Tuesday, May 31, 2011

"Racist" to mention someone's skin color?

We read:
"Supermodel Naomi Campbell has threatened to take legal action over a Cadbury advertisement that allegedly uses her name to promote a chocolate bar.

According to reports, the catwalk beauty accuses the chocolate giant of racism after an advertising campaign that not only uses her name without permission – but also “compares her to chocolate”.

The ad for Cadbury's Bliss shows a chocolate bar surrounded by diamonds with the slogan, "Move over Naomi, there's a new diva in town".

Campbell alleges the tag line is a jibe aimed at her and claims she is deeply offended at being compared to a chocolate bar.

The supermodel's mother, Valerie Morris, is said to have echoed her daughter's concern, "I'm deeply upset by this racist advert. Do these people think they can insult black people and we just take it? This is the 21st century, not the 1950s. Shame on Cadbury"

Source
Is using the word "retarded" hate speech?

This is something of an old chestnut now and I have no doubt that some genuinely kind-hearted people oppose use of the word. But it is once again a belief in verbal magic: The belief that if you banish the word you banish the underlying reality. That just aint so. The reality will remain and there will always be SOME word used to refer to it. And that word will always be upsetting to some.
Spend any time around school-aged students and you'll hear some of them say, "That's retarded." It's a phrase they toss around to mean something's unfair, stupid, silly.

Is using the word retarded hate speech? A new campaign says it is, and aims to rid people's vocabulary of the word.

The popular teen show "Glee" is leading the effort to explain how the word is hurtful in jokes or any part of speech.

Advocates explain on the website R-Word.org why the word is so hurtful when used in jokes or as part of everyday speech.

"What’s wrong with retarded? I can only tell you what it means to me and people like me when we hear it. It means that the rest of you are excluding us from your group. We are something that is not like you and something that none of you would ever want to be. We are something outside the "in" group. We are someone that is not your kind. I want you to know that it hurts to be left out here, alone," says Joseph Stephens, a Special Olympics athlete.

Source

Sorry about that Joseph but people will always tend to pick as friends people who are like themselves. We still have the freedom to do that -- so far.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Atheists vs. American Legion: The Legality of Utah’s Highway Crosses

We read:
"Atheists continue to rail against the presence of 13 crosses on Utah’s public highways. While the legal debate between the Utah Highway Patrol and its supporters and American Atheists (the organization staunchly opposed to the crosses) has gone back and forth for some time now, a 2010 ruling declared the religious symbols “unconstitutional.”

But, the debate is far from over. Just days before the United States celebrates Memorial Day, the American Legion has announced its plans to enter into the debate in support of the crosses. For history’s sake, these markers were constructed in 1998 to memorialize fallen Utah Highway Patrol staff (marking the spots where they had perished).

An American Atheists blog responding to attacks as to why they hated crosses called the memorial monuments “highly offensive,” and that for crosses to represent troopers who could possibly be of another faith or no faith is insulting.

But according to a Christian Science Monitor article, the families of each fallen Utah trooper were consulted before the erection of the crosses and no one objected. A photo of each trooper is also used at the site.

Source
Lawsuit Filed Against Texas School District to Stop Prayer During Graduation

We read:
"A federal lawsuit was filed Friday by the Americans United for Separation of Church and State to prevent a Texas school district from allowing prayer during graduation, according to FoxSanAntonio.com:

The suit was filed on behalf of Christa and Danny Schultz, who have two children in the Medina Valley Independent School District, including one graduating on June 4, according to the San Antonio Express.

The group wants the school district to remove a student-led invocation and benediction, but the school district says that the remarks do not violate any laws or school policy, according to the Express.

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Sunday, May 29, 2011

False racism accusation costs Irish airline money

We read:
"A former Miss World has been awarded £70,000 in damages after suing no-frills carrier Ryanair for defamation.

The case centred on a press release posted on Ryanair’s website in November 2008 in response to remarks Miss Davison, 27, made the previous day in a newspaper.

