Hate speech from Bloomberg

If he calls fat people "beasts" is it OK to call him a Fascist?  Perhaps we could even call him a Kapo, after the Jews who assisted the Nazi concentration camp guards.  If he can be offensive, so can we

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City and maven of medical-political quackery, decided to use the power of government to control the quantity of soft drinks people consume in eating establishments selling fountain drinks. An estimated 22,000 business entities would be affected, including restaurants, food carts, sports arenas, stadiums, theaters, and other public venues.

Bloomberg thinks “beasts” should be controlled. Those “beasts” are running rabidly rampant destroying the aesthetic of his beloved city. He is going to solve the problem of  “beasts” in New York City. He claims the people want this.

Bloomberg’s mandate will limit sweetened fountain soft drink quantities to 16 ounces. He claims this will help curb obese “beasts.” He hates the sight of “beasts” and decided to beautify his city through downsizing soda.

Bloomberg blasted his critics calling them ridiculous. Has he looked in the mirror lately? Calling obese people “beasts” is not only ridiculous, it is insensitive and offensive. Mayor Bloomberg has an absolute unalienable right to call obese people “beasts.” This is still America, after all.

But, this being America, obese people, and the rest of us, should be protesting loudly about being called “beasts.” Where are the oh-so sensitive media? How come they are not all over this lashing out at Bloomberg for dehumanizing human beings by calling them “beasts”?

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Must not mutter

In Australia's federal parliament:

"TERRITORY politician Natasha Griggs surprised friend and foe alike by being kicked out of Federal Parliament.  Deputy Speaker Anna Burke ordered her out after she twice interjected during a speech by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

The exact words of her interjection are not recorded in Hansard, the official record of parliamentary proceedings. But Ms Burke told her: "If she thinks just muttering under her breath is not offensive, it is."

A CLP source also said Ms Griggs "muttered something under her breath". The source said her ejection was "a bit rough" because it was not recorded whether what she had said was "offensive".

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The usual Democrat charm

We read:

"Last Thursday Al Sharpton compared Republicans to Nazis and claimed they were out to exterminate Blacks. That wasn't just stupid. It was obscene.

Why is it when conservatives accuse liberals of being fascists or Nazis, or compare individuals to Hitler, Stalin, or Mao, the proverbial excrement hits the fan? It is deemed extremely offensive, anti-Semitic, insensitive and un-American. 

When liberals do it, they "speak truth to power.”

Why do liberals, who are supposedly so intellectual and open-minded, get away with saying such stupid, hateful things? When they do, their liberal friends then defend the indefensible.

There was no hue and cry over Al Sharpton’s remarks. That would cause his critics to be accused of racism, the political kiss of death, the journalistic trump card. The mere thought of that accusation turns otherwise intelligent people into spineless cowards.

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Video at link

'Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier' advertising campaign used by British TV Channel  for its wedding series to be investigated for 'racism'



We read:

"The Advertising Standards Authority is to formally investigate Channel 4's advertising for Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, after the Irish Traveller community successfully appealed the regulator's original decision.

Adverts used to promote the show have been criticised for using the words: 'Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier' in large letters across images of travellers, including one of young children.

The London Travellers' Unit and two members of the London Assembly have likened the word 'gypsier' to other terms deemed racist and abusive.

In March the ASA dismissed more than 370 complaints against the campaign, but decided that an investigation was unnecessary as Channel 4's TV and billboard ads were not likely to cause widespread offence.

But now the ASA has made an embarrassing climb down and admitted its decision not to review the complaints was 'flawed.'

The green light for the investigation to commence was given after a meeting between Lord Smith and independent reviewer Sir Hayden Phillips, a former senior civil servant.

The decision to investigate the series ,which has pulled in up to 8 million viewers, is damaging to the show's sponsor Honda and the car company admitted some viewers had rang them directly to lodge a complaint.

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If Gypsies think it is racism to call someone a Gypsy, that doesn't say much for their self-esteem, does it.  Do they themselves think being a Gypsy is discreditable?  If so, why criticize others who appear to think likewise?

British TV host  in race row after using the word 'pikey' in magazine column

"Pikey" is a bit hard to translate from British English but it includes ideas of being mean and not living up to your obligations.  It originally applied to Gypsies and other "travellers".  Note, however, that the presenter was applying the description to HIMSELF

Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond has been embroiled in a race row after he used the word 'pikey' in a magazine column.

An Irish traveller group slammed the 42-year-old television presenter and journalist, saying the word was the equivalent of calling a black person a 'n*****'.

Hammond used the word in his regular column in this month's Top Gear magazine while writing about how much money he had spent on his Land Rover.

He wrote: 'I have, over the 10 years I've owned it, spent way too much money on my Land Rover. I've documented on this page before some of the car's many stages of evolution.

'It's spent time as a blinged-up street cruiser with chrome wheels, blue neon underlighting, straight-through dragster sidepipes and a pumped-up stereo that could damage your pelvis on loud.

'A lot of my little touches have been fun, innocent and pretty harmless. I have fitted chromed accents on the dash and commissioned back seats bearing my daughter's names.

'Yes, I am a pikey, and it is important that my Land Rover reflect that.'

A spokesman for the Irish Traveller Movement in Britain said: 'He has to understand that pikey is the equivalent to the n word.

'You could make a joke with the n word in but if you did it wouldn't be funny. It would be offensive. It is the same with pikey.'

Top Gear magazine's editor Charlie Turner said: 'We're sorry this term has caused offence. That was never the intention.'

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Death threats for preaching the Bible IN CHURCH???

We read:

"A church in rural Indiana has gone on lock-down and its pastor has fled into hiding after a shocking video emerged of a four-year-old boy singing a homophobic song.

The clip shows the child receiving raucous applause and a standing ovation as he chants 'ain't no homos gonna make it to heaven.'

On Wednesday, members of Apostolic Truth Tabernacle Church in Greensburg, Indiana, said they have received death threats over the publication of the video.

In the grainy footage recorded by a cellphone, a young boy approaches the microphone and sings: 'I know the the Bible’s right, somebody’s wrong/ the Bible’s right, somebody’s wrong/ Romans one, twenty six and twenty seven/ Ain’t no homos gonna make it to Heaven.'

Men in suits rise to their feet and begin cheering and applauding. Pastor Jeff Sangl grins and nods approvingly.

Three times the boy sings the verse -- which is a takeoff on lyrics written by Bishop G.E. Patterson, the late leader of the nation's largest black Pentecostal church.

The original lyrics read: 'I've told you time and time again, you can't make it to Heaven while you sippin' on gin' and 'I've told you once, I've told you twice, you can't make it to Heaven with a sweetheart and a wife.'

The Bible verse the boy refers to, Romans 1:26-27, reads: 'Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. '

Even as criticism of the church pours in, members of the congregation are standing by the boy's performance.

'The people who are upset just don't read the word of God. If we don't teach the children the truth early they will never learn,' one congregant told TMZ.com.

After the video went public, Pastor Sangl, who is seen urging the boy on, suddenly left for an unplanned vacation and no one is sure where he's gone.

Members of the congregation say they've received death threats.

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Calling someone fat could be made a hate crime in Britain

"Obese" is OK but "fat" is not????

As playground taunts go, it must be the oldest in the book. But calling someone ‘fatty’ should be deemed a hate crime, MPs warn today.

The Government should consider putting ‘appearance-based discrimination’ on a legal par with race and sexual discrimination, a report by the all-party parliamentary group on body image suggests.

The Equalities Act 2010 makes it unlawful to harass, victimise or discriminate against anyone because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability.
Stop! Calling someone fat should become a hate crime on a par with racial or sexual discrimination, a new report suggests

Stop! Calling someone fat should become a hate crime on a par with racial or sexual discrimination, a new report suggests

The report, Reflections on Body Image, published today, recommends ‘a review into the scale of the problem of appearance-based discrimination’.

It says: ‘This may include exploring whether an amendment to the Equalities Act would be the most appropriate way of tackling discrimination.’

The report also calls for the NHS’s  controversial weigh-in for children to be scrapped because it wrongly labels many youngsters as obese and could lead to bullying.

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Australia: Leftists just can't think ahead  -- or is it just that they rely on conservatives to have better manners than they do?

An obvious riposte to the poster criticizing the conservative leader below would be: "I'm Julia Gillard and I'm threatened by marriage and children". (Leftist Prime Minister Gillard has never married, has no children and is in a relationship of  some sort with a male hairdresser!  I kid you not.

