the pursuit of the very narrow, self-serving aim of preserving their own political influence.

More here

British police must not wear a British Flag patch in case it causes 'offence'

Too bad if it did, one might think

Police officers wearing an emotive 'thin blue line' badge in tribute to PC David Phillips who was killed on duty have reportedly been told they are not allowed to display the patch because it may cause 'offence'.

Metropolitan Police officers were apparently told they are forbidden to wear the badge - a black and white Union flag with a 'thin blue line' through it - because it could upset 'some communities'.

Officers had been keen to display the poignant patch in tribute to father-of-two PC Phillips who was knocked down and killed by a stolen pick-up truck in Merseyside on Monday.

However, a high-ranking Scotland Yard officer apparently told staff wearing the badge could provoke ill-feeling or cause offence in some communities.

However, earlier this week, after PC Phillips' death, Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said he had 'no issue' with his officers wearing the badge, the newspaper said.

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Naked BACK of women must not be shown



LUSH cosmetics has pulled risqué posters of nude women from its stores after a concerned mother’s complaint was upheld by the advertising watchdog.

The body-positive advert, which featured a group of women of varying shapes and sizes standing with their backs to the camera, was part of a promotional campaign for the company’s unpackaged cosmetics.

But several shoppers were offended by the poster, complaining that the “pornographic” image should not have been displayed in a public shopping centre.

“It was placed at a child’s eye level in a shopping centre. It shows naked women touching other naked women and it is shown in a public place,” one official complaint said.

“I was unable to shield my children from exposure to this advert as it was on a poster in the centre aisle of the shopping centre. When I contacted Lush, they said that the women in the photo consented so it was OK — I’m sorry but I never consented for myself or my children to be exposed to nudity on our weekly shopping trip!”

“I am offended as this is nudity for the sake of causing a stir and is offensive and unnecessary,” another complainant said.

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EU urges fight against online hate speech

Is it hate speech or is it a reasonable protest to say that the acceptance of a parasitical and hostile flood of Muslims into Europe is unwise?  Their deficient language skills alone make them largely unemployable -- to say nothing of their superior attitudes

EU justice ministers have met to try to combat a rise in hate speech and xenophobia spread through social media as Europe grapples with an unprecedented influx of refugees.

Facebook pledged last month to fight a surge in racism on its German-language network as Germany has become the top destination for refugees, triggering a backlash from the far Right.

"We realised in Germany that hate criminality has increased significantly on social platforms," German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told reporters as he arrived for talks in Luxembourg.

Maas was to brief his EU counterparts about talks with Facebook and other sites as well as German initiatives to fight what he said was a European-wide problem.

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UC faces the impossibility of banning "hate speech"

They can see that such a ban might hit some of their favorite things -- such as "affirmative action" advocacy and anti-Israel protest

The challenges are enormous, if not insurmountable, as the regents of the University of California seek to develop a hate-speech policy on campuses. Recent anti-Semitic incidents spurred the regents to want to take action, but at their Sept. 17 meeting, they chose not to adopt proposed "principles against intolerance." Instead, they created a committee to consider the issue anew. The reality, however, is that the chance of a breakthrough is low.

Any written policy would need to achieve conflicting goals: expressing a strong commitment to freedom of speech as an integral aspect of education, while seeking to prevent speech that is racist, sexist, anti-Semitic or homophobic. The trick is in setting the border between heated, even inflammatory, speech and hate speech, which is notoriously difficult.

The Supreme Court long has held that vague speech rules violate the 1st Amendment and deny due process of law. In fact, efforts at defining hate speech by other state universities have been declared unconstitutional on vagueness grounds.

The University of Michigan, for example, adopted a code in the 1980s — later struck down by the Supreme Court — that prohibited "any behavior, verbal or physical, that stigmatizes or victimizes an individual on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, creed, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, handicap or Vietnam-era veteran status."

But what does it mean to "stigmatize" or "victimize"? If a professor or student argues that there are inherent differences between men and women, does that violate the policy? Can advocacy of affirmative action be deemed to violate this policy because it stigmatizes racial minorities by assuming that they need preferential treatment to compete?