Asked what she thought of the lack of any Irish women in Ryanair’s 2009 charity calendar of bikini-clad cabin crew, she said: ‘If I was (organising) it, I would have made sure Irish women were involved because it’s an Irish charity and Irish fundraising.’

The airline’s release said the comments by Miss Davison, who was crowned Miss World in 2003, ‘bordered on racism and demonstrated an elitist attitude against Ryanair’s international cabin crew’.

Source
Judge Rules Pastor Can Say 'Jesus Christ' at Memorial Day Ceremony at National Cemetery

We read:
"A federal judge in Texas ruled Thursday that the government cannot prohibit a Houston preacher from saying “Jesus Christ” while delivering an invocation at an upcoming Memorial Day ceremony to be held the national cemetery in the city.

The Rev. Scott Rainey, the pastor at Living Word Church of the Nazerene, has given the invocation at the Houston National Cemetery for the last two years, each time ended the prayer with a reference to Jesus.

But a month ago, Arleen Ocasio, the director of the cemetery, asked to review Rainey's prayer before the ceremony this Monday, according to court papers. The pastor agreed, but four hours later, she responded with an email saying that “while it was very well written” she asked that it commemorate “veterans from all cultures and religious beliefs” -- in other words, not just those who believe in Jesus.

Rainey called Ocasio, and she told him that if he didn't change the prayer, he would not be allowed to deliver the Memorial Day remarks, Rainey said in his lawsuit against the federal cemetery.

The pastor eventually sued the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department to be allowed to refer to Jesus Christ at the invocation.

Judge Lynn N. Hughes sided with Rainey, ruling that censorship and religious discrimination violate the First Amendment.

Source

Saturday, May 28, 2011

NJ Methodists go to water over Christian symbols

Covering up Christian symbols in a church building is carrying the delegitimization of Christianity to a new extreme. And the Methodists who agreed to it show how weak in their faith Methodists have become. They are now just another pissweak "mainstream" church. Next thing they'll be replacing their communion wine with Scotch Whisky.

It seems to me a plain case of denying Christ. Jesus said, “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 10:33).
School officials in Neptune Township, N.J., have bowed to the demands of the ACLU and will cover decades-old religious signs posted in the historic Great Auditorium to allow a 70-year tradition of high school graduations to continue.

Instead of the sign, "Holiness to the Lord," a banner will be posted over it saying, "Neptune Township School District ... A Community of Learners." In addition, a banner with the words "So Be Ye Holy" will be covered with another banner saying, “Neptune High School: A School of Excellence and No Excuses."

The new banners are meant to appease the American Civil Liberties Union, which had demanded the school district remove all religious signs and symbols from the Methodist-owned auditorium in Ocean Grove, claiming it made non-Christians attending public school graduations feel uncomfortable.

The conflict began after the grandmother of one of last year's graduates complained not only about the large white cross adorning the top of the buildings' facade, but of the religious signs inside, and what she felt was a heavily religious tone to the ceremony, which included student-led invocations and the singing of Christian hymns, most notably "Onward Christian Soldiers."

The school agreed to cut out the student-led invocations and the hymns. But the 6,500-seat Great Auditorium is run by the Camp Meeting Association. It is the iconic, center piece of the Methodist Church-based organization's property, which comprises the bulk of the land in Ocean Grove.

The historical building had become the site for both civic and community events. The association agreed to cover the cross on the inside, but not the cross on the outside or the antique lighted religious signs.

Source
Health board nixes butt billboards

We read:
"KENNEWICK, Wash. — A Tri-Cities health board reversed itself Wednesday and voted against endorsing a colon cancer awareness campaign that uses billboards saying, “What’s up your butt?”

The Tri-City Herald reports the Benton Franklin Health District commissioners responded to complaints the ads are in poor taste. The butt billboards have been displayed in Yakima to raise colorectal cancer awareness and encourage people to get screened for the disease.