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has described posters that depict him as racist, homophobic and sexist as tacky and not funny.

The posters, snapped inside the Sydney electorate office of Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, carry the slogans: "I'm threatened by boats and gays. Gays on boats are my worst nightmare" and also "Note to Ladies: Make me a sandwich".

Mr Abbott told the Nine Network today: "It's tacky, it's not funny and Tanya Plibersek should be better than that and the Labor Party should lift its game."

Ms Plibersek's office yesterday refused to be drawn on the question of an apology, but later tweeted: "Have instituted formal satire ban in the office".

In a prepared statement she said: "It is satire, I have asked the staff member to take it down."

However, Liberal party deputy leader Julie Bishop said she was so outraged by the posters she raised the issue during Question Time yesterday after noticing the pictures on her iPad.  Ms Bishop said she found the posters highly offensive, as did the Opposition Leader, who's own sister is in a same-sex relationship.

The posters, which were photographed inside the Sydney electorate office of Labor MP Tanya Plibersek, caught the attention of a 2GB listener who forwarded the photos onto talkback radio host Ben Fordham and immediately sparked outrage.

On his Sydney Live show yesterday, Fordham asked how Ms Plibersek would feel if the shoe was on the other foot and "nasty posters" of Julia Gillard were on display in a Liberal MP's office.

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"Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest"  -- Exodus 34:21

My recent very unpleasant medical problems have made me ask what is the best way forward in my life.  To answer that question I turned to the wisest book I know:  The Bible.  And I found the quotation above.  Following Bible advice has always worked wonderfully for me so I now intend to follow that piece of advice too.  I intend from now on the keep the Sabbath and will blog only six days of the week instead of seven. 

But it will be the real Sabbath I will keep,  not the pagan abomination of the Sun's day.  It was precisely because the pagans had set aside the first say of the week as a day to worship the sun that the ancient Hebrews defiantly made the seventh day of the week their holy say and I will follow their example.  I will no longer blog on Saturday but will do other things.

But I will not be surrounding what I do with rules.  As Jesus said, the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  The Bible simply says to do no work and that does not exclude doing all sorts of other things.

One of the things I would like to do today is to learn the words of the Stabat Mater in full.  It is the most famous Medieval Latin poem and has been set by many composers  -- with the glorious rendition by Pergolesi being best known.  I already sort of know the poem but would like to be able to recite the whole thing right through without interruption.  To be able to do that will be pleasure, not work.  Latin poetry is wonderful even in a work of Marian devotion.

Stabat mater dolorosa
Juxta crucem lacrimosa
Dum pendebat filius

Cuius animam gementem
contristatam et dolentem
Pertransivit gladius ... etc

The is a video from Italy here which offers a respectful version of the first part of the Pergolesi masterpiece.  If it's a techno beat you like, you will hate it.  This is a work of profound contemplation about the central event of the Christian faith. Even I as an atheist can feel the power  of it.

Five wives vodka banned in Idaho because it is offensive to Mormons... but Polygamy Porter is still allowed

And it's OK in Utah!  Another case of people getting "offended" on behalf of someone else

"Five Wives Vodka was named in bad taste and won't be stocked or special ordered at stores operated by the state of Idaho, regulators said.

The middle-shelf vodka is made by Ogden's Own Distillery in Utah, where the Mormon church is based.  Its label carries the name and an image of five women, an apparent reference to polygamy, a practice abandoned by the church more than a century ago.

Idaho State Liquor Division administrator Jeff Anderson said the brand is offensive to Mormons who make up over a quarter of Idaho's population.

Ogden's Own Distillery is trying to make the most of the rejection with a media campaign and sale of 'Free the Five Wives' T-shirts.

It says the snub is unfair because a Utah beer named Polygamy Porter is available in Idaho. Anderson said Idaho doesn't decide what beer brands can be sold in grocery and convenience stores.

'We're a little dumbfounded by it all,' said Steve Conlin, a partner and marketing chief for Ogden's Own Distillery.

'The average person can look at our bottle and they don't find it offensive. It's certainly not obscene, which is what it would require for it to be banned.'

Five Wives Vodka has been approved for sale in Utah, a state dominated by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's also available in Wyoming, another state that regulates liquor sales.

Nobody in Utah is raising a fuss over the brand, said Vickie Ashby, a spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

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British woman jailed for saying what many think

We read:

"A DRUNK passenger who hurled racist abuse at fellow travellers on a London underground train in a tirade that became an internet sensation has been jailed for 21 weeks.

Jacqueline Woodhouse, 42, launched an expletive-laden rant at passengers on the Central line, telling those seated near her: "I used to live in England and now I live in the United Nations."

In the video of her latest foul-mouthed outburst, filmed by businessman Galbant Juttla, Woodhouse can be heard shouting in a thick Essex accent: "All f***ing foreign f***ing s***heads."

Prosecutor Claire Campbell said Woodhouse, who has since lost her job and is now claiming benefits, began her stream of abuse after a retirement party when she was feeling a little "worse for wear". She had drunk an unknown quantity of champagne.

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Poland furious over Barack Obama's 'death camp' comment

President emptyhead didn't know the difference between "Polish" and "in Poland"

"Poland's foreign minister has demanded Barack Obama apologise after referring to "Polish death camps" during the Second World War.

The US President made the slip while honouring Jan Karski, a Polish resistance fighter who was among the first to raise the alarm over the Nazi concentration camps, during a ceremony at the White House.

Poland has long been sensitive to any implication that it was involved in the Holocaust, accurately pointing out that the camps on Polish soil were run by occupying German forces.

Foreign Minister Radek Sikorsi took to Twitter to insist that the White House apologise for the "outrageous error" and said that Prime Minister Donald Tusk would make a statement on Wednesday morning.

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Arrested for Blogging in Maryland

We read:

"Yesterday, blogger Aaron Walker, aka “Aaron Worthing,” was arrested for his blogging critical of Brett Kimberlin, a convicted domestic terrorist known as the “Speedway Bomber” who has become a progressive activist. 

As detailed by David Hogberg and Patterico and here, Kimberlin was able to convince a technologically illiterate judge that Walker’s blogging was incitement and violated a “peace order” Kimberlin had previously obtained against Walker. 

Unless there are additional, as-yet-undisclosed reasons for Walker’s arrest, it was blatantly unconstitutional, as Eugene Volokh explains here. 

Walker was released late yesterday afternoon, but an equally unconstitutional order barring him from, among other things, blogging about Kimberlin for the next six months further remains in effect.

Many of those commenting on these events have cast the dispute in ideological terms, as Walker is a conservative blogger and Kimberlin is a progressive activist. 

Yet, as Popehat explains, the real issue here is the threat to free speech that Kimberlin’s tactics represent — a threat that should be of concern without regard to the ideological orientation of the participants.

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  (See the original for links)

FBI quietly forms secretive Internet surveillance unit

We read:

"CNET has learned that the FBI has formed a Domestic Communications Assistance Center, which is tasked with developing new electronic surveillance technologies, including intercepting Internet, wireless, and VoIP communications. ...

The establishment of the Quantico, Va.-based unit, which is also staffed by agents from the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Agency, is a response to technological developments that FBI officials believe outpace law enforcement's ability to listen in on private communications."

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Lack of privacy can have a very chilling effect on speech

Britain's National Heallth Service  removes 'Dad' from parenting leaflets to avoid upsetting same-sex couples

We read:

"The NHS has removed the term "dad" from its childbirth guide after receiving a complaint that the leaflet was excluding same-sex parents.

The Ready Steady Baby pamphlet, which offers advice on pregnancy and the first year of parenthood, has been given to mums and dads-to-be for the last 14 years.

However, the 220-page guide will no longer refer to fathers after a complaint that claimed it was "not inclusive of people in same-sex relationships".

Instead, the leaflet will use the non-gender specific term "partner" in its latest revision.

Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, said the NHS was wrong to change the language in the booklet.  He said: "The NHS should not be squandering tax payers' money to advance the cause of a minority interest group.

"No matter how much effort is made to present positive images of families headed by same-sex couples, the fact remains it takes a man and a woman to create a child."

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FL judge: Warning others of speed traps is free speech

Another installment of an old controversy. I am a  "flasher" (of headlights) myself  -- but I don't do it as systematically as this guy did

"A judge in Florida ruled on Tuesday that flashing one's headlights to warn other drivers of speed traps set by police is protected by the First Amendment.

