White girls must not be portrayed as taller than black girls



Social media users are accusing Gap of passive racism because of an image where a tall white girl rests her arm on the head of a shorter black girl. Video provided by Newsy Newslook

Retailer Gap apologized on Tuesday after receiving criticism that an ad for the company’s children’s clothing line was racially insensitive.

The ad featured four members of the Le Petit Cirque group, an "all-kid humanitarian cirque company," comprised of performers ages 5 to 14. In the ad, an older white girl rests her elbow on top of a young black girl’s head, while two other white girls hold poses.

While the ad was supposed to be empowering, many noted on social media that the black girl was being used as a "prop" or a piece of furniture.

Kristen West Savali of The Root noted that the “ad is what happens when black faces appear, but no black voices are at the table.”

Following the backlash on social media, Gap replaced the image and apologized to those who were offended.

But while many condemned the ad, others on social media questioned whether people were reading too far into the ad.

Filmmaker Mathew A. Cherry pointed out that Gap used a similar pose in 2015, but with a black girl resting her arm on a younger white girl's head.

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Following complaint, Instagram restores Israeli flag photo that "violated community standards"



When Susanne Katz received a message by Instagram a little over a week ago notifying her that one of her photographs was taken down because it "violated community standards," she never suspected it was over a seemingly innocent picture of her against the backdrop of an Israeli flag posted about 10 days prior.

The next morning, Katz reposted the photo, a selfie she took at work depicting a casual look with a messy ponytail in front of an Israeli flag, and again, it was taken down seven hours later.

She then contacted Instagram to ask why the photograph was taken down but did not receive a response, Katz said.

"Initially I was extremely upset because I consider the Israeli flag very much a part of my identity as a Jewish Zionist woman. Also, I have reported actual terrorist activity on  Instagram ...Actual graphic violence and nudity and I get a message back saying my post was reviewed and it doesn't violate the community standards. So I was in disbelief that my photo violated anything," Katz said in an exclusive interview with The Foreign Desk.

The caption reads "Antisemitism infects society with beliefs that define Jews as demonic, powerful, and a threat to the world. The currently accepted and false belief is that the "Palestinians" are the native people of "Palestine" and that the Jewish State is an occupying colonial state. This single fabrication is the main driving force behind the current wave of global antisemitism.

The remarkable success that antisemitism has now attained has been made possible by the new tactic of erasing 3,500 years of Israel's history in the land prior to the establishment of the modern state in 1948. The history of the Children of Israel in the Land of Israel, which was once common knowledge, has been deleted from our collective memories the way that the giant Buddhist statues in Afghanistan were obliterated."

Several prominent Jewish and rights groups voiced concern on social media over the incident, and many wrote to Instagram to complain about the photograph being removed.

Instagram page ‘Humans of Judaism' reposted the photo April 12 with the caption, "Last night Instagram deleted this photo saying it violated their standards. I'm #sorrynotsorry if the Israeli flag offends them."

But it wasn't until the Anti-Defamation League got involved, that the situation was resolved, according to Katz. The photo was reposted on Instagram Tuesday.

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Must not mention normal families

Beatrice Hurtig was heating baby food at Ikea’s restaurant in Örebro in central Sweden when she saw a sign that agitated her, Expressen reports. 

“More room between tables for you and your mum and dad in the family corner,” the sign promised.

Hurtig said she got a knot in her stomach and immediately took a snap of the sign. She sent the photo to Ikea via Facebook and asked them to take the sign down.

“Children are the ones supposed to read this notice. Imagine a child who lives with their grandmother, or has a parent who’s out of the picture, or has parents who simply don’t think they belong in traditional gender categories,” Hurtig told Expressen.

“It’s wrong on so many levels. Ikea is a good place for an excursion and it should be good for everybody.”

Ikea duly took the sign down. A spokesman said the company agreed it had not been well worded.

“We at Ikea respect all people and want everybody to feel welcome,” Per Henning told Expressen.

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Is "Becky" a bad word?

Is good hair blonde hair?

Iggy Azalea wants nothing to do with the drama surrounding the 'Becky' line from Beyonce's newly released album Lemonade.

In a series of tweets on Monday, the 25-year-old criticised the word for being a negative stereotype of white women.

In Beyonce's track Sorry, she sings about a cheating lover - prompting many people to assume she was talking about Jay Z having an affair - and tells him to 'call Becky with the good hair'.

'Becky' is a phrase that has been known to refer to a generic white woman with straight hair, and Iggy implied that the term is racially insensitive.

'Don't ever call me a Becky,' she tweeted to a fan, before stating that she was criticising the phrase and not Beyonce.

She then tweeted to another user: 'girl BYE. do you know how many time ppl have called me BECKY? it didnt have any kind of positive intention behind it. dont start.

'Generalizing ANY race by calling them one sterotypical [sic] name for said race. i personally dont think is very cool, the end.'

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I guess nappy hair is more bother if you want to do anything with it

No free speech in Turkey

It is a Muslim country after all

A prominent Dutch journalist has been detained by Turkish police while on holiday, Dutch officials say, a week after she criticised President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in print for clamping down on dissent.

Columnist Ebru Umar, who is of Turkish descent and an outspoken critic of Erdogan, was detained by police overnight in Turkey where she was on holiday.

She tweeted on Sunday that she had been released but was not allowed to leave the country.

In the free newspaper Metro last week, Umar called Erdogan a "dictator" and criticised a Turkish consular official in the Netherlands for asking all Turks there to report incidents of insults against Erdogan in the country.

Erdogan is known for his readiness to take legal action over perceived slurs.

Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey punishable by up to four years in jail, but the law had previously been invoked only rarely.

Since Erdogan became president in 2014, prosecutors have opened more than 1800 cases against people for insulting him, the justice minister said last month.

Those who have faced such suits include journalists, cartoonists, academics and even school children.

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Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell is accused of racism after 'crass and clumsy' tweet

Rather good to see Leftist racism condemned for once

Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell has been accused of racism today after making a 'clumsy' comment about 'non white faces' at a Premier League football match.

Mr Campbell, 58, is best known for masterminding Labour's public relations during Mr Blair's time in power, but is also a fanatical football fan.

After Leicester's 4-0 win over Swansea City yesterday he decided to pay tribute to the ethnic mix of fans at the King Power Stadium.

He tweeted: 'Fantastic to see fairly high proportion of non white faces in the crowd at Leicester City. All too rare at most clubs.'

But the comment has been branded 'crass', 'clumsy' and even 'racist' by critics, who he called idiots and plonkers.

Ian Frankum told him: 'What a ridiculous Tweet, are you in a time machine? It's a reflection of the local community. Simple.'

Mr Campbell told him: 'And most clubs aren't, idiot'.

Mr Frankum replied again: 'Thanks for the insult. Look at the rest of comments and come to West Ham or Arsenal you will see things have changed.'

Mr Campbell replied once more: 'As it happens I am aware of that. But most clubs' crowds do not reflect their communities.'

Mr Frankum signed off with a closing remark: 'Put down the shovel Ally.'

James Sharp told Campbell that his comment was 'a bit crass maybe' and another told him it was a 'clumsy political comment'.

Mark Thomas piled in, adding: 'What does it matter? Stop highlighting race'.

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Free Speech 1, Kamala Harris 0

Judge throws out California attempt to intimidate conservative donors

Kamala Harris has been a hero of the left’s campaign to use donor disclosure as a tool of political intimidation. Since 2013 the California Attorney General has been demanding that nonprofits provide unredacted donor names if they want to solicit donations in the state. On Thursday a federal court declared her disclosure requirement an unconstitutional burden on First Amendment rights.

Federal Judge Manuel Real granted a permanent injunction against Ms. Harris in a lawsuit brought by the Americans For Prosperity Foundation. The group, which is affiliated with free-market supporters Charles and David Koch, has argued that as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, it should not be forced to supply the Attorney General with the organization’s IRS Form 990 Schedule B, which contains its donor names.

In his 12-page decision, Judge Real notes that while Attorney General Harris argued that she needed donor disclosure to identify lawbreaking like “self-dealing” or “improper loans,” that was a stretch. “[O]ver the course of trial, the Attorney General was hard pressed to find a single witness who could corroborate the necessity of Schedule B forms in conjunction with their office’s investigations,” the judge wrote.

Ms. Harris claimed the donor disclosure was only for internal purposes and not for public use or to precipitate any targeting of the donors, but the judge didn’t buy that either.

