Must not mock homosexuals -- unless they are conservative, of course

We read:

"Why on God’s green earth are you a Republican?” MSNBC’s Cenk Uygur asked GOProud chairman Christopher Barron. Instead of discussing the recent denunciation of his group by other conservative organizations — which is likely why Barron was invited on to speak in the first place — the MSNBC “interview” consisted only of Uygur mocking and laughing at Barron to his face, dismissing the notions that someone could be both gay and conservative (apparently being gay is the only issue Uygur thinks gays care about) and that conservatives are a “welcoming” crowd.

How very tolerant of him…

“I have an easier time being openly gay with conservatives than I do being a conservative with other gay people,” Barron said.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source

Must not call homosexuals "gay"??

Britain:

"Jobcentre bosses are investigating claims that staff taunted a couple with homophobic abuse during weeks of discrimination - calling them 'gay boys'.

Steve Mellor, 23, and Roy Pearson, 28, say they were victimised for being homosexual whenever they went to claim their benefits.

Mr Mellor, who had to start claiming benefits because of a long-term illness made worse by stress, wrote to the centre last week. He said: 'When we went in on Wednesday to find out about Christmas payments, we got no help whatsoever, so we started walking away.
The Department for Work and Pensions is looking into claims that Jobcentre staff taunted them

'Comments then came from staff such as "those two gay boys always come in for information" while they pointed and laughed at us.'

Source

British police banned from saying 'eggs is eggs' in case it offended infertile women

We read:

"Police have been banned from using the phrase “sure as eggs is eggs” in case it offends women with fertility problems, a senior officer has claimed.

Writing on a popular online blog, the anonymous whistelblower, said that colleagues in his force had been ordered not to use the expression on “diversity” grounds.

The blogger, who writes under the pseudonym Inspector Gadget, after the cartoon character, is understood to be a serving inspector in a county force in southern England, which he refers to only as “Ruralshire” – “a county in England, not too far from Metrocity”.

In his latest posting, he dismissed the alleged ban on the phrase as “another nonsensical, empire-building, silly, frothy, pathetic and downright insulting example of political correctness gone mad”.

Source

Burka sketch on British TV program sparks outrage



We read:

"Jeremy Clarkson and his Top Gear co-stars have sparked religious outrage after dressing up in burkas on the Boxing Day special. Clarkson and Richard Hammond decided to dress in niqabs, a form of the burka where everything but the eyes are covered, in order to disguise themselves on the road.

They also got James May in on the act when they greeted him from hospital after he fell and hit his head on rocks in the Syrian desert.

But their joke backfired after they were slammed by Muslims for mocking their religion. Islamic extremist Anjem Choudary, said: "The burka is a symbol of our religion and people should not make jokes about it in any way. "It would have been equally bad even if they'd not been in a country mainly populated by Muslims."

The BBC said it had not yet assessed viewer reaction and a spokesman for the show would not comment.

This is not the first time Clarkson has caused a storm over a burka. In July he told Top Gear viewers that he had seen a Muslim woman wearing saucy underwear beneath her gown.

Source

Making Fun of Homosexuality 'No Longer Acceptable'?

From a Leftist movie review:

"While the nation pondered its dense history of homophobic bullying after a string of gay youth suicides starting popping up on the front pages, the trailer for the Ron Howard "comedy" The Dilemma was released with a "gay = stupid" joke as its lead. What would otherwise pass by as an unexamined passive slam against an already-maligned group became no longer acceptable.

The line was unintelligibly defended by Howard, Vince Vaughn, and numerous web commentators who think that a joke too lazy and immature for anybody over 13 to find funny is the same thing as South Park-style take-no-prisoners satire.

Source

Extensive commentary at the source link. The Left certainly regard homosexuals as an especially protected class. It's just their opinion, though. Hate speech laws contravene the 1st Amendment and laughing at someone is a mite different from hating them anyway.

Slavery paintings incorrect in Atlanta government office

Whitewashing history?

"Murals of slaves harvesting sugar cane on a Georgia plantation and picking and ginning cotton are coming off the walls of a state building on the order of a new agriculture commissioner.

The murals are part of a collection of eight works painted by George Beattie in 1956 depicting an idealized version of Georgia farming, from the corn grown by prehistoric American Indians to a 20th-century veterinary lab. In the Deep South, the history in between includes the forced use of slave labor.

"I don't like those pictures," said Republican Gary Black, the newly elected agriculture commissioner. "There are a lot of other people who don't like them."

In one painting, two well-dressed white gentlemen in top hats and dress coats leisurely inspect processed cotton. They're framed on either side by black slaves doing the backbreaking work of cotton farming.

On the left, a slave hunches over to pick cotton bolls by hand. Two other slaves are using the infamous Whitney gin - invented near Savannah - to separate cotton fiber from seeds as a white overseer weighs cotton bags behind them.