Ryan Kintner of Lake Mary, Fla. was pulled over and cited by a police officer in an unmarked car for doing just that. Kintner was at home when he saw a deputy park along a street and being using his radar gun. He got in his car, drove a little ways away and parked his vehicle so he could flash his lights at oncoming traffic to warn them. ...

Kintner, however, was not going down without a fight. He took his case to court, suing the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, with Attorney J. Marcus Jones arguing that ... 'Flashing your headlights is expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.'"

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Australians must not mock the New Zealand accent?

The NZ accent is a very strange version of English.  It is the only version of English to have lost an entire vowel.  They pronounce "Fish and chips" as "fush and chups".  And the other vowels are not too healthy either.  "Battered" is pronounced as "bettered"

A disgruntled Kiwi has been hit with a string of charges after losing his cool over a local TV advert poking fun at the New Zealand accent.

The 44-year-old Griffith man allegedly assaulted and intimidated a WIN television employee on Friday in an apparent payback for the station airing a Knockonwood television advert that features two animated kookaburras speaking with thick New Zealand accents, the Area News reports.

The satirical ad shows the kookaburras saying “sweet as, bro” and “choice, bro” – slang terms often associated with our trans-Tasman neighbours.

The man allegedly abused the furniture store's staff over the phone on Friday before turning up at WIN's Yambil Street offices and demanding to know who authorised the advert.

Police claim he assaulted a male member of the station's advertising staff during the altercation.

He was later arrested and charged with misuse of a telecommunications device, intimidation, common assault, resisting arrest and intimidating police.

Paul Pierotti, managing director of Knockonwood's parent company, the Caesar Group, said the incident had not convinced him to take the advert off air.

“We had no intention of offending anyone ... if anything, it's just a bit of light-hearted fun,” Mr Pierotti said.  “It's part of the culture of both Australia and New Zealand to poke fun at each other.

“At the end of the day, we wanted to create an ad that cut through and sometimes to do that you have to go for a novelty angle.  “We are really sorry if anyone found that offensive.”

The accused has been released on conditional bail and will front Griffith Local Court on June 13.

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Blackface is NEVER correct

Why?  Are they saying that black faces are ugly?  Seems strange.  I have yet to hear any logic behind the ban.  It seems to be just a kneejerk reaction.  Does representing yourself as black automatically imply that you are ridiculing blacks?  That is a pretty racist assumption if so.

"Sean King, a Colorado Springs second-grader at Meridian Ranch Elementary school, found himself in hot water last when he was pulled out of class for dressing like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. while also wearing black face paint for a school project. Now, Sean and his family want an apology from the school for the way the staff handled the situation.

Sean, 8-years-old, told KRDO that he feels school officials were "mean" to him and his family, citing that they made his mother cry. Sean explained that he is confused why other children who also wore face paint honoring other historical people were not punished like he was. "They were really negative to me," Sean said about school staff to KRDO.

School officials are now considering offering special classes about racial stereotypes to help teach kids and parents more about racial sensitivity.

Sean says he mean no harm by wearing the make-up, according to 9news, but Stephanie Meredith, a spokesperson for the school's principal, said that it wasn't just the school's staff that was offended by Sean's face paint, it was other students as well. So the principal took action, 7News reports.

Last week, KRDO first reported that Sean dressed up as MLK, Jr. for a school project. The boy's mother told KRDO that it was "wax museum day" for the second grade class and that each child was assigned a historical figure to dress up as.

Sean showed up for school on Wednesday doing a Martin Luther King impersonation, wearing a black suit, tie, mustache and black face paint -- his parents were with him, as were all the students' parents, to watch the day's presentation. But before things could get started, Erica Mason, the school's principal, told the second-grader that he needed to wash his face, according to KWGN, leaving Sean confused.

"They thought it was inappropriate and it will be disrespectful to black people and I say it's not," young Sean said to KRDO. "I like black people. It's just a costume and I don't want to insult anybody."

The NAACP has come out in support of Meridian Elementary Principal Mason and in support of Sean's desire to portray Dr. King, but has said that he just shouldn't have worn the black face paint.

But some people thought that school went too far with the second-grader. Since the news broke, the Meridian Ranch Elementary's Facebook page has been flooded with reactions, mostly in support of Sean.

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Brownface incorrect again



We read:

"Last week, some local activists turned the fire on the Fojol Brothers food trucks, accusing them of racism and engaging in a "brownface minstrel act" for dressing up in turbans and mustaches to peddle their Indian food. The story has now made its rounds throughout local media and commenters are going berserk everywhere, weighing in on why some find the truck offensive, as well as whether anyone should be offended by it at all

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Ruthless Leftist hate designed to shut up critic

We read:

"You’re about to listen to one of the most bone-chilling pieces of audio you will ever hear. At least, it was to me when I first heard it.

It’s a phone call that could have gotten me killed.

In this post you will hear that audio clip. You will also read about a months-long campaign of harassment carried out by at least three individuals: Ron Brynaert, Neal Rauhauser, and Brett Kimberlin — much of it directed at critics of Brett Kimberlin. This harassment includes repeated references to critics’ family members, workplace complaints, publication of personal information such as home addresses and pictures of residences, bogus allegations of criminal activity, whisper campaigns, frivolous legal actions, and frivolous State Bar complaints.

And finally, you will hear a comparison of one of those men’s voices to that of the man who made the call that sent police to my home. And you’ll read a declaration from a forensic audio expert comparing those two voices.

In the last radio interview Andrew Breitbart ever gave, on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, Breitbart talked about a new ruthless tactic used by thugs against political opponents:

    "[O]ne of the things they’ve done to people who have worked with me in the past, including an L.A. prosecutor, is to “SWAT.” That means that they’re spoofing phones, pretending to be somebody else’s phone, calling 911, and saying “I killed somebody” and then the person’s home is met with the guns drawn, the SWAT and the helicopters, in a horrifying act. It’s happened twice: once in New Jersey, once in Los Angeles, with an L.A. County . . . prosecutor who [is] associated with me.”

I am that L.A. County prosecutor. And in this post, you’ll hear the hoax call that sent police to my house, pointing loaded guns at me.

At 12:35 a.m. on July 1, 2011, sheriff’s deputies pounded on my front door and rang my doorbell. They shouted for me to open the door and come out with my hands up.

When I opened the door, deputies pointed guns at me and ordered me to put my hands in the air. I had a cell phone in my hand. Fortunately, they did not mistake it for a gun.

They ordered me to turn around and put my hands behind my back. They handcuffed me. They shouted questions at me: IS THERE ANYONE ELSE IN THE HOUSE? and WHERE ARE THEY? and ARE THEY ALIVE?

I told them: Yes, my wife and my children are in the house. They’re upstairs in their bedrooms, sleeping. Of course they’re alive.

Deputies led me down the street to a patrol car parked about 2-3 houses away. At least one neighbor was watching out of her window as I was placed, handcuffed, in the back of the patrol car. I saw numerous patrol cars on my quiet street. There was a police helicopter flying overhead, shining a spotlight down on us as I walked towards the patrol car. Several neighbors later told us the helicopter woke them up. I saw a fire engine and an ambulance. A neighbor later told me they had a HazMat vehicle out on the street as well.

Meanwhile, police rushed into my home. They woke up my wife, led her downstairs and to the front porch, frisked her, and asked her where the children were. Then police ordered her to stand on the front porch with her hands against the wall while they entered my children’s bedrooms to make sure they were alive.

The call that sent deputies to my home was a hoax. Someone had pretended to be me. They called the police to say I had shot my wife. The sheriff’s deputies who arrived at my front door believed they were about to confront an armed man who had just shot his wife. I don’t blame the police for any of their actions. But I blame the person who made the call.

Because I could have been killed.

The weirdest part of the whole thing was that I halfway expected this might happen. Because I was not the first one it had happened to.

Much more here

Obama’s America: EPA Officials Visit Man For Sending Email

An attempt to intimidate free speech

About a month ago, EPA regional official Al Armendariz made news when a YouTube video of him describing the way the agency handles oil and gas companies surfaced. In it, Armendariz said an analogy he liked to use about enforcement was how the Romans used crucifixion to keep smaller towns and villages under their thumb. Since then, Armendariz has resigned his post at the EPA. Case closed, right? Wrong.

A local North Carolina man named Larry Keller didn’t particularly like the analogy that Al Armendariz used, so, along with thousands of others assumably, he set about to contact Mr. Armendariz to discuss his views on the oil and gas industries. One of our basic rights and privileges in a free society is to be able to petition our government for a redress of grievances without fear of repercussion from said government simply for voicing our grievance.