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Words, words

There is far too much weight given these days to using exactly the "right" form of words.  I suppose it is a hopeless case but I think we should instead just look at the basic meaning and think about that

Let me give an example of the difference that the "right" word can make these days.  I once said: "All Jews should get back to Israel.  They don't belong here".  Did I get condemned for that? Was I immediately fingered as an antisemite? Not at all.  How come?  Because I didn't actually say that.  I said it in Hebrew instead. What I said was: "I think all Jews should make Aliyah".  Both of those forms of words mean the same thing but one was phrased in a way that bore on a great Jewish controversy.

"Aliyah" literally mean "rising up"  -- rising up to Eretz Israel.  And many Jews acknowledge that as a holy duty and feel guilty and apologetic that they have chosen to live in the fleshpots of NYC instead.  So what I said was actually holy from a Jewish viewpoint. And some of my Jewish readers wrote to agree with me.

But isn't that crazy?  Why do we pay so much attention to superficialities? I may be wrong but I do genuinely believe that Israel, despite the attacks on it, is ultimately the safest place for Jewry -- but I was fortunate that I could put that thought in the "right" way.  If I had not been so able, I might have attracted much opprobrium for saying exactly the same thing.

So I hope that conservatives at least will sometimes look at and think about the underlying intention of an utterance and overlook or forgive less felicitous forms of expression.

FOOTNOTE:  My reason for thinking that all Jews should make Aliyah

The Ayatollahs have made clear that America is the great Satan.  Israel is only the little Satan.  And the 9/11 attacks were on NYC, not Israel.  So, if the Obama-enabled Ayatollahs are suicidal enough to unleash a nuclear strike, it will most likely be on NYC, not Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is, after all, holy to them too

Australia: Now normality is wrong

Skyler Kennedy, from REACH kids, took to her company’s Facebook page and posted two text messages she received this week from a potential client. The mother was requesting someone to babysit her three children, aged three to 11.

“The babysitter will need to be from a Christian background as we are a faith-driven household. We also request that the babysitter supports our teaching of anti-gay marriage and lack of support for the gay/rainbow flag community,” the first text read.

“I’m sorry,” began the second text. “We are just asking for a normal person, not one with coloured hair or supporting radical gender theories. We want to raise our kids to be normal, so if there is anyone else we can get for the night that would be great.”

Ms Kennedy says she initially agreed to help find the woman a Christian babysitter, but later refused her request after receiving the second text message.

“I can understand someone wanting a Christian babysitter, or someone whose religious beliefs align with your own, if you have a very faith-driven household,” she told news.com.au

“But when they went on to say they wanted someone who was ‘anti gay and rainbow flag’ [the colours representing the LGBT community], I thought ‘This is really strange’.

“After they sent that text, I said ‘OK, this is ridiculous. I am going to publicise this, because it seems not right’. I want to make it clear that my organisation supports diversity and people’s freedom who be who they are,” she said.

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Must not mention that Obama is 'part Kenyan'

Boris Johnson was accused of 'dog whistle racism' and likened to right-wing 'Tea Party' politicians in the US this morning after his attack on the 'part-Kenyan' Barack Obama.

The Mayor of London spoke out against the US President after he urged British voters to stay in the EU and mentioned his African ancestry as he criticised the decision to remove a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office shortly after Mr Obama entered the White House.

Mr Johnson - who is favourite to succeed David Cameron as Prime Minister - suggested the President got rid of the statue as a 'snub' to Britain's wartime prime minister and a 'symbol of the part-Kenyan President's ancestral dislike of the British empire'.

But Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell hit out at Mr Johnson and demanded he withdraw the controversial remarks.

He wrote on Twitter: 'Mask slips again. Boris part-Kenyan Obama comment is yet another example of dog whistle racism from senior Tories. He should withdraw it.'

This afternoon Mr Johnson defended his remarks and said he did not imply the US leader was anti-British.

Diane Abbott, Shadow International Development Secretary, hit out at Mr Johnson, describing his remarks as 'offensive' and said they echoed those of the Tea Party's right-wing, anti-immigration tendency in the US.

Referring to the removal of Sir Winston's bust, Mr Johnson wrote in The Sun today : 'No one was sure whether the President had himself been involved in the decision,' he said.

'Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President's ancestral dislike of the British empire - of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender.'

'I think the issue really is about democracy - America guards its democracy very jealously and I think we should be entitled to do so as well.'

Ukip leader Nigel Farage backed up Mr Johnson's claims. He told The Guardian: 'Look, I know his family's background. Kenya. Colonialism. There is clearly something going on there.

'It's just that you know people emerge from colonialism with different views of the British. Some thought that they were really rather benign and rather good, and others saw them as foreign invaders.  'Obama's family come from that second school of thought and it hasn't quite left him yet.'

Mr Johnson's attack on the President came after Mr Obama's controversial decision to make a major intervention in the EU referendum campaign.

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UK: Independence supporting taxi driver is quizzed by police after he covered his house with a giant banner containing a SWASTIKA calling for British exit from the EU

It is quite common for British conservatives to compare the EU with a Communist or Nazi government.  The EU certainly pours out an unending stream of new regulations.  By some estimations, two thirds of the law current in Britain emanates from the EU

A UKIP supporter was quizzed by police today after he hung a giant banner containing a swastika on the front of his house.

Taxi driver Timothy 'Dusty' Miller covered the top floor of his three-bedroom detached home with the banner in a bid to attract Brexit voters over this summer's EU referendum.

The banner contains a written slogan exclaiming: 'Have we British forgotten the last attempt to remove our freedom and democracy?'

Separated by the huge swastika, a second line then reads: 'We did not fight two world wars to surrender and be ruled by a corrupt EU!'

Mr Miller, 66, said he was contacted by police officers this morning after putting up the 22ft by 8ft banner last night, who told him the Jewish community were 'incensed'.

Explaining his decision to tie it to his house, he said: 'There is nothing wrong with the sign, it's perfectly legal. 'The sign is shown in a historical context referring to nothing other than freedom of democracy.

'I can very well understand their views if I was, in any way, promoting the far right but it's not that at all. 'People want to read that I'm anti-semitic but that is not the truth. I'm referencing what will happen if our freedom of democracy was threatened.

'The Nazis and Hitler came for our freedom and democracy and we repelled them.

'Now the EU have come for our freedom and democracy, they have stolen our freedom and democracy and they have used techniques and mechanisms to do so.

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Must not satirize sexually confused people

Curt Schilling, a former All-Star pitcher and one of the highest-profile baseball analysts on ESPN, was fired from the network Wednesday, a day after he drew intense criticism for promoting offensive commentary on social media.

Schilling, who had worked for the network since 2010 and most recently offered analysis on “Monday Night Baseball,” was dismissed after sharing a Facebook post this week that appeared to respond to the North Carolina law that bars transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms that do not correspond with their birth genders.

The post showed an overweight man wearing a wig and women’s clothing with parts of the T-shirt cut out to expose his breasts. It says: “LET HIM IN! to the restroom with your daughter or else you’re a narrow-minded, judgmental, unloving racist bigot who needs to die.”

To that, Schilling added: “A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”

“ESPN is an inclusive company,” ESPN said in a statement. “Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated.”

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In Apparent Hoax, Man Accuses Whole Foods of Discrimination

Yet another hate speech hoax.  Where there is no hate, the Queer/Left have to invent it

In the ongoing showdown between cake bakers and the Rainbow Mafia, a homosexual pastor in Austin, Texas, accused Whole Foods of decorating a cake with a slur degrading the “LGBT community.” Jordan Brown asked for the store’s cake decorator to write “Love Wins,” the prevailing slogan of the same-sex marriage crowd, across the top of the cake. According to a video Brown created, the decorator decided to add the word “Fag” to the confectionery. Brown claimed he didn’t see the offending message when he bought the cake, only discovering it when he arrived at his car.

Instead of taking the cake back, however, Brown brought it home. After receiving an unsatisfactory reply from the store, the man decided to sue the store for discrimination. As The Washington Post notes, Brown belongs to the Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, an organization whose mission is “keeping gay money within the gay-supportive community.”

Quickly, people started calling Brown’s accusation a hoax. The color of the frosting and handwriting between the phrases “Love Wins” and “Fag” were different, for one. Then Whole Foods responded. “After a deeper investigation of Mr. Brown’s claim, we believe his accusations are fraudulent and we intend to take legal action against both Mr. Brown and his attorney,” the company said in a statement. It even released surveillance video of Brown’s purchase, and noted that the person who decorated Brown’s cake “is a part of the LGBTQ community.”

If Brown pranked himself, it only highlights attention-seeking narcissism, which is pervasive in the community of people with the gender disorientation pathology.

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An old insanity continues

But it's no joke, as the past has shown.  Blaming the Jews for everything just rose to a new height of absurdity.  Now some Russians are blaming Jews for the collapse of the Soviet Union!


