‘It Isn’t a Crime to Tweet a Bible Verse,’ Finnish Politician Says After Court Dismisses Charges Against Her

An appeals court has dismissed “hate speech” charges against a member of Finland’s parliament who posted a tweet citing Bible verses.

The Helsinki Court of Appeals, based in Finland’s capital city, unanimously cleared Päivi Räsänen, a member of the Finnish parliament and the country’s former interior minister, and Bishop Juhana Pohjola, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, of “hate speech” charges.

The Helsinki District Court had unanimously cleared Räsänen and Pohjola of all charges in March 2022, but prosecutors appealed the case to a higher court, arguing that the lower court “misinterpreted” Räsänen’s tweet. The prosecution claimed that the court failed to “fully perceive and understand” the “degrading and dehumanizing” message against “homosexuals and … their right to dignity and self-determination.”

“In order to protect the dignity and equality of homosexuals, it is necessary to exclude Räsänen’s statements from freedom of expression by interpreting them as punishable hate speech directed at them [homosexuals],” the prosecution wrote.

Yet on Tuesday, the appeals court found that it “has no reason, on the basis of evidence received at the main hearing, to assess the case in any respect differently from the District Court.”

The district court had ruled that it isn’t the court’s job “to interpret biblical concepts.”

“I am deeply relieved,” Räsänen said in a statement after the ruling Tuesday. “The court has fully endorsed and upheld the decision of the district court, which recognized everyone’s right to free speech.”

“It isn’t a crime to tweet a Bible verse or to engage in public discourse with a Christian perspective,” she noted. “The attempts made to prosecute me for expressing my beliefs have resulted in an immensely trying four years, but my hope is that the result will stand as a key precedent to protect the human right to free speech. I sincerely hope other innocent people will be spared the same ordeal for simply voicing their convictions.”

The court ordered the prosecution to pay tens of thousands of euros in legal fees to cover Räsänen’s and Pohjola’s legal costs. The prosecution can appeal the case to the country’s Supreme Court before Jan. 15.

ADF International, which represented Räsänen and Pohjola, warned that “hate speech” charges threaten free speech rights.

“Vague hate speech laws, such as that found in Section 10 of the Finnish Criminal Code, have a significant chilling effect on freedom of expression,” Elyssa Koren, legal communications director at ADF International, told The Daily Signal in August. “Individuals are left with no clear guidance as to whether their deeply held beliefs will be the subject of criminal prosecution merely because another person is offended by them and deems them ‘hateful.’”

The Tweet

Räsänen, 62, has served in the Finnish parliament since 1995 and was interior minister from 2011 to 2015. She is a member of the center-right Christian Democrats party.

Her case dates to June 2019, when the Finnish legislator criticized the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland for supporting an LGBTQ “Pride” event.

“The whole case started when I criticized the leadership of the church because of its support for the ‘Pride’ event on Twitter,” Räsänen previously told The Daily Signal.

“The church has announced that it is the official partner of [the LGBTQ group] SETA in Pride 2019,” the legislator tweeted. “How does the doctrine of the church, the Bible, fit together with the fact that shame and sin are raised as a matter of ‘pride’?”

Her tweet included a photo of a 2004 pamphlet she wrote with the title “As Man and Woman He Created Them,” explaining the Bible’s position on sexuality and marriage with citations from the Old and New Testaments. The photo cites Romans 1:24-27, which teaches that “women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones” and “men committed shameful acts with other men.” Pohjola, who published the pamphlet, faced the charges alongside her.

“The archbishop of the church has publicly said that it is good that this case is being evaluated by the court,” Räsänen told The Daily Signal. “I have received thousands of messages of support from the members and even some pastors of the church, but not from the top leadership. Some of the bishops have criticized me heavily.”

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/11/14/finnish-court-vindicates-politician-faced-hate-speech-charges-bible-verse-tweet

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http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

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http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

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http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Pope fires outspoken conservative bishop

On Saturday, in a rare instance in Catholic governance, Pope Francis “relieved” conservative Joseph Strickland of his authority as the Bishop of Tyler, Texas. The move comes after an investigation by Vatican authorities who recommended Strickland leave his position as Bishop, and Strickland refused. What amounts to Strickland’s firing led to an outcry from conservative Catholics in Texas and internationally.

Earlier this year, Strickland explicitly stated his opposition to Pope Francis when he tweeted, “I believe Pope Francis is the Pope, but it is time for me to say that I reject his program of undermining the Deposit of Faith.” The “Deposit of Faith” combines scripture and tradition in Catholic teaching, so Strickland’s belief that the Pope is undermining it stems from the Pope’s reforms to Catholicism worldwide.

Among those reforms, the Pope’s restrictions, set out in 2021, on performing the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) became a stand-in for much more significant issues. Many observers agree that the TLM functions as a symbol of adherence to more severe traditionalist views on what Catholicism should look like. Pope Francis himself has said that the mass was “being used in an ideological way” by conservative priests who sought to move the Church backward instead of forward. Strickland began performing the TLM in 2020, just one year before the restrictions but has become a staunch advocate for the more traditional mass.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pope-forcibly-removes-texas-bishop-from-office-here-s-why/ar-AA1jRZtF

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http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Texas office of Rep. Monica De La Cruz vandalized over her support of Israel: 'I make no apologies'

The South Texas office of U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz was vandalized this week by pro-Hamas sympathizers angry over her solidarity with Israel, the Republican congresswoman said Thursday.