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V8 Supercars driver labels female team the ‘p***y wagon’

V8 Supercars driver David Reynolds has been fined $25,000 for a comment he made about the series’ first all-female team at the Bathurst 1000 since 1998.

Speaking at the press conference at the end of the first day of practice for Australia’s greatest motor race, Reynolds made an off-the-cuff quip about Harvey Norman Supergirls duo Renee Gracie and Simona de Silvestro.

A journalist asked Reynolds if he was wary of the all-female team.

He responded by asking: “Was I aware of the p***y wagon?”

“Yeah, I think that’s great. Renee and Simone are really good people and really good drivers. I hope they perform well for us. I really hope they go well. Simone has never been here before and she doesn’t even understand we have a Kangaroo flag. I thought that was standard.”

Reynolds issued a statement to apologise for his comment. “I unreservedly apologise for a comment I made in a press conference earlier today in relation to my female teammates,” he said.

“While it was intended to be humorous, I understand it has caused offence.

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Australia:  You can't win.  Wrong to say “Real men don’t hit women.”

The new Prime Minister has won enormous praise for putting domestic violence on the agenda, but there’s one big problem with the way he’s been talking about it.

Malcolm Turnbull came out swinging when he promised a tough approach to domestic violence during the second week of his newly claimed Prime Ministership.

“It has been overlooked, to some extent ignored, for far too long. We must have zero tolerance for it. The growing level of awareness is vital,” he said, building up to a simple, blunt, and catchy punchline.  “Real men don’t hit women.”

It was music to the ears of most. Finally, a leader who wasn’t afraid to address this issue, who wouldn’t be beating around the bush on the epidemic killing two Australian women every week.

But criminologist and gender violence expert Michael Salter, among others, felt his ears prick up for a different reason.  “We’ve heard it before, it doesn’t help, and really, it’s destructive,” he told news.com.au

Dr Salter says Malcolm Turnbull’s message, like those of generations of politicians before him, is sexist and ineffectual.

“It assumes that ‘real’ men are strong and ‘real’ men are protective and have authority, and that it’s wrong to hit women because they’re weak and passive. The statement only makes sense if we assume those things, and it reinforces those stereotypes.”

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Must not say that women are needed around the house

The house is a mess, dinner's been burned, the ironing hasn't been done and the toilet seat has been left up.  France 3 TV featured these scenes of a house in turmoil in an advert boasting about how many female presenters it employs.

The commercial was pulled after a scathing backlash by social media users, government ministers, equal-rights activists and the general public who accused France's second largest public television channel of sexism.

France 3 shared the 38-second clip with its 156,000 followers on Twitter on Friday. As the song, 'Where Have All the Women Gone?' plays, a message on screen reads: 'There are all on France 3.'

To justify the message concept behind the commercial, the Tweet alongside the video read: 'The majority of our presenters are females.'

It was meant to run for three weeks but Delphine Ernotte, the president of French Televisions which controls a host of state-run TV and radio stations, ordered it to be decommissioned, Pure Medias reported.

Prenons-la-Une, a group of female journalists who campaign for equality in industry, said the advert does seek to promote the role of women on TV but 'this is not the right way'. In a statement on its website, they said: 'We too have been shocked by the gender-biased video on France 3.

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Must not publicize the 10 Commandments

Around 10:30 p.m. Monday night, contractors began taking down a 2,400-pound monument depicting the Ten Commandments from the grounds of Oklahoma’s State Capitol.

The monument’s removal comes a little more than three months after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in June that its presence violated the state constitution’s prohibition against using public property for religious purposes. 

In Prescott v. Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Commission, the Oklahoma Supreme Court decided that the six-foot tall granite monument, which was built with private funds, “operates for the use, benefit or support of a sect or system of religion.”

Justice Thomas Prince wrote the opinion, which read, “The Ten Commandments are obviously religious in nature and are an integral part of the Jewish and Christian faiths.”