Keller proceeded to try and contact Mr. Armendariz by Googling him. His domain was a subset of Southern Methodist University, he was directed to contact a Dr. David Gray who is the Director of External Affairs for the EPA. Keller wrote a simple, one sentence email to Dr. Gray which said simply, “Hello Mr. Gray-Do you have Mr. Armendariz’s contact information so we can say hello?”

On May 2nd, just a little over a week after the Armendariz crucify comments had flared up, two special agents from the EPA and a local police officer showed up at Mr. Keller’s home. Here is the story in his own words:

On Wednesday, May 02, 2012 at about 1:45PM two Special Agents from the EPA and an armed police officer who stood 6’6” tall visited our house in Asheville, NC. Their visit was a total surprise as we had not received any communications requesting an appointment. The agents presented very official looking badges and asked if we could sit and chat awhile. We moved to the back porch and took our seats with the exception of the armed officer who stood by the door to the house the entire time.

Keller was asked by the agents if he ran a business out of his home, and if so, what kind of business. Keller runs a consulting business from his home. Then he was asked if he had ever sent an email to anyone at the EPA. Keller, not remembering the email initially said no, then remembered his email to Dr. Gray trying to get the contact information for Al Armendariz. This is what happened next:

At this point Agent Woods reach into a file and from it he pulled out a copy of my email to Dr. Gray. He handed it to me and I asked what was there about the content that justified their driving across the state of NC to visit me with no prior warning. The other agent then stated that my choice of words in the email could be interpreted in many ways. At that point I asked them to be specific as they were wasting my time. I stated that I pay for agents’ salaries and that of the police officer and they have bigger fish to fry. Special Agent Woods then asked if I had ever been arrested – the answer was a swift no. I then asked for a copy of the email they presented and they said that was impossible as the investigation was not yet complete.

Keller asked the agents for business cards that they had previously promised him and they were miraculously out of business cards. The two agents, who had driven four hours from Raleigh, North Carolina for this encounter with Mr. Keller, left via the back staircase as quickly as they had appeared without supplying Larry Keller with their contact information. He also states that the agents had parked blocking his driveway and that the local police officer had parked in his neighbor’s driveway.

Larry Keller was interviewed by Pete Kaliner, a local conservative radio host about the incident. You can listen to the interview here. I heard today on Kaliner’s show that Keller has hooked up with the John Locke Foundation to pursue the incident further. I’ll keep you updated as soon as more information becomes available.

Is this really the America that we live in now? A concerned citizen tries to contact a government official over statements that he made in public and the next thing you know armed agents show up at his home?

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Note

I am off to hospital again later today  -- for what I hope will be the last time for a while.

How much if anything I will be able to blog for a few days is uncertain.

How does stating facts make someone racist?

We read:

"Assuming that it's true that "roving mobs of black youth" terrorize Baltimore, why should Del. Pat McDonough apologize for saying so ("Baltimore and bigotry," May 18)?

If anyone should apologize, I think it should be the Rev. Cortly C.D. Witherspoon, who according to the article in The Sun "said that McDonough's remarks were 'below the belt,' culturally insensitive and intended to exploit Baltimore's challenges for his own political gain." ("Delegate says focus shouldn't be on his 'black youth mobs' comment, but on city violence," May 18.)

According to the article, the reverend also plans to have a rally at City Hall and said that he wants radio station WCBM and the station's sponsors to "pull the plug" on Delegate McDonough's talk show.

Way to go, reverend! That ought to solve the problem of violence in Baltimore.

Source

Must not say mentally retarded students are mentally retarded

They've got "special needs" instead

Seniors at a Mesquite, Texas, high school will have to wait for a reprinted version of their yearbook, this after the initial publication labeled some special-needs students "mentally retarded."

Officials at the Mesquite Independent School District have apologized to families and students of Mesquite High School, east of Dallas, for a section dedicated to students with disabilities that contained errors and offensive language, district spokeswoman Laura Jobe said.

Jobe said she did not read the two-page section, but did see a photocopy of one page, which was sent to her office. She said a section read: “some of the disabilities the students in the Special Education Program have are being blind, deaf or non-verbal.”

She added:  “Specific disabilities of students were also cited in the yearbook, with some labeled as both blind and deaf, as well as mentally retarded.”

Students on the yearbook staff, a team of mostly seniors and a teacher advisor, also did not have parental permission to publish the photos of the students with special needs, Jobe said.

Source

I've got a special need for cevapi with kaimak.  Does that make me retarded?  Maybe it does but I like to think that I just like Yugoslav food.

NC: KKK fliers distributed, promoting cross-burning

Atheists or Democrats?

"Police in Reidsville are investigating some fliers that invite people to a cross-burning. Police Chief Edd Hunt said officers have received calls about the fliers, which come two weeks after the Ku Klux Klan held a protest in nearby Eden. Hunt says detectives are investigating but he’s not sure if the material is connected to the earlier protests in Eden."

Source

More fake hate speech

We read:

"Two lesbians who claimed to be victims of a hate crime last year when hateful messages were scrawled on their Colorado home are now being accused of perpetrating a hoax.

Aimee Whitchurch, 37, and Christel Conklin, 29, told authorities last October that vandals had spray-painted "Kill the Gay" on their garage door and left a noose on their doorstep.

The couple, who live in a rented condominium in Parker, Colo., said they believed the alleged incidents were in retaliation for disputes they were having with their Homeowner's Association over their dog.

The FBI reportedly became involved in the investigation. The two women were tested by federal agents to see whether they had spray-paint residue on their palms, Fox affiliate KDVR-reported. They were also asked to take a lie detector test, but declined, according to the station.

Authorities later determined that the women were responsible for the spray-painted words.

Source

'Colored' is offensive?  Someone should tell the NAACP

Britain:

ITV news producers have been given a reprimand after they allowed a reporter to use the word 'coloured' to describe soccer players and coaches.

The word was used during a lunchtime news bulletin on February 26 about Prime Minister David Cameron hosting a summit on tackling racism in sport.

Twenty viewers complained to ITV and four to broadcasting watchdog Ofcom after the gaffe on the ITV1 programme.

ITV executives quickly apologised on Twitter, edited the word from the news report and removed the word from the report that appeared on the ITV News website.

They gave warnings about use of the word to the producer, programme editor and reporter.

Now, as a result of this, Ofcom has decided to take no action.  It said: 'We noted that ITV recognised the editorial mistake almost immediately after broadcast, and took swift and appropriate action to mitigate the potential for further offence.'

Source

OH: Student may wear “Jesus is Not A Homophobe” t-shirt to school, says court

We read:

"A gay student who sued his Ohio high school for prohibiting him from wearing a T-shirt designed to urge tolerance of gays will be allowed to wear the shirt to school whenever he chooses. A judgment agreed to by Maverick Couch and the Waynesville Local School District was entered Monday in federal court in Cincinnati. It allows the teenager to wear the 'Jesus Is Not A Homophobe' T-shirt and says the district must pay $20,000 in damages and court costs."

Source

This sets a good precedent.  T-shirts quoting the Bible on homosexuality should now be allowed also.

Pakistan: Regime censors Twitter over cartoon contest

We read:

"The Pakistani government blocked access to the social networking service Twitter on Sunday, after publicly holding Twitter responsible for promoting a blasphemous cartoon contest taking place on Facebook, officials said. ...

'The material was promoting a competition on Facebook to post images of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad,' said Mohammad Yaseen, chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication’s Authority, was quoted as saying. He was also quoted as saying that Facebook had agreed to allay the concerns of the Pakistani government."

Source

One of the possible reasons why it is "haram" to make images of Mohammad is that he never existed.  In the case of Christ we have accounts of his life by four people who actually knew him but the earliest accounts of Mohammad's life date from around 200 years after he was supposed to have lived.

NC Teacher Screams at Student: It’s Criminal to Criticize Obama

We read:

"A YouTube video uploaded on Monday afternoon apparently shows a schoolteacher from the Rowan-Salisbury school district in North Carolina informing a student that failing to be respectful of President Obama is a criminal offense. Breitbart News has uncovered that the student is a high school junior, and that the teacher is apparently one Tanya Dixon-Neely.

The video shows a classroom discussion about the Washington Post hit piece about Mitt Romney bullying a kid some five decades ago. One student says, “Didn’t Obama bully someone though?” The teacher says: “Not to my knowledge.” The student then cites the fact that Obama, in Dreams from My Father, admits to shoving a little girl. “Stop, no, because there is no comparison,” screams the teacher. Romney is “running for president. Obama is the president.”