De La Cruz has expressed support for Israel amid its military response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists that killed 1,400 Israelis in communities near the Gaza Strip. Many pro-Palestinian supporters have criticized Israel for its bombardment of Gaza, which has resulted in thousands of deaths.

"On October 7th, Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists murdered over 1,000 innocent civilians, including many Americans, in the single largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust," De La Cruz said in a statement. "These savages burned babies in ovens, decapitated toddlers in front of their families, tortured parents before their children, and continue to hold hundreds of hostages."

De La Cruz released images on X showing her office in the border city of McAllen vandalized with spray paint. On a window read the message: "Israel kills Jews too." Another on the ground said: "You can't escape your crimes Monica."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texas-office-rep-monica-de-la-cruz-vandalized-support-israel-i-make-no-apologies-she-says

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http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

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http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Woman claims liberal NYC moms’ Facebook group banned her for standing with Israel

A war over Israel has erupted between famously liberal Upper West Side moms  — and even more left-wing mommies.

Morgan Roslyn Cohn, 26, claims she and her husband were booted from the Upper West Side Moms Facebook group last month because she posted on her profile picture, “Stand with Israel.”

The fallout caused a firestorm, with Cohn charging antisemitism and other members demanding an explanation for the expulsion.

An administrator claimed Cohn was bullying others on the site.

“The administrator was very upset that I was calling her out for being antisemitic,” Cohn, a teacher, told The Post. “I would never [bully]. Why would I put my career at risk?”

Cohn, who had been a member of the popular 29,000-strong chat group for “three or four years” believes she fell into crosshairs when she “liked” a few comments on the site that said, “‘We need to condemn Hamas.”

She reached out to administrator Irene Johnson, but “she was ignoring me.”

https://nypost.com/2023/11/11/metro/nyc-woman-moms-facebook-group-banned-me-for-standing-with-israel/

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http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Canceling Cancel Culture

John Stossel

"I was not genuine in my own beliefs," says 23-year-old Rikki Schlott in my new video. "I self-censored."

Why? What did this college student believe that was so unacceptable that she felt she had to hide it?

The fact that she's a right-leaning libertarian.

"I was afraid to have Thomas Sowell and Jordan Peterson books on my bookshelf."

If her classmates at NYU saw that, she says, she might have been "verbally attacked on social media, maligned as whatever 'ist' or 'ism' people might attack me with."

So Schlott kept her mouth shut, eventually dropping out of NYU.  I ask her, "If you were doing it again, you'd speak out?"  "I did speak out! Here I am!" She responds.

By "here," she means my TV studio, where I interviewed her about a new book she co-wrote titled, "The Canceling of the American Mind." It details how cancel culture grew into a serious problem on campuses.

Examples:

A teacher in Virginia lost his job for calling a transgender student "she."

At Hamline University, an art history lecturer lost her job simply for showing a painting of Muhammad.

A University of Virginia med student was banished from campus for merely questioning the importance of "microaggressions."

Then such idiocy spread beyond campuses.

A Levi Strauss executive felt she had to resign because employees objected to her tweets criticizing Covid school closures and mask mandates for children.

The Philadelphia Inquirer's top editor was forced to resign after approving an article titled "Buildings Matter Too," after Black Lives Matter rioters burned down buildings. Some at the paper called his headline "extremely inappropriate" and "tone-deaf."

And so on.

Now some want to punish people who defend Hamas. Others want to silence Israel's defenders.

Schlott argues that America needs more free speech, even if it's hateful. "Being a true free speech champion does require that you defend speech that even you disagree with."

Schlott's co-author on "The Canceling of the American Mind" works for FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. FIRE argues that everything can be said, as long as it's not direct incitement of violence, willful negligence or defamation.

Schlott tells me, "You are well within your First Amendment rights to cancel people and to malign them on social media. But the question is, 'do we want to live in a culture where that is our first reaction?'"

She points out that her generation started tweeting when they were kids, and many posted stupid things.  "Young people need to be able to screw up."

Maybe. But based on what I see on my newsfeeds, it's people her age who are most eager to "cancel" people.

"It is true that younger Americans tend to be more pro-cancel culture," she replies. "Millennials have the most positive view, and as you get older, it goes lower and lower. But Gen Z (ages 11 to 26) completely switches that around. Only 8% have a positive view of it. That's because if you're a young person who grows up in a graceless society, you're always looking behind your back. You see friends torn down on social media. You're not going to want to live in a world like that."

I push back. "But they perpetuate a world like that!"

"It's a tyranny of the minority," she replies. "One squeaky wheel scares the life out of everyone else. Then we self-censor."  She did that in college.  

Students like her kept their mouths shut because they didn't want to be reported as "biased." NYU officials, like the secret police in East Germany, even encouraged students to report on others.

She tells me, "When I got to NYU, the first thing I had to do was go pick up my ID card. I found on the back the emergency number, in case you're in danger, and a bias response hotline in case you're offended. The university itself sanctioned the idea that you can snitch on your peers."

She says it's time for students to push back against school censorship.