Gov. Mary Fallin reportedly said after the ruling that “the court got it wrong,".

After its removal, the Ten Commandments monument was transferred to the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA), a conservative think tank located in Oklahoma City.

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Must not mock Warmism

The BBC has apologised for airing a half-hour radio show earlier this year in which a series of high-profile climate sceptics lined up to disparage the science behind global warming.

What’s the point of the Met Office, aired in August, did not make clear sceptics are a “minority voice, out of step with scientific consensus,” the corporation said in an email to climate scientist Andy Smedley.

“This was an unfortunate lapse for which we apologise and we would like to assure you we remain committed to covering all aspects of the subject in the most accurate and responsible way possible.”

Presented by Daily Mail columnist Quentin Letts, the show featured Peter Lilley MP, Graham Stringer MP, forecaster Piers Corbyn and Andy Silvester from the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

All had previously questioned the veracity of climate science. They took the opportunity to mock the Met Office over its weather forecasting and climate modelling work.

In reply, the show featured a brief clip of Met Office head of communications Helen Chivers, which did not address the show’s critique of recent climate research.

The BBC said it had carried out an internal review and emphasised that the programme emerged from “an unusual combination of circumstances which we have now rectified”.

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Racial slur OK if it's directed at a conservative?

Anthea Butler has a knack for inciting heated debate about political issues (regardless of the tenured professor’s inability to garner the same passion about academic topics from her less-than-enthusiastic students).

The University of Pennsylvania firebrand, who is an Associate Professor of Religion and Politics, has once again become the focus of public scrutiny, this time by heaping a racially insensitive insult onto presidential candidate Ben Carson.

Campus Reform reports:

“If only there was a ‘coon of the year’ award…” Professor Butler tweeted in response to another tweet linking to a Sports Illustrated article in which Carson was quoted defended the right of NASCAR fans to fly Confederate flags during races.

“Coon of the Year Award”? Imagine if a college professor had said the same of President Obama.

Campus Reform also added a bit of etymology on the insult “coon”:

The word “coon” is an offensive term to slander Africans, deriving from the Portuguese word “barracoos,” which is a hut-like dwelling used to store slaves during auctions, according to Online Etymology.

In effect, then, Butler’s tweet insinuated that Carson is a metaphorical slave who belongs in a wooden shed.

Neither the Department of Religious Studies, nor the University of Pennsylvania have commented on the inflammatory comments of the tenured professor

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Toys R Us faces bizarre race row over children's dolls

Toys R Us is facing a bizarre race row after selling a family of black dolls for £3 less than white ones.

The children’s retailer was found to have the ‘Wooden Dolls Family’ product of a white father, mother, son, daughter and baby figures on sale for £9.99 on its website.

However the ‘ethnic’ version - which features the same five dolls, but as black relatives wearing different outfits - was available for about two thirds of the price, at just £6.99.

A Toys R Us spokesman told The Sun that it had made a mistake, adding: ‘This £6.99 was simply a keying error on a pricing - the ethnic family should be £9.99 as well. The price will be changed.’

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Americans must not do traditional New Zealand haka war dance

An American college football team who started performing the haka made famous by New Zealand's All Blacks have stopped the pre-game ritual after backlash from New Zealanders.

The Arizona Wildcats, from the University of Arizona, have been forced to stop the war dance after it was slammed by critics who said it was insulting to the tradition of the Maori, the New Zealand Herald reports.

In the video the Wildcats team, clad in red, perform a haka at a much faster pace than it is usually completed and the player leading the team does not seem to pronounce the words properly during the rendition.

An Arizona Athletics spokesman told the newspaper it wasn't planned to come across as disrespectful, and he apologised if it caused offence.

'The Arizona football program has a strong lineage of Polynesian student-athletes, and in 2009, a group of players wished to share this aspect of their culture with their team mates and community,' the spokesman told the NZ Herald.

'As a result, the Ka Mate haka became part of the program's on-field pregame preparation starting that year.

'Even though that intent remains the same today, we've been made aware that a segment of the population is unhappy that the haka is being performed. As a result, we have decided to discontinue the activity.

