British upper class kid apologies after his 'inappropriate' Ku Klux Klan fancy dress costume gets him BANNED from college social events

A Oxford University student who dressed up as a Ku Klux Klan member for a fancy dress party has been named.

Benedict Aldous, 19, was banned from all future social events after he turned up to last year's Christ Church College Bop wearing a pillowcase with slits for eyes.

Aldous, who was a reserve for this year's Oxford-Cambridge boat race, said the costume was a 'satirical response' to the college's '2016' party theme.

But he was instead forced to issue a college-wide apology.

Aldous told the Oxford Cherwell: 'I arrived at the bop dressed in a jumper and jeans with a sign reading 'Middle America' and wearing a pillowcase resembling KKK regalia.

'The costume was intended as a satirical response to the theme '2016'. It was meant as a comment on Donald Trump's possible connections to KKK members, after the US election.

'I did not intend to offend anyone and removed the costume within two minutes of arriving after realising the inappropriateness of it.'

The party happened in December 2016, but Aldous was only punished last month, and just recently named.

He attended Eton College and was a keen rower, taking part in the 2016 World Rowing Junior Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The Christ Church dean, The Very Revd Professor Martyn Percy, said Aldous' behaviour was 'completely unacceptable'.

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The British Tories’ trans proposals could make it a crime to tell the truth

Britain is going full Orwell. The Tory government is proposing to include in the Gender Recognition Bill the ‘right’ to alter the sex on one’s birth certificate. So if a 32-year-old man decides that he is in fact a woman, he could be able to go to the General Register Office and insist that the word ‘Boy’ be erased from his birth certificate and replaced with the word ‘Girl’, or ‘Female’. Even though he was not a girl when that certificate was drawn up. Even though the midwife who declared ‘It’s a boy!’ when he was born, and the birth registrar who later wrote the word ‘Boy’ or ‘Male’ on his birth certificate, were telling the truth. That truth, that publicly recorded truth, that national truth, would be replaced with a lie. We’ve entered Ministry of Truth territory. The memory hole is real.

The Tory government’s trans proposals should alarm anyone who believes in reason and freedom. Revealed in The Sunday Times, the plan is to shake up the legal ‘gender recognition’ process to make it easier for trans people to identify as the opposite sex. Or no sex. One suggestion is for non-binary people, those who feel neither male nor female, to have the right to go back in time and stamp ‘X’ in the gender box on their birth certificate – a fitting image for the destructive, past-rewriting process that would be unleashed by this shake-up. And virtually anyone could do this. The government wants to scrap the current requirement of a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria before you can switch gender and allow for ‘self-identification’. So any bloke could self-identify as a woman, apply for the legal right to be recognised as a woman, and – boom – he’s a woman. Sorry, she’s a woman.

It’s madness. And most people know it’s madness. Ask any normal, decent member of the public if Dave, 32, born a boy, still in possession of a penis, and a five o’clock shadow on a rough weekend, is a man or a woman, and I bet you they will say: ‘Man.’ Not because they are prejudiced or ‘transphobic’ – the latest phobia slur designed to pathologise dissent – but because they understand reality. And truth. And biology and experience.

They know that in order to be a woman, you first have to have been a girl. They know womanhood is not a pose one strikes in front of the mirror but is biological, relational, cultural and social. They know the man who wears a dress is a man who wears a dress. Which is cool, and his choice, and he must have the right to wear that dress. But he isn’t a woman.

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Silicon Valley Censorship

Google's latest project is an application called Perspective, which, as Wired reports, brings the tech company "a step closer to its goal of helping to foster troll-free discussion online, and filtering out the abusive comments that silence vulnerable voices." In other words, Google is teaching computers how to censor.

If Google's plans are not quite Orwellian enough for you, the practical results are rather more frightening. Released in February, Perspective's partners include the New York Times, the Guardian, Wikipedia and the Economist. Google, whose motto is "Do the Right Thing," is aiming its bowdlerism at public comment sections on newspaper websites, but the potential is far broader.

Perspective works by identifying the "toxicity level" of comments published online. Google states that Perspective will enable companies to "sort comments more effectively, or allow readers to more easily find relevant information." Perspective's demonstration website currently allows anyone to measure the "toxicity" of a word or phrase, according to its algorithm. What, then, constitutes a "toxic" comment?

The organization with which I work, the Middle East Forum, studies Islamism. We work to tackle the threat posed by both violent and non-violent Islamism, assisted by our Muslim allies. We believe that radical Islam is the problem and moderate Islam is the solution.

Statements rated as "toxic" by Google's Perspectives software.
Perspective does not look fondly at our work -- see selections at left. No reasonable person could claim that saying "radical Islam is a problem" is hate speech. But the problem does not just extend to opinions. Even factual statements are deemed to have a high rate of "toxicity." Google considers the statement "ISIS is a terrorist group" to have an 87% chance of being "perceived as toxic." Or 92% "toxicity" for stating the publicly-declared objective of the terrorist group, Hamas.

Google is quick to remind us that we may disagree with the result. It explains that, "It's still early days and we will get a lot of things wrong." The Perspective website even offers a "Seem Wrong?" button to provide feedback.

These disclaimers, however, are very much beside the point. If it is ever "toxic" to deem ISIS a terrorist organization, then -- regardless of whether that figure is the result of human bias or an under-developed algorithm -- the potential for abuse, and for widespread censorship, will always exist.

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Chinese Regulator Calls Homosexuality ‘Abnormal’ and Bans Gay Content From the Internet

So censorship is a good thing?  Leftists might reflect that it can bite you too

China released a new regulation Friday banning any display of “abnormal sexual behaviors” — including homosexuality — in online video and audio content.

The regulation, published by the China Netcasting Services Association (CNSA), lays out strict censorship rules for online content ranging from movies and documentaries to cartoons and educational videos, according to Reuters.

Under the new rules, content will be edited or even banned if it promotes “luxurious lifestyles,” shows “violent and criminal processes in detail,” demonstrates “obscenity” including masturbation or displays “abnormal sexual behaviors" such as homosexuality.

The new rules quickly sparked heated debates and oppositions on Chinese social media. Li Yinhe, China’s leading scholar and advocate of free sexuality, said in a Weibo post that under these regulations, “all audio-visual art will be revoked.”
“Trying to regulate and censor people’s desires is as absurd as trying to regulate and censor people’s appetites.”

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Huggies removes gender-specific toilet training tips from its website after sarcastic mother labels it '1950s drivel'

The sarcastic lady is pushing sh*t uphill.  Even I am amazed at how regularly mothers dress their little girls in pink and boys in blue.  Sex differences reflect what works with kids.  I know a very feminine little girl who would reject being dressed in non-pink tops even before she could speak.  Little girls really do have distinct likes and dislikes -- even to liking pink.  The condemned advice below was simply realistic.  There is research evidence which  shows that preference for sex-specific toys is hardwired

Huggies New Zealand has removed toilet training advice from its website after a frustrated mother labelled it '1950s drivel' on Facebook.

The advice, which was accessible on the Huggies New Zealand website until Tuesday, was divided up into controversial gender-specific boxes.

Advice for girls included dressing them in 'helpful clothes' telling them stories about 'princess or heroines' and using their favourite toy 'as an example' on the potty.

'It's a good idea to start toilet training with a potty that your daughter knows she is responsible for - it helps if she chose it,' the advice read

'From a very young age, a girl's caregiving instinct kicks in. Emphasising that your daughter is responsible for looking after her potty can be great motivation.'

For boys, however, advice included using a 'sticker reward system' and 'superhero undies'.

'Boys are traditionally more competitive than girls. Create a chart with milestones that your son can reach the more times he uses his potty,' the advice read.

'Investing in a pair or two of undies that feature your son's favourite superhero or cartoon character can help. 'He might be more inclined to keep his hero clean and remember to use the potty when he needs.'

New Zealand mother Nicky Lynch addressed the advice in a Facebook post on the New Zealand Huggies page where she labelled it '1950s drivel'.

'I have a few areas I'm still struggling with. You say that little girls' "caregiving instincts" kick in at a very early age, and I should teach her to look after her potty as part of her "potty responsibilities",' she wrote.

'You also mentioned that little girls' desire to be clean kicks in earlier than for boys. I'm sorry to say I tried to explain her cleaning responsibilities to my little girl and she shouted something about poo poos, wee wees and farts and ran off butt-naked to make mud pies.

'I'm concerned that she may be confused about her gender identity and her future as a toilet cleaner could be at risk. How do I get her back on the straight and narrow?

'Anyway, if I dress him in regular clothes will he still grow up manly or will he get a bit of a complex that his "hero" isn't hero enough? He also doesn't seem to be as competitive as you suggest he should be. He even gave his sister a cuddle when she fell over in the mud the other day. Where am I going wrong?'