"We need to say we want to live in a free speech culture. ... Courage is contagious. As soon as I spoke out at NYU, people came out of the woodwork to say, 'Thank you for saying that! I completely agree with you.'"

https://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2023/11/08/canceling-cancel-culture-n2630925

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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War in Gaza tests free speech limits at Sydney University

The Gaza conflict is testing the limits of freedom of speech on campus after Sydney University warned that it won’t tolerate support of Hamas’ attack and the vice chancellor moved to ban a pro-Palestinian student meeting, dividing opinion among academics.

Jewish groups have welcomed the approach and have urged other universities to follow its lead, saying it’s calmed tensions on campus.

Sydney University vice chancellor Mark Scott wrote to staff and students on October 26, in what was a marked shift from previous communications on the war, saying the institution “will not tolerate any pro-terrorist statements or commentary, including support for Hamas’s recent terrorist attacks”.

Last week, Scott also moved to shut down a planned student meeting titled “Palestine: the case for a global intifada”, saying it could be reasonably interpreted as supporting terrorism based on its promotional posters.

The action has prompted anger from some academics and students who say the university has shown an anti-Palestinian bias.

But Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim praised the university’s response and wrote to Scott to thank him.  “The reports we’re getting from staff and students is that it has actually had a calming effect on the whole situation on campus,” he said. “The number of academics who think they should be free to endorse a listed terrorist organisation is fractionally small compared to the overall number of academics in Australia.”

But in an open letter to Scott responding to an all-staff email, politics professor John Keane said many believed the vice chancellor had an “eerie” pro-Israeli bias.

“It is founded on silence about such ugly matters as non-stop aerial bombardment, the illegal use of white phosphorus bombs on civilians, settler violence, bulldozers wrecking the homes of fearful innocents, death by suffocation,” the letter read.

‘While we all support intellectual freedom … sane people draw the line at the advocacy of genocide.’

It prompted a flurry of “reply-all” emails from academics who were divided in their support or rejection of Keane’s sentiments.

Sociologist Salvatore Babones responded by saying Hamas was “a genocidal organisation intent on the destruction of the Israeli people”.  “While we all support intellectual freedom … sane people draw the line at the advocacy of genocide,” he wrote.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/war-in-gaza-tests-free-speech-limits-at-sydney-university-20231103-p5ehec.html

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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A Canberra doctor has been banned from practising medicine for a year after breaching doctor's codes with an offensive email sent to an Indigenous doctor.

A straight talker.  Under Australian law you can be classed as indigenous even if you are white  -- as long as you have some remote Aboriginal ancestry.  I have a neice who is as white as snow but she is still indigenous under Australian law.  So she can get benefits aimed at blacks;

The doctor, whose name was suppressed by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT), sent an email to an Indigenous specialist, in which he criticised pharmaceutical policies designed to benefit Indigenous people and questioned the man's Indigenous identity.

The email was sent to a Yuggera, Warangoo and Wiradjuri man Dr Kristopher Rallah-Baker, whose name was originally suppressed before his legal counsel informed the tribunal that he wished to be identified.

However, he denied the email was discriminatory on racial grounds according to clause 5.4 of the Medical Board of Australia's code of conduct, because the offensive email was not generated in a workplace or sent to a colleague.

But the tribunal did not accept that because Dr Rallah-Baker was considered a peer of the doctor, and even if he was not, clause 5.4 states that doctors must not discriminate against "others" – meaning any person.

In the offensive email, the doctor noted Dr Rallah-Baker "claim[ed] to be Indigenous", and questioned what percentage of Aboriginal blood he had.

The doctor went on to suggest Dr Rallah-Baker's Indigenous heritage was "like a watered-down bottle of Grange. Not the real thing".

He also criticised a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme subsidy for simple modified-release paracetamol only being available to Indigenous people, saying: "So rich dudes like you ... could get your Panadol Osteo for absolutely NO CHARGE ... but my struggling old-age pensioners with their osteoarthritis have to buy it at full cost".

The Medical Board of Australia referred the doctor to the tribunal for the email earlier this year, which found his actions did amount to professional misconduct.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/canberra-doctor-banned-from-practicing-for-12-months-over-offensive-email-to-indigenous-peer/ar-AA1ji5Qm

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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British singer, 36, who was 'cancelled by the music industry' for slamming 'men claiming to be women' says she's now been 'deplatformed' by streaming platform Bandcamp and lost her revenue

This is truly shocking.  It is about time someone struck back at these Fascists in some way


A singer-songwriter who believes she's been a victim of cancel culture in the music industry has claimed she's now been 'deplatformed' by Bandcamp.

Louise Distras, 36, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, has been labelled a ‘Terf’ (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) because of her views - and a week ago her artist page was apparently shut down on the American online audio platform.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter) today, the musician wrote:   A week ago I was deplatformed by @bigcartel and @Bandcamp in the space of 24 hours.

'After eight yrs of paying Bandcamp commission they shut down my artist page without notifying me or giving me a reason why. My discography has disappeared into thin air along with £££s in revenue, ripping off me and my fans in the process.

'Despite being cancelled by the music biz, Bandcamp gave me a direct way to market my music via my own record label, and I relied on having this independence as an artist to pay my bills in a cost of living crisis.'

She continued: 'Since the pandemic many gig venues have closed down and the music industry is shrinking rapidly.  'What's left of it is being kicked to death by intolerant activists who actively discriminate against and threaten artists and audiences who don't bow down to their delusional demands of ideological compliance.