The Rabbi and the President.  They get on well

Following the dissemination of an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory by a politician from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s party, a chief rabbi of Russia called on the government to stamp out hate speech against Jews.

Rabbi Berel Lazar’s appeal Friday to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was in reaction to the April 10 statement on Jews by Vladislav Vikhorev, a candidate for Putin’s United Russia who is running to be elected a state lawmaker in the Legislative Assembly of Chelyabinsk Oblast, a federal region located nearly 1,000 miles away from Moscow.

During a debate in the city of Chelyabinsk, Vikhorev said that Jews in the 1990s were behind a “Jewish revolution that put Russian sovereignty itself on the brink of extinction,” which he said was “a well-planned, well designed program of destruction of national culture, national education, national production and the national financial system,” according to the news website Apostroph.

Lazar enjoys good relations with Putin, whom he credits with curbing anti-Semitic speech in media and in government, that Lazar says was more common before Putin came into power.

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UCLA Muslims want truth-telling posters censored

Students for Justice in Palestine called for UCLA administrators to create a comprehensive plan that anticipates hate-speech posters, among other demands, in response to another wave of posters that link SJP to terrorist groups.

David Horowitz, a conservative writer based in Los Angeles, posted flyers Friday accusing SJP and the Muslim Student Association of supporting the murder of Israelis. Jerry Kang, vice chancellor of equity, diversity and inclusion, sent a campus-wide email in response, condemning Horowitz’s actions as psychological harassment and intimidation.

Rahim Kuwra, a member of SJP and doctoral candidate in sociology, said the Friday posters are the fourth iteration of Horowitz’s attack on SJP members. On Tuesday SJP released a list of five administrative demands that aim to mitigate similar attacks on students.

In the statement, SJP said it wants administrators to implement a more thorough plan of removing posters that contain hate speech. SJP members acknowledged UCPD and UCLA Facilities Management have established procedures to remove the posters, but maintain the procedures could be improved, according to the email.

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Christophobic Facebook

Respectful post on homosexual marriage by Australian clegyman immediately deleted.  Restored only after intervention by Australian politicians

Federal Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has called on Facebook to explain why it deleted a Sydney academic’s post about same-sex marriage and reinstated it only after being quizzed by free-speech advocate Tim Wilson.

The post by John Dickson, an ordained Anglican minister and founder of the Centre for Public Christianity, was removed on ­Saturday because it did not adhere to Facebook’s “community standards”.

The 500-word opinion piece, which called for a more respect­ful debate on the issue of gay marriage, had been reinstated on Sunday night, with Facebook telling Mr Dickson one of its employees had “accidentally” deleted it.

Mr Hastie said yesterday he had told Mr Wilson, the former human rights commissioner and a Liberal candidate at the next federal election, about Facebook’s censorship when he heard about it on Sunday. Mr Wilson later spoke to someone he knew in Face­book’s government affairs team and the post was reinstated.

Mr Hastie, the MP for the seat of Canning in Western Australia, said Facebook should explain its actions.  “If they have assumed a new morality, just be clear about it,” he said. “I find it troubling that Facebook would censor a respected public figure like John Dickson who was advocating in a very reasonable and winsome manner.  “If that sort of engagement is going to be censored, I would be worried about the future of debate in this country.”

A Facebook spokesman declined to say why the post was removed or whether it had been the subject of complaints.  “This comment was removed in error,” he said. “We promptly restored the comment once we realised this, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience caused.”

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The restored FB post is here

Head of German anti-Islam group in court for hate speech

No 1st Amendment in Germany

The founder of Germany's xenophobic and anti-Islamic Pegida movement faced court Tuesday on hate speech charges for branding refugees "cattle" and "scum" on social media.

Lutz Bachmann, founder of the far-right "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident" movement, was charged in October with inciting racial hatred through a series of widely-shared Facebook posts.

The trial was held under tight security in Dresden in the former communist east, the birthplace of Pegida, which bitterly opposes Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal migration policy that brought more than a million asylum seekers to Germany last year.

The court said the 43-year-old's comments, which date back to 2014, also "disrupted public order" and constituted an "attack on the dignity" of refugees.

If found guilty, Bachmann could face between three months and five years in jail.

The Pegida founder's offending comments were published in September 2014, as the movement started life as a xenophobic Facebook group.

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Judging by the behavior of the recent immigrant influx into Germany, I imagine that a lot of Germans would by now agree with Herr Bachmann, if they were allowed to

HATE SPEECH AT WHOLE FOODS?



It is hard to imagine a more cosmopolitan establishment these days than Whole Foods, where, David Brooks joked, the checkers all look like they’re on loan from Amnesty International. But a gay preacher is alleging that he is the victim of hate speech from the bakery department at the Whole Foods in Austin, Texas, where his special order cake reading “Love Wins” came with some extra frosting:

The lettering of the slur doesn’t match up very well with the lettering at the periphery. Is it plausible that a Whole Foods in Austin is a hotbed of anti-gay sentiment? Better send the whole cake to the FBI Frosting Handwriting Analysis Lab to get to the bottom of this.

Whole Foods is denying their baker did it

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Scottish cops, stop policing our tweets

Last Friday, using the hashtag #thinkbeforeyoupost, the Greater Glasgow division of Police Scotland tweeted an image of the acronym, THINK:

Leaving no doubt that these were commands, not suggestions, the police accompanied this image with the following text: ‘Think before you post or you may receive a visit from us this weekend. Use the internet safely.’

It seemed, initially, to be a bad April Fools’ joke. But the 12 o’clock deadline had long passed and, in any case, the Scottish police have form when it comes to pre-emptively threatening Scots for social-media speech-crime. These are no empty threats, either. Only last month, a man from Inverclyde was arrested for offensive social-media comments about Syrian refugees. In the words of one Dunoon inspector, this was calculated to send ‘a clear message’ that the Scottish bobby takes ‘offensive comments on social media’ very seriously indeed.

What’s striking about this latest example of Police Scotland authoritarianism is the astounding lack of self-awareness. Here we have a bunch of policemen threatening to ‘visit’ you over your tweets all in the name of kindness and keeping you and the internet ‘safe’. What could be more unnecessary, unkind and unsafe than having a police force so mind-bogglingly illiberal that it considers off-colour tweets worthy of a ‘visit’?

If this talk of safety and being kind to people sounds familiar, it’s because the same thinking underpins most modern-day censorship. Whether it’s politicians calling for Twitter to get rid of ‘trolls’, or authoritarian student leaders banishing from campus anyone they deem ‘unsafe’, the hypocrisy is the same. To rid ourselves of unkind people on Twitter, we must be unkind to them and lock them up; to turn campus into a Safe Space, we have to make it unsafe to think or speak in a certain way. To achieve this tolerant utopia in the future, runs the argument, we must be profoundly intolerant in the here and now.

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Punished for a bit of banter? It’s rugby gone mad

England’s first grand slam since 2003. That will be my abiding memory of this year’s Six Nations rugby tournament, a competition in which we saw England bounce back from their World Cup humiliation in rip-roaring fashion under the impeccable leadership of new boss Eddie Jones.

Typically, though, the perpetually offended want to spoil my and every other English rugby fan’s fun by dragging political correctness, complete with accusations of racism, on to the field of play. England prop Joe Marler has just been banned for two games and fined £20,000 by World Rugby for calling his Welsh opposite number Samson Lee a ‘gypsy boy’ during the first half of the England-Wales clash at Twickenham in March. Lee is of Traveller stock, so it was plainly not a very pleasant thing for Marler to say. But to brand him a racist for a remark made in the heat of the moment? Is that fair?

I know it might come as a shock to people who spend their entire lives in Safe Spaces, but when 30 blokes are knocking seven bells out of each other for 80 minutes in pursuit of sporting victory and national pride, things can get a bit heated. I played in Marler and Lee’s position myself as a schoolboy, and I can tell you that even 16-year-olds can come up with some pretty colourful language after they’ve been lying at the bottom of a ruck as studded boots rain down from all sides.

Marler apologised to Lee at half-time and Lee himself dismissed the comment as ‘banter’, as did Wales coach Warren Gatland. England coach Jones reprimanded Marler afterwards, and then, as is typical of rugby players, everyone shook hands and carried on. Officials for the Six Nations tournament itself also decided (quite rightly) that no further action need be taken, since no one directly affected by the incident cared about it.