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Are the Kiwis being racist?

Must not mention that France is mostly white

A French European MP was fighting for her political future on Wednesday after coming under attack for describing France as a country of “white race”.

Nadine Morano, of the right-wing The Republicans party, could be barred from standing in regional elections in December over her remarks, in which she also said France was a “Jewish-Christian” country.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who heads the party – the main opposition to the governing Socialists – has asked the leadership to withdraw Morano from its list of candidates for the biggest electoral test of 2015.

Morano, a former minister with a reputation for gaffes and unguarded Twitter comments, said in a television interview on Saturday that: “We are a Jewish-Christian country... of white race, which takes in foreigners.”

Morano has been condemned from all points of the political spectrum, and the head of The Republicans’ list of candidates for eastern France, Philippe Richert, said her comments had had a “devastating effect” on his campaign.

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Men must not be seen touching a lady's bottom



When Jilly Cooper’s seminal “bonkbuster” novel Riders was re-released earlier this year with a “sanitised” cover, it was decried as a symbol of political correctness gone too far.

Now, however, the best-selling author has disclosed that she ordered it to be sent back for a re-print – featuring the male hand touching the female rider’s bottom once more.

The original 1985 book cover of Riders, the first in a series of romance novels about show jumpers, featured a hand resting seductively on the bottom of a woman wearing tight white jodhpurs.

However, the 30th anniversary edition of the book, released in June, was criticised for depicting a “toned down” version, with the hand placed higher up on the woman’s hip.

“The supermarkets were very shocked by the old cover,” Cooper told the Cheltenham Literature Festival. “They also said it demeaned women and that it was not politically correct. I was very cross. It was awful. The hand’s going back now for the re-print.”

Earlier this year, Cooper, who has an OBE for services to literature, decried her publishers for changing the cover.
“They moved Rupert’s hand, which is much smaller and less suntanned, by at least a centimetre,” she said.

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The Umpqua shooting.  The missing word

I have read several accounts of the shooting, including a very comprehensive one in the New York Times.  The NYT even has a picture of the white father of Christopher Harper-Mercer.  No picture of the mother?  Why?  She was quoted by various news outlets, so she should have been  photographable.

The reason why goes back to the missing word:  African.  Christopher Harper-Mercer's mother is African American.  It is true that some readers might have identified the killer's origins by his brown skin but he was pretty light-skinned and did not have distinctively African features.  The irrepressible George Zimmerman did identify Harper-Mercer as "mixed race" and his African mother was noted in Britain's "Daily Mail" but silence about that was the rule in American newspapers.

White on black shootings get huge coverage as "racist", but for a black on white killings there is only silence about race.

Obama gave his usual speech blaming guns but this time refrained from saying that Christopher Harper-Mercer could have been his son

Harper-Mercer apparently targeted Christians for execution, but Obama did not mention that either.

I am not the first blogger to note the blackout (if I can use that word).  A really comprehensive coverage by another blogger is here, including a picture of the black mother.


The media view above

Must not laugh about illegal immigrants

The mayor of a South Wales town has issued an apology after posting a photo on Facebook of desperate refugees running into the back of a lorry with the caption: 'Quick, they've dropped us in Barry.'

Vale of Glamorgan's Labour mayor Fred Johnson shared the picture and posted jokes mocking migrants on the social network.

As well as the doctored lorry image, his online account also featured an edited photo of a plane carrying refugees into the UK, with one of them hanging by his neck from a noose, and he commented on an image of a naked woman on a horse, saying: 'Lovely horse'.

The material, which has since been removed, was slammed by the Welsh Conservatives as 'extremely offensive'.

A Welsh Conservative spokesman told the Mirror: 'Much of this material is extremely offensive and it's hard to believe the Vale of Glamorgan's mayor thinks it's appropriate to share online.

'His attitude towards the refugee crisis is shameful and he should apologise for offence caused.

'Not only has this senior Labour councillor seen it fit to ridicule refugees, he also mocks Barry in the process - a town in which he's the mayor.