The student responds that both are “just men.”

The teacher yells -- literally yells -- that Obama is “due the respect that every other president is due … Listen,” she continues, “let me tell you something, you will not disrespect the president of the United States in this classroom.” She yells over the student repeatedly, and yells at him that it's disrespect for him to even debate about Romney and Obama.

The student says that he can say what he wants.

“Not about him, you won’t,” says the teacher.

The teacher then tells the student – wrongly – that it is a criminal offense to say bad things about a president. “Do you realize that people were arrested for saying things bad about Bush? Do you realize you are not supposed to slander the president?”

The student says that it would violate First Amendment rights to jail someone for such sentiments. “You would have to say some pretty f’d up crap about him to be arrested,” says the student. “They cannot take away your right to have your opinion … They can’t take that away unless you threaten the president.”

Clearly, the student should be teaching the class, and the teacher should be reading the Constitution more often.

Source

Scotland:   Police Arrest Six for Facebook Hate Speech

We read:

"On Wednesday, The BBC reported that police in Glasgow had arrested and charged six Facebook users for “breach of the peace with religious and racial aggravations.” These charges were based on the fact that the users had, allegedly, created a Facebook page called “Welcome to Israel, only kidding you’re in Giffnock,” upon which several posters mocked and insulted members of the Giffnock Jewish community. According to Jennifer Lipman of The Jewish Chronicle, messages left on the page included statements including “F*** the Jewish Zionist” and “Jewish scum.”

The arrests came after Stewart Maxwell, Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for West Scotland asked the chief of the Strathclyde police to investigate those responsible for creating the page.

Police responded by sending nearly 50 police officers to raid at least seven different locations in the Glasgow area. During the raid, police confiscated what members of the local media described as “a significant quantity” of computer equipment. Police officials said that they hoped their actions demonstrated that Scotland would not tolerate hate crimes.

Source

Speech that would be protected free speech in the USA is a "crime" in Scotland

There is a substantial body of opinion among Jewish writers which says that antisemitic speech should not be suppressed.  Suppressing it probably leads to heightened antagoniusm towards Jews and in fact feeds the myth that the Jews control the government.

Professor strikes back at critics

We read:

"A Purdue University professor has filed a freedom of speech suit against his school and five co-workers after getting in hot water for inflammatory statements about Muslims on his Facebook page.

Tenured political science professor Maurice Eisenstein was cleared by a university investigation into his Facebook comments, which included a reference to "the idiot Mohammad [sic}, may his name be cursed." But Eisenstein claims the investigation nonetheless damaged his reputation and disputes a finding that he retaliated against other faculty members.

“I was trying to be challenging as a professor, and do what I was trained to do,” Eistenstein, who joined the school's faculty in 1993, told FoxNews.com.

The flap unfolded late last year, when Eisenstein posted a photo of the aftermath of a massacre of Nigerian Christians, purportedly carried out by African Muslims, on his Facebook page.

 Eisenstein maintained that the post was on his personal page and in no way reflected on the school.

Source

Oregon bans Native American mascots in schools



It's perfectly obvious  that schools use these names because they admire the strength and toughness of the tribes concerned.  Only a Leftist could see critcism in such names

Eight Oregon high schools will have to retire their Native American mascots after the Board of Education voted Thursday to prohibit them, giving the state some of the nation's toughest restrictions on Native American mascots, nicknames and logos.

The 5-1 vote followed months of passionate and emotional debate about tolerance and tradition.

The schools have five years to comply with the order or risk losing their state funding. Another seven high schools identified as the Warriors will be allowed to keep their nickname but will have to change mascots or graphics that depict Native Americans. An unknown number of elementary and middle schools also will be affected.

The ban doesn't apply to colleges, but none in Oregon have Native American mascots after Southern Oregon University and Chemeketa Community College dropped them.

Since the 1970s, more than 600 high school and college teams across the country have done away with their Native American nicknames, including 20 in Oregon.

Critics say Indian mascots are racist, contending they reinforce stereotypes and promote bullying of Native students. Supporters say the mascots are a way to honor Native American history, evoking values of strength and bravery.

Source

Australia:  The return of the dreaded golliwog



Golliwogs were invented by an American lady around 100 years ago but never caught on much in the USA.  They were however VERY popular among children in Britain and Australia.  They are based on the appearance of Africans.

THEY were once a much-loved toy, but became a casualty of the worldwide crusade against racism.

Now golliwogs are making a comeback, with stores along Queensland's tourist strips reporting strong sales, particularly to visitors from abroad.

Nostalgia-driven Baby Boomers, too, are snapping up the black dolls, renamed gollies, as gifts for their grandchildren or reminders of their childhood.

Store owner Deanne Edwards, from Prestige Flowers and Gifts in Hervey Bay, said she sells about 20 a week.  "They're absolutely adorable," said Ms Edwards, who has dozens displayed in her shop window. "We absolutely love them. The kids love them, I love them. They are very, very popular. I sell so many it's not funny."

But the doll's re-emergence has shocked Queensland's indigenous community who warn their acceptance would be a step back in race relations.  Mr Weatherall said the dolls were offensive and should be banned.

Since the 1960s, golliwogs have been condemned as racist, and campaigns succeeded in their gradual removal from public life, particularly in the UK, the US and Europe.

Source

Bible incorrect

We read:

"International boxing star Manny Pacquiao denied allegations on Monday that he said homosexuals should be “put to death” after an interview that got him banned from one of the city’s most popular destinations.

Pacquiao was scheduled for an interview on Wednesday afternoon with Mario Lopez of TV’s “Extra” at The Grove in Los Angeles, but that appearance may be in jeopardy after comments he made to in response to President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage last week.

The Philippine lawmaker told the National Conservative Examiner that he believes the Bible is very clear on the issue of homosexuality and that the President’s comments are in direct contradiction to Scripture.

“God’s words first,” Pacquiao told the Examiner. “Obey God’s law first before considering the laws of man.”

Granville Ampong, the writer of the article — but not Pacquiao himself — went on to quote a passage from the Old Testament book of Leviticus, which states that “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”

That interview prompted a statement from Grove VP of corporate affairs Bill Reich which read, “Based on news reports of statements made by Mr. Pacquiao we have made it be known that he is not welcome at The Grove and will not be interviewed here now or in the future.

Source

No realism allowed in Trayvon Martin case

We read:

"Few people don’t have a strong opinion about the night Trayvon Martin died, its preceding moments and the aftermath, and one Florida Fire Chief has suffered severe repercussions at work after a controversial post he pasted to a Facebook status update reflected negatively on his department.

Miami-Dade Fire Captain Brian Beckmann dropped two ranks back down to firefighter after the following Facebook status was posted to his timeline:

“I and my coworkers could rewrite the book on whether our urban youths are victims of racist profiling or products of their failed, (expletive), ignorant, pathetic, welfare dependent excuses for parents, but like [special prosecutor] Mrs. Corey, we speak only the truth. They’re just misunderstood little church going angels and the ghetto hoodie look doesn’t have anything to do with why people wonder if they’re about to get jacked by a thug.”

Source

Note

I am going back into hospital today.  Not sure how it will affect my blogging

Must not imitate Indians

We read:

"You must have heard by now about his “racist” ad – a series of commercials where Ashton portrays different men looking for love on some faux dating site. It’s all a sort of stealth stand-in advertising PopChips snacks. The ad’s conceit is simple – Ashton presents himself as several different characters making videos for a generic dating site that subtly mentions PopChips. He does his best metrosexual German designer (Karl Lagerfeld to be exact), a sensitive biker named Swordfish, an English stoner/hippie-type and an Indian Bollywood film producer. Objectively, the portrayals are all really high-school level improvs but you can see the idea. Ashton gets to show off his comedic range, have some laughs and make some dough. Well, that might have happened if not for the delicate sensitivities of much of our world today.

The ugly slurs and screams started almost immediately. RACIST! How dare he? Kutcher was accused of donning “brownface,” a term morphed from the “blackface” method employed during post-Civil War minstrel shows where some acts took to mocking black people and their culture. In this case, Kutcher was deemed guilty almost instantly of insulting Indian people, causing PopChips to suffer a corporate aneurism. They pulled the offending ad and immediately retreated to a corner

But why is this racist? What did they do that was so cruel or even offensive? And how come he can portray a pasty-faced German bisexual and that’s okay? Don’t they have feelings too? Why isn’t an English stoner named Nigel off limits? Aren’t slack-jawed, biker-types deserving of blanket cultural protection as well? What if Swordfish is Polish or Dutch or even part Chinese? Isn’t that just as insensitive? Is it only the race being poked at that’s wrong?