But this is 21st-century Britain, when people can claim to be offended on others’ behalf. So Gatland has since been castigated for dismissing the exchange of unpleasantries as banter and has been forced to apologise to anyone who might have been offended. And the Welsh Rugby Football Union has now decided that Marler hasn’t been sufficiently punished

Marler himself has also been forced into an act of public contrition. ‘I’m not a racist’, he said. ‘What I said to Samson was out of order and wrong and I am sorry it was said. Whatever happens to me, I will accept. I’m sorry to anyone who was offended. Saying it was “in the heat of the moment” isn’t an excuse, but one comment, one mistake, does not make me a racist.’

Marler has now been banned and fined. All because he said something in a moment of anger to someone who, it turns out, wasn’t bothered by it.

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The Politicization of the English Language

Last week, French President Francois Hollande met President Obama in Washington to discuss joint strategies for stopping the sort of radical Islamic terrorists who have killed dozens of innocents in Brussels, Paris and San Bernardino in recent months. Hollande at one point explicitly referred to the violence as “Islamist terrorism.”

The White House initially deleted that phrase from the audio translation of the official video of the Hollande-Obama meeting, only to restore it when questioned. Did the Obama administration assume that if the public could not hear the translation of the French president saying “Islamist terrorism,” then perhaps Hollande did not really say it — and therefore perhaps Islamist terrorism does not really exist?

The Obama administration must be aware that in the 1930s, the Soviet Union wiped clean all photos, recordings and films of Leon Trotsky on orders from Josef Stalin. Trotsky was deemed politically incorrect, and therefore his thoughts and photos simply vanished.

The Library of Congress, under pressure from Dartmouth College students, recently banned not just the term “illegal alien” in subject headings for literature about immigration, but “alien” as well. Will changing the vocabulary mean that from now on, foreign nationals who choose to enter and reside in the United States without being naturalized will not be in violation of the law and will no longer be considered citizens of their homeland?

Did the Library of Congress ever read the work of the Greek historian Thucydides, who warned some 2,500 years ago that in times of social upheaval, partisans would make words “change their ordinary meaning and … take that which was now given them.”

These latest linguistic contortions to advance ideological agendas follow an established pattern of the Obama administration and the departments beneath it.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s described Egypt’s radical Muslim Brotherhood as “largely secular.” CIA Director John Brennan has called jihad “a legitimate tenet of Islam,” a mere effort “to purify oneself.”

Other administration heads have airbrushed out Islamic terrorism by referring to it with phrases such as “man-caused disaster.” The effort to combat terrorism was called an “overseas contingency operation,” perhaps like Haitian earthquake relief.

The White House wordsmiths should reread George Orwell’s 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language,” which warned that “political writing is bad writing” and “has to consist largely of euphemism.”

Obama has said the greatest threat to future generations is “climate change,” a term that metamorphosed from “global warming.” The now anachronistic term “global warming” used to describe a planet that was supposedly heating up rather quickly. But it did not account for the unpleasant fact that there has been negligible global temperature change since 1998.

Rather than modifying the phrase to “suspected global warming” or “episodic global warming,” the new term “climate change” was invented to replace it. That way, new realities could emerge. Changes of all sorts — historic snows, record cold, California drought, El Nino storms — could all be lumped together, supposedly caused by man-made carbon emissions.

Volatile weather such as tornadoes, tsunamis and hurricanes was sometimes rebranded as “climate chaos” — as if Western industry and consumer lifestyles were responsible for what used to be seen as fairly normal occurrences.

The term “sanctuary cities” describes municipalities that in neo-Confederate fashion deny the primacy of federal immigration law and refuse to enforce it.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch used the term “justice-involved youth” to describe young criminals arrested and charged with crimes. From such terminology, one might think the offenders' “involvement” meant that they were parole officers or young lawyers.

So what is the point of trying to change reality by making up new names and phrases?

It’s mostly politics. If Hollande had used the label “skinheads” to describe European right-wing movements, the White House might not have altered the video. If a half-million right-wing Cubans were pouring illegally into Florida each year, or if 100,000 Serbs were crossing the border from Canada, the Library of Congress might not object to calling them “illegal aliens.” Clapper and Brennan are unlikely to claim that the Crusades were largely secular or an exercise in self-purification.

The Obama administration probably would not describe rogue police officers charged with crimes as “justice-involved police.” If cities with conservative mayors declined to enforce the Endangered Species Act or federal firearms statutes, they probably would not be known as “sanctuary cities,” but rather as “nullification cities.”

Orwell also wrote about a futuristic dystopia ruled by a Big Brother government that created politicized euphemisms to reinvent reality. He placed his novel in the year 1984, warning Westerners about what was in their future.

We are now 32 years beyond 1984, but we are at last living Orwell’s nightmare.

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Must not slander foreign rulers?

Broadcaster was deliberately offensive to highlight a speech-limiting German law

Incredibly, one of Germany’s most popular satirists, Jan Böhmermann, is facing prison after he read out a poem mocking Erdogan on the public channel ZDF. Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel reported the assessment of the German foreign ministry: ‘It is highly likely that [Böhmermann] has committed a crime.’

Böhmermann read the poem on his show, Neo Magazin Royale, on 31 March. He sat in front of a Turkish flag, beside a small portrait of Erdogan, and announced that what he was about to read was ‘slander’. And he was right. In the poem, he referred to Erdogan as, among other things, a man whose ‘body matter smelled so bad that it was worse than a pig’s fart’. Other lines included, ‘What he loves is fucking goats / while stomping on minority votes’; ‘At night, instead of sleep, he has oral sex with sheep’; and ‘Erdogan is not just thick, he’s a man with a very small dick’. Turkish subtitles were included.

It’s absurd, obscene stuff. And it is odd that the Turkish president has become a favoured target for German satirists, who seem strangely unable to find objects of ridicule closer to home. Still, this time, at least, the satire has put Germany’s government, and not Turkey’s, on the spot.

Perhaps this was Böhmermann’s intention. He said that while extra3’s short was protected under Germany’s freedom-of-press laws, his slanderous poem wasn’t. In other words, he wasn’t exposing the limits to free speech in Turkey, which are now common knowledge; he was exposing the limits to free speech in Germany, which too few acknowledge.

Böhmermann’s poem falls foul of paragraph 103 of the German criminal code, which reads: ‘Whosoever insults a foreign head of state or an accredited diplomat in Germany… shall be liable to imprisonment of up to three years or a fine. A slanderous (calumnious) insult could be punished with up to five years.’ So it was no surprise when Gerd Deutschler, a Mainz-based prosecutor, told reporters last week that Böhmermann was being investigated.

This time, the German political establishment was quick to censor Böhmermann. As soon as news of the poem began to spread, ZDF deleted the video from its website and combed YouTube for copied footage (although it has since been put back up on the Bild website here). And, while ZDF busied itself with the removal of Böhmermann’s poem, chancellor Angela Merkel personally intervened with a phone call to the Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, in which she called the poem a deliberate insult.

Indeed, since the poem controversy began, many have been debating the limits to satire. Yet the very posing of the question of satire’s limits is problematic. As Kurt Tucholsky put it in 1919, there should never be any limits to satire. Moreover, the extent to which satire offends those in authority is often a mark of its success.

The news over the weekend that the Turkish government would be demanding that Germany prosecute Böhmermann was hardly a surprise. But even though most commentators are blaming Turkey for Böhmermann’s plight, make no mistake: his censorship is a problem created in Germany itself.

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Must not suggest that migrants are often poorly dressed


The "fashions"

American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has put her elegant foot in her mouth by referring to Kanye West’s fashion show as ‘migrant chic’.

The insensitive comment — referring to the shabbiness of the clothes — has provoked a huge backlash in the U.S., with the public calling on her to apologise and New York high society agog at the prospect of the ice queen eating humble pie.

The 66-year-old made her controversial statement this week as she recalled musician West’s Yeezy Season 3 catwalk show at Madison Square Garden in New York in February.

‘I got there very early, as I tend to do,’ she said, in comments she doubtless wants to run away from.

‘They put me in this huge VIP section and I was the only person sitting there for about half-an-hour. Eventually, they did turn up and the Life Of Pablo concert started and the migrant chic fashion show started and they were both wonderful.’

Cue outrage on social media. ‘Anna Wintour, you are indelibly callous,’ commented Kate Melson on Twitter. ‘Condoning Kanye’s collection and describing it as “migrant chic”. Wholly inappropriate.’ TV producer Mojica Fitz Kennedy remarked: ‘Clueless ladylike misanthrope’, while another said: ‘The fashion industry is such a vapid and disgusting place.’

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Garments must not have sexy pictures on them



TEEN clothing staple Jay Jays has come under fire for its provocative range of T-shirts, which campaigners label ‘pornographic’ and ‘degrading to women’.

The retailer, owned by the Just Group, has cancelled its reorder of the garments, which are marketed at young men, after backlash from parents on social media.