Nicky concluded her post by saying her husband said she 'shouldn't worry too much about your advice'.

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Democrats Purging History

Long gone are the days when the Democrats could honestly claim to be a party housing a broad spectrum of mainstream political and social perspectives. The party's last few holdout moderate "Blue Dog" Democrats were weeded out during Barack Obama's two terms as the party increasingly embraced a hard-leftist ideology. This leftism has corrupted Democrats to the point where their own pride in party motivates the rejection of their own storied history.

The Louisiana Democrat Party recently announced that it will be changing the name of its annual party dinner from the "Jefferson-Jackson" dinner to the "True Blue Gala." Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the party, writer of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the U.S., is too controversial a figure to honor? Andrew Jackson, a war hero who helped end the British threat in the War of 1812 at the Battle of New Orleans and later became one of America's most influential presidents, must be purged from the Democrat lexicon?

Such is the psychosis that has infected today's Democrats. The problem for Democrats is that both Jefferson and Jackson were slave owners, an unforgivable sin in today's world of grievance politics. Lost to the modern leftist mind is any argument based on a rationally nuanced approach to understanding the values, attitudes and cultural practices from the past.

Democrats are content to engage in a condemn-and-purge crusade because people cry "offense." They have hitched themselves to the social justice warrior crowd, who seek only to condemn America's great history of achieving the freest society the world has ever known, albeit with terrible struggles along the way. These are Eeyore Democrats who only see the negatives of past history.

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Police Ask Ex-Muslims to Pull ‘Allah Is Gay’ Sign, But Allow ‘Jesus Is Gay’ to Stay

During London’s Pride parade last week, members of Britain’s Council of Ex-Muslims (CEMB) were asked by police to lower their banners that read “Allah is Gay,” while other signs saying “Jesus is Gay” attracted no such concern.

“Pride is full of placards saying ‘God is Gay,’ ‘Jesus had two fathers,’ as well as those mocking the church and priests and pope, yet CEMB members hold signs saying ‘Allah is Gay’ – as we did – and the police converge to attempt to remove them for causing ‘offence,’” a statement on the CEMB’s website says.

Fear and misunderstanding caused the controversy, CEMB says in its statement:

“The only reasons our signs are seen to be ‘provocative’ are because criticism of Islam is deemed to be impermissible, because there is the constant threat of violence by Islamists against ex-Muslims but also dissenting Muslims and others in order to silence and censor, and because criticism of Islam and Islamism is erroneously conflated with an attack on Muslims.”

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Milk can be called inhumane, advertising chiefs tell farmers after vegan campaign

Vegan campaigners are free to brand British milk production as inhumane after a ruling by the advertising regulator.

Dairy farmers had argued that an advert stating “humane milk is a myth — don’t buy it” was inaccurate but the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) will clear it in a ruling to be published today.

The decision is a blow to the dairy industry, which is losing customers as people switch to vegetarian or vegan diets.

The Vegan Society says that there are more than 540,000 vegans in Britain, up from 150,000 a decade ago. Hard-hitting billboard campaigns warning against consuming milk, eggs and meat have become a common sight on high streets.

Go Vegan World, the campaign group that placed the anti-milk advert in national newspapers…

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Critic of Islam prosecuted in Canada

A self-described “journalist & social commentator” known for posting angry video rants attacking Muslims and a range of other targets has been charged with committing a hate crime.

Kevin J. Johnston, a 45-year-old resident of Mississauga, Ont., posts videos on his website freedomreport.ca and to various social media platforms, and at one point had his accounts suspended by YouTube and Twitter.

Though he carried on fights with various public figures (and even ran for mayor of Mississauga in 2014) he focused much of his attention on schools, which he accused of “indoctrinating” students with Islamic ideology. In one video, he offered a bounty — first $1,000, later increased to $2,500 — to anyone who filmed a Muslim student in a Mississauga school “spewing hate speech during Friday prayers.”

In another, he said Liberal MP Iqra Khalid could get shot for introducing a motion condemning Islamophobia in the House of Commons, and said he’d be there to witness it with a “with a big, fat smile.”

On Monday, Peel Regional Police announced Johnston had been charged with one count of wilful promotion of hatred, a Criminal Code offence with a maximum penalty of two years in jail. The announcement said the charge “stems from a lengthy investigation into numerous incidents reported to police … and concerns information published on various social media sites.”

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Anti-Chinese posters up in an Australian university -- in Chinese



Hard to imagine these being put up by non-Chinese so it is probably a student prank -- like many before it

RACIST posters targeting Chinese students have been plastered across Monash University.

Several posters in Chinese were taped to bollards at the Clayton campus which were believed to have said: “This is a no-go zone for the Chinese and if you step in then you will be deported.”

The posters, which have the Monash University and Monash Student Association logo on them, had angered university groups and students.

Monash Student Association Clayton president Matilda Grey said she was disgusted by the posters and stressed they were not endorsed by their group. “We are not affiliated in any way with these posters that blatantly promote hate speech towards Chinese students,” Ms Grey said.

She said Chinese students had expressed their concerns to the group.  “A lot of students were horrified after seeing these posters across campus. We do not stand for this behaviour and we are completely appalled.”

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Canada: Imam's lecture leads to hate-speech complaint

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC) has filed a hate-speech complaint with Toronto police about yet another imam who recently allegedly called for the elimination of Israelis and Jews at an annual protest known to promote anti-Semitism.

Maulana Syed Mohammad Zaki Baqri of the Pickering-based Council of Islamic Guidance and the corresponding Al Mahdi Centre allegedly told the June 24 Al Quds Day rally in a combination of English and Arabic that Jews and Israelis need to be eliminated for what they’ve apparently done to the people of Gaza.

“The systematic elimination of Jews ... Israelis, Zionists should know ... It is the law that whoever oppresses, he has to be eliminated. One day or another,” the imam is heard saying to the crowd, several of whom are waving anti-Israel placards.

FSWC CEO Avi Benlolo said the complaint was filed two weeks ago with Toronto police hate crimes unit after their staff videotaped the proceedings of the event, which occurred at the Toronto-owned park north of Wellesley St. and Queen’s Park proper. He said some 2,000 people attended, including students and youngsters.

Meaghan Gray of the Toronto police confirmed their hate crimes unit is reviewing the FSWC complaint.......

He said more and more incidents of hate speech are coming to light because hate speech charges are not being laid by the police. “This is creating a precedent ... it is allowing people to have the freedom to preach hate,” he said.

Benlolo said the charge laid recently by the Montreal police hate crimes unit against Sheikh Musa Al Nasr should provide the Toronto police “with the impetus” to do the same.

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The ADL creates an ‘Alt-Lite’ list which tends to demonize conservatives

Dislike of feminists and immigrants makes you members of a hate group, says a Jewish organization.  As such views are widespread among Trump supporters and others, that tends to make the Jewish organization itself look like a hate group. That in turn surely tends to legitimize hatred of Jews. Is that wise?  For the good of Jews, I think the ADL should back off and target antisemites only, which is its original remit

Far right-wing personalities are attacking the Anti-Defamation League after the civil rights organization included them them on a “hate speech” list.

Several white nationalists and conspiracy theorists pushed back at the ADL’s branding them “alt-lite,” accusing the group of instigating violence against them for backing President Trump.

“The ADL is trying to get my family murdered #ADLTerror” tweeted Mike Cernovich, labeled as an “alt-lite” pundit and known for popularizing the PizzaGate conspiracy theory. Added Jack Posobeic, an organizer of the DeploraBall party in Washington, D.C.: “The ADL is now targeting Trump supporters with hate lists. What’s next, will they issue gold stars? #ADLTerror.”

The “alt-lite,” seen as a less virulent strain of the racist and xenophobic “alt-right,” was defined by the ADL as a “loosely-connected movement whose adherents generally shun white supremacist thinking, but who are in step with the alt right in their hatred of feminists and immigrants, among others.”

Laura Loomer, a Jewish alt-right activist profiled in the Forward, attacked the ADL for its list, and said that it was encouraging anti-Semitism. “The @ADL_National creates more anti-Semitism & resentment towards Jews when they create BS hit lists against conservatives. STOP!#NotAllJews,” she tweeted.

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White news reporter sues her NBC-affiliate station after they forced her to resign over using the n-word in a private conversation

She actually called HERSELF a n*gger as an intended joke

A news reporter who was forced to resign after it was revealed she used the n-word in a private Twitter exchange with a source is now suing her old station.

Valerie Hoff, 54, filed a lawsuit against NBC-affiliate 11Alive in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday.

The lawsuit claims that the station made a 'breach of contract' by forcing her to resign, when they at first said that a two-week suspension was adequate punishment.