Source

Must not mention that blacks are especially privileged

We read:

"An exposed post on Twitter led to the announced resignation Wednesday of Associated Students of the University of Nevada Sen. Spenser Blank.

Blank’s tweet read: “these girls are being so loud in the library.” Blank tweeted. “...oh wait, they’re black #racisttweet #sorryimnotsorry,” according to Wednesday’s Coffin & Keys newsletter, a secret society publication on campus.

“(Blank) engaged in behavior that was not appropriate or becoming of an (ASUN) officer or the Nevada learning community,” ASUN Director Sandra Rodriguez said.

Source

Must not promote suntans?



H&M is a Swedish clothing firm with outlets in many countries

Just days after "tanorexia" became a household word (thanks to New Jersey Tanning Mom Patricia Krentcil), fashion retailer H&M has come under fire for featuring a deeply tanned model in their latest swimwear campaign, sparking outrage from the Swedish Cancer Society for promoting tanning as a fashion accessory.

"The clothing giant is creating, not least among young people, a beauty ideal that is deadly," the group wrote in an opinion piece in the Swedish Newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Thursday, AFP reported. "Every year, more people die in Sweden of [skin cancer] than in traffic accidents, and the main cause is too much sunning."

H&M released an apology almost immediately.

It seems like a stretch to say that a clothing campaign could single-handedly lead to an uptick in skin-cancer, especially given the media focus on the dangers of tanning beds.

Source

Isn't it "racist" to mention skin color?

Is antisemitism becoming another form of "allowable" hate speech?

Hatred of America, hatred of conservatives, hatred of the rich  and hatred of Christians are of course just fine according to the "sensitive" Left.  Sad that Jews seem to be joining that list again -- in highly "correct" Canada at least.

In Europe, the humour of Dieudonné M’bala M’bala has come to be seen as so toxic that public venues regularly shun him. On Tuesday, pressure from local authorities forced the French comic to scrap a show in Brussels. A performance in March is under investigation by Belgian police as possible anti-Semitic hate speech. Last year, the mayor of Angers in France blocked Dieudonné, as he is known, from using an auditorium there, forcing him to perform outdoors on the city outskirts.

But in Montreal, the city’s largest concert promoter has rented a prime downtown theatre to Dieudonné for four performances next week of the same show under investigation in Belgium. And tickets are going fast.

In a letter last month to the promoter Evenko, which is part of the Montreal Canadiens operation, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, questioned why the company was providing Dieudonné wih a stage at the Corona Theatre.

“It is well-known that Dieudonné’s trademark is not humour but hatred toward Jews,” Luciano Del Negro, the organization’s vice-president (Quebec) wrote.

Source

Must not accuse employees of laziness?

Australia.  Chubb runs a lot of security trucks for delivering cash

A CHUBB Security boss was forced to apologise to workers and undergo counselling after circulating an email describing injured cash-in-transit guards as "oxygen thieves".

But the National Union of Workers believes the punishment is too lenient and have called for him to resign.

The email, written on April 24 and obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, was sent by Chubb's national security manager Brian Lee.

Mr Lee, a former NSW policeman, was formerly the company's manager of compliance in charge of workplace ethics. He made the comment in an exchange with a counterpart at Chubb Victoria, who needed to fly a worker to Sydney for weapons testing.

Mr Lee was first asked in the email: "You don't have anyone there on workcover who can pick up one of my guys from Airport (sic) on 2nd May?"

He responded the same day, writing: "I have plenty of oxygen thieves, but they can only work limited hours, so I may need to use a couple of them depending on the amount of time needed."

He then circulated the email to four Chubb supervisors in Sydney, asking them: "Do we have a body and vehicle around who can help?"

Workers were irate over the "oxygen thieves" comment, sticking copies of the email around Chubb offices in protest. The remark referred to guards injured during cash-in-transit robberies or those on restricted duties because of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Source

He has obviously not yet  learned to be "sensitive"

Sir David Jason: Political correctness is killing the British sense of humour

We read:

"As the star of Only Fools and Horses and Open All Hours, Sir David Jason is responsible for some of the most amusing moments on television. The comic actor says many of them would, however, never make it to the screen these days because of a growing “political correctness” that is killing comedy.

Sir David, who was knighted by the Queen in 2005, points to the speech impediment suffered by Ronnie Barker’s shopkeeper, Arkwright, in Open All Hours, which created much gentle comedy.

“Barker’s character had a stutter and he got nothing but good mail from people who stuttered because, basically, they were saying they bring people to the front,” he says at the first anniversary performance of Shrek The Musical at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. “The other thing was that they didn’t think it was disrespectful. He only ever got positive responses.”

Earlier this month, a tabloid newspaper was widely criticised after it published a headline poking fun at the speech impediment suffered by Roy Hodgson, the newly appointed England football manager. The Press Complaints Commission said it had received more than 100 complaints.

Sir David points out that one of the most popular episodes of Only Fools and Horses, called “Stage Fright”, involves a nightclub singer who can’t pronounce his Rs.

Source

Far-Left  Vanderbilt U in trouble with  Tennessee Legislature

We read:

"For some time I’ve been commenting on a critical front in the battle for religious liberty on campus, the fight for religious liberty at Vanderbilt University. For those who haven’t been following this case, a summary: In the name of a particularly empty-headed and hypocritical brand of “nondiscrimination,” Vanderbilt is requiring campus Christian groups to be open to non-Christian leadership, even as it protects the special prerogatives of its large (and powerful) community of fraternities and sororities. 

Faced with this pattern of behavior, last night the Tennessee legislature came through, passing by overwhelming margins a bill that would force Vanderbilt either to apply the alleged all-comers policy to fraternities and sororities or grant Christian groups the right to choose leaders that share the group’s faith. The bill (which also protects religious liberty at state public universities) now goes to Governor Haslam for his signature.

Source

TN: Campus policy violated First Amendment

We read:

"All John McGlone wanted to do was share his Christian beliefs with students at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville. One on one. Instead, he was asked to leave campus by police simply because he didn’t give the university notice two weeks ahead of time, and he didn’t disclose what he wanted to talk about.

Now McGlone has won a case before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled Tennessee Tech’s policy was unreasonable and violated the First Amendment."

Source

Note

I am in hospital again so not sure how much blogging I will be able to do

Cyberbullying and Bullying Used As Pretexts for Censorship

We read:

"In the name of fighting “cyberbullying,” many New York legislators would like to force blogs to remove blog comments that offend readers, unless they “disclose information about the authorship of the supposedly offensive post including the writer’s name and home address.” As a law professor notes, the cost of doing that “might well be prohibitive for many Web site operators, whose only option at that point would be just to delete all the comments.”

On the bright side, the Tennessee legislature has belatedly heeded public criticism, and limited the state’s ban on posting images that “cause emotional distress” to comply with the First Amendment.

The U.S. Senate has passed restrictions on speech aimed at cyberbullying and “harassment” that UCLA School of Law’s Eugene Volokh has concluded violate the First Amendment, including an expansion of “stalking” provisions that were used unsuccessfully to prosecute a Twitter user who repeatedly criticized a religious leader. These provisions are contained in the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2011, in a version of the bill that has passed the Senate but not the House.

Source

Criticism of Obama's class war is a "threat" against the President?

We read:

"Former Saturday Night Live star Jon Lovitz is learning the hard way that despite liberals' claims to love humor and comedy, they can't stand it when their own side is being criticized. The liberal comic is facing a huge amount of criticism on Twitter for taking exception to President Obama's continual assertions that wealthy Americans don't pay a "fair" amount of taxes.

While Lovitz has been bashed on Twitter, he clearly wasn't expecting to be accused of making some sort of violent threat against Obama. And yet that's exactly what happened last night on the HLN show Dr. Drew where the host, Drew Pinsky, seemed to genuinely believe that.

The comedian appears visibly shocked when he realizes instead that the woefully uninformed Pinsky actually seems to believe Lovitz had made some sort of death threat against Obama when all he had done is made a profane critique of the president's class warfare agenda.

Source

R.I.P.:  Van T. Barfoot died at the age of 92 on 2 March 2012

Remember the guy who wouldn't take the flag down?  You might remember a news story several months ago about a crotchety old man who defied his homeowners association and refused to take down the flagpole on his property and the large flag that flew on it. Now you can find out who, exactly, that old man was.