Lobby group Collective Shout issued a rallying cry over the salacious T-shirts this week, calling on Jay Jays to “step up and stand up against the exploitation of girls and women”.

“Stop participating in the objectification of girls and women to sell your products!” the group said in a Facebook post.

Just Group general manager Linda Whitehead responded to campaigners, writing that she had instructed the buying team to cancel all orders for the controversial T-shirts and promised a review of selection processes.

But she declined to pull the remaining stock from Jay Jays shelves, as demanded by Collective Shout, writing in a Facebook comment: “I myself am a mother of three children. I note your concern and I have just instructed the buying team to cancel orders for these prints.”

Campaigners argue that images which stereotype and objectify women as sex objects contribute to gender inequality and violence against women.

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NJ Man Faces Possible Jail Time For Flying Political Flags

A New Jersey man who's been flying Donald Trump's campaign flag in front of his home since February could face up to a $2,000 fine or jail time.

Joe Hornick has been flying Trump's "Make America Great Again" flags outside his home and recently received a ticket citing him for illegally posting political signage more than 30 days before an election.

The New Jersey presidential primary isn't until June 7.

Hornick is ready to face a judge in the case. If he loses the flag fight in court. Hornick is prepared to serve a possible 90 day sentence.

"I'm not taking the flag down, and if I do 90 days in jail, I'll do 90 days in jail," he said.

Sometimes the flags come down without Hornick's assistance. Hornick says, the flags have been ripped down five times so far.

"Let them come, let them rip those flags down because I have a warehouse on alert, and I'll put up a flag every time they tear one down," he said.

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Match.com forced to take down disrespectful advert about red-heads



Dating website Match.com has been forced to apologise for an advertisement following an outcry on social media.

The advert features a woman with red hair and freckles with the slogan: “If you don’t like your imperfections, someone else will.”

It was featured prominently in tube stations around London, prompting online criticism and complaints made to the Advertising Standards Authority.

A spokesperson for Match.com said in a statement: “We have taken note of the response about our advert concerning freckles.

“Following this feedback, we are in discussions with our relevant partners about removing these posters as soon as possible.”

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This is a real issue in England.  Red-haired children do get harassed there quite a lot.  I have never seen such harassment in Australia

You can't win

There is no parenting topic that gets people more worked up than breastfeeding.

This afternoon hundreds of commenters got worked up over the Today Show’s choice to post a photo taken from a Willoughby Cafe on their Facebook Page. The sign reads:

“BREASTFEEDING MUMS — Pop in have a FREE cup of tea if you need a pitt stop … No need to eat. No need to ask. Please Relax J Willows.”

Cue internet mayhem. Comments included everything from simple statements about loving the sign to people calling discrimination against bottle feeders to others calling discrimination against men. And, of course, one lovely gentleman calling breastfeeding women “slappers that just love attention” and the café owner “a person who likes his customers to get their tits out for him.”

As a woman who breastfed my two children, I personally, love the sign. Breastfeeding is hard bloody work. I have never eaten as much or drunk as much (non-alcoholic seeing as though I was feeding after all) than when I was breastfeeding.

The offer of a free cuppa, a comfy chair and zero judgment while feeding is pretty much the dream of every breastfeeding woman. Well, it definitely was the dream of this one.

And I assure the gentleman who commented on the post that no woman breastfeeds for attention nor do they like to “get their tits out”. If anything, much of the feeding process, particularly in public, involves a tonne of strategic positing in order to AVOID getting your tits out on full display.

I have no doubt that both bottle feeding parents, and men in general, are more than welcome in the café as well. The fact that the owner went to the trouble to write the sign pretty much promotes the fact the café is family friendly.

Is this another case of someone trying to do something nice and getting ridiculed in the process?

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Hillary Clinton Sure Is Funny

Expect this little skit to hurt Hillary Clinton in the minority-dominated New York Democrat primary next week. Clinton joined New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on the stage of an annual Big Apple press dinner to crack a few political jokes in the boring, rehearsed presentation politicians do. But boring turned painful when de Blasio made what some are calling a racist joke.

Clinton had just walked onto the stage after de Blasio "rapped" (what he was doing shouldn't actually be called rapping) his endorsement of Clinton. "I just have to say, thanks for the endorsement, Bill. Took you long enough," Clinton jabbed.

"Sorry, Hillary, I was running on C.P. time," de Blasio replied in a clearly rehearsed line. The audience gasped. "C.P." time is short for "colored people" time, stereotyping blacks as being late.

"Cautious politician time," Clinton quipped, delivering the tripped-up punchline. "I've been there."

Clinton and deBlasio faced criticism left and right. "That's not — I don't like jokes like that, Bill," said Leslie Odom Jr., the black star of the Broadway hit "Hamilton," who was standing to the right of Clinton. Salon call the joke "cringeworthy." Townhall said it was "absolutely painful," and asserted, "It's only racist if Republicans do it."

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Mentioning Trump is offensive at Ohio University



The governing bodies for fraternity and sorority life at Ohio University (OU) have collectively denounced the drawing of a message supporting Donald Trump on campus because it was “offensive” to Hispanics and didn’t promote “inclusion.”

In a joint letter sent out to students affiliated with Ohio’s Greek Life, the student-led executive councils said that they have made a concerted effort to include everyone in this year’s Greek Week activities, but an illustration of a wall — captioned “Build That Wall!” — on a part of campus specifically designed for free expression have jeopardized those efforts. [Free expression jeopardizes free expression?]

Ohio University President Roderick J. McDavis commented on the incident in an email sent to all OU students Monday.

“Yesterday, I met with students and members of our Hispanic/Latino community who saw words that troubled them on the Graffiti Wall. Indeed, this wall is a place of free speech and expression; however, the words painted were troubling because they had a very different meaning to some than they may have to others viewing the message or even to those who painted the message,” McDavis wrote.

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British University investigates ‘racist banana’ incident in student halls



Warwick University is to investigate after racist remarks were written on a bunch of bananas in a flat in student accommodation.

Faramade Ifaturoti, 19, believed to be a [black] student at the university, tweeted an image of the fruit and wrote: “Just entered the kitchen and look at what one of my flatmates has [allegedly] done. I am extremely disgusted.”

Two racist terms can clearly be seen written on the fruit in black marker. While Ms Ifaturoti blamed her flatmates, it was not known who was responsible and the words could have been written by a visitor to the flat.

The tweet quickly gathered attention after being posted late on Tuesday afternoon and had been retweeted almost 3,000 times.

The university responded to the original tweet just over an hour later, saying: “We’re really sorry you’ve had to experience this. It is completely unacceptable. Please DM us your email and we will escalate.”

A university spokesperson told the Independent: “We are aware that a racist incident has been widely reported on social media. The university is investigating this as a matter of urgency.”

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Lots of people don't like blacks, even if they are not allowed to say so.  So it comes as a shock when they do say so in some way.

But it is interesting that the n-word in the picture is spelled "Nigga". British English is non-rhotic, meaning that "nigger" and "nigga" are pronounced the same. There is a distinction only in the USA. And "nigga" is used mostly by blacks. So the word was most likely written by an American black, perhaps the woman herself.

Must not suggest that women have different characteristics

Veteran literary figure Gay Talese dared to suggest that men and women can have different interests and abilities.  The feminists are raging

Verandah Porche didn’t grasp the full significance of what she had done until later.

At the time, sitting in an auditorium at Boston University (BU) at the Power of Narrative conference, she simply felt curious about something the keynote speaker, writer Gay Talese, seemed to have left out. Talese regaled the roughly 550 attendees with tales of his childhood and reporting tips

Then Talese took questions from the audience. Porche’s question was first.  “In addition to Nora Ephron, who are the women who write who have inspired you most?” she asked.

“I’d say Mary McCarthy was one,” Talese began. His voice tapered off, and then he paused.  “Of my generation…” A 12-second pause. “None. I’ll tell you why.”

Then Talese dug the hole out of which he’d spend days trying to climb. At first, he clearly confined his answer to the past, saying when he was young, women tended not to do the kind of journalism that interested him. But then he did something my former journalism professor would have slashed in red pen: He shifted tenses.

“I think women, educated women, writerly women don’t want to—or do not feel comfortable dealing with strangers, or people that I’m attracted to, sort of offbeat characters,” he said. “I didn’t know any women journalists that I loved.”

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Australian Vietnamese up in arms over restaurant named after Communist leader



It was rather nostalgic for me to see the South Vietnamese flag above again.  I stuck a lot of them on top of Leftist posters during the Vietnam war.  Most Vietnamese in Australia are from the South

About 100 people have protested outside Brisbane's Uncle Ho restaurant, which was closed on Sunday due to "death threats" for naming the eatery after Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh.