Source

The billboards were obviously effective in getting attention and were in a good cause so it seems narrow-minded to ban them

Friday, May 27, 2011

Ed Schultz: Laura Ingraham Is a ‘Right-Wing Slut’



More Leftist hate speech. Sexist too! You can imagine the Leftist media's reaction if a conservative said this about a liberal female.
"MSNBC host Ed Schultz, that reliable source of thoughtful, progressive political commentary, enlightened his radio listeners earlier this week about popular conservative talk-show host and commentator Lara Ingraham. According to Schultz, she’s a “right-wing slut.” And he didn’t just let it slip out once. No, he made sure to repeat the slur.

Schultz seems angry about Ingraham’s comments on Fox that it may not have been the greatest decision for Obama to be seen drinking beer in Ireland as Joplin, MO tried to pick up the pieces after a devastating tornado.

But as Mediaite’s Jon Bershad points out, the reasoning doesn’t really matter:

Look, if you don’t agree with something the woman says, you can feel free to call her an “idiot” or a “jerk” or a “big, stupid poop-face.” Whatever you want. Just don’t call her a slut, you big, stupid poop-face!

Source

Leftists sure are good at dragging political debate down to the lowest possible standard.

I suppose it's something that Schultz got a short suspension over his language.

Obama doesn't even know what year it is -- signs it as 2008



This is not a free speech issue but since nobody else seems to be mentioning it, I thought I should. It would be on the front page of every newspaper coast to coast if a prominent Republican had shown this degree of disconnection from reality. Dan Quayle just had to add an extra "e" on to the spelling of "potato" for it never to have been forgotten by the media
"Everyone wishes they could turn back the clock sometimes, and it turns out Barack Obama is no different. He got the date wrong by three years when he signed the guestbook at Westminster Abbey today on his official visit to the UK - despite apparently asking the dean what day it was.

Following a tradition set by former presidents Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, he laid a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, before going into the nave to sign a heartfelt message in the Distinguished Visitors' Book."

Source

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Did Peter Fonda Commit the Federal Offense of Threatening President Obama?

We read:
"While promoting a new documentary at the Cannes film festival in France last weekend, Peter Fonda made comments that could be construed as threats against President Obama. “I’m training my grandchildren to use long-range rifles,” the actor told The Daily Telegraph at the international film festival. “For what purpose? Well, I’m not going to say the words 'Barack Obama,' but …”

With those words, the “Easy Rider” star may have committed a federal crime. “Clearly, there is a federal law that prohibits threatening the president,” Washington, D.C.-based attorney Ross Nabatoff tells FOX411.com.

“Now, the question is, is that a threat as opposed to him expressing his First Amendment rights? But you could conceivably construe that as a threat—he names the president. It’s a federal offense.

The fact that Fonda, 71, made his comments overseas could work in his favor should legal trouble ensue. “The federal courts may not have jurisdiction in France,” Nabatoff said.

Source
Straight-talking Video banned by YouTube

John Hawkins is the straight talker. He sure pulls no punches. But I can't see a single point where he is factually wrong
Conservative bloggers have been saying for years that YouTube takes a pro-radical Islam slant. Videos that are pro-Israel or anti-radical Islam have been pulled again and again and again and again and again.

Yesterday, I got a taste of the same treatment when I hammered the Palestinians for their malicious and evil behavior in my latest Liberalism in 120 Seconds video on YouTube. You can’t see the video on YouTube anymore because it was banned as “hate speech,” but you can see it at MRC TV.

Moreover, conservative Republicans are called “evil” and “Nazis” on a daily basis. So are Israelis. Is YouTube going to call those videos “hate speech” and pull ‘em? No, of course not. You can lie about Republicans, conservatives, Israel and even America all you want, but if you tell the truth about the genocidal impulses of the Palestinian people and their suicide bomber culture, that’s “hate speech.”