On June 15, 1919, Van T. Barfoot was born in Edinburg -- probably didn't make much news back then. twenty-five years later, on May 23, 1944, near Carano , Italy , Van T. Barfoot, who had enlisted in the US Army in 1940, set out to flank German machine gun positions from which fire was coming down on his fellow soldiers. He advanced through a  minefield, took out three enemy machine gun positions and returned with 17 prisoners of war    

If that wasn't enough for a day's work, he later took on and destroyed three German tanks sent to retake the machine gun
positions.

That probably didn't make much news either, given the scope of the war, but it did earn Van T. Barfoot, who retired as a colonel after also serving in Korea and Vietnam , a Congressional Medal of Honor.

What did make news was a neighborhood association's quibble with how the 90-year-old veteran chose to fly the American flag outside his  suburban Virginia home. Seems the rules said a flag could be  flown on a house-mounted bracket, but, for decorum, items such  as Barfoot's 21-foot flagpole were unsuitable.



He had been denied a permit for the pole, erected it anyway and was facing court action if he didn't take it down. Since the story made national TV, the neighborhood association has rethought its position and agreed to indulge this old hero who dwells among them.

"In the time I have left I plan to continue to fly the American flag  without interference," Barfoot told The Associated Press.

More speech restrictions in Germany

A German man exercized a basic right  provided in the German constitution -- a right to call for resistance to the governing elite --  and a right with clear similarites to the American Second Amendment     -- and he got prosecuted over it. 

Because he was clearly within his rights, however, the verdict against him  was simply based on the fact that he had criticized Muslims, which runs against German law prohibiting "incitement to hatred and insult and defamation of a group of people"

Now Germany has its own version of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff in Austria - Michael Mannheimer has undergone legal prosecution for making statements about Islam displeasing to Muslims and their politically correct allies.

Mannheimer ran afoul of German authorities after he issued a "Call to General Resistance of the German People according to Article 20, paragraph 4 of the Basic Law

Mannheimer's internet declaration of resistance earned him a criminal conviction and a fine of 50 Euros for 50 days (2,500 Euros) from a court in the southern German town of Heilbronn in the state of Baden- Würtemburg.

In Mannheimer's defense, though, he referenced violence merely as an ultima ratio according to the traditional understanding of Article 20(4) and its underlying political philosophy. Moreover, it was not incitement to violence, but Section 130's provisions on incitement to hatred and insult and defamation of a group of people (i.e. Muslims) that formed the basis of Mannheimer's conviction.

Michael Mannheimer's case is bad news for free speech in Germany and, along with increasingly frequent similar cases, places in like legal danger others like Nonie Darwish and Ibn Warraq.

Following on the prosecution of Elisabeth Sabbaditsch-Wolf, Mannheimer's case shows that not just politicians such as Wilders, but also private citizens will be subject to legal sanction provided that they become too prominent in their criticism and condemnation of Islam.

 Their loss, in turn, will be the loss of societies at large robbed of the opportunity to learn about Islam from all perspectives, an issue of immense global importance today.

Source

You could be fired for 'liking' a Facebook page

We read:

"Six workers in the US were fired for 'liking' the Facebook page of their boss's political opponent after a federal judge ruled that clicking the 'like' button is not constitutionally protected speech.

But does the act of merely clicking a button on a website constitute fully fledged support of the opposition?

"Whether or not it's justifiable to terminate them solely for liking the opponent candidate on Facebook, I think is a very long, almost quantum leap," says Young.

In the case in the US, Sheriff B.J. Roberts of Hampton, Virginia, fired six of his staff members for liking the Facebook page of his running opponent in the 2009 election.  He said that their actions had "hindered the harmony and efficiency of the office".

The staff members sued, claiming that their First Amendment rights had been violated.

However, Judge Raymond A. Jackson of the Federal District Court said in his ruling that clicking the "like" button did not amount to expressive speech.

Essentially, because there was no actual writing or speech involved, the act of clicking a button is not afforded constitutional protection under the ruling.

A lawyer for one of the workers said he would appeal Judge Jackson's ruling.

Source

 If pole dancing and flag burning are protected as speech,  It is difficult to see why "Like" clicking is not protected also.  Besides, "like" may just express interest or amusement.  It is  not necessarily  a wholehearted endorsement of someone.

Burger King Offends Hindus



We read:

"Hindus have asked Burger King Corporation to publicly apologize and immediately withdraw a poster seen in Spain, which shows Hindu goddess Lakshmi promoting a meat sandwich, which they termed repugnant.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that it was highly disturbing to see goddess Lakshmi, who is highly revered in Hinduism, modeling for a meat sandwich as shown. Lakshmi was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not for pushing meat sandwiches in the streets for mercantile greed of a global corporation.

Rajan Zed pointed out that Hinduism promoted strict vegetarianism insisting on ahimsa (not harming living creatures) and non-killing, and renouncing animal slaughter and meat eating. It suggested taking of sattvik (vegetables, fruits, etc.) and avoiding rajasik (eggs, etc.) and tamasik (meat, intoxicants, etc.) foods.

Source

Hindu religions might seem wacky to us but try to explain the Christian triune God to a Hindu and he will think that you are the crazy one.  Odd though Hindu devotions may seem to us,  they are nonetheless often deeply felt.

For an American Hindu organization to complain about an advertisement in Spain smacks of  publicity-seeking, however.  I guess that they have learned American ways and found that getting  "offended" a lot can have payoffs of various sorts

Homosexual hate speech

Most of what Dan Savage said is too vile for this blog but you will get the general idea

Savage was apparently invited by the college to address students about his “It Gets Better” campaign. An announcement on the Elmhurst web site promoted the free and public event. While the college is saying that that the talk went off without a hitch, Peter LaBarbera, the founder of the group Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (an organization that works to expose the so-called “radical homosexual agenda”) has a very different view.

LaBarbera has called the discussion crude and inappropriate. On the flip side, Elmhurst spokeswoman Desiree Chen says that it was a success that included ”a great mix of people of all ages.” According to the college, 1,200 people showed up to the event.

Now, here’s where things get interesting. LaBarbera also claims he was unfairly removed from the event after questioning Savage and his past tactics.

According to LaBarbera the “anti-bullying” bigotry was laced with profanity and filthy and distorted accusations about believing Christians. “Savage made wildly inappropriate comments,” he said:

“The Pope. I’m going to digress for a moment about the Pope. The Pope recently said that gay marriage is a threat to the survival of the human race,” he said. “Because once…gay marriage is legal, everyone is going to get gay married. What he‘s saying is that there’s no such thing as a straight person.”

At this point, the audience roared with applause and laughter. Then, he continued with his statements about the Catholic leader’s views on gay marriage

Source

He's a  truly disgusting human being.  Anyone aiming at homosexual acceptance should see him as a deadly enemy.  He's just brimming over with hate

Jeremy Clarkson cleared by British regulator  for likening Japanese hybrid car to the Elephant Man

We read:

"Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been cleared of any wrongdoing after comparing the shape of a new Japanese car to the Elephant Man.  Controversial Clarkson said the  Japanese car and camper van hybrid looked like 'people with growths on their faces'.   He then mimicked the famous disfigured Victorian man Joseph Merrick - played by actor John Hurt in the 1980 film - as he spoke about the car.

The brand of the car was not mentioned on the show but is believed to be a Prius

The star slurred his speech saying that the car resembled something you would not talk to at a party. Richard Hammond then dubbed it the 'elephant car'.

His behaviour on the BBC motoring show Top Gear in February sparked outrage with the boss of a disfigurement charity saying such comments led to ridicule and bullying.  Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom received 41 complaints from outraged viewers and the BBC more than 55.  But despite this, Ofcom announced its decision today not to proceed with the complaints.

A spokesman said that, after careful assessment, Ofcom had decided not to pursue them because they did not raise issues warranting investigation.  He said: 'Ofcom recognises that the comments were potentially offensive to individuals living with facial disfigurement.  'However, on balance, we believe that they would not have exceeded the likely expectation of the audience, and any potential offence was justified by the context.'

But he added: 'We have informed the BBC of the issues raised by the complainants so they can be taken into consideration for future programmes.'

Source

Only official pronouncements may use the word "obese" in Britain

When the government blasts you for being fat that  is OK:  But not OK for anyone else?

"The word 'obese' should not be used when encouraging the public to lose weight as it may be 'derogatory', councils have been told.  Instead, anyone who is dangerously overweight should merely be urged to try to 'achieve a healthier weight', according to guidelines drawn up by the health watchdog NICE.