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American woman says a favorite Australian sandwich spread is racist because it is black!



One would normally think this is a spoof but it could be for real in the context of all the things that are said to be racist these days.  Vegemite and similar products are popular in Australia, Britain and some other English-speaking countries but Americans usually find it unpleasant.  Like most Australians, I always have some in my fridge -- JR

A bizarre online rant that claims "Vegemite is racist because its black" has gone viral.

Cassidy Boon, 20, aired her controversial anti-yeast spread views on YouTube as she launched a #banvegemite campaign. She said: "Eating Vegemite is racist towards Aboriginals - because it is black.  "If you eat Vegemite, you’re literally what’s wrong with the world."

"Ever since the 1950s - or whatever - Vegemite has been a way to symbolically make white Australians feel superior to Aboriginals by literally eating their f*****g skin in a jar.

The American adds that she spent seven years living in Australia during which she felt "ashamed of all of you".

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The video is here.  She basically doesn't know anything about Australia, and is probably pretty dim generally.  Her use of profanity does not suggest much intellectual depth.

TX chief under fire for 'In God We Trust' motto on patrol cars tells critics to 'go fly a kite'

A Texas police chief said that the recent string of violent attacks against police officers led him to paste "In God We Trust" in capital letters on the back of his department’s patrol cars, despite protests from a nontheistic group asking him – and other police chiefs around the country – to take the words off the cars.

In response to a letter by Freedom From Religion Foundation, Childress, Texas police Chief Adrian Garcia told the group to "go fly a kite" after they asked him to take down the United States’ national motto from the vehicles.

"After carefully reading your letter I must deny your request in the removal of our Nations motto from our patrol units, and ask that you and the Freedom From Religion Foundation go fly a kite," Garcia wrote in a letter.

"In God We Trust" first appeared on U.S. coins in 1864 and became the official national motto in 1956, being added to paper money the following year. While there have been many challenges to the motto over the years, the Senate reaffirmed its status as the official motto in 2006 and in 2011 the House of Representatives passed another resolution to back the motto.

Free from Religion did not immediately respond to a request for comment From Fox News Latino. But one of the co-presidents of Free From Religion, Annie Laurie Gaylor, told the Los Angeles Times that the motto is a "johnny-come-lately" adage that only gained popularity when the U.S. was trying to distinguish itself from official atheist state of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

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Must not say ‘Happy girls are the prettiest’

A long-sleeved T-shirt on sale at British retailer Next has sparked outrage on Twitter, with a leading mental health and equality charity joining the debate.

The Audrey Hepburn quote 'Happy girls are the prettiest' appears on the top aimed at girls aged from three to 16 years.

However, the use of the slogan has prompted protests on social media, with some arguing that it is a negative message and equates happiness directly with attractiveness.

The first complaint seemed to come on September 5 from Eleanor Pugh-Stanley, who tweeted: '@nextofficial selling this 2 girls. Don't care where the quote comes from this is not ok! @fawcettsociety @FeministUK'

In recent days the T-shirt, which is currently on sale for between £9 and £12, has attracted a further backlash on Twitter from individuals - with mental health charity Mind even joining the debate.

The slogan is a shortened version of a well publicised quote by popular 1950s screen idol Hepburn. Her original words were: 'I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong.

'I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and I believe in miracles.'

Twitter user FeministUK highlighted that the message, although well intended, could heap pressure on those suffering from mental health problems.

She said: 'Pretty mean on all us miseries suffering with mental ill health. No pressure girls of today!'

Another, @glosswitch said: 'It suggests to me that for girls being pretty is worth more than being happy.'

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Gladwell optimism hits a sour note

I hold no brief for Malcolm Gladwell. He is an entertainer masquerading as a scholar.  But optimism is his stock in trade.  But optimism about the fate of blacks is not allowed, apparently.  Only moaning about black oppression is allowed -- JR

Katrina does more than evoke a critical understanding of institutional racism and the politics of racial disposability; it also elicits new and more dangerous justifications for racist policies. For instance, the neoliberal shill Malcolm Gladwell reaches a new low with his piece on Katrina titled Starting Over which was published in The New Yorker. He argues that for many of the 100,000 poor blacks displaced by the storm involuntary displacement was a good thing because it opened up new opportunities for upward mobility for them and provided a model for public policy.