The city's Vietnamese community said the name and advertising was ignorant and insulting and they would continue to organise protests until the name was changed.

They held a peaceful protest outside the New Farm establishment on Sunday morning, singing national songs and holding placards such as "Ho Chi Minh is nobody's uncle".

Phoung Nguyen said protesters' attempts to contact the owners of the New Farm restaurant had failed.  She said because their peaceful approach did not work, they decided to rally. "For Vietnamese, especially from the south, who risked their lives and ran away from their country by boat in the 70s and 80s, we hate that name," she said.

"We are incensed. "The posters in there is some sort of promotion for the Vietnamese army and remind us of the invasion of Saigon.

"It was a terrifying period for all of us, we were the losers and the winner did not treat us humanely.  "Why do you promote an eatery with all the war, guns, tanks images?"

Millions fled Vietnam as a result of Ho Chi Minh and the communist regime.

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The name is now being changed

Whites must not disrespect women

Blacks do it routinely but that's OK

West Virginia University's Delta Tau Delta fraternity has been suspended indefinitely after a member posted a video online showing him making a string of sexist comments inside a frat house.

The student, Stephen Budkey, made the video as an audition tape for the MTV reality show Real World.

The footage - which he has since deleted from his YouTube page - showed him making lewd comments about women and described parties that broke the fraternity's rules.

He refers to women as 'b***hes' and claims to have had sex behind a dumpster in two clips from the nine-minute video.

The full details of what was said in the video are not known because it has been deleted.

However, two clips show Budkey calling women 'b***hes' and boasting about his sex life.

Referring to his bedroom, he says: 'People on audition tapes are always like, "that's where the magic happens".

'That's bulls***, the magic happens everywhere; behind the dumpster, outside, in a bathroom, in my car, sometimes in my room, you never know. It happens everywhere.'

In a second clip, he adds: 'This is my room. I'm sorry guys, it's a little messy.

'I'll be honest with you, my b***hes haven't come to clean it up yet but you know after spring break they'll be there and it'll be real tidy.'

Roy Baker, associate dean of students and director of Greek life at WVU, slammed Budkey for the video.

'It's unfortunate that the actions of one individual sully the reputation of an entire organization, but the attitudes and behavior lifted up in this video are inconsistent with the values of Greek life in general and this University in particular,' he said.

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Twitter says black hate speech is OK

Twitter will not suspend Azealia Banks's account after the rapper tweeted that Sarah Palin should be gang raped because the violent language 'was not in violation of the Twitter Rules.'

The social media company's response came after a user submitted a complaint and was first reported by Breitbart.

'We reviewed the content and determined that it was not in violation of the Twitter Rules,' the company said in a statement, according to Breitbart.

Banks's tweets included graphic language that alluded to gang rape and said Palin should be locked in a cupboard

The content that Twitter approved of included tweets that had Banks calling for Palin to 'get headf****d by a big, veiny, ashy black d**k' and for 'the biggest burliest blackest n*****s' to 'run a train on her.'

According to Twitter's rule book, the company does not 'tolerate behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user’s voice.'

Violent threats, 'direct or indirect' are also forbidden: 'You may not make threats of violence or promote violence,' the rules read.

Also, the rules state users 'may not incite or engage in the targeted abuse or harassment of others.'

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Must not say that men like women to be slim

And even a feminist mother is not enough to suppress that preference

A son has been publicly shamed by his own mother in a hilarious online rant after he shared a sexist meme on his Facebook page.

The offensive picture was originally posted by Meninist - a Men's Rights Movement group who believe it is men who are being oppressed in today's society.

Titled: 'What it takes to be attractive', it featured a photograph of a man wearing a suit next to a long list of qualities such 'be ripped', 'have money' and 'smell good.'

Next to him was a picture of a naked woman holding a measuring tape around her with just one requirement 'don't be too fat.'

His mother, who has chosen to stay anonymous, posted an incredible public shaming of her son's poorly chosen Facebook post.

His mom ended her hilarious rant telling him: 'Your proctologist called. He found your head'

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Must not refer to Scottish products as "British"

Many Scots nationalists are real Nazis.  They would gas the English if they could



Sales of Tunnock's tea cakes rocketed by 10 per cent after hardline Scottish nationalists called for a boycott of the treats.

Adverts for the iconic Scottish snacks appeared on the London Underground at the beginning of the year featuring the words 'Great British Tea Cake'.

This led extreme Scottish nationalists to stage a protest outside the company's HQ in Lanarkshire, Scotland and to call for a 'boycott' of their tea cakes.

But the campaign backfired spectacularly, with Tunnock's revealing on Wednesday that sales had soared following the controversy.

The company says the sales surge was fuelled directly by the publicity storm which was unwittingly unleashed by the extremist protesters.

And interest in Tunnock's tea cakes has grown so much thanks to the 'boycott' that the firm has now released a range of tea cake themed merchandise.

Fergus Loudon, operations director at Tunnock's, said: 'It meant the Tunnock's name was being talked about all over the world and people are still talking about it.

'It prompted a lot people to go out and buy tea cakes and has been fantastic for us in terms of sales. There was a definite spike.  'Our sales went up by at least 10 per cent.

Protesters from the self-styled 'Scottish Resistance' group picketed outside the Tunnock's factory in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, while a video appeared online showing a man smashing boxes of Tunnock's tea cakes while swearing and ranting.

A company spokesman said they remained proud of their Scottish roots and had not meant to cause offence.

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Black hate speech



Azealia Banks attacked Sarah Palin on Twitter on Sunday in a shocking series of since deleted tweets.

'Honestly… Let’s find the biggest burliest blackest n****** and let them run a train on her. Film it and put it on worldstar,' wrote Banks in one of the tweets.

In another she wrote; 'Hideous. At least suk a n**** d*** or summ’ before you start talking s*** about "black people willingly accepting slavery." Least she can do.'

The rapper lashed out at the former Alaska governor after reading a satirical article in which Palin was falsely quoted as saying; 'I’m telling you, I’ve been saying it for years, but nobody’s listening – slavery wasn’t forced onto African-Americans, they accepted it willingly.'

Palin responded to Banks on Tuesday, saying she was 'not exercising enough intelligence' and later added; 'Why don't we strengthen both our platforms and work together on something worthwhile.'

She then wrote that 'condoning racism' was one of the things that the women could work on before editing it to 'condemning racism' in the post.

Palin also announced that she plans on suing Banks over the comments she made on Twitter. 

Palin started off her response post on Facebook by saying; 'Hey Female Rapper - listen up, little darling. No one has any idea what you're wigging out about in these bizarre, violent rants against me, but you're obviously not exercising enough intelligence to acknowledge you've been sucked into believing some fake interview in which I supposedly offered comments representing the antithesis of my truth.'

She closed her post by writing; 'And now I'll go through my young daughter's playlist to make sure there hasn't been any inadvertent addition of any anti-woman, pro-rape garbage that you seem to endorse, which perpetuates the cultural challenges we face in America.

'I encourage other parents to do the same. 'God bless you Ms. Banks, as you consider a change of heart.'

Palin's first Facebook note was posted on Twitter by Vanity Fair writer Kia Makarechi before she had a chance to edit 'condoning racism.'

A few hours after she posted that message on Facebook, Palin told People; 'I've had enough of the unanswered threats and attacks against my family and me.

'So, for the first time I'm going to enjoy the only retribution some protected "celebrities" seem to understand – I'm suing Azealia Banks and can't wait to share my winnings with others who have gone defenseless against lies and dangerous attacks far too long.'

Palin added; 'Azealia engages in a form of racism and hate that is celebrated by some in the perverted arm of pop culture, but is condemned by those who know it's tearing our country apart.

'Others may keep turning a blind eye to problems like Azealia's mouth; I choose to take a stand against it and the double standards that result in her actually being rewarded for her divisive tactics and aggressively inciting violence.'

Media Research Center managed to grab Banks' tweets before they were taken down, the most vulgar of which said;  'Sarah Palin needs to have her head shaved off to a buzzcut, get headf***** by a big veiny, ashy black c*** then be locked in a cupboard.'

Banks has continued to attack Palin on Twitter even after realizing the article in question was fake, writing Tuesday; 'Like honestly, when has she ever said anything even remotely coherent or cohesive?'

She also wrote an open letter to Palin on Tuesday, saying; 'Now since learning that the article was not published officially, I sincerely apologize for any emotional distress or reputational scarring i may have caused you.

'In my honest defense, i was completely kidding. I happen to have a really crass, New-York-City sense of humor, and regularly make silly jokes in attempts make light of situations which make me uncomfortable.