Source

TX: Must not warn of speed traps ahead?

We read:

"Three years ago, when Lakeway resident Lance Mitchell launched his website, SpeedTrapAhead.org, he didn't hide his intentions. "Not a lot of people flash their lights to warn others nowadays," he wrote. "But, I DO! And when I see a speed trap, I go back up the road a bit, and stand on the sidewalk, wearing my SpeedTrapAhead T-shirt."

Early on April 22, 2009, Mitchell spotted a Lakeway police cruiser set up inside a school zone with a radar gun. He set up his warning station up-road, pointing enthusiastically at his speedtrapahead.org shirt whenever a driver passed. His truck, which also sported a decal of the website address, was parked nearby.

According to Mitchell's video account of the event, a black police cruiser soon arrives.... the group approaches Mitchell; an officer asks for his ID. When he hands over a card with his name, address and birth date, Debrow demands his driver's license. As Mitchell begins to explain how, technically, that is not legally required as he was not driving, Debrow abruptly orders Mitchell handcuffed and placed under arrest.

During the 13 hours he was detained, Mitchell eventually was informed he was being charged with violating Lakeway's sign ordinance by displaying a sign on his shirt and a speedtrapahead.org decal on his truck.

[Judge] Madison found Mitchell not guilty on all counts. Madison continued: "I don't think the intent of the city is to outlaw the wearing of a T-shirt. If we outlaw T-shirts, what happens next? If you have a tattoo on your body, does that become a sign?"

A month after the trial, Mitchell filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Lakeway, Debrow, the code enforcement officer and Almaguer complaining that he "was arrested, jailed and prosecuted ... and deprived of his First Amendment rights merely because he wore a shirt and sported a decal on his truck with a message that reads speedtrapahead.org."

Last month, both sides reached a confidential settlement. "I don't have to worry about working for four or five months," said Mitchell, who is currently unemployed. He also said he's ready to get back to warning Lakeway drivers to slow down.

Source

I was once ticketed by police for flashing my lights to warn other drivers but when I wrote in and complained, they decided that no offence had been committed. You have to stand up for your rights -- always politely, of course.

Opposing a political office-holder is "hate" if he is black?

The President of the Republican National Committee is Michael Steele, a fairly useless black who appears to have been given the job simply as a black counterweight to Obama -- so Republicans can point to him as showing that they are not racist.

His uselessness has now become a pain to many Republicans, however, and there are various moves to dump him from the job. The legal counsel to the GOP was not happy about that and wrote as follows to the people behind the move to dump Steele (excerpt):

"Concern has been expressed among members of the Caucus that these two anti-Steele pledges/resolutions could be viewed as hateful toward Chairman Steele — regardless of what benign names they may be given,” Semanko wrote. “They are also considered arbitrary in that they, quite literally, purport to support anyone but Chairman Steele, without consideration of any particular candidate's qualifications.”

To this, Bopp responded with seeming fury.

“Norm, are you some liberal professor at some liberal arts college enforcing their ‘hate speech’ prohibition?” he demanded of the Idaho GOP chairman. “Is our brand-spanking-new general counsel now the self-appointed speech police? Or were you asked by Chairman Steele to assume this role?”

Continuing, Bopp inferred that by “hateful” Semanko was alluding to perceptions about how the party was treating its first black national chairman.

“I know that liberals view any criticism of someone's conduct to be ‘hateful,’ if the person happens to be black, etc,, but I was unaware that we at the RNC had adopted such a political speech code,” he wrote. “In my view, it is not 'hateful' to decide not to vote for Steele because one views his conduct in office to be detrimental to the interests of the Republican Party and the country, even though he happens to be black.

Source

The lawyer sounds like a RINO. A holder of ANY political office can be opposed without it being "hate".

Muslim ham complaint thrown out

Spain:

"A prosecutor has thrown out a complaint made by a Muslim family against a geography teacher who mentioned pork in their son’s class. The teacher was explaining how cold climate in Granada highlands helps to preserve local Serrano ham.

The Children’s Prosecutor of Algeciras, Juan Cisneros, described the complaining pupil’s attitude as ‘abusive, sectarian, capricious and inadmissible’ and ordered the denouncement to be archived. He said: “There is not even the minimal indication of any type of crime.”

Source

See a previous post here on 20th.

Henry Kissinger apologises for 'gas chamber' comment

We read:

"Henry Kissinger, the former US Secretary of States, has apologised for his remark in 1973 that it would not be an American concern if the Soviet Union sent its Jews to the gas chambers.

Mr Kissinger's comment was made in a recorded conversation with President Richard Nixon that was only released recently. During the conversation, he was heard saying: "The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy. And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern."