The guidance tells officials to ' carefully consider the type of language' they use when designing posters and leaflets.

Under a new Government strategy, councils – rather than NHS trusts – have been given the task of combating rising levels of obesity.  Ministers are giving town halls £ 5billion a year to tackle a range of public health issues, which also include binge-drinking, smoking and teenage pregnancies.

Source

A gradual return to blogging

As you will see below, I am getting my blogging shoes back on but I can only go short distances as yet. I will just put up interesting odds and ends that I come across occasionally rather than resume my usual full schedule of blogging. I expect that I might be back at normal activity in a couple of days.


I have also just put up a few things on   DISSECTING LEFTISM, EDUCATION WATCH , POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and  GUN WATCH

 

"Blacklist" is blacklisted in Britain: Police  ban word over claims it is racist
 
We read:

"Police chiefs have banned the word 'blacklist' over fears it is racist.  They have also struck out its opposite - 'whitelist' - which is used by IT workers for a list of acceptable email contacts.  Scotland Yard employees have been told to use 'red' and 'green' instead.

The move baffled officers, who said it would do little to help the force emerge from its latest racism crisis.

One officer said: 'Frankly we all sigh when things like this come around. Lots of good work is done to make sure policing reaches into all parts of society and helps the most vulnerable. This is not it.'

The measure is part of a drive by police chiefs to stamp out racism within the force. But officers within the organisation are said to have described the latest orders as 'bizarre'.

One source said that banning them won't solve any genuine problems the Met has with racism.  They added: 'Do we really think these words are discriminatory? The truth is they're nothing to do with race whatsoever and are very common IT terms.'

Source

Is the "outrageous" Jeremy Clarkson the only  realist in Britain?

We read:

"Jeremy Clarkson has risked outrage by suggesting that long queues for airport border control checks could be solved by "a bit of racism."

The BBC Top Gear presenter claimed that the long delays at Heathrow border control were because immigration officials were no longer allowed to use their discretion to wave certain passengers through.

He said: "Nobody is waved through any more. The result is plain for all to see. There's a two-hour wait.

"And the problem is: the only possible solution is to introduce a bit of racism."

He added: "Nobody likes a racist. Nobody likes prejudice. It has no place at work, at play, or in government.  "But at Heathrow airport? Hmmm."

Clarkson, who is now notorious for his provocative comments, used his Sun newspaper column to wade into the controversy over passengers facing queues of up to three hours at Heathrow.

He claimed that liberal attitudes prevented officials targeting only passengers deemed "high risk".

"You can't get that sort of thing past the bleeding-heart liberals. They believe that . a hook-handed imam with fire in his heart and hatred in his eyes is just as likely to whip up anti-western sentiment as Joanna Lumley."

Source

Apology to My Regular Readers

I am in hospital.  May be mid next week before I am blogging again

Atheists Give High Schooler $1,000 Scholarship for Dressing as Jesus on ‘Fictional Character Day’‏

We read:

"Jeff Shott, a 17-year-old sophomore at Summit High School in Spring Hill, Tennessee, is $1,000 richer thanks to the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist group that frequently attacks faith and religion in the U.S. Shott won the scholarship money after dressing up as Jesus Christ for his school’s “fictional character day” in January.

The teenager wasn’t disciplined for wearing the costume, the Tennessean reports, but Summit Hill Principal Charles Farmer did tell him that he would need to change if his outfit became a distraction. The student did, inevitably, remove his robes and sash (he even had a hammer and nail to go along with the costume) to purportedly avoid problems with school administrators.

The mere action of wearing what many Christians would dub an offensive costume brought Shott financial support from Annie Laurie Gaylor and her FFRF organization. As a result of his costume, the student became the first to receive the Paul Gaylor Memorial Student Activist scholarship (named after Gaylor’s father).

While the FFRF claims that his free speech was trampled, the U.S. Supreme Court has granted schools the right to limit both commentary and expression if it impedes the learning process.

SOURCE
Since Jesus is quite clearly an historical character, the kid is just showing his ignorance.   Jesus may or not be God but he did exist. The kid should have been be corrected and sent home to  change, not praised.

Atheists Threaten Lawsuit Over ‘Unconstitutional’ RI Firehouse Cross & WWI Monument



We read:

"Atheist activists are at it again. This time, the target of secular angst is a cross that appears in front of a firehouse in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a well-known atheist group, is threatening to sue the city if the religious symbol isn’t removed.

The Christian cross, part of a World War I memorial that was built in Woonsocket back in 1921, is causing a great deal of angst among secularists who stand firmly opposed to its presence on public property. Taking on even more significance beyond WWI, the monument was re-dedicated back in 1952 to honor three fallen WWII soldiers who lived in the area and has since been a public statement of remembrance.

“It’s illegal, and we know that. And just because its been there for 90-something years, doesn’t make it right.” Debbie Flitman, a local and member of the FFRF, told ABC6. “If they want to have a religious symbol on it, well go ahead, just not on city property.”

So far, Mayor Fontaine has no intention of moving the cross. This is the second major atheist case to hit Rhode Island over the past few months, following a debate over a prayer mural at a local high school in Cranston.

Source

Apology

I found another half-dozen legitimate comments in the spam box today but have now unblocked them.   So apologies to the people concerned.  Since Google's change to a new blogging program, there are quite a few things that are still buggy.

AL Town Bows to Atheists and Removes Bible Verse From Welcome Signs

We read:

"Many residents in Sylvania, Alabama, are up in arms after a Bible verse was removed from four of the town’s welcome signs. The verse, Ephesians 4:5, was taken off of the signs after the Madison, Wisconsin-based group the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a letter calling its presence
unconstitutional.

The verse, which reads, “One Lord, One Faith, and One Baptism,” was painted over on each of the signs on Monday, according to Mayor Mitchell Dendy. The town’s leader claims that this is the first time that there has been a problem with the verse since it was posted three and a half years ago.

The city, like many others that are attacked by the FFRF, doesn’t have the means to pay for a costly legal battle, so covering the verses was apparently the most practical and prudent approach.

Source

These atheist activists are just Christian-hating Leftists.  How can you be offended by something you don't believe in?  If you  were made to take part in some religious activity that might be wearisome but when you can just drive right on past it doesn't affect you at all.  For years atheists just ignored religion and happily got on with their own lives.  It is only Leftists with their constant desire to control others that have started in recent times to make an issue of this.

And why do Leftists hate real Christians?  Because Leftism is itself a rival religion that preaches salvation by government.  Given the moronic nature of government, they  might as well preach salvation by Satan.  Government as an invention of the Devil is certainly believable at times.

Homosexuality must be accepted as a legitimate alternative lifestyle -- except when it must not be mentioned as a possibility at all!

Figure that one out!

Fox News analyst Monica Crowley on Friday apologized for  tweeting the news of Sandra Fluke’s engagement with the comment, “To a man?”

Crowley’s initial post Thursday about the Georgetown Law student prompted a flurry of responses, including ones calling her “homophobic“ and a ”terrible person.” She retweeted a few of them, and tweeted that she loves “exposing the Left’s total lack of a sense of humor.”

That came to an end Friday afternoon, however, when Crowley wrote: “Regret my tweeted question caused a stir. I certainly & unequivocally apologize to Sandra & anyone else I offended. Not my intention.”

Source

Tennessee legislature attacks anti-Christian policy at Vanderbilt U

We read:

"The state legislature is looking again at trying to make Vanderbilt University drop its controversial “all-comers” policy after Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, presented a measure Thursday that would basically force the school to choose between taking HOPE lottery scholarships and keeping the policy.

The legislature has been weighing a bill that would prevent public universities in Tennessee from adopting Vanderbilt’s policy — which says campus groups can’t require members and leaders to adhere to their credos — and that measure finally made it to the floor of the state House of Representatives Thursday.

When it did, Dunn rose to add an amendment that he had withdrawn while the bill was in committee that would have barred any private school accepting more than $24 million in state money, namely Vanderbilt, from having that policy as well. Dunn said Vanderbilt had failed to work the issue out with religious organizations that say they are being discriminated against by being required to take in people who do not share their beliefs.

“Perhaps it would be OK if they applied this policy across the campus to all groups, but what they have done is they have said fraternities and sororities, you don’t have to come under this,” Dunn said. “They’re willing to do something that will hurt little religious organizations. … I think it’s time to send a message to folks, ‘OK, if you’re going to have an all-comers policy, let it apply to everyone.’”

Source