Pushback against stupid gun-hating Leftists

We read:

"A Rhode Island boy whose school banned a hat he made because the toy soldiers on it carried tiny guns was awarded a medal on Friday for his patriotic efforts.

Lt. Gen. Reginald Centracchio, the retired head of the Rhode Island National Guard, gave 8-year-old David Morales a medal called a challenge coin during an appearance on WPRO-AM's John DePetro show. Centracchio said the second-grader should be thanked for recognizing veterans and soldiers...

The school has said David was offered the chance to wear the hat if he replaced the toy soldiers holding weapons with ones that didn't have any. Centracchio said that didn't make sense because soldiers are armed, and met with school administrators Thursday to share his concerns.

Also Friday, the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said it sent a letter to Coventry Superintendent Kenneth DiPietro saying the school's policy was an unconstitutional violation of students' free speech. It called on the district to revise the policy.

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Good to see the ACLU doing something useful

SCOTUS: Texting not private

We read:

"The Supreme Court said Thursday a California police officer’s privacy was not breached when his superiors read transcripts of hundreds of his text messages to determine whether the Ontario Police Department was providing an adequate number of monthly pager texts.

The SWAT officer, Jeff Quon, was exceeding the limit for months, and his superiors wanted to know why. Quon was originally paying the extra fees out of his own pocket.

He sued after the inquiry, alleging his privacy was violated. Many of the text messages were sexually explicit. … The decision reversed the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled that the search was ‘legitimate’ but ‘not reasonable in scope.’”

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This will certainly inhibit what some people say via texts

R.I.: Incorrect hat

Any representation of a gun is intolerable to the fruitcakes of the Left

"Christan Morales says her son just wanted to honor American troops when he made a hat decorated with an American flag and small plastic Army figures. But the hat ran afoul of the district's no-weapons policy because the toy soldiers were carrying tiny weapons. "His teacher called and said it wasn't appropriate because it had guns," Morales said.

Morales' 8-year-old son, David, was assigned to make a hat for the day when his second-grade class would met their pen pals from another school. She and her son came up with an idea to add patriotic decorations to a camouflage hat.

Earlier this week, the Tiogue School in Coventry sent the hat home with David after class. He wore a plain baseball cap on the day of the visit instead.

Superintendent Kenneth R. Di Pietro said the principal told the family that the hat would be fine if David replaced the Army men holding weapons with ones that didn't have any.

"The issue for us was, can it be done in a way that didn't violate the zero-tolerance for weapons?" he said. "Nothing was being done to limit patriotism, creativity, other than find an alternative to a weapon."

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The dumb bum seems to think that toy guns are the same as real guns

Another wicked Australian footballer

Again apparently intended as a joke but jokes have got risky these days. "Abo" is an abbreviation of "Aborigine" -- Australia's native blacks. Most are welfare dependant and have very low levels of educational achievement. Some are good sportsmen, however.

"Hawthorn AFL legend Robert DiPierdomenico has been stood down from his role as an Auskick ambassador after making racially insensitive comments.

DiPierdomenico is said to have referred to fellow Brownlow Medallist Gavin Wanganeen as not “not bad for an Abo''.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou this morning suspended DiPierdomenico and will make a decision on his longer term future with the Auskick junior development program later today.

The Adelaide Advertiser learnt of the gaffe which happened last week to a crowded Hahndorf Football Club function. The function included children.

One offended witness claims to have approached DiPierdomenico after the speech only to be told: "You'll get over it."

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NRA cuts questionable deal with Democrats

The NRA does seem to have become pissweak in recent times

"Three prominent Washington D.C. websites are reporting what many capitol insiders warned of: the National Rifle Association has made a deal with the devil (i.e. anti-gun Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid) to limit the free speech of Americans in exchange for their carved-out exemption.

Though at first objecting to the DISCLOSE Act, which would radically limit the free speech of organizations and thus, gun owners, the NRA has now agreed to an exemption for their organization (and other mammoth, mostly liberal, organizations like AARP and probably Moveon.org) in exchange for support of the Democrats’ bill.

This legislation would place draconian limitations on the ability of organizations to voice their opinions on politicians, and by extension, their legislation. The chilling effect on free speech would be difficult to overstate.

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More background: "The legislation in question is designed to restore more campaign finance rules in the wake of last year’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which removed prohibitions on corporations and unions running TV ads opposing or backing candidates in the run-up to an election".

Must not joke about blacks

"Incorrect" footballers again

"Australian sport was plunged into a fresh racism row yesterday after one of AFL's elder statesmen described indigenous players as cannibals and too difficult to tell apart in the dark.

Former AFL hardman and Richmond player Mal Brown made the offensive remarks at a lunch in Melbourne to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the E.J. Whitten Legends Game.

"We have a distinct disadvantage the West Australians because the Victorians picked both sides," said Brown, who played and coached for most of his career in Western Australia.

"They cheated, they picked the best players. And because there were no lights, I couldn't pick any of the cannibals.