Mr Kissinger, 87, apologised in a Washington Post opinion article, saying that "references to gas chambers have no place in political discourse, and I am sorry I made that remark 37 years ago".

The transcript of the recording created consternation among Jewish groups because Mr Kissinger is a German-born Jew who fled the Nazis as a child and is regarded as a staunchly pro-Israel figure.

But Mr Kissinger argued that his comment was taken out of context and stated that the Nixon administration had managed to help many Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union.

Source

I am inclined to side with Kissinger on this. He was clearly setting out the Realpolitik (political "realism") position -- which focuses on interests to the exclusion of morality. And he did immediately add that other, humanitarian, considerations could influence any actual policy decision.

Another "minstrel" show -- with the usual protests

Britain: White comedians dress up in "blackface" (actually brownface) makeup.

"Thousands of viewers have complained that the Christmas Day show by comedy duo Matt Lucas and David Walliams on BBC1 was racist.

The spoof documentary set in an airport and called Come Fly With Me featured the pair as a range of minority characters. Lucas darkens his face and wears a beard to play a Muslim worker called Taaj. He also adopts a strong West Indian accent to play a black woman called Precious who works in the coffee shop.

However, many viewers failed to see the funny side and took to internet forums to complain about the programme – the first of a six-part series – likening it to ‘a minstrel show’.

The show, broadcast at 10pm, was the second most-watched show on Christmas Day, attracting an audience of 10.3million. BBC1 bosses said they had not yet established how many complained to the corporation.

Source

Must not laugh at exaggerated minority characteristics

The Speaker of Britain's House of Commons mocks and opposes free speech about homosexuality

The Speaker is supposed to be an impartial president of the assembly. The present Speaker, Bercow, is a pipsqueak of Jewish origins who once pretended to be a strong conservative but who made a sharp turn Left when that seemed more likely to further his ambitions. It did. He was made Speaker by Labour Party votes.

"Before he was Speaker Mr Bercow supported the previous Government’s attempt to remove a free speech safeguard from a sexual orientation ‘hate speech’ law.

The current law says that, for the avoidance of doubt, criticising same-sex conduct or urging people to refrain from such conduct is not, in itself, a crime.

It was inserted by Parliament to a sexual orientation ‘hate crime’ law following a string of alarming cases where Christians had been investigated by the police for their beliefs about sexual ethics.

Mr Bercow has said the free speech amendment is “at best superfluous, and at worst deeply objectionable”. He has added: “Some—although not all—of its supporters would not even know how to spell the word ‘equality’, let alone sign up to it.”

Source

Minnesota: Leftist school officials using Muslims as a cover for their own anti-Christmas bigotry

We read:

"Head Start officials erred in ending Santa Claus visits to St. Peter Head Start classrooms and have unfairly made Somalis into scapegoats on the issue, say two Mankato Somalians who have lived in the community a combined 23 years.

Fanah Adam, who has children in the Mankato Head Start program, said respect for differing cultures and customs is a two-way street — a concept that was sullied by prohibiting a Santa appearance because some families in the class reportedly objected to it.

“Santa and the families (were) not the decision-makers; Head Start administrators are who sent Santa away,” he said.

Ahmed and Adam fear that the virulent anti-Somali reactions on website comment pages and forums to published reports of the Santa ouster could be breeding grounds for hate crimes.

Earlier this year Dennis Jackson of St. Peter, who has played Santa for St. Peter Head Start classes the past four years, was told by program officials that his appearance this year would be against some people’s wishes. He said he was given no specifics.

Chris Marben, who coordinates regional Head Start programs through Mankato-based Minnesota Valley Action Council, said this: “We have Somali families in the program. We’re respecting the wishes of the families.” She did not say how many objected to Santa’s appearance, nor if Somali families specifically objected.

Source

Leftists are always making up ways some group MAY be offended by Christian symbols etc. And then it turns out that no-one in the "offended" group is in fact offended.

So the Left stirs up hate towards the group that they are supposedly "helping".

Scoundrels and cops: Liberty sides with the former

We read:

"Phillip Greaves II got some infamy a few weeks ago when his book advocating pedophilia was "outed" on Amazon, forcing the book giant to take contradictory views in a few short days. First, Amazon defended freedom of speech and then caved on the issue. I said nothing because Amazon has the right to make any decision it wanted there.

But now the real scum of society are getting involved, by that I mean low-life, publicity-seeking, red-neck sheriffs from some backwater county in Florida. The sheriff of Polk County, one Grady Judd, had Greaves arrested on obscenity charges because of the text in the book—there were no photos.

The First Amendment, which applies to the states and has since the 14th amendment, clearly says that there should be 'no laws' regulating free speech.