'Now would be a good time for any self respecting artist to get a grip and grow a spine, [because] otherwise we're all screwed. Cancel culture is murder by the back door and I'm not gonna let this one drop. Thank heavens for @Freedom_in_Arts!'

Louise previously told The Daily Mail how she believes the music industry is ‘so captured by gender ideology that they don’t know what a woman is any more’.  She added: ‘Yet the “mob” always hounds women who speak out more than men. So they do know what a woman is, really.’

Louise has been labelled a ‘Terf’ (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) for sharing her views online, with radio stations refusing to play her songs, magazines refusing to include her, and she feels her own live booking agency have lacked in their support for her.

‘None of us woke up one day and decided it would be fun to go to war, but we are on the frontlines as women, whether we like it or not,’ said singer Louise, who has had tracks played on Radio 1.

‘As a solo female artist, I’ve ended up in some particularly dangerous situations with men and have been assaulted on more than one occasion.

‘I don’t care if people think I’m transphobic. If men want to claim to be women, then there is always going to be a clash when it comes to defending the hard-won rights of women.

‘It started with me sharing my views on Twitter about cancel culture, free speech and gender identity.

'Female-centric platforms and organisations that once supported me started calling me transphobic and a national station wouldn’t play my song called Girl In The Mirror — apparently because it was all about girlhood and womanhood.

‘Music journalists won’t speak to me because they think I’m transphobic — but I refuse to self-censor my views on this.

‘I asked my live booking agency to help me put measures in place to keep me safe at my future gigs, and they responded by sending me an email with a series of links to “educate” me on why cancel culture can be a good thing.

‘In a separate email, I was advised to “distance” myself from the debate for the sake of my career. Since making my views clear, they have not booked me any gigs to promote my new album.

‘I was feeling pretty broken about all this,’ she admitted. ‘There’s no doubt I’ve lost money. But I refuse to be quiet about what’s happening.’

Louise’s live booking agency Midnight Mango denied her allegations, saying: ‘As a music booking agency, we offer balanced and practical advice where we are careful not to discriminate.

'We have in place a robust policy for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion as well as a policy for Cancel Culture. It is noted that Gender Critical views are a protected belief...and we fully respect that.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12716131/British-singer-36-cancelled-music-industry-slamming-men-claiming-women-says-shes-deplatformed-streaming-platform-Bandcamp-lost-revenue.html

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Books

I have owned a  huge mass of books over the years, including a lot of reference books, if anybody remembers what they are.  But I have given most of them away.  Once I became an internet user, there seemed no point in looking up books any more.  It was easier to click on a link and read anything I wanted without getting up from my armchair.

What I did not foresee is the huge climate of politically correct censorship that has descended on us.  Just mentioning simple facts can be verboten these days.  The Left would love us not to know that Hitler was one of them, for instance. Though their celebration of Jew-killing by Palestinians is a compelling reminder of what they are. Much of history, in fact, may not now  be mentioned.  Statues honouring heroes of the past are regularly torn down by angry Leftists.  We are supposed to forget any bit of the past that the Left dislike.  

It is foreseeable that generations will arise for whom much of the past will be a closed book.  It is in fact already happening.  What schoolkids learn today is very different from what I learned long ago.  What I learned embodied a scale of values that would be disowned today but at least we got the facts, even if our view of them was one-sided

So I have done a complete turnaround in my attitude to books.  Leftists can and do remove them from our public libraries but can they remove books from my personal library?  They would undoubtedly like to try but I think it will be  while before they go after personal book collections. And books are not easy to destroy.  So I encourage anybody reading this to take opportunities of buying reference books from the past.  Old encyclopedias could be particularly useful. You will be able to look up facts there unobstructed by Leftist censors

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Eighty bird species will be renamed ‘to break links with ‘slavery and racism’

Birds in the United States and Canada will no longer be named after people because the previous selection process was “clouded by racism and misogyny”, the American Ornithological Society has announced.

The organisation will rename 80 species next year due to their associations with controversial historical figures, including slave owners and white supremacists.

Birds that will be renamed include Audubon’s shearwater, a tropical seabird widespread in the Atlantic Ocean that honours John James Audubon, a 19th-century slave owner and perhaps America’s best-known ornithologist.

Townsend’s warbler and solitaire will also get new names. John Kirk Townsend, who died in 1851, stole skulls from indigenous graves and believed they were racially inferior.

Colleen Handel, the society’s president, said: “There is power in a name and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today. Everyone who loves and cares about birds should be able to enjoy and study them freely.”

The society said that rather than go through each bird name individually to assess whether it had links to a controversial person, it would make blanket changes.

There had been a heated debate within the birdwatching community over the names given to species. An increasingly vocal faction demanded historical figures with links to slavery or colonialism be removed from names.

The society said it would aim for descriptive titles about a bird’s habitat or physical features instead. Judith Scarl, the society’s executive director and chief executive, said too many historical figures who had been honoured in bird names were racist.

She said: “As scientists, we work to eliminate bias in science. But there has been historic bias in how birds are named and who might have a bird named in their honour. Exclusionary naming conventions developed in the 1800s, clouded by racism and misogyny, don’t work for us today.”

According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, 42.6 million people took trips to observe wild birds last year.