'As the fabric of the American Nation is EMBEDDED with racism, I merely made a raCIALly driven joke to counter what i believed to be real, raCIST rhetoric.'

She said later in her letter; 'I cherish my ability to express myself freely, yet remain totally aware that for every action, there will be a reaction.

'All in All, Woman to Woman, I hope you will accept my sincerest apology.'

Banks then included multiple PS additions to the letter, writing in one; '“Hey Female Rapper,” was your way to euphemize what you REALLY wanted to say. What you wanted to say was, “Hey little Stereotypical Black, Thing!”'

In another she said; 'Twitter is not real, neither is your opinion of me!'

And in her final line, she quoted the Peaches song 'F*** the Pain Away,' writing; 'If Bristol Palin listened to my music she probably wouldn’t have all those cotdamn kids!!!! ;-P #sis #iud #stayinschool #causeitsthebest'

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Obama censors the President of France


There’s an old joke mocking the French for perennially surrendering under pressure. But, once again, it was the Muslim sympathizers in the White House who were caught surrendering to political correctness. And the French were the bold ones.

A transcript on the White House website shows French President Francois Hollande, who was sitting across a table from Barack Obama, remarking, “But we’re also well aware that the roots of terrorism, Islamist terrorism, is in Syria and in Iraq.” But that’s not what you’ll hear in the video version. According to the Media Research Center, “The White House website has censored a video of … Hollande saying that ‘Islamist terrorism’ is at the ‘roots of terrorism.’ The White House briefly pulled video of a press event on terrorism with Pres. Obama, and when it reappeared on the WhiteHouse.gov website and YouTube, the audio of Hollande’s translator goes silent, beginning with the words ‘Islamist terrorism,’ then begins again at the end of his sentence.”

Hot Air’s Allahpundit makes this critical observation: “[I]t’s [Obama’s] prerogative to choose his own words. It’s not his prerogative to choose someone else’s words, particularly when that someone is a foreign head of state whose country is dealing with a more severe jihadist threat right now than the United States is.”

But here’s the other thing, he says: “You know what the worst part is? Hollande didn’t say ‘Islamic terrorism,’ which is the supposedly objectionable term. He said ‘Islamist terrorism.’ ‘Islamist’ was … a term that came into use precisely because it gave the speaker an efficient way to distinguish between ‘moderate Muslims’ and the more jihad-minded. ‘Islamic’ describes all things Muslim; ‘Islamist’ describes a supremacist view in which Islam is the highest authority of the state.”

But even that was too much for Obama’s minion editors. It seems any iteration of the word “Islam” in the context of terrorism is altogether banned. You can’t exercise a strong foreign policy when you’re in denial about what defines your enemy.

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Australia: Must not joke about skin color

Channel Nine’s Today show presenters have been criticised for joking about being “too white” for a Gold Logie nomination after Lee Lin Chin and Waleed Aly were recognised by the television awards for the first time.

Announcing the nominations for the Gold Logie Today’s Karl Stefanovic made fun of Chin’s first-time nomination and remarked to fellow Nine presenter Ben Fordham that he wasn’t really white himself.

Fordham said: “Because this whole idea in the past that it’s been all white, last time I checked, Stefanovic ... where is that from? What part of the world is that from?”  “It’s from the eastern bloc,” Stefanovic said on Monday’s show.

“Correct, so you’ve been trailblazing long before Waleed and Lee Lin Chin,” Fordham said.  “I might look white on the outside but I’m dark on the inside,” Stefanovic said.

Fordham questioned why Lisa Wilkinson – who was sitting at another desk in the studio – hadn’t received a nomination given her many accomplishments in the media industry.

“Lisa’s too white,” Stefanovic said.

“I got a spray tan and everything and still didn’t make it,” Wilkinson replied.

The exchange was labelled racist by some people on Twitter.  The artistic director of the Melbourne writers’ festival, Lisa Dempster, tweeted: “Disgusted by Karl Stefanovic & Lisa Wilkinson’s comments about the #Logies. Not ok, guys.”

The Indigenous SBS broadcaster Michelle Lovegrove wondered: “So skin colour determines a Logie nomination?”

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White supremacist father who named his son Adolf Hitler and daughter Eva Braun opens up

The man has been severely punished for his foolish words. The First Amendment has no exception for foolish words

A father who named his son Adolf Hitler and daughter Eva Braun before they were taken away by social services says he is sick of people treating him like garbage.

Isidore Heath Campbell, 42, from New Jersey claims he is just misunderstood, despite his obsession with the evil Nazi dictator, and believes his children were removed from his home because of their names.

He made the comments in a documentary called Meet The Hitlers, which follows the lives of everyday people who share the name of the leader of the Third Reich.

'A person makes a person, a name doesn’t,' Campell says in the documentary which was released on iTunes on Tuesday.

Campbell, who claims he is simply misunderstood, believes New Jersey child services took away his children simply because he named them after the evil dictator

'I have different beliefs. I believe in whites (living) with whites, blacks with blacks, Spanish with Spanish. I don’t see anything wrong with that.'

Campbell has a tattoo of a Swastika on his neck and arm and the names of his three other children on other parts of his body.

The white supremacist lost custody of his youngest daughter, who he called Eva Braun, just days after she was born in November 2013.

Campbell first made headlines in 2008 for complaining that a ShopRite supermarket refused to write his then-seven-year-old son’s name on a birthday cake.

Just days after the news broke, social services came around and took his children away.

'(Child protective services) stripped my kids down in my house, checked my kids all out. They found no child abuse, no nothing.

'My son's name is Adolf Hitler Campbell. Does that make it OK for them to come and steal your children,' he says. 

'They got a court order and they removed my kids. That was it. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.'

New Jersey authorities have insisted they did not take the child from Campbell and his ex-girlfriend Bethanie Zito because of her name - the same as Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's wife - but because of concerns for their safety.

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British restaurant uses "n-word"

A trendy London restaurant has been branded 'disgraceful' after a black woman spotted the words 'no ice n****' printed on her food bill after dining with a group of friends.

The racial slur was spotted on the itemized receipt by customers at The Happenstance, near St Paul's in central London, as they tried to settle their bill following a meal out on Easter Sunday.

The group of women apparently challenged staff over the offensive message but were reportedly told that 'we don't know how it got there'.

Drake and Morgan, the group which owns the restaurant, has now apologised for the incident and confirmed a member of staff has been suspended pending an investigation.

The incident came to light when Jehan, from London, took to Twitter to share an image of the offensive receipt. He is said to be friends with the woman who was targeted by the racial slur.

He wrote: 'A friend just received this bill from the white staff at London's happenstancebar.

'Absolutely crazy. The management showed no interest or accountability either.

Drake and Morgan, the owner of The Happenstance restaurant, said an investigation is underway.

A spokesman said: 'We are appalled by the unacceptable behaviour of one of our waiting staff. He has been suspended from duty pending a full disciplinary.

'We have contacted two members of the group that were at The Happenstance yesterday afternoon and have apologised unequivocally.

The restaurant also wrote on Twitter: 'The waiter is now suspended pending full disciplinary. His behaviour is unacceptable. We apologise profusely.'

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Strange advertisement in Australia



 "A Queensland burger chain has sparked an online debate over their latest advertisement campaign that depicts a woman giving birth to a burger alongside the slogan, 'we deliver'. 

Burger Urge, which has 15 stores in Queensland, published the advertisement both online and in a print campaign.  The ad - which says 'We deliver burgers to your door' - has opinions divided, with some people labelling it as 'sexist' and 'exploitative to women', while others simply saw it as 'clever advertising'. 

Burger Urge shared the advertisement to their Facebook page on March 30 where it was met with a barrage of comments.  Many people appeared to take offence to the ad, labelling it as 'sexist' and going as far as to call a 'boycott' on the store.  'You can be funny without exploiting women, get a better ad agency,' one person wrote. 

However, the ad was also met with a large amount of support.  'Can somebody actually tell me why this is offensive. Very funny play on the word "Deliver" as far as I am concerned. Well done lads,' one person wrote"

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UK: Must not complain to city officials

Dealing with complaints comes with the territory for many a council employee.

But residents in one country town have been told to stop writing to their council about its decision to reduce a speed limit - because the complaints are ‘stressing out staff’.

Ferndown Town Council, Dorset, received an influx of letters and emails after residents in the neighbouring parish of Longham felt their views had been ignored about plans to reduce the limit on a stretch of main road which runs between the two communities.

In response, the council’s traffic working party chairman Cathy Lugg, wrote to residents to explain the decision but also asked them to stop writing to the town council and instead write to her directly as the volume of letters was ‘causing extra stress for staff’.