This was pure speech, written words alone. That some hick Sheriff got a bug up his ass over it shouldn't give him the right to impose his view of the First Amendment on the entire country. Whether Greaves book is 'obscene' is impossible to say as the word has absolutely no rational, objective meaning."

The Supreme Court ruled that what makes child pornography illegal, is not the content or the ideas being conveyed, but the use of children to produce the images. But there were no images here, just ink on paper, a combination of letters conveying ideas that the Sheriff, and most of the rest of us, would find problematic. But, even if it conveyed an idea that we all find offensive, it is protected. Rights are not determined by majority support.

Source

Hungry lawyers sue over image use by blogs and others

We read:

"Righthaven, the Las Vegas copyright troll formed this spring, has moved beyond lawsuits over newspaper articles and begun targeting websites for the unauthorized reposting of images. First up, more than a dozen infringement lawsuits concerning the so-called Vdara 'death ray.' ...

Suing over images appears to be a new tack in Righthaven’s legal strategy. Righthaven’s business model is to acquire the copyright to content from newspaper companies ....

The company then sues blogs and other websites that have posted or excerpted those articles."

Source

This outfit has already shut down some good blogs so there may now be more of that

Must not tell people how useless the TSA is

Stranger than fiction: Telling the truth makes you unfit to have a gun, apparently!

"An airline pilot is being disciplined by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting video on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security.

The 50-year-old pilot, who lives outside Sacramento, asked that neither he nor his airline be identified. He has worked for the airline for more than a decade and was deputized by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit. He is also a helicopter test pilot in the Army Reserve and flew missions for the United Nations in Macedonia.

Three days after he posted a series of six video clips recorded with a cell phone camera at San Francisco International Airport, four federal air marshals and two sheriff's deputies arrived at his house to confiscate his federally-issued firearm. The pilot recorded that event as well and provided all the video to News10.

The YouTube videos, posted Nov. 28, show what the pilot calls the irony of flight crews being forced to go through TSA screening while ground crew who service the aircraft are able to access secure areas simply by swiping a card. "As you can see, airport security is kind of a farce. It's only smoke and mirrors so you people believe there is actually something going on here," the pilot narrates.

Video shot in the cockpit shows a medieval-looking rescue ax available on the flight deck after the pilots have gone through the metal detectors. "I would say a two-foot crash ax looks a lot more formidable than a box cutter," the pilot remarked.

A letter from the TSA dated Dec. 6 informed the pilot that "an administrative review into your deputation status as a Federal Flight Deck Officer has been initiated." ...

Source

If the Feds had any brains they would drop the matter and just let it quietly fade away.

Some video here.

Internet porn block “not possible” say British ISPs

We read:

"Government plans to block pornography 'at source' are unlikely to prove effective, say ISPs.

The proposal to cut off access to pornographic material was floated by Culture Minister Ed Vaizey in an interview with the Sunday Times. The government is talking to ISPs to set up a meeting at which the proposal will be discussed.

But, say experts, technical challenges mean any large scale filtering system is doomed to failure."

Source

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL WHO COME BY HERE

I plan to continue blogging right through the holiday season

British comedian in strife after using "n*gger" and "Paki"

"Paki" is just an abbreviation of "Pakistani" so it is hard to see what is wrong with that. "Thou shalt not abbreviate"?

"Viewers, politicians and charities last night called for Channel 4 to sack comedian Frankie Boyle for making racist jokes and ridiculing the disabled.

Boyle has caused fury by using the most offensive words to describe black and Asian people in his television routines, as well as abhorrent comments about those with physical and mental health problems.

'There is also growing fury that Channel 4 executives allowed the comedian to use two of the most racially offensive terms in the English language during his show Tramadol Nights.

Source

He also made some comments about disabled people which are disallowed too, of course.

Widespread Leftist outrage at attack on inauthentic movie

The original criticism:

"Norse mythology gets a multi-cultural remake in the upcoming movie titled “Thor,” by Marvel studios. It’s not enough that Marvel attacks conservative values and promotes the left-wing, now mythological Gods must be re-invented with black skin.

It seems that Marvel Studios believes that white people should have nothing that is unique to themselves. An upcoming movie, based on the comic book Thor, will give Norse mythology an insulting multi-cultural make-over. One of the Gods will be played by Hip Hop DJ Idris Elba.

Source

A black Nordic God is certainly a strange idea but nobody is allowed to say so apparently. You get called a "white supremacist" if you do. A brief summary of some of the outrage here

There seems to be particular rage over the fact that the conservative group called for a boycott of the film. Leftists are always trying to mount boycotts of people and firms that they do not like but conservatives are not allowed to do likewise, apparently.

As far as I am concerned, I would be glad of the information that the film is badly cast and would not go to see it on those grounds -- if I was into that sort of thing

By all their wailing and shrieking the Left have certainly seen to it that the boycott call is widely publicized -- which is amusing.