This year progressive naturalists were defeated in attempts to rename the National Audubon Society, the bird protection organisation. The board of directors voted against it.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/eighty-bird-species-will-be-renamed-to-break-links-with-slavery-and-racism/news-story/588b524c80bb457eb9f967744203682a

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Macron rejects gender-neutral writing to protect French language

Paris: Emmanuel Macron has urged France not to “give in to the spirit of the times” and reject gender-inclusive writing in order to safeguard the French language.

“In French, the masculine is neutral. We don’t need to add points in the middle of words or hyphens to make it readable,” said the French President at the opening of a new language centre in the town of Villers-Cotterêts, about 80 kilometres north-east of Paris, on Monday.

The French Senate is considering banning gender-inclusive writing, in order to “protect” the French language. This move reopens a long-standing debate that has divided the country between right-leaning language purists versus the left and feminists.

Under the proposal tabled by a Republican senator, gender-inclusive writing would be banned in administrative documents including job contracts, job adverts, internal company regulations and all legal documents.

The bill would also ban inclusive writing in the national education code, doubling down on an existing 2021 directive. Documents written in gender-neutral language would be considered null and void.

In French, all nouns are either masculine and feminine and the written endings of nouns, adjectives and verbs must reflect the gender of the object or person in question. But when a noun involves both men and women, the default spelling is in the masculine in accordance with the long-taught rule: ‘masculine always wins’.

The timing of the inauguration of Macron’s €211 million ($350 million) Cité Internationale de la Langue Française, or International French Language Centre, and the Senate agenda may be coincidental but he was unequivocal about his stance during his speech.

“We must allow the language to live, to be inspired by others, to steal words from the other end of the world… and to continue to be reinvented, but all while keeping the fundamentals, the basics of grammar, the strength of its syntax and to not give in to the spirit of the times,” Macron said.

He was met with applause from a crowd, which included historians, philosophers, linguists and French writers.

The bill has a strong chance of being adopted in the Senate given that the Republicans hold a majority in the upper house. It will then be examined in the National Assembly.

Feminist groups have been fighting to make the French language more gender-neutral for decades. Left-wing critics have called the bill retrograde and yet another attempt by the conservatives to marginalise women, while supporters believe that inclusive writing poses an additional constraint on people who are illiterate or dyslexic.

In 2021, the addition of the gender-neutral pronoun “iel”, a mash-up of the French pronouns “he” (il) and “she” (elle) to the French dictionary Le Robert, provoked the ire of right-wing politicians who accused the dictionary of pandering to “wokeism”.

The new centre, opened on Monday (Paris time) is housed in a restored Renaissance chateau in Villers-Cotterets, some 80 kilometres north-east of the Elysee Palace in central Paris, an area Franc€24 said was the heartland of the far-right. It hopes to attract 200,000 visitors a year to its large library, interactive exhibits, games and cultural events.

It is located in the castle where, in 1539, King François I signed an edict adopting French as his nation’s official tongue. Villers-Cotterets is also famed as the birthplace of Alexandre Dumas, author of the Three Musketeers.

While it lauds the fact that French is a living language open to foreign influence, exhibits also warn against the abuse of “globish” (global English) via the use of words such as “bankable” and “open bar”.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/macron-rejects-gender-neutral-writing-to-protect-french-language-20231031-p5egf0.html
      
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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Why the ACLU is going to bat for Donald Trump

When the American Civil Liberties Union goes to bat for Donald Trump, it’s a red flag.  The ACLU generally fights for far-left causes.

But the ACLU always has championed the rights of the accused.   This time, the accused is Trump.

The ACLU is protesting a gag order US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed Oct. 17 to silence Trump, at the request of federal prosecutor Jack Smith. Trump has called Smith a “thug.”

Chutkan’s order bars Trump from making any statements “targeting” Smith, the witnesses in the case or the judge herself. Trump’s lawyers appealed.

Chutkan paused the gag order for several days but reinstated it Sunday.  The ACLU is backing Trump’s right to speak.  

Whether you like Trump or hate him, watch this battle. If prosecutors can silence a former president, think what they could do to you.

The ACLU argues the gag order violates Trump’s First Amendment rights and the public’s right to hear Trump’s views so it can decide “whether he deserves to be elected again.”

https://nypost.com/2023/11/01/opinion/why-the-aclu-is-going-to-bat-for-donald-trump/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Twist after Australian woman ‘cancelled’ for selling sushi

An Aussie who became the target of an online bullying campaign after she opened a sushi restaurant in New York City has enjoyed a boom in business, with a telling sign placed outside her store window.

Alex Mark was labelled a “coloniser” and accused of “cultural appropriation” by US chef Eric Rivera after she quit her job as a corporate lawyer to open the Sushi Counter and sell ‘Australian-style’ sushi earlier this month.

“But it’s ‘stralian sushi. Give me a break coloniser,” Mr Rivera wrote on social media. “If you don’t see why this is a problem, you are the problem.”

While many blasted Ms Marks online in an attempt to have her cancelled, others including TikToker Jack Mac came to the Aussie’s defence in a video seen by 3.2 million people.

Now, in a fortunate twist, Mr Mac has revealed when he later visited the restaurant to show his support, he discovered all the sushi had sold out.