Source

(See the original for links & Video)

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Must not laugh at the postal service

So we should cry? Makes sense.
"The U.S. Postal Service wants Americans to know that even the temptation of French toast sticks and a Double Crossain'wich wouldn't stop its letter carriers from delivering the mail on time.

After unleashing its lawyers, USPS has struck a settlement with Burger King over an ad campaign launched last year that featured a letter carrier getting distracted from his job by delicious Burger King breakfast food. Apparently, the Postal Service did not appreciate the portrayal."

Source
"English only" is a winner

We read:
"Greg Simons, the owner of Reedy Creek Diner in North Carolina, became frustrated over his inability to communicate with non-English speaking customers. So, he took a controversial step: He posted an ‘English Only’ sign. Simons claims that the results have been unbelievable. He’s received support and acclaim from people across the nation. And, his business has been surging. Watch his explanation, below



Source

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

MTV kills anti-abortion ads; group cries foul

We read:
"There’s a storm brewing between MTV and a pro-life media group supported by Sarah Palin after the music channel abruptly yanked the non-profit’s ads just a few days into the launch of a new media campaign.

Heroic Media announced its “We Can Help” campaign, which was to air on MTV and BET, at an April 30 event attended by Palin.
The ads – which offer women with unexpected pregnancies useful information – began airing May 2, with plans to run for several weeks.

But MTV pulled the plug after just one airing. MTV spokeswoman Jeannie Kedas told FoxNews.com in a email that MTV nixed the ads because of a controversial billboard campaign launched by a group with close ties to Heroic Media.

Source

I guess they'll have to take their advertising dollars elsewhere.

Not allowed to dislike being bossed around by a woman?

So a French dancer discovers:
"A pre-dance package showed Feildel's dance partner, Alana Patience, popping into his restaurant to give him some last-minute posture pointers before this week’s performance.

The TV chef was later asked by host Daniel McPherson if he was frustrated having Patience bossing him around in his own kitchen.

Feildel replied: “The problem was that the staff around me, I usually tell them what to do. Suddenly a woman was telling me what to do in front of everyone.”

His comments were met by boos from the crowd with a visibly panicked Feildel unaware of his sexist mishap. Co-host Sonya Kruger later added fuel to the fire when the couple returned backstage and the scores were read. “It’s brilliant. But what would I know? I’m a woman,” Kruger joked.

After the show, a flustered Feildel said he did not stand by the comments and said it was a slip of the tongue. “I didn’t even know what I said before I looked and saw Todd shaking his head at me,” Feildel said. “This time I can blame it on my French accent. I didn’t mean it; in fact I quite like being bossed around by women.”

Source

It seems to me that a woman who goes into a man's workplace and tells him how to behave is at least as insensitive as him saying that he doesn't want to be bossed around by a woman

Monday, May 23, 2011

Suppressing Speech at UC Santa Barbara

We read:
"When David Horowitz speaks about campus anti-Semitism and appeasement of radical Islam at the University of California, Santa Barbara on May 26, it will be against a backdrop of soft censorship and suppression of free speech that has come to characterize the UCSB public square.

The school’s Associated Students (AS) financial board, heavily influenced by the UCSB Muslim Students Association acting in concert with left-wing groups, illegally refused a funding request last week by the College Republicans to fund the event. After a protest by students anxious to hear Horowitz, the AS granted a part of the sum initially requested by College Republicans, but only after encouraging a campaign portraying Horowitz as a racist, Islamophobe, and practitioner of hate speech.

The May 26 speech will touch on themes similar those in a previous Horowitz lecture at Santa Barbara three years ago in which he challenged — without success — students heckling from the audience to denounce the terror group Hamas and its intention to wipe Israel, and all Jews, off the face of the map.

The memory of that confrontation was one factor that led the College Republicans’ request for $2000, for audiovisual and security expenses (and not including an honorarium) to be turned down by the Associated Students board on May 2. Citing court decisions requiring viewpoint neutrality when student fees are allocated for speakers, College Republicans protested. At a raucous public forum on May 5, the AS approved $1100 for the event. This amount was then reduced to $800 as a result of a campaign by Islamic and left groups, which also made it clear that they intended to disrupt the event.