But the response left some residents feeling even more exasperated. Mandy Willis, from Longham, said: ‘It’s just ridiculous - our council tax rates are going up and yet as residents we are being told to stop hassling the council because the staff are stressed.

‘Surely the job of the town council is to communicate with residents who are there to hold them to account for its decisions.

‘If we can’t write to the town council where are we supposed to turn to get issues in the town sorted?’

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Is this the moment Australia finally lost the plot to political correctness?

Schools ban the phrase ‘sitting a test’ because some children might have to stand during assessments

Guidelines have been introduced by meaning that school children are now required to 'take' tests or assessments instead of 'sitting' them.

Taking political correctness to a new level, the unwritten instructions are being used in the annual NAPLAN (National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy) tests.

The changes are based on the fact that not every child may do exams in a seated position.

One educator said that there might be children who couldn't sit down for assessments, reported The Daily Telegraph. 'It could be a disabled child or one that has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who has to answer the questions while standing up.'

The words 'maths' and 'numbers' must also now be referred to as 'mathematics'.  

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Must not tell the truth about black crime

PITTSBURGH television station WTAE has ended its relationship with anchorwoman Wendy Bell over racial comments she posted on Facebook about an ambush shooting at a barbecue that left five people and an unborn baby dead.

In a statement, parent company Hearst Television said Bell’s comments were “inconsistent with the company’s ethics and journalistic standards.”

Bell, who is white, speculated about the identities of the two men who fatally shot five black people in the poor Pittsburgh suburb of Willkinsburg on March 9.

In her March 21 post on her anchor Facebook page, she said in part: “You needn’t be a criminal profiler to draw a mental sketch of the killers who broke so many hearts two weeks ago Wednesday. ... They are young black men, likely in their teens or in their early 20s. They have multiple siblings from multiple fathers and their mothers work multiple jobs. These boys have been in the system before. They’ve grown up there. They know the police. They’ve been arrested.”

After a social media backlash, Bell apologised, saying her words “were insensitive and could be viewed as racist.” The station also apologised, saying Bell’s remarks showed “an egregious lack of judgment.”

Authorities have not made any arrests in the killings or provided a description of the possible suspects. Siblings Jerry Michael Shelton, 35, Brittany Powell, 27, and Chanetta Powell, 25, along with two cousins, Tina Shelton, 37, and Shada Mahone, 26, were killed in the ambush shooting, police said. Chanetta Powell was nearly eight months pregnant.

On Wednesday, Bell defended herself, saying she didn’t get a “fair shake” from the station, and that the story was not about her, but about “African-Americans being killed by other African-Americans.”

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Must not put your hand up to ask a question because you would be violating your classmates' 'safe space'

A student was almost kicked out of a meeting after she violated a 'safe space' by raising her arm at Edinburgh University.

Imogen Wilson wanted to make a point at Thursday's student council session when she was told off by officials.

The vice-president for academic affairs at the university's Student Association was accused of failing disabled students by not responding to an open letter.

She immediately raised her arm to disagree but was made the subject of a 'ludicrous' complaint and told not to make the gesture again.

Imogen was also warned for shaking her head during the meeting as it again breached the 'safe space' which is part of the university's Student Association rules.

She told The Huffington Post: '...I raised my arms in disagreement, as we had contacted the writers of the letter and tried hard to organise a meeting. It was for that reason that a safe space complaint was made.'

Student Association policy says that council members should be respectful and considerate.

Section 6c of the safe space policy is defined as: 'Refraining from hand gestures which denote disagreement or in any other way indicating disagreement with a point or points being made.  Disagreements should only be evident through the normal course of debate.'

A vote took place to decide whether Imogen should be removed from the meeting after she was accused of breaking the rules.  The vote was in her favour: with 18 people for removal and 33 supporting her staying.

First-year Edinburgh student Charlie Peters tweeted against the safe space policy and set up a petition against it. By yesterday afternoon it had 1,000 signatures.

'Safe spaces now censor "inappropriate hand gestures" - my university is becoming pathetic,' he told his Twitter followers.

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Portland Restaurant Sabotaged For Having British Empire Theme

Leftist intolerance never stops

A restaurant in Portland, Oregon is being targeted by protesters who say its British Empire theme is offensive to minorities.

Saffron Colonial focuses on English cuisine, but in addition to afternoon teas and English breakfasts the restaurant also incorporates “globally inspired dishes from the height of the British Empire,” such as a Burmese curry dish.

Owner Sally Krantz says she’s interested in historical dishes and wants her restaurant to reflect the unique dishes and meal combinations created through the existence of the British Empire.

And that has some Portland residents outraged. A March 19 open letter by Stephanie Dünx lays out the core criticisms of Saffron’s theme.

“While molasses cookies and sausage rolls may come to mind for you when you think of British colonialism, many of us associate it with forced religious conversion/cultural erasure, famine, and slavery,” the letter says. “You may argue that those days are long gone, but India has been independent for less than 70 years, which means there are still people alive today who have experienced the harms of British colonial rule.”

In addition to her letter, Dünx also organized a protest march to Saffron Colonial. During the protest, demonstrators plastered Saffron Colonial’s windows with homemade signs declaring “Closed due to glorifying colonialism” and similar phrases.

Besides marching to the restaurant, critics have also started to sabotage its Yelp page with negative reviews.

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Australia: Must not mention that women often prefer smaller meals

Chicken Parmigiana: IT’S the classic pub meal that sparks a particular kind of craving.

Those watching their waistlines have long been able to order a half-sized option, but Melbourne’s oldest pub has taken a different approach.

The Duke of Wellington has dubbed its smaller option the ‘Lady Parma’, sparking politically correct outrage on Twitter.

Served with salad instead of mayonnaise-laden coleslaw, the light version of the Duke Parma — which is $5 cheaper — sparked mockery on social media by those who dubbed it ‘sexist’.

Sports journalist Adam Collins tweeted an image of the menu, with the message: “The @DukeMelbourne’s ~Lady Parma~ is smaller, and comes with salad instead of coleslaw. Can’t make this stuff up.”

“Finally! A parma small enough to keep me to a ladylike size for my husband. I do so hope it’s pretty & pink,” one follower responded.

“Hopefully it is served with smaller sized cutlery that will fit in our small ~lady hands~,” Louise Crossman tweeted back.

A 25-year-old man with “a small appetite” described the ‘Lady Parma’ moniker as “outdated”, tweeting: “You can just feel the dignity in saying ‘I’ll have a lady parma thanks’ when ordering.”

Others pointed out that the phenomenon existed at venues across Melbourne, including steak restaurants where a smaller “ladies” option was seen on menus.

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Attention-seeker is slammed for dressing up as a topless Native American chief



On Wednesday, the estranged wife of businessman Geoffrey Edelsten appeared to upset social media fans when she posed as a topless Native American chief dripping in oil.

Sun-drenched images of the 26-year-old posing in traditional feathered headgear and flipping the bird solicited angry comments from one particular Instagram follower who called her 'racist' and 'insensitive.'

The fan fired off: 'You shouldn't be wearing Native American cultural dress if you're not from that background. It's cultural appropriation; racist and insensitive.'

Another defended her writing: 'She's just having fun OK, I'm pretty sure actual chiefs of tribes are men and wear big coats, plus people wear these things at summer festival events all the time.'

But the angered fan remained firm replying: ...'I will never get over the colonization of an entire race that are continually exploited by white people.

'Besides, I'm not attacking her - she could have Native blood, I don't know her background. Just stating facts.'

The Miami-born aspiring actress posed with her hands against her breasts and with oil dripping from her chest down to her navel.

She shrugged off her antics: 'it was just a bit of harmless fun.'

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Racist model says 'I don't think a white person can determine what's racism'

Saying someone can or cannot do somethimng solely because of their race is a pretty fair definition of racism

Being engaged to indigenous AFL star Lance "Buddy" Franklin has given Jesinta Campbell a rather refreshing view of racism.

The 24-year-old David Jones ambassador appeared on The Today Show, and the topic was how to describe British colonialism in Australia in the 18th century. Should we say they "settled" Australia or "invaded" it?

Jesinta is all on the side of calling a spade a spade, out of respect for the Indigenous Australians who were here before the arrival of white settlers.

"That, for me, is the bottom line," she said. "We were invaded."

"As a white person, it's very easy for me to sit here and say the word invasion doesn't bother me or it does bother me," she said. "But I wasn't the original person on this land in Australia.

"And the same when we talk about racism. I don't think a white person can determine what's racism and what's not, what affects someone and what doesn't affect someone, 'cause it's not our experience."

The former Miss Australia has become known for expressing her strong opinions.

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