“Guys so obviously I went to the sushi shop,” he told his over 600,000 followers in a video last week.  “I got here [and it’s] sold out for tonight,” he said, as he pointed the camera towards a closed sign in the window of the restaurant.

In his prior video, Mr Mac pointed out that the internet tried to cancel Ms Marks “because they deemed her opening a sushi restaurant is cultural appropriation”.

“Thankfully our society has slowly woken up to buzzwords like that, often being nonsense, [and] it failed,” he said.

In the recent update, Mr Mac joked that he played a role in selling out the restaurant.

“You know how many people are selling out a sushi restaurant in New York City? You know who did that? Jack Mac did. We did that.”

A wave of support

Others have taken to social media to show their support to Ms Marks, whose restaurant now boasts a 4.2 star Google rating.

In one TikTok video, a foodie by the username ‘legendary.eatz’ said the bullying of Ms Marks was “despicable” and pointed out the hypocrisy of Mr Rivera’s plans to open a fusion Puerto Rican Izakaya restaurant.

“Izakaya in Japanese. He is Puerto Rican,” he said.

Chef and TV personality Marc Murphy also showed his support by visiting the store and encouraging others to try the food.

“It’s hard enough making money in the restaurant business, let’s not pick on each other, let’s just be nice to each other,” he said on TikTok.

Conservative US political commentator Matt Walsh also spoke out in defence of Ms Marks on the Daily Wire.

“As a sane person myself I can’t fathom how anyone could conjure those kinds of emotions in relation to a sushi restaurant,” Mr Walsh said.

“You’ll never hear of a pizza place being bombarded with negative reviews because it’s owned by an Asian guy. Or a burger joint being protested because it’s run by a Hispanic woman.

“You’ll certainly never hear anyone telling a black chef what sorts of cuisine he isn’t allowed to cook based on his race.”

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/eat/twist-after-aussie-cancelled-for-selling-sushi/news-story/3e4264149c84771858b54b98c01b8c30

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Yale campus newspaper censors pro-Israel writer’s column on Hamas beheading men, raping women

Yale’s campus newspaper is being criticized for censoring a pro-Israel columnist by removing what it called “unsubstantiated claims that Hamas raped women and beheaded men.”

The Yale Daily News last week cut out the reference from an Oct. 12 column by sophomore Sahar Tartak titled “Is Yalies4Palestine a hate group?”

“I’m still collecting my thoughts on the YDN’s egregious correction,” Tartak, editor in chief of rival campus newspaper Yale Free Press, wrote on her X social media account on Monday.

She reposted a comment by a Yale professor, Nicholas Christakis, who asked: “Are the hostage-taking, murder of children in their beds, burning of people alive, and parading of nude captive women in the street also ‘unsubstantiated’?”

Tartak, from Great Neck, LI, penned the column five days after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre that slaughtered more than 1,400 Israelis.

Scores of those who were killed had been taking part in a music festival a few miles from the Israel-Gaza border fence when Hamas terrorists invaded the area using hang-gliders and pickup trucks.

Tartak condemned Yalies4Palestine, a student group which posted messages on Instagram blaming Israel for the atrocities.

In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas assault, Yalies4Palestine posted an item on its official Instagram page which held “the Israeli Zionist regime responsible for the unfolding violence.”

Another social media post by Yalies4Palestine called on “the Yale community to celebrate the resistance’s success,” according to Tartak.

The group went on to express “full support of the Palestinian people’s right to resist colonization and return to their land” while dismissing “nonviolent acts of resistance” as ineffective. “This language should terrify you,” Tartak wrote.

Israeli authorities have insisted they recovered the beheaded bodies of babies killed by Hamas gunmen who invaded towns along the frontier with the Gaza Strip. A handwritten note found on the body of a Hamas terrorist encouraged the jihadists to remove the heads, hearts and livers of their Israeli victims, Israel’s military said last week.

However, Hamas butchery has been met with skepticism and the Yale Daily News ran an editor’s on Oct. 25 saying Tartak’s column “has been edited to remove unsubstantiated claims that Hamas raped women and beheaded men.”

The controversy comes as Israel’s president revealed Monday that the German-Israeli tattoo artist who was paraded through the streets of Gaza after being kidnapped by Hamas has been found dead after “sadistic” terrorists “chopped off her head.”

I am truly sorry to report that we have now received news that Shani Nicole Louk has been confirmed murdered and dead,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog told the German newspaper Bild.

“Her skull was found,” he said, with the 23-year-old victim’s family also confirming that the death was confirmed by DNA on parts of her skull.

“This means that these barbaric, sadistic animals simply chopped off her head as they attacked, tortured and killed Israelis.”

Israeli military personnel involved in search and rescue operations of victims told reporters that they recovered beheaded bodies of infants at Be’eri, a kibbutz not far from the border fence ringing the Gaza Strip.

Israeli military Col. Golan Vach told reporters over the weekend that he found the body of a mother who was protecting a baby. “When I pulled it over I saw a decapitated baby,” Vach told Agence France-Presse. “I took it up with my hands and I carried it, and I put it in the body bag. I personally did it.”

Just days after the assault, President Biden condemned the beheading of babies — only later to acknowledge that he had not seen photos that confirmed this indeed happened.