When Barbara Bush uttered a similar statement after Katrina, she was condemned roundly in the press for being morally insensitive. Greeting displaced Katrina victims in Houston in the aftermath of the hurricane and forced evacuations, she exclaimed “And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this – this is working very well for them.”

Barbara Bush’s insensitivity was viewed by many in the black community as a justification for a form of state violence and symptomatic of the racism that dominated her son’s presidency. Yet in Obama’s post-racial America, Gladwell’s racist creed provokes no moral outrage and is published without a touch of irony or a shred of historical consciousness.

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Redskins’ Name Feared More Than Islamo-Nazi Regime in Tehran?

On his Sept. 17 show, nationally syndicated radio host Mark Levin criticized the left for fearing the Washington Redskins’ name more than the “Islamo-Nazi regime” in Tehran.

More than 150 D.C. residents convened at an Events DC meeting and expressed opposition to a new Redskins stadium on Robert F. Kennedy stadium property.

“This is how pathetic and stupid things have become,” Levin said. “So the name Redskins is to be feared more than the Islamo-Nazi regime that has ICBMs and wants to put nuclear warheads on – than an Islamo-Nazi regime that has killed Americans, that has four American hostages.” 

Here is the full transcript of Levin on the Redskins:

    “Barack Obama will negotiate with the Islamo-Nazi regime in Tehran. They’ll say ‘Death to America.’ He’ll still negotiate with the Islamo-Nazi regime in Iran, right?

    “And yet, it appears that they’re going to block the Washington Redskins from even considering building a brand new, spanking new football stadium in the District of Columbia. All the jobs it would create, not just construction, but ongoing jobs it creates and the convenience that it would provide for Redskins fans because of the name, Redskins.

    “This is how pathetic and stupid things have become. So the name Redskins is to be feared more than the Islamo-Nazi regime that has ICBMs and wants to put nuclear warheads on – than an Islamo-Nazi regime that has killed Americans, that has four American hostages.

    “We have to be open to talk to them. We have to be respectful when we refer to them. We use whatever name they say when we refer to them. They’re going, ‘Death to America! Death to Israel! Death to the Jews! Death to this one!’ They want to do us grievous harm.

    “Obama says, ‘Engage, look, look, engage. We can’t change them. That’s not the purpose of the negotiations.’

    “But the Redskins. No no! Crush them! Kill them! We cannot tolerate that! No way! Not today! Never ever!

    “This is the perversion that is liberalism. This is the perversion that is Obama. And the media go along with it.”

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Judge dismisses $10million lawsuit filed against ESPN announcers because they poked fun at Yankees fan who fell asleep

One baseball fan's desire to make money for sleeping has been put to bed by a judge who says he had no legal basis to sue the ESPN announcers who made fun of him for dozing off during a game.

Andrew Rector, a used car salesman from the Bronx, was caught sleeping in his seat by a camera during a game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees in April last year.

The drowsy fan later made national headlines by suing MLB Advanced Media, the Yankees, ESPN and announcing team Dan Schulman and Jon Kruk for $10million after they discussed his unusual behavior.

Rector, who was greeted by a round of applause from the stadium when he woke up, said he suffered 'mental anguish' because of the ordeal.

He alleged in his suit that the broadcasters published statements against him that allegedly called him a 'fatty cow', 'stupid', 'socially bankrupt' and a 'symbol of failure'.

Though Schulman and Kruk said none of those words, Rector's suit said that the announcers and ESPN 'set the stage' for him to be defamed by Internet users who did.

The clip was replayed on ESPN and Rector experienced the kind of vile derision that Internet commenters are known for.

Dismissing the suit, Rodriguez said that 'a defendant cannot be found liable for a libelous or defamatory statement that they did not publish'.

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