Source
A rapid revision of reality

The speech of an Hispanic pastor was accurately reported at the beginning of the paragraph (homosexuals “are worthy of death") but that has become transformed into “Kill the gays" by the end of the paragraph. That Christians follow the Bible and that Romans chapter 1 says that God will do the punishing, not man, is obviously too complicated for the tiny brain of the writer below.
Specifically, Reverend Ortega said, gays “are worthy of death.” The translator did not pause or miss a beat, and neither did Reverend Díaz -- who spoke just minutes later -- nor did Díaz, the elected representative of hundreds of thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender constituents, bother to walk back or disavow that hate speech. It gives one pause to ask, if it’s illegal to yell, “Fire!” in a crowded theater, why isn’t it illegal to yell, “Kill the gays!” in front of a few thousand religious bigots?

Source

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Censorship happening to the Left, too

Obama is a big disappointment to doctrinaire Leftists but you are still not allowed to criticize him, says cartoonist Ted Rall, who is FAR Left
There's been a push among political cartoonists to get our work into the big editorial blogs and online magazines that seem poised to displace traditional print political magazines like The Progressive. In the past, editorial rejections had numerous causes: low budgets, lack of space, an editor who simply preferred another creator's work over yours.

Now there' s a new cause for refusal: Too tough on the president. I've heard that from enough "liberal" websites and print publications to consider it a significant trend. A sample of recent rejections, each from editors at different left-of-center media outlets:

* "I am familiar with and enjoy your cartoons. However the readers of our site would not be comfortable with your (admittedly on point) criticism of Obama."

* "Don't be such a hater on O and we could use your stuff. Can't you focus more on the GOP?"

* "Our first African-American president deserves a chance to clean up Bush's mess without being attacked by us."

I have many more like that. What's weird is that these cultish attitudes come from editors and publishers whose politics line up neatly with mine. They oppose the bailouts. They want us out of Afghanistan and Iraq. They disapprove of Obama's new war against Libya. They want Obama to renounce torture and Guantanamo.

Obama is the one they ought to be blackballing. He has been a terrible disappointment to the American left. He has forsaken liberals at every turn. Yet they continue to stand by him. Which means that, in effect, they are not liberals at all. They are militant Democrats. They are Obamabots.

Source

Seems like Ted is not properly worshipful of Obama's skin color. The Left are OBSESSED with race, just as the socialist Hitler was.

At least Karl Marx wasn't particularly racist. He hated the Jews but he hated everyone else as well. That such a great hater is such a Leftist icon tells you a lot about the Left. If you would like to read more on the wit and wisdom of old Karl, I have a blog for that

College Students Sign Petition to ‘Ban’ Rush, Beck From Radio — But Love Free Speech!

We read:
"Oliver Darcy is doing his part to expose liberal ideas and hypocrisy on college campuses. Last month he produced two videos showing students willing to redistribute wealth but not grades and also refusing to pay their share of the national debt. Now he’s back, and this time he’s showing how college students who say they support free speech are willing to sign a petition to “ban” Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and other conservatives from the airwaves.

In the video, the students are not only willing to sign the petition, but some even offer their thoughts on Beck and those like him.

“That guy’s a douchebag,” one guy says of Beck. “He’s an a**.” “I hate them bastards,” another man says, even after telling the petition author that in America and they should have a right to say what they want. He signs the petition anyway.

On his website, Exposingleftists.com, Darcy writes: "Today, many want to limit the speech of those they disagree with, primarily conservative republicans. In 1949, the Fairness Doctrine was introduced under the FCC. Under Reagan, in 1987, the FCC ended the doctrine.

While Democrat-controlled congresses have tried to make it law again, Republicans and those who support free speech oppose their efforts to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. To begin the limitation of political speech and dissent would lead us to a downward spiral of freedoms."

Source