'I was treated unfairly and I’m looking forward to my side of exactly what happened coming out,' she told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The controversy dates back to April 13, when Hoff found a video online showing a white police officer punching a black motorist.

She reached out to the man who posted the video, Curtis Rivers, for permission to use the video.

At the time, Rivers has posted on his Twitter that a bunch of reporters were trying to contact him about the video.

'I just posted a video to get some justice now I got news n****s all up in my DMs [direct messages] telling me to call them smh [shaking my head],' he said.

Hoff tried to make a joke about the post, saying 'please call this news n****'.

At first, Rivers thought the joke was funny, replying 'LMFAOO'.

But then he became offended when he realized that Hoff wasn't black.

'I just looked through your photos on twitter and realize u aren't black but called me a n****'

'No I called myself one,' Hoff responded.

'I'm a news lady at 11alive I thought you were referring to all of us. So sorry if you didn't understand,' she said.

Her station found out about the exchange when Rivers posted part of it on Twitter.

Hoff apologized multiple times and eventually Rivers took the screenshots down.

Hoff says she spoke with her boss, assistant news director Julie Eisenmanm, about the incident and she said Hoff did the right thing, according got the lawsuit.

The next day, Hoff says she even spoke with her human resources representative Grady Tripp, who assured her that she would not be terminated.

Tripp said she would be suspended for two weeks without pay, as her contract stipulated. If she did anything again though, she would be fired.

And just two days before her suspension was to end, she got a voicemail from News Director Jennifer Rigby, saying: 'We miss you and really, really look forward to your return on Thursday'.

But on Thursday, management pushed her return back by at least a day. And on Friday she was told to wait until Monday.

A few minutes after that call, Rigby called back to say that the story had been reported by a broadcast gossip site and that it complicated her return to work.

A few hours later, Tripp and Rigby gave Hoff the choice of either resigning or being fired.

Hoff resigned, but she said it wasn't a choice.

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The European Court of Human Rights has declared that the hate speech of one Belgian Muslim man is not protected under free speech laws

European free speech laws don't seem to protect anybody so it's slightly comforting that they don't protect Muslims either

Europe's top human rights court ruled on Thursday (July 20) that online videos considered by a Belgian court to be Islamist hate speech were not protected under free speech provisions.

Fouad Belkacem is a Belgian national currently imprisoned for his activities as the head of Sharia4Belgium, an organisation banned for recruiting foreign fighters to participate in militant activities in the Middle East.

The European Court of Human Rights evaluated Belkacem's argument that his remarks in a series of videos on online platform YouTube fell within his freedoms of expression and religion and were not meant to incite violence.

In the videos, Belkacem had called on viewers to "overpower non-Muslims, teach them a lesson and fight them", content the Court called "markedly hateful" and "vehement". He had also called for the violent establishment of Sharia law.

The ECHR upheld the 2013 decision of Belgium's top court, which found that, far from simply expressing his views, Belkacem had incited others to discriminate on the basis of faith and to violence against non-Muslims.

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Swiss beauty blogger under fire for calling Asian people ‘Ching Chongs’

"Ching Chong" is old-fashioned speech but is only mildly derogatory.  It's not unreasonable to use the term to indicate that East Asians are seen as different

A POPULAR beauty blogger and model has come under fire for using a racist slur in a recent post.

In a review of a Korean cosmetics line, Swiss blogger and YouTuber ‘Cocomadkilla’ referred to people of Asian descent as “Ching Chongs”.

“As you may have noticed, you discover a lot of funny stuff in the east,” she began, which is already pretty eyebrow-raising.

“Many of us don’t understand the ‘Ching Chongs’ with the black hair and the funny clothes.”

Cocomadkilla has since deleted the offensive post but the internet hasn’t forgotten and people are furious.

“I keep trying to form some coherent retort but the level of racist idiocy displayed has made me speechless,” wrote one person in a discussion about the post on Reddit.

“It’s like we’ve taken a time machine and went back a few decades. Seriously?!” wrote another.

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The AP Stylebook Is Getting Crazy

Back in those ancient days when teletypes gave us the sound effects for news, the Associated Press was esteemed as the gold standard of objective news coverage. Inside a liberal media bubble, that pretense continues.

But for decades now, AP has tacked hard to port along with the rest of the media establishment. They'll deny it, of course, because that's what they do.

But the evidence is there, emblazoned in the AP Stylebook, which sets the rules for the language of news reporting. It also sets the tone of the media elite's daily composition in every format — print, online or broadcast. They say it "defines clear news writing" and call it "the journalist's bible," which is a fairly damning phrase, since it rejects the Bible.

In the biblical account, we are created by God and assigned our sex. But the term "gender," AP's gurus now instruct, is "not synonymous with sex." Rather, the term "refers to a person's social identity while sex refers to biological characteristics." The "objective" reporter is required to set biology aside and describe people as they "identify" themselves socially.

AP doubles down, exploiting the authority of "medical organizations" to bend biology. It says, "Not all people fall under one of two categories for sex or gender, according to leading medical organizations, so avoid references to both, either or opposite sexes or genders as a way to encompass all people."

The AP Stylebook rejects the principle of marriage, lecturing reporters to not call the children of unmarried parents "illegitimate," and to always avoid referring to a homosexual "preference" or "lifestyle."

Labels have power:

In the abortion debate, there are the preferred labels, "pro-life" and "pro-choice." But when it comes to killing unborn children, AP insists you should not use the term "pro-life." It instructs reporters to say "anti-abortion," in keeping with the constant desire to define conservatives in the negative — anti-tax, anti-immigrant and so on. And the other side? The stylebook has that covered: It is "pro-abortion rights."

Let's go international. There, too, AP bows to left-wing pressure. It discourages the use of "Islamist," along with that it now says are its negative connotations, "Islamic fighters, militants, extremists or radicals, who may or may not be Islamists." Terrorists should be defined as "militants." We may rout the Islamic State on the battlefield, but the Stylebook waves a white flag on the language.

Years ago, we were told to stop using the phrase "illegal alien." They're "immigrants," we were instructed. Bizarrely, AP is now discouraging the plain words "migrant" or "refugee" as Syrians flee to Europe. Instead, the experts tell reporters to call them (and we're not making this up) "people struggling to enter Europe." We might struggle with our luggage when arriving at the airport in Venice, Italy. Does that make us "refugees"?

In the climate debate, the left wants conservatives labeled "deniers," "denialists" or worse. AP pushes back, but only a bit. It says, "To describe those who don't accept climate science or dispute that the world is warming from man-made forces, use climate change doubters" — oh, if only it had stopped there — "or those who reject mainstream climate science."

Perhaps next it will instruct that critics of the AP Stylebook must be described as "those who reject mainstream media political correctness."

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Do all Indians run 7/11 stores?

Indians are certainly prominent in running small businesses but Australian Senator Roberts was just joking when he stressed his Australian identity by saying he has never run a 7/11.  He was born in India but took the citizenship of his Australian mother

Outspoken One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has set Twitter alight with a controversial jibe at former Greens senator Larissa Waters.

Mr Roberts, who was born in India, posted a tweet after Ms Waters was forced to resign after 'discovering' that she had not renounced her Canadian citizenship - making her ineligible to serve [in the Australian parliament].

He wrote: 'I do not own, nor have I ever owned, a 7-Eleven. I'm not even a chucker' with the hashtags 'auspol' and 'NotIndian.'

Senator Roberts' jibe caused some confusion online, with some social media users wondering whether 'chucker' referred to Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

The One Nation senator is no stranger to controversy, making headlines for his views on climate change and international banking.

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"Chucker" is a cricket reference.  He is again being jocular in saying that Indians do not bowl properly.

Very evil not to be attracted to blacks

A woman taking part in a TV experiment examining racism in dating has sparked outrage from viewers  after claiming she was not attracted to a black man because his 'nose was flaring' and it made him look 'angry'.

In Channel 4's Is Love Racist? The Dating Game, presenter and sociologist Emma Dabiri set out to explore just how much race played a part when it comes to choosing a love match.

But one red-headed white female participant sparked a flurry of angry tweets when she explained she was not attracted to a black man because of his nose.

'His nose looks like it’s flaring too much,' before she added, 'You know when people are angry? He’s flaring and pouting.'

Shocked viewers took to social media with one saying: 'Is Love Racist has me fuming, racism is alive and well!'

One person said they had to rewind her TV to check they had heard her correctly, while others were 'irritated' and 'cringed' at the comment.

One upset viewer also said: 'Apparently that black guy is pouting because he has full lips and his nostrils are flared?? Listen don't make me get mad.'

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What a naughty man

They were actually reasonable questions -- but not politely put or well researched

Veteran BBC presenter John Humphrys has been accused of xenophobia and sexism after an interview with British tennis star Johanna Konta.