Hamas has denied the claims that it killed infants.

https://nypost.com/2023/10/30/media/yale-campus-newspaper-censors-pro-israel-writers-column-on-hamas-beheading-men-raping-women/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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As free speech issues rage on campuses, Rutgers’ president is joining the national movement to promote civil exchange

Free speech on college campuses has become an increasingly hot issue: Some argue that certain controversial speakers should not be permitted, while others assert the exchange of ideas, even the most vile, shouldn’t be barred.

Wading into the mix is Jonathan Holloway, the president of Rutgers University, who has joined a national movement of more than a dozen college presidents committed to champion free expression, civic preparedness and the civil exchange of ideas on campus.

For his part, Holloway is teaching a freshman seminar “Citizenship, Institutions, and the Public,” where he invites prominent government, business, media and political figures — including those he doesn’t necessarily agree with — for debate about the state of the nation. Among those he’s had so far are the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, a prominent Baptist pastor, a former Goldman Sachs executive and the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News.

He also made the issue a core message in his new student convocation address in August, encouraging everyone to learn to listen to one another.

“Everybody believes in free speech until they hear something they don’t like,” Holloway, 56, said during an interview this month in his New Brunswick campus office. “That’s the moment when you have to say if you really believe, then you have to deal with this ugly thing that you don’t like.”

Civil exchange is also integral to the college experience, he wrote in an essay with Roslyn Clark Artis, president of Benedict College, a historically black college in South Carolina.

“We have seen students drown out speakers with whom they disagree, faculty hold back from sharing viewpoints that might be deemed controversial, and politics influencing hiring decisions,” they wrote. “This resistance to people and positions that are different is antithetical to the exchange of ideas that should be core to the college experience.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/as-free-speech-issues-rage-on-campuses-rutgers-president-is-joining-the-national-movement-to-promote-civil-exchange/ar-AA1iSmNn

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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California School Tries to Keep 11-Year-Old Jewish Victims Quiet With Gag Order

A California school district forced four Jewish students to remain silent after they became targets of antisemitic harassment and now is misusing a federal law to prevent anyone from holding administrators accountable.

The social media account Libs of TikTok posted a report Monday of a verbal attack on four 11-year-old Jewish students at a California middle school that resulted in the Jewish students being forced to sign a gag order to prevent them from sharing information on the incident.

The Libs of TikTok post states that the four Jewish students at Manhattan Beach Middle School in Manhattan Beach, California, were approached sometime after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of 1,400 civilians in Israel and told, among other disturbing comments, that “revenge is beautiful” and “all Israelis and Jews should be killed.”

Administrators of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District concluded that the comments made to the Jewish students were “political and not hate speech,” closing their investigation with what they described as “limited action.”

Administrators were not remotely clear in what they meant by this, or what exactly happened, including who did what.

The four students to whom the hateful remarks were directed reportedly were forced to sign a gag order preventing them from talking to anyone at the middle school or on social media about the abuse.

The California Anti-Defamation League, which in July presented the Manhattan Beach school district with a No Place for Hate award for “leading the charge against bias, bullying, and hatred,” issued a statement Monday night decrying the district’s egregious series of actions in this incident.

ADF called the actions of Manhattan Beach administrators “deeply hurtful” and a jeopardy to “the safety of the learning environment.”

My Heritage Foundation colleague Roman Jankowski asked the Manhattan Beach school district to turn over emails from Jennifer Huynh, the principal of Manhattan Beach Middle School, regarding the verbal attack on the four Jewish students.

In reply, the school district’s public information officer, Hibah Samad, emailed an elusive and obstructive statement to Jankowski informing him that the district wouldn’t release emails concerning the harassment of the students, details of the investigation, or what the investigation concluded.

The Manhattan Beach school district informed The Daily Signal that administrators were “aware of recent allegations” concerning the antisemitic harassment of the 11-year-olds.

School district administrators characterized the harassment as  “inappropriate interactions between students at MBMS [Manhattan Beach Middle School] surrounding their views on current events in the Middle East.”

Administrators then stonewalled on releasing any other information by hiding behind the federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/10/27/california-school-district-tries-to-hide-antisemitic-attack-on-11-year-old-students-by-citing-privacy-laws

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Cambridge University debate descends into farce after motion calling for solidarity with Palestine was stopped amid concerns it risked 'inciting violence'

A Cambridge University debate descended into farce after a motion calling for solidarity with Palestine was prematurely stopped amid concerns its proposer risked ‘inciting violence’.

The Students Union President, Fergus Kirman last night said he was ‘astonished and appalled’ by the motion and has completely edited the wording, following a mammoth backlash from Jewish students.

The motion, which was heard at the Cambridge Student Union on Monday, blamed the war between Israel and Hamas on ‘decades of violent oppression of the Palestinian people by the Israeli state’.

It added: ‘The Student Union resolves itself [...] to condemn the British government’s support for the Israeli state and the distortions of the mainstream media in Britain in its coverage of this conflict.’

The motion concluded: ‘Only a mass uprising on both sides of the green line and across the Middle East can free the Palestinian people.’

When asked to define a ‘mass uprising’ by a student who attended the debate, proposer of the motion, Anais Austen Stanley said: ‘think back to the First Intifada’.

The First Intifada refers to a series of terror attacks in Israel which primarily targeted civilians and led to the murder of hundreds of Israelis.

Chair of the debate Benjamin Knight was forced to intervene and prevent Anais from answering the question further, over concerns that it would lead to ‘the incitement of violence’.