"All the good black fellows, we couldn't pick them because they couldn't see them in the light."

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PayPal reverses jihad against Muslim-watch sites

Are they responsive to reasoned criticism after all? It would be interesting to know what went on behind the scenes.

"The Internet money-exchange PayPal has reportedly reversed an earlier decision to cut services to a trio of websites that track and resist the spreading influence of Islam in America.

Popular activist, author and blogger Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, who has also been involved in founding the Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America, received intimidating letters from PayPal that claimed the websites "promote hate" and "racial intolerance."...

Now, however, Geller reports an executive with the company called and explained the decision was in error and that financial services to the websites could resume.

Nonetheless, Geller says, that's "not good enough." "What recourse do smaller websites have?" Geller writes. "My soapbox is pretty big, but what about small blogs? … If a site is designated a 'hate site,' who decides?" ...

Before the decision was reversed, the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a press release applauding PayPal's action, labeling Atlas Shrugs an "anti-Islam hate site."

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Must not say that Obama is racially prejudiced?

Even if there is evidence of it -- as in the Crowley/Gates affair?

Iowa Congressman Steve King said the following:

"When you look at this administration, I’m offended by Eric Holder and the president also, their posture. It looks like Eric Holder said that white people in America are cowards when it comes to race,” said King. “And I don’t know what the basis of that is but I’m not a coward when it comes to that and I’m happy to talk about these things and I think we should.”

King added: “But the president has demonstrated that he has a default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race – on the side that favors the black person.”

That remark got him "uninvited" from a tea-party event. I don't blame the tea partiers. They had to do that given an awareness of how the Left would have abused them over it. And the Democrats are in fact abusing them over it anyway.

Catholics push Hyundai to kill soccer commercial

In a world where cartoons of Mohammed are banned, the objections below are no more than a call for equal treatment

"A 30-second television commercial that ran in the United States during the England-USA soccer match on Saturday has Catholic bloggers charging that the advertisement is blasphemous and mocks the core teachings of the church.

The ad begins with singing in Latin, and depicts an Argentine ‘church’ — complete with a stained-glass window of a soccer ball — in which the wildly popular sport is clearly what’s being worshipped.

Critics complain that Hyundai mocks the Eucharist, which Catholics believe to be the body of Christ, by showing ‘worshippers’ on their knees receiving slices of pizza rather than the communion host. … At one point the commercial shows a soccer ball covered with a crown of thorns. … Hyundai, a World Cup sponsor, apparently wanted to show how far some fans will go to support their cause.”

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One does wonder if Hyundai wants to sell cars to Catholics. It's an awful lot of people to antagonize. I think the Korean owners of the car-maker have been betrayed by Western ad-men. I hope Hyundai yank the account of the ad agency concerned.

Google bias again

YouTube is a Google property

"In the week following the Israeli boarding of boats piloted by Turkish “peace activists” off the coast of Gaza, Caroline Glick and the good folks at the Hebrew language Israeli news site Latma created a parody video skewering the violent actions perpetrated by those “peace activists” against members of the Israeli authorities attempting to enforce the Gaza blockade. The video went up on YouTube and garnered three million views within a matter of days.

Created as a parody of the 1980s activist song “We are the World,” the Latma song was named “We Con the World” and humorously depicted an array of Palestinian supporters singing about how they’d fooled the world into thinking that it was the Israelis that were the bad guys in the Gaza blockade incident.

The video was very clever and hit just the right notes of humor being not too mean-spirited yet easily hitting home with its message. The humor of the video was wholly in keeping with western humor and not over-the-top or unduly offensive at all. Naturally, YouTube pulled it anyway.

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Paypal suspends SIOA, FDI, Atlas Shrugs accounts as "hate speech"

SIOA is Stop Islamization of America and FDI is Freedom Defense Initiative>

"The Left's ongoing strategy is to rule its opposition outside the bounds of acceptable and reasonable political discourse. This is the long-term goal behind all the accusations of "hatred," "bigotry," etc. And so now this from Paypal.

Paypal, in its enlightened Leftism, now apparently deems resistance to an ideology that would extinguish the freedom of speech and the freedom of conscience, as well as equality of rights before the law for women and non-Muslims, to be "hate."

Note also that the openly genocidal jihadists of RevolutionMuslim.com still have their Paypal account. No problem there.

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Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs has details here. She suggests sending checks instead! I certainly will make no further use of PayPal. There have been a lot of controversies surrounding PayPal. They are a very arrogant firm and clearly are not going to change any time soon unless forced to. They took on the Australian government at one stage and lost.

Can a color be incorrect??

Apparently it can

"In anticipation of a ban against using words such as ‘light’ or ‘mild’ on cigarette labels and ads, tobacco companies have lightened package colors to convey the same message, a move the American Lung Association and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., have attacked as disingenuous.

The ban, part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act signed a year ago by President Obama, takes effect June 22. … The FDA ’should conduct a thorough science-based review and then ban any deceptive use of colors,’ Waxman said.”

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The sort of nuttiness I expect of waxy Waxhead. How can a color be "deceptive"?

Must not mention the skin color of footballers

Australia:

"Andrew Johns last night quit the NSW Origin team after he admitted a racist sledge towards Queensland superstar Greg Inglis was behind Blues winger Timana Tahu walking out of the side.

After one of Origin's most dramatic days - with NSW team management at first trying to cover up the scandal - Johns said he had no choice but to resign as assistant coach after it emerged he had sledged Tahu's long-time friend at a bonding session at a Kingscliff hotel on Wednesday night.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal Johns told Blues centre Beau Scott: "You must shut that black c... down."

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Italians not black enough for South Africa

We read:

"Holders Italy were astonished that France's Patrick Vieira and not an Italian player was asked to symbolically hand over the World Cup trophy at a pre-tournament concert, an official said.

The president of the Italian football federation, Giancarlo Abete, said world governing body FIFA had made a "gaffe" by inviting the Senegalese-born Vieira to do the honours instead of a member of the Italian team which lifted the cup in 2006.

"Vieira didn't win that cup, Italy did," Abete said from Italy's training camp in South Africa.

At a concert held in Soweto on Thursday, Vieira - a member of the French squad which won the 1998 World Cup - handed over the famous trophy to tournament organising chief Danny Jordaan and FIFA Secretary-General Jerome Valcke.

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Kroger goes into censorship mode in response to a single complaint

It may not be illegal, but it is censorship

"The Rutherford Reader is a family-owned ,family-operated weekly publication that has been in business since August 3, 2000. The Reader, as it is known, is based out of Murfreesboro, TN a city of just over 100,000 people, which is part of the Nashville, TN. metropolitan area. It is a free weekly newspaper published by Pete Doughtie...

The paper is circulated by Distributech throughout the Rutherford County, TN area to various businesses. One of the locations where Distributech has newspaper racks is Kroger, the national grocery chain.

On Monday, May 10 Pete Doughtie received a phone call from Distributech representative, Rodney Barton, informing him that as of Friday, May 14, that they were no longer going to allow The Reader to use their racks.

When Doughtie asked for what reason, Barton’s reply was “because of the hate speech stories you print about Muslims and Islam.” At that point, Barton was asked to show Doughtie one issue containing hate speech and Barton ignored the request....

The bottom line is this, political correctness is rearing its ugly head once again, and fundamental rights of free speech are the casualties. Have we now reached the point that nothing negative can be printed against Islam either, even when it’s the truth? I thought only pictures of Mohammed were “offensive”.

When corporations both large and small start letting one individual dictate what all of us can read, we might as well be living under Communist rule and forget being able to get the truth because that just went out the window when political correctness came in. Kroger, KFC and anyone else who stops carrying newspapers based on whether someone’s feeling might be hurt is setting a dangerous precedent of censorship that will affect us all.

Hell, the Kroger near me had several newspapers this week calling Israel the aggressor over the Aid to Gaza Flotilla, I think I’ll demand that stop carrying all those papers since it was hate speech against Israel.

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If anybody reading this has a Kroger nearby, they might like to check out what newspapers are available there and complain about any Leftist or Muslim hate speech in them. I would be most interested in the details of any response.

Outspoken German banker in hot water

We read:

"Immigrants are making Germany 'dumber', according to a board member of the country's central bank. Thilo Sarrazin claimed the 'limited education' of immigrants - coupled with their high birth rate - meant Germans 'are becoming dumber in a simple way'. He said: 'There's a difference in the reproduction of population groups with varying intelligence.'

It is not the first time the 65-year-old member of the Bundesbank has caused controversy since he joined last year.

In October he described Muslim children as 'underclass' citizens. 'I don't have to accept someone who lives off a state they reject, doesn't properly take care of the education of his children-and keeps producing more little girls in headscarves,' Mr Sarrazin said.

'That goes for 70 percent of the Turkish and 90 percent of the Arabic population of Berlin.' He added that they were not fit for much other than 'fruit and vegetable selling'.

In his latest speech this week he said there were 'ample statistics' proving he was correct about German intelligence.

Mr Sarrazin, who was previously Germany's finance minister, has not yet apologised. It is thought his position at the Bundesbank may now be untenable.

But among conservatives in Germany his comments have struck a chord. They have voiced concern that the country's three million Turks tend to live in their own communities, socialise among each other and have little in common with their German neighbours.

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Herr Sarrazin is perfectly correct. All the statistics show that Arabs and Iranians have average IQs of around 85 with Turkey only slightly better on 90. Western Europeans hover around 100. Check Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran and Turkey in this table of academic research findings

Flood of Leftist hate speech directed at Rabbi who exposed the antisemitism of Helen Thomas

We read:

"The New York rabbi who videotaped veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas telling Jews to "get the hell out of Palestine" says he has received numerous death threats and thousands of pieces of hate mail