Listeners to BBC’s Today Programme on Radio 4 were incensed to hear him question Ms Konta’s British citizenship after she made it to the semi-finals of Wimbledon.

The presenter asked: “We talk about you as being British but you were born in Hungary, Australian citizenship, and I seem to remember that the Australian High Commissioner when you won the quarter-final said ‘Great to see an Aussie win’ and we were saying ‘Great to see a Brit win’ – so what are you?”

Ms Konta laughed incredulously before she replied: “I was actually born in Australia to Hungarian parents but I’ve lived here for half my life now almost and I’m a British citizen and I’m incredibly proud to represent Great Britain… I’ve represented Britain in the Olympics so I’m definitely a British athlete.”

Hundreds of people on Twitter sprang to defend the tennis star, who moved to Great Britain in 2005.

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He forgot that interviewers can be critical -- but not towards sports stars -- unless the stars are really bad

Someone who SHOULD shut up

Brexit is the exit of Britain from the European Union.  It is very controversial in England.  Prominent English Jew, Stephen Pollard, went to a classical concert.  He loved it.  Except...

There’s an old Jewish joke about the curse of the Plotnick Diamond. The diamond is magnificent – one of the largest and purest in the world. But the woman who wears it tells everyone that it comes with a curse: Mr Plotnick.

That’s sometimes how I feel about Daniel Barenboim. There is no greater musician on earth. He is incapable of a routine performance and his insights, either as a pianist, a conductor or a lecturer on music, are peerless. But to get that side of him you have to put up with the other – the compulsion to tell the rest of us what we are doing wrong in our non-musical lives.

It’s a price I am more than happy to pay, but his antics on Sunday night at the Proms have riled many. He didn’t mention Brexit by name – and was careful to say his words were “not political” – but you’d have to be verbally tone deaf not to get what he meant.

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N-word used on Walmart website to describe product colour

WALMART was apologising on Monday after an appalling description of a product by a third-party vendor made its way onto the retail giant’s website.

The retailer was slammed early Monday after the colour of a netting weave cap — used as a protective layer between a person’s hair and sewn-in hair extensions — on its site was described as the colour “N***** Brown.”

“Hey @Walmart what are you doing,” Twitter user Kwani Lunis tweeted with a screenshot of the problematic product listing.

New York Times best-selling author Roxane Gay condemned the retail chain, tweeting that dropping the N-bomb on their site was “so far past unacceptable.”

Shortly after the controversy erupted, Walmart removed the racial slur and replaced the “Add To Cart” button with a message stating that the item was no longer available.

“While we aim to provide accurate product information, it is provided by manufacturers, suppliers and others, and has not been verified by us,” a disclaimer provided below the product read.

A Walmart spokeswoman later apologised for the listing in a statement to The Post. “We are very sorry and appalled that this third party seller listed their item with this description on our online marketplace,” spokeswoman Danit Marquardt wrote in a statement.

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"N*gger brown" is nonsense anyway.  African Americans cover a considerable range of skin colors

Canada police issue warrant for imam for 'anti-Semitic hate speech'

A Palestinian-Jordanian imam accused of giving an anti-Semitic sermon is wanted by Canadian police for hate crimes.

A Montreal judge issued an arrest warrant for Sheikh Muhammad ibn Musa Al Nasr on Sunday for promoting hate.

Jewish organisation B'nai Brith said Mr Al Nasr preached Jews were the "worst of mankind" and should be slaughtered, in a sermon in Montreal in December.

Mr Al Nasr's whereabouts are unknown and B'nai Brith is calling for his extradition to Canada.

"Today, the Jewish community of Montreal can sleep safer, knowing that there is a price to pay for inciting violence against our community," said Michael Mostyn, chief executive officer of B'nai Brith Canada in a statement.

Mr Al Nasr is charged with the wilful promotion of hatred under Canada's anti-hate crime laws.

During his sermon in Arabic at the Dar al-Arkam Mosque in Montreal last December, Mr Al Nasr reportedly said Jews were the "worst of mankind" and that Muslims should slaughter them on Judgement Day.

The sermon is still posted to the mosque's YouTube channel, and B'nai Brith says the mosque has not apologised for Mr Al Nasr's statements.

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A man is being put on trial in Scotland for teaching a dog to Sieg Heil

A YouTube comedian known as Count Dankula (real name Markus Meechan) will soon stand trial for creating the contentious video. For those who haven’t seen it, the pug in question belongs to Meechan’s girlfriend, and in an effort to undermine how supposedly ‘cute and adorable her wee dog is’, he trained the animal to react excitedly to the phrase ‘gas the Jews’, and to lift its paw in response to ‘Sieg Heil’.  At one point, the pug is seen at a computer screen, apparently enjoying a filmed excerpt from one of Hitler’s speeches.

Does the concept of a Nazi pug really have to be explained? Have we reached the point where such a self-evidently absurd premise is interpreted as anything other than comedic? You needn’t even watch the video, the phrase ‘Nazi pug’ should be enough of a hint, let alone that it was created by one ‘Count Dankula’.

Yet last week Meechan was informed that his application for legal aid has been denied. If the police get their way, he will be the latest in a growing list of citizens who have been jailed for making jokes.

Whether the video is funny or not is a matter of opinion. That its intention was to be funny is beyond doubt. But this, evidently, is not a view shared by the Lanarkshire police.

According to one of Meechan’s recent tweets, the officer who arrested him did so ‘with gusto’ and said that he ‘was an actual Nazi trying to inspire people to become Nazis’. I hadn’t thought that such stupidity was even possible outside of the animal kingdom, let alone in the upper echelons of our law-enforcement agencies.

Detective inspector David Cockburn of Lanarkshire CID echoed this sentiment in an official statement. ‘The clip is deeply offensive’, he said, ‘and no reasonable person can possibly find the content acceptable in today’s society. This arrest should serve as a warning to anyone posting such material online, or in any other capacity, that such views will not be tolerated.’

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Wisconsin Assembly approves legislation requiring discipline for disruptive UW protests

The state Assembly approved a Republican-backed bill late Wednesday night that aims to prevent disruptive protests on college campuses by requiring the University of Wisconsin System to suspend and expel students who repeatedly interrupt speakers.

The bill’s supporters described it as a step to protect free speech by ensuring potentially controversial speakers, often conservatives, can present their ideas on UW campuses without being shouted down.

Democrats and several UW faculty members derided the proposal as a politicized solution in search of a problem, saying no one has faced violent protests or been denied the right to speak at Wisconsin’s public universities.

The bill passed on a 61-36 vote after more than three hours of debate, with Rep. Bob Gannon, R-West Bend, the only Republican to vote against the proposal. All Democrats voted against it.

Debate over the legislation has reflected both long-standing conservative claims of liberal bias on university campuses and a growing sense on the right that left-leaning college students, faculty and administrators have become more hostile to differing opinions.

“It is imperative that our institutions of higher education remain a free marketplace of ideas, as intended,” said Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, a lead author of the legislation. “Sadly we are at a crossroads. … UW’s base policies are not working.”

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Must not doubt that women can drive all trains

[British government minister] Philip Hammond was caught up in a sexism row after telling the cabinet that driving trains was so easy that even women could do it.

The chancellor asked other ministers on Tuesday why there were so few female train drivers, adding that the job was so simple in modern locomotives that “even they can do it”.

Mr Hammond’s comments were met with a furious response by his cabinet colleagues, according to The Sun. The chancellor was apparently left attempting to explain himself, prompting Theresa May to interject and say “Chancellor, I am going to take your shovel away from you”, the newspaper reported.

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Chicago: Must not criticize immigration system

The rally cries were clear Monday night as dozens called for the resignation of a suburban village trustee who they say is racist and offensive. But the trustee isn't backing down.

Angry about the Palos Township Trustee's social media posts, protesters called for Trustee Sharon Brannigan to step down.

The Arab American Action Network was one of several groups organizing the rally ahead of the meeting, upset about several Facebook posts from Brannigan, in particular one where she wrote:

"What's Palos doing? Why are all of our schools filling with Middle East students without documentation?"

"I have three kids in school here and it upset me that an elected official would say this and have so much hate towards us," said protester Manal Arman.

Most of the protesters couldn't fit in the small meeting room, where Brannigan called the posts her First Amendment right.

"The point of my statements criticizes the federal government's poor immigration controls including an almost negligible visa tracking system," Brannigan said

Those calling for her resignation say they will rally again at the next meeting as long she continues what they call her racist attitude toward Muslims.

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Derogatory remarks about the Untouchables now punishable in India -- sort of

On 3 July, the Delhi High Court in a case ruled that posting of casteist insults on Facebook against members of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) community is punishable under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

In the case, a Rajput woman had allegedly posted derogatory remarks against the ‘Dhobi’ community on her Facebook wall. The high court quashed the complaint on grounds that for the 1989 act to apply, the insults must be directed against particular individual(s) of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) community and not the community as a whole.

The court, however, made an important observation that social media is a space within ‘public view’ and therefore, insults posted on a Facebook wall against specific individuals of the SC/ST community would attract criminal sanctions. The case highlights how social media is steadily becoming a platform for posting hate speech content.

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Canadian Police searching for rapper accused of uttering hate speech

The hate crimes unit of the Montreal police department says the search for a rapper accused of hate speech is a "top priority."

B’nai Brith, which has been tracking anti-Semitic incidents for 35 years, said rapper Jonathan Azaziah (aka Madd Cold), uses his music to promote antisemitism.

"We are pleased that the Montreal Hate Crimes Unit is taking this matter very seriously," said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B'nai Brith Canada. "Azaziah has not only proclaimed his desire to murder Jews but encourages others to do the same. This is perhaps the most clear-cut case of incitement to violence against the Jewish people in Canada that we have seen in a long time."

It’s a case the hate crimes unit is taking seriously.

"An investigation is under way and findings will be sent to our prosecution," Commander Caroline Cournoyer said. "We will try to find this person. This is really important for us. It is serious."

Azaziah spends a lot of his time in Montreal and has written songs called "Death to Israel" and "Overthrow the Saudis."

As a result of the investigation many websites have removed Azaziah’s music and videos from their sites and according to B'nai Brith global music distributors have also begun to remove his content

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When is a picture of Jesus a hate crime?

On Friday, a painting of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross was left on a fence outside the Hillside Islamic Center in Long Island, New York. Now, the Nassau County Police Dept. is investigating the incident as a “hate crime.”

“A worker there had found this large painting of Christ on a cross on the property,” reported an anchor for NBC 4. “The anti-Muslim message was found hanging from a fence, deemed to be so obviously because it was a mosque.”

“Nassau County police said they are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.”

The “anti-Muslim message,” as the NBC 4 anchor labeled it, was a green and white painting of Jesus’ silhouette hanging on the cross.

“Members of this North New Hyde mosque feel someone tried to attack their religion Friday,” said a reporter for News 12 Long Island. “The reaction was kind of surprised, that in this community, we’ve been here since 2002, this is the first time it has happened,” said a member of the Hillsdale Mosque.

Another member of the congregation said that, although Jesus is considered a prophet in Islam, “that’s not what he meant” when the man hung the painting on the center’s fence:

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AP: Journalists Should Avoid Using Words ‘Pro-life,’ ‘Terrorist,’ or ‘Migrant’ In News Stories

The Associated Press Stylebook, published by the Associated Press to provide reporting and language guidelines for journalists, has released a 2017 version that instructs journalists to refrain from using terms like "pro-life," "migrant," "refugee," "Islamist" and "terrorist” in their writing.

In her July 9 article, “How the AP Stylebook censors 'pro-life' and other conservative words,” published in The Hill, Rachel Alexander points out the obvious bias in the AP Stylebook.

“More often than not, style writers have been more interested in censoring conservative words while promoting language that liberals tend to favor,” said Alexander. “That's been especially true of the AP Stylebook published by The Associated Press. It's unfortunate, because that's the guide most journalists rely upon.”

Alexander points out that the Stylebook instructs journalists to change "pro-life" to "anti-abortion," because the AP Stylebook says to "[u]se anti-abortion instead of pro-life and pro-abortion rights instead of pro-abortion or pro-choice.”

The Stylebook also says to avoid using the term abortionist because it “connotes a person who performs clandestine abortions.”

When it comes to words regarding terrorism, the Stylebook instructs journalists to use the terms “Militant,” “lone wolves,” or “attackers” instead of “terrorist” or “Islamist.”

The Stylebook also suggests that instead of using the term “migrant” or “refugee,” "people struggling to enter Europe” should be used.

In addition, the Stylebook deemed the terms "Illegal immigrant" and "undocumented" as unacceptable.

"The mainstream media claim that it's not biased, but it's got this bias built into its own words, and we're seeing these words increasingly scrubbed from news articles and replaced by politically correct words instead,” Alexander said during a Fox & Friends appearance on Tuesday.

“It's a bias against conservatives, and it's getting worse every year,” she said.

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Trump shuns G20 lapel pin worn by other leaders



President Donald Trump wore his “America First” foreign policy initiative on his lapel at this year’s G20 conference.

While world leaders rocked a special G20 pin that featured a reef knot, Trump opted to stay with an American flag pin — the reef knot was selected as the logo for this year’s meeting, representing “interconnectedness.”

The G20 motto reads, “Our task is to shape the interconnected world.”

And while the president’s supporters cheered him on for the decision, the narrative pushed by the media is that the U.S. was “isolated” at the meeting, “undeniably alone.”

(For the record, former President Barack Obama wore an American flag pin to the G20 summit in 2016.”)

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Reality bites: Australian bank drops sexism case against high profile Sydney trader after he sent an email calling their new female chief financial officer a 'dumb appointment'

Just because the person criticized was female, a self-righteous executive said it was sexist, even though the sex of the person was not mentioned.  That folly has just cost his bank a lot of money

ANZ Bank has reached a settlement with the high profile trader who was fired after sending a 'sexist' email about the bank's new female chief financial officer.

Angus Aitken lost his position as head of institutional equities at Bell Potter, a broker firm employed by ANZ, after sending an email to clients in May of 2016 about the bank's new CFO Michelle Jablko.

In the email, Mr Aitken wrote: 'ANZ - that new CFO has to be one of the dumber appointments I have seen... another reason not to own this stock. Sell ANZ.'

Last year he launched legal action against the bank and its chief executive Shayne Elliott and communications general manager Paul Edwards.

On Tuesday, Mr Edwards tweeted an apology to Mr Aitken on behalf of himself and the bank.

'ANZ withdraws the allegation that Angus Aitken is sexist and apologises,' he said.

Mr Aitken also posted an apology note through social media, saying: 'I withdraw and apologise for my allegations against Shayne Elliott, Paul Edwards and the ANZ that they engaged in intimidatory conduct towards Bell Potter in order to have my employment terminated.'

Mr Aitken was employed as head of institutional equities at Bell Potter Financial Group in Sydney.

His controversial email went on to say: 'UK clients last night were completely amazed that they would appoint a CFO whose last major deal was advising Slater and Gordon to buy the Quindell assets form over $1bn last year that are now worth bugger all.'

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The woman criticized does seem to have a poor track record.  She probably WAS an "affirmative action" appointee.  In other words, it was the bank, not the critic, that was sexist.  So the bank "projected" their own sexism onto someone else

Defeatist talk about black people not allowed

A bit strange

A Boston police officer who made a racist movie trailer parody will be suspended without pay for six months.

Police Commissioner William Evans on Thursday released a letter of apology from Officer Joseph DeAngelo Jr., who is additionally required to participate in sensitivity and unconscious bias training, meet with community leaders and do community service, CBS Boston reported.

DeAngelo, a four-year veteran of the force, admitted to creating the questionable video featuring another officer and the insensitive tagline: “This summer black people have met their match.”

In his letter, DeAngelo explained he was only trying to “poke fun of a longtime friend and co-worker” and apologized for the video, calling it “thoughtless, childish, insensitive and offensive.”

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The woodpile inhabitant again

Would "An African in the woodpile" pass muster?  Probably not

A BRITISH Conservative MP has been suspended by Theresa May overnight after she was caught on tape using a racist slur.

The move to kick Anne Marie Morris out of the party leaves the Prime Minister with an even smaller majority — making her more vulnerable to rebellions, reports The Sun.

The backbench MP said during a meeting that the prospect of leaving the EU without a deal was “the n***** in the woodpile”, HuffPost reported.

Ms Morris apologised within hours — but after widespread calls for the MP to be kicked out of Parliament, the Tories suspended her from the party in the Commons.

She was recorded saying: “Look at the detail, it isn’t all doom and gloom.

“Now we get to the real n***** in the woodpile — which is, in two years what happens if there is no deal?”

Mrs May said this afternoon: “I was shocked to hear of these remarks, which are completely unacceptable. I immediately asked the Chief Whip to suspend the party whip.

“Language like this has absolutely no place in politics or in today’s society.”

Now that the whip has been suspended from Ms Morris, she no longer counts as a Conservative in Parliament, although she is still a member of the party — leaving the Government with a tiny majority even with support of the DUP.

The Tories have launched an “urgent investigation” into her comments which will decide on her long-term future.

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A lot of speech that was once normal can be perilous today.  I remember using the woodpile expression myself in days of long ago

Sir Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber slam 'bonkers politically correct teachers' for changing the lyrics in Joseph song from 'Children of Israel' to 'Children of Kindness'

Sir Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber slammed 'moronic' teachers for changing the lyrics in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat from 'Children of Israel' to 'Children of Kindness'.

Lyricist Sir Tim Rice- who worked on the musical alongside Mr Webber - criticised the edit as a 'bonkers' attempt to be 'politically correct'.

Close Every Door is sung by Joseph in prison and includes the words: 'Children of Israel are never alone [...] for we have been promised a land of our own.'

But the lyrics were changed in a production sponsored by Wellington city council at the children's festival Artsplash, in New Zealand, something for which Sir Tim, 72, said permission had not been given.

The change was first noticed by Twitter user, Kate Dowling, who wrote to Wellington city council and to Sir Tim, to ask for clarification.

According to the Daily Telegraph, he told the Chalke Valley History Festival: 'It was quite a big thing, it was for all schools in the Wellington area in New Zealand.

'We came down on them like a tonne of bricks and they said "we wanted to make it easier for the children".

'I thought the point of teaching was to teach children to cope with hard things in life.

'I mean Joseph is an innocent story straight from the Bible and these people in New Zealand thought we were making statements about Israel and Palestine - bonkers.'

Lloyd Webber later waded into to the dispute to back Sir Tim.

He told The Observer: 'Tim is quite right. You cannot reinvent a Bible story. That song is a serious moment and a key point in the show.

'It is about the connection Joseph suddenly makes with Israel. Tim was paraphrasing the Bible and it should be kept that way.'

The local council in the area later apologised saying a 'community coordinator made an error in judgment', and the songs would be performed in their original versions in the show.

The coordinator of the New Zealand arts festival where the song will be performed in September said: 'Action has been taken over the weekend to ensure that the original song words are all reinstated, with immediate effect.'

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Twitter can proceed with free speech case against DOJ, federal judge rules

A federal judge has given Twitter permission to proceed with a First Amendment lawsuit brought against the Department of Justice over restrictions limiting how tech companies can disclose details about government surveillance requests.

Twitter sued the government in 2014 after the Justice Department barred the company from revealing the exact number of requests for user data it’s received from federal authorities, but the government countered by claiming disclosing that data would be detrimental to national security.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled against the government’s bid for summary judgement Thursday and said it’s restrictions constitute a prior restraint on Twitter’s freedom of speech and “subject to the highest level of scrutiny under the First Amendment.”

“The government has not presented evidence, beyond a generalized explanation, to demonstrate that disclosure of the information in the draft transparency report would present such a grave and serious threat of damage to national security as to meet the applicable strict-scrutiny standard,” the judge ordered.

“Even where courts have hesitated to apply the highest level of scrutiny due to competing secrecy and national security concerns, they have nevertheless held that heightened or rigorous scrutiny of such restrictions on speech is required,” she added.

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Bill Maher faces fresh accusations of racism after HBO star posts tweet suggesting that all nail salon staff are Korean

I think they are all Vietnamese in my burg but who knows?  They all look the same to me

The tweet sparked outrage at the stereotype of Asian Americans holding jobs in nail salons.

'[Because] Koreans work at nail salons! Hahahahahaha,' wrote one user.

'This literally reads like a Trump tweet,' said another.

One Twitter user went so far as to take a screenshot of 'how to delete a Tweet' and sent it to the talk show host.

Representatives for Maher and HBO did not immediately respond to request for comment about his North Korea joke.

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Jonathan Haidt gets it -- writing below

Those most vulnerable to being fired for expressing controversial views are the ever-growing numbers of contingent faculty—who also tend to be disproportionately women and minorities. Meanwhile, the better-insulated tenured faculty tend to be white men.

As a result, if progressives are concerned with ensuring a more representative faculty, if they are committed to protecting freedom of conscience and freedom of expression for women and minorities, then they need to be committed to protecting free speech across the board. Every attempt to censor Charles Murray or Milo Yiannopoulos makes it easier to mount a campaign to fire someone like Lisa Durden (who made controversial comments about holding an “all black Memorial Day celebration” that excluded whites). Progressives lose the moral high ground they would need to defend radical and provocative speech—which is unfortunate because they are arguably the ones who need free-speech protections most.

Americans tend to be politically to the right of most university faculty and students—and as a result the public is more likely to be shocked and offended by views expressed by progressive scholars than by academic conservatives, who are few in number, generally rather moderate politically, and usually cautious about what they say publicly. Politicians are also more likely to throw their weight behind campaigns against left-leaning scholars, given that Republicans control most state governments, and thereby the purse strings of most public universities.

And if progressive scholars face a constant threat from the right coming from off-campus, they also face a threat from the left on campus. Many of the student-led campaigns that have made national news in the last two years have targeted professors who, themselves, identify as liberal or progressive—but who managed to challenge or violate some tenet of the prevailing activist orthodoxy.

Progressives, therefore, have reason to celebrate the fact that conservatives and their allies seem to be rallying behind the cause of free speech on campus. They can take advantage of this moment to institutionalize more robust protections, clearer standards and policies, and a healthier civic culture that turns disagreements into opportunities for learning.

If progressives fail to embrace free speech, and if they cede this basic American value to the right, then, as Harvard’s  President Faust warned in her commencement address, any effort to limit some speech “opens the dangerous possibility that the speech that is ultimately censored may be our own.”

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Jewish group outraged over Jay-Z lyric about 'Jews owning all the property'

The Anti-Defamation League, an organization that monitors bigotry in the United States and abroad, voiced its objection to a line from a song on Jay-Z’s new album.

The lyric from ‘The Story of O.J.,’ the second track from Jay-Z’s latest studio album titled 4:44 reads: ‘You wanna know what's more important than throwin' away money at a strip club? Credit/You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it.’

The ADL says that line about Jews ‘owning all the property’ reinforces age-old stereotypes related to supposed Jewish control of finance.

'We do not believe it was Jay-Z's intent to promote anti-Semitism,' an ADL official told Rolling Stone.

‘On the contrary, we know that Jay-Z is someone who has used his celebrity in the past to speak out responsibly and forcefully against the evils of racism and anti-Semitism.

'[But] the lyric does seem to play into deep-seated anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews and money.

‘The idea that Jews “own all the property” in this country and have used credit to financially get ahead are odious and false.

‘Yet, such notions have lingered in society for decades, and we are concerned that this lyric could feed into preconceived notions about Jews and alleged Jewish “control” of the banks and finance.’

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Old-fashioned language in a joke attracts criticism

"Poofter" is an Australian slang term for a male homosexual. It was used commonly once, both as an insult and as a teasing joke. I have used it in the latter sense myself on many occasions. If someone does or says something of which you mildly disapprove, you may shout "Poofter"! at him

LEGENDARY cricket commentator Bill Lawry has apologised after delivering a gay slur against Prince Alfred College, calling greats of the game who attended the school “a pack of poofters”.

The former Test captain made the comment while addressing a room full of advertising executives and major brand representatives at Nine’s launch of its upcoming Ashes coverage in Sydney on Tuesday.

His attempt at light-hearted ribbing of commentary colleagues like Ian Chappell created a distinctly awkward moment.

In an exchange first reported on advertising news website Mumbrella, 80-year-old Lawry said: “He went to Prince Alfred College where all the great cricketers from South Australia went to, and of course all majored in knitting and crocheting — they were bloody, all a pack of poofters … it was shocking.”

A Nine spokesperson told The Advertiser on Thursday: “Bill apologises for the comment and for any hurt that has been caused.

“Those present at the function realise there was no malice intended in the remark but that it could have been expressed better.”

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CNN in odd role as censor: The Fascism peeps out

CNN has been accused of blackmailing the man who created a meme of President Donald Trump tackling CNN by threatening to reveal his identity. USA TODAY

It's the antithesis of journalism for a news organization to monitor speech and decide whether someone is crossing a line and should be ruined.

What is curious is that CNN has withheld the creator's identity while making a thinly veiled threat that it will release his name if he posts anything CNN finds disturbing or offensive. That is an odd role for a news organization. The news media do not usually put citizens on probation for exercising their free speech.

CNN, however, stated that it has decided to withhold his name … for now. He is a private citizen, the network said, who apologized, took down the offending posts and said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same.

“CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.”

The last statement is particularly jarring. It sounds like CNN is putting a citizen on a type of media probationary status — threatening to reveal his name if it deems any posting as constituting “ugly behavior.” It puts a news organization in the position of monitoring free speech and deciding whether to ruin someone if he crosses some ill-defined line with CNN. It is the antithesis of what a news organization is supposed to be about.

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Senator Ted Cruz suggested CNN may have broken the law by threatening the video-maker.

Pigs must not squeal

A Queensland butcher says he has been slammed on social media by a group of 'unapologetic vegans' over the name of his new shop.

The Squealing Pig in Burpengary opened last week, but owner Gary Thompson has since been bombarded with complaints about the shop's name and one star reviews.

'They started with comments about cruelty to animals, telling me I should be disgusted with myself,' Mr Thompson told Daily Mail Australia.

'It's got to be fair all round. I don't care if you're a vegan or whatever you are. I've got the right to call my shop what I call it.'

Mr Thompson said those leaving poor reviews on his butcher's Facebook page were mostly members of a group which calls itself Unapologetic Vegans Australia.

'That name is horrible,' one social media user wrote, speaking of The Squealing Pig.

'There is nothing on this earth worse than a gentle innocent creature squealing in pain and terror being slaughtered. Just think about it. And the message it gives.'

Mr Thompson himself took to Facebook to respond to the negative comments about his new shop.

'It is everyone's right to have an opinion but the business is currently being targeted by a vegan group that do not like our trading name,' he wrote.

'These vegans are putting six people's jobs and livelihoods at risk by trying to discredit our business because of their beliefs which they are entitled to do.'

Mr Thompson encouraged his customers to post honest appraisals of his store. And they came in droves.

After around 70 one star reviews were left on the website, nearly 1,500 five star rating followed.  

'Pigs squeal, horses neigh, cows moo. Love the shop name and the owner seems like a great Aussie just trying to make a living,' one reviewer wrote.

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Facebook fights U.S. gag order that it says chills free speech

Facebook Inc (FB.O) is challenging a gag order from a U.S. court that is preventing the company from talking about three government search warrants that it said pose a threat to freedom of speech, according to court documents.

Facebook said it wants to notify three users about the search warrants seeking their communications and information and also give those users an opportunity to object to the warrants, according to a filing in a Washington, D.C., appeals court seen by Reuters.

"We believe there are important First Amendment concerns with this case, including the government's refusal to let us notify three people of broad requests for their account information in connection with public events," Facebook said in a statement on Monday.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees certain rights including freedom of speech.

William Miller, a spokesman for U.S. prosecutors, declined to comment.

Facebook decided to challenge the gag order around the three warrants because free speech was at stake and because the events underlying the government's investigation were generally known to the public already, Facebook said in the undated court document.

Tech firms comply with thousands of requests for user data annually made by governments around the world, but in extraordinary circumstances, companies such as Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) have challenged government secrecy orders.

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French arrogance

Emmanuel Macron is the latest leader to bridle at the idea that democracy entails answering questions from journalists

Journalists are a hassle. This is sometimes because we’re stupid. Asked last week whether the newish French president, Emmanuel Macron, would be holding the traditional press conference on Bastille Day, an official from the Elysée palace explained, regretfully, that he would not. Apparently, his “complex thought process lends itself badly to the game of question-and-answer with journalists”.

Ah yes, that old game. Where journalists blithely ask questions and have the massive entitlement to expect that they might lead to, of all things, answers. It’s hardly surprising that Mr Macron doesn’t want to play. Especially on Bastille Day. One thinks of poor Marie Antoinette, whose cerebral, blue-sky thinking that brioche could provide the solution to a nationwide bread shortage was so ignorantly misrepresented.

Yesterday, Mr Macron suggested he’d push his reforms through by referendum and decree if he couldn’t get them through parliament, which suggests nobody else will be getting to scrutinise him either. Here’s hoping he humours the odd dim hack, perhaps speaking to them as one might children, or dogs.

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€50MILLION fine for hate speech: Social media such as Facebook and Twitter face huge payouts if they do not remove hateful posts under new German laws

The law gives social media networks 24 hours to delete or block criminal content and seven days to deal with less clear-cut cases

The law gives social media networks 24 hours to delete or block criminal content and seven days to deal with less clear-cut cases

Germany will fine social media networks up to 50 million euros (£44m) if they fail to remove hateful posts.

The law, passed today, gives social media networks 24 hours to delete or block obviously criminal content and seven days to deal with less clear-cut cases.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said the measure to 'end the internet law of the jungle' was overdue and dismissed suggestions it would infringe freedom of speech.

Failure to comply could see a company fined up to 50 million euros, and the company's chief representative in Germany fined up to 5 million euros.

Germany has some of the world's toughest laws covering defamation, public incitement to commit crimes and threats of violence.

This includes prison sentences for Holocaust denial or inciting hatred against minorities. But few online cases are prosecuted. 

The Central Council of Jews in Germany hailed the law as 'the logical next step for effectively tackling hate speech' following the 'failure' of voluntary measures. 

The issue has taken on more urgency amid concerns fake news and racist content could sway public opinion in the run-up to a national election on September 24.

But organisations representing digital companies and journalists have accused the government of rushing a law through parliament that could damage free speech.

Facebook, which has 29 million active users in Germany - more than a third of the total population - has said it is working hard to remove illegal content.  It said it had been deleting 3,500 posts per week in Germany in the past two months.

'This law as it stands now will not improve efforts to tackle this important societal problem,' a spokesman said, adding Facebook had not been consulted enough.

Facebook noted that in May it had announced plans to add an extra 3,000 workers around the world over the next year to monitor reports of inappropriate material. This is in addition to 4,500 people already reviewing posts.

In Berlin, Facebook's partner Arvato will employ up to 700 staff for 'content moderation' by the end of the year.

A German government survey has shown that Facebook deleted just 39 percent of content deemed criminal and Twitter only 1 percent. This is despite having signed a code of conduct including  a pledge to delete hate speech within 24 hours.

However, Facebook says it has significantly improved its processes since then and is now removing 87 percent of reported posts.

Twitter has also made a number of changes, including adding new filtering options, putting limits on trolls and stopping those users from creating new accounts.

In response to criticism of the draft law, the government softened the legislation by excluding email and messenger providers. The government also agreed to opening up the option of creating joint monitoring facilities to make decisions about what content to remove.

It also made clear that a fine would not necessarily be imposed after just one infraction, but only after repeated failure.

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Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride removing ‘bride auction’ scene

Forbidden fiction?

THE Hall of Presidents isn’t the only Disney attraction getting an overhaul. Suzi Brown, a spokeswoman for Disneyland Resorts, has confirmed that the popular Pirates of the Caribbean ride will be swapping out a scene in which a pirate buys his wife at auction.

The scene, which appeared in the “Pirates” rides at Disney World, Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, depicts a group of bound women on an auction block, with a banner reading: “Auction, take a wench for a bride” hanging above their heads.

As riders pass by, the pirate characters can he heard saying, “We wants the redhead,” in reference to the most prominently displayed of the “wenches” at auction, The OC Register reports.

Soon, however, the banner hanging at the site of the scene will read “Auction, surrender ye loot,” according to the Associated Press.

The redhead, too, will be recast as a pirate who will be overseeing the surrender of said “loot” at the three Disney parks in Orlando, Anaheim and Paris.

“Our team thought long and hard about how to best update this scene,” said Kathy Mangum, senior vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering, in a statement obtained by The OC Register.

“We think this keeps to the original vision of the attraction as envisioned by Marc Davis, X Atencio and the other Disney legends who first brought this classic to life.”
The ‘buy a wife’ scene at the park’s popular Pirates of the Caribbean ride will be changed to auction off “loot”. Image: Film Frame/Disney Enterprises

The ‘buy a wife’ scene at the park’s popular Pirates of the Caribbean ride will be changed to auction off “loot”. Image: Film Frame/Disney EnterprisesSource:Supplied

This isn’t the first time Disney has modified its “Pirates” rides to become more family-friendly. In 1997, Disney redesigned a scene in which pirates were chasing women, and changed it so the pirates looked to be chasing the women for the trays of food they carried.

In a post to the official Disney Parks Blog, Magnum also confirmed that the Paris version will feature new characters, including Captain Barbossa, from the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, and the “ghostly visages of Davy Jones and Blackbeard.”

Characters from the “Pirates” film franchise had already been added to the US version of the ride between 2006 and 2011.

Brown confirmed that the changes to the auction scene will be made in July at the Paris park, and next year in the US parks, the Associated Press reports.

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It's OK to destroy some memorials but not others

Or so the Leftist Boston Globe says below.  The Left did not apparently consider that pulling down Confederate monuments in the South might lead to a payback

EMMETT TILL has been dead more than 60 years, and they still won’t let him rest in peace.

Someone again vandalized a memorial to the African-American teenager who was kidnapped, mutilated, and murdered by two white men in Money, Miss., in 1955. Originally installed in 2011, the marker was scratched with a blunt tool in May, but an attack in late June attack left far more damage. Panels featuring Till’s image and the story of his killing were peeled off. All that remains is the logo for the Mississippi Freedom Trail, of which the memorial is part.

Whoever destroyed that marker wanted to erase history.

This isn’t the only memorial to the Chicago boy that’s been marred in Mississippi. Last fall, someone shot up a marker at the Tallahatchie River, where Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam dumped Till’s brutalized body. (An all-white jury acquitted the two men; later, they gave a detailed confession to Look magazine.) In 2006, an Emmett Till Memorial Highway sign was defaced with the initials “KKK.”

Do not equate the desecration of these memorials with the recent removal of Confederate monuments in New Orleans. Those statues of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis remain intact but out of public view.

Till was not an activist. He was a 14-year-old kid spending the summer down South with relatives, but his murder galvanized the civil rights movement.

On the flip side, memorials to the Confederate dead sanitize history, portraying those who favored human bondage as men of valor. The desecration of memorials to slavery or civil rights is just another attempt to eradicate this nation’s troubling past.

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PA Town Council Threatens to Fine Navy Officer for Playing ‘Taps’ to Honor Servicemen

U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joshua Corney is being threatened with a $300 fine by Pennsylvania’s Glen Rock Borough Council for playing “Taps” each night to honor the men and women who have served and sacrificed in the U.S. military.

“When I was in Afghanistan and Iraq, I told myself, I had a conversation with God, and I said, if I made it home, I would do this,” Corney says in a video explaining why playing the song is so important to him – and to those in his community.

The Council sent a certified letter to Corney on Saturday forbidding him from playing “Taps” on an amplified system, except on Sundays and seven designated flag holidays.

As the York Daily Record reports, Corney’s audio tribute takes less than a minute – and the ban could set a dangerous precedent leading to the prohibition of everything from church bells to Christmas carols:

“The 57 seconds of Taps plays each night from a PA system. Corney views it as an "audio memorial," meant to pay respect to servicemen and servicewomen. “If "Taps" is in violation, he says, then so may be other noises like the ringing of church bells and the annual Glen Rock carolers.”

While Corney has stopped playing “Taps” for now, he has begun to fight back. As a first step, he is circulating a petition to “Keep Taps in Glen Rock.” He has also resigned from the borough’s council as he investigates his other avenues of recourse.

"I want to be able to do this right," Corney said. "Maybe it's not that big of a deal to take a break for a while, get my ducks in a row."

Ultimately, Corney says, the final outcome will make define the very values his community holds dear: "It comes down to this is Glen Rock.”

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Advice for Leftist censors

Very bad to say you have to be white to be perfect

Advert for Malaysian beauty chain sparks fury

The ad was about the legend of Dayang Senandong, which is Malay folklore about a lady 'cursed with black skin but blessed with a beautiful voice'.

In the story, a wealthy merchant falls for an enchanting female voice.

In the typical misogynistic hue of many fairy tales, a woman's worth is intricately tied to her beauty, so he summons all of the 'beauties' of the area to come so that he can find his mystery woman.

After much trial and error, he hears the voice, and pulls back her veil only to discover that her face is (quite clearly painted) black.

He recoils in shock. 'Where are the lights?' he asks, before saying in disbelief, 'she is actually dark.'

The scene, approximately nine minutes into the video, has shocked audiences. All the other women in the video also look shocked and the woman with the beautiful voice turns around and leaves.

But when the winner of the 'legendary Cun Raya 2017' contest is announced, to all of the contestants' surprise, the enchanting singer with the 'blackface' wins the contest.

But this time when she removes her veil her skin is white. She said she wanted to 'test his sincerity' by painting her face.

'I am not dark, in fact I am flawless,' she says.

He immediately asks her to marry him.

Peopl have been outraged by the advert and have shared their thoughts on social media.

Resna Begum wrote on Twitter: 'Watsons Malaysia's blackface Raya ad is absolutely disgusting let's boycott this brand worldwide #Watsonsmy #WorldwideBoycott.' 

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In most of Asia, light-colored skin is more prestigious.  In India, you can tell how rich a man is not by the color of his skin but by the color of his wife's skin.  Rich Indian men marry women with nearly white skin, what Indians call "wheaten" skin. So the advertisement simply reflected the native values of the culture concerned.

Teen Magazines Launch the Pronoun Wars

Seventeen magazine Executive Editor Joey Bartolomeo announced, "We want Seventeen to be a magazine where all girls feel represented and included, regardless of their sexual identities."
Some of the most aggressive cultural propaganda today is coming from magazines for teenagers. The biggest crusade is about sex (yes, as soon as possible) and gender, where biology is completely negotiable, and incorrect or bizarre pronouns are nonnegotiable.

Teen Vogue Digital Editorial Director Phil Picardi declared: "For the past year or so, we've made a concerted effort to limit (and, eventually, banish) heteronormativity from all of our content ... we use gender neutral pronouns in almost all contexts. Our readers have appreciated the shift, and often help police our language."

Likewise, Seventeen magazine Executive Editor Joey Bartolomeo announced, "We want Seventeen to be a magazine where all girls feel represented and included, regardless of their sexual identities." The new orthodoxy was installed when the magazine posted a video on June 26 headlined "Trans Students Explain Why Pronouns Are Important."

First, a girl named Leah Juliett announces, "Just because I present more femme, doesn't mean I'm any less they/them." Another girl with the name C Mandler — let's guess that using a period after C is a troglodyte move — recounts telling her family over snacks: "Hey, guys. I'm non-binary. I don't have a gender."

Then the Facebook video stops — for an ad break. Who says these propaganda lessons for children can't make a few bucks on the side? The advertisers included Hewlett-Packard, New York Life and WP Engine.

This is an "education" campaign Seventeen organized with GLAAD, and C Mandler is a GLAAD campus ambassador.

Juliett explains gender deconstruction in astrological terms: "In my opinion, gender is a universe. It is a broad spectrum of planets and stars and sky that truly cannot be contained into a binary. ... So when someone identifies with a pronoun, they're essentially taking their little piece of that broad universe and identifying with that." By using the "correct pronouns," you are "validating that yes, you are right in your identity, and you are important, and we are respecting you."

Validation of this nonsense is mandatory. Gender identity can change on a whim, but it must be deeply honored at all times. The transgender and "genderqueer" humans seem to live in a higher universe, a self-selected class of victims of pronoun-abusing "society."

Mandler continues the tale of snack time with family. She proclaims: "My pronouns are they, them, theirs, and that's a nonnegotiable, and they were all kind of like, 'OK.' ... I know, personally, when I get misgendered by strangers, it's one thing, but it's especially painful when it's people who are close to you. So when my parents misgender me, it's a knife in my heart because they're the people whose opinions matter more to me than anybody else's."

Obviously, the family's opinions do not matter. Only her opinion matters, and only validation is acceptable. She cannot imagine the possibility that parents who brought home a baby daughter might feel pain at this rejection of biology.

Juliett even takes exception to the term "preferred pronouns." They're not a preference; they're like a vital organ! She says: "It's also not a preference; it's who they are. You need to use those pronouns! It's literally an extension of my arm or my leg. It's just as much a part of me as a vital organ. My identity, although you can't see it, still needs to be validated just as much as you would validate the fact that I have five fingers or five toes."

The last metaphor the gender deniers should use is body parts to suggest that their pronouns are as defining as fingers and toes ... or breasts and genitals.

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Pro-Life Group Claims Twitter Has ‘Suppressed’ Its Message

A pro-life group is claiming Twitter has “suppressed” its ads.

Live Action, a nonprofit organization founded by Lila Rose to promote the end of abortion, released a statement Tuesday about its clashes with the social media giant. Twitter censorship accusations have been growing increasingly frequent in recent years.

“While Planned Parenthood is allowed to advertise on Twitter, the social media company has suppressed Live Action’s ads, calling our pro-life messages offensive and inflammatory,” Live Action wrote.

Live Action claims Twitter asked the group to delete many of its tweets regarding Planned Parenthood, the No. 1 abortion provider in the United States.

“While it won’t censor Live Action’s and Lila Rose’s tweets outright, Twitter has banned our ability to advertise our content until we delete all the tweets it deems offensive—or, in reality, all the tweets that offend Planned Parenthood,” the organization wrote.

“Twitter has told us that we must delete all of our tweets: 1. calling for the end of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood; 2. all of our tweets of our undercover investigations into Planned Parenthood and; 3. any ultrasound images of preborn children,” said Live Action in the June 27 article.

Twitter’s content is monitored by the Twitter Trust and Safety Council. Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry of The Week called the council an “Orwellian nightmare” when it was founded in February 2016.

Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation, similarly raised concerns about the council, writing last year that “among the more than 40 organizations that make up the council, one finds such groups as the ‘Dangerous Speech Project,’ a group with ties to the liberal John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and to financier George Soros’ Open Society Institute.”

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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