Interrupting Stanley he said: ‘This is getting close to a discussion on the incitement of violence and we would like to not cross that line.

‘We would like to not put any student member into a position where to answer a question they are going to have to incite violence.’

A statement published yesterday by the Union of Jewish students urged Cambridge Students Union to dismiss the motion and issue a public apology to Jewish students at Cambridge.

UJS has also called on the University of Cambridge to investigate Cambridge SU, the original motion and the speech given in favour of the motion.

Cambridge JSOC added: ‘For the Cambridge SU to consider debating a motion calling for a “mass uprising” is an absolute disgrace.

‘Jewish students in Cambridge deserve to learn in a safe and inclusive environment, without the murders of their relatives and friends being debated.’

Last night Israeli student Einav Grushk said: ‘Cambridge Student Union once again has shown blatant disregard for all Israeli and Jewish students.

Students were unable to vote on the motion at the meeting on Monday as not enough people attended to pass the threshold to validate the vote.

It is believed the amended version of the motion will be heard at the Cambridge Student Union again, in around two weeks time.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12667785/Cambridge-University-debate-descends-farce-motion-calling-solidarity-Palestine-stopped-amid-concerns-risked-inciting-violence.html

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Coca-Cola has quietly scrubbed references to Hamas-supporting BLM from its website

The Coca-Cola Company quietly removed references to its financial support for Black Lives Matter from its official website after the controversial group expressed support for Hamas terrorists who killed at least 1,400 Israeli soldiers and civilians earlier this month.

BLM’s Chicago chapter sparked outrage with a now-deleted post on X showing a photo of a paraglider with the text “I stand with Palestine.”

Hamas terrorists used paragliders to pour across the Israel-Gaza border and massacre scores of revelers at a trance music festival.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) blasted Coca-Cola on his podcast last week, particularly after the soft drink giant touted its charitable donations to BLM on the company’s official website.

One of Coca-Cola’s brands, Sprite, gave half a million dollars to the Black Lives Matter Global Network as part of its “fight for racial justice.”

But the website apparently scrubbed reference to BLM after Cruz’s criticism.

The Texas senator posted screenshots on his X account showing the before and after images of the web page.

https://nypost.com/2023/10/23/business/coca-cola-quietly-removed-references-to-hamas-supporting-blm-from-website/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Michigan State suspends employee for Hitler image on video board

I understand the sensitivities involved but I don't think it is ever right or wise to try to blot out history.  The more we are exposed to history, the less likely we are to repeat its mistakes and follies



A Michigan State University employee has been suspended with pay after an image of Adolf Hitler appeared on the video board at Spartan Stadium before MSU faced Michigan on Saturday.

The image of Hitler and his birthplace of Austria were shown on the scoreboard as part of a pregame trivia quiz roughly 80 minutes before kickoff between the rival schools.

Images quickly went viral across social media.

In a statement released Sunday, Michigan State University athletic director Alan Haller said that the school was “responsible for all content shown on its video boards.”

“Before it was displayed, the video was not viewed in its entirety by anyone in athletics, exposing a failure in our process,” Haller said, per the Detroit Free Press. “The video was not part of a sponsorship and had no affiliation with any of our corporate partners or our community.

“An initial assessment was conducted, and an involved employee has been identified and suspended with pay pending the results of an investigation. The investigation will determine any future appropriate actions.”

The athletic director apologized for the school displaying the image prior to Saturday night’s game and “for the pain it has caused our community.”

In particular, Haller said, he understood the harm it caused to the Jewish community, “which is currently experiencing a rise in antisemitism, including acts of violence.”

The quiz shown prior to the game was streamed from a YouTube channel called “The Quiz Channel” and the specific image of Hitler came from a video titled “General Knowledge Trivia Quiz (Part 18).”

https://nypost.com/2023/10/22/michigan-state-suspends-employee-for-hitler-image-at-michigan-game/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Changes made to NYC teachers’ ‘anti-Israel’ classroom guide — but ‘damage is done’

Some antisemitic resources provided to city public schools on how to address the Israel-Hamas war have been removed — but many remain, and critics worry the “damage” is already done.

The lengthy list of websites dumped on teachers last week to help them teach the Middle East conflict no longer includes the Arab-run Al Jazeera, which refers to Hamas terrorists as “fighters” and their acts of terror as “operations.”

It does, however, still include Amnesty International, a group represented at pro-Palestinian rallies.

“I fear the damage is done and that teachers have been teaching a biased perspective, many without even knowing that they are doing so. This will most likely leave students with a hateful view of Israel, allowing them to justify acts of terror,” said Karen Feldman, a New York City social studies teacher and Holocaust educator.

It also removed two New York Times articles, a timeline of the clashes between Palestine and Israel and “The Global Context of the Hamas-Israel War” — and one CBS article entitled “What is Hamas? What to know about the group attacking Israel.”

The city Department of Education sent teachers a lengthy list of websites with information for class discussion on the Israel-Hamas war — including some slammed as strongly biased against Israel.

The guide featured 35 links, including far-left and anti-Israel sources, but lacked straightforward guidance, teachers said, instead leaving them to parse through the texts on their own, The Post reported last week.

https://nypost.com/2023/10/21/minor-changes-made-to-anti-israel-guide-for-nyc-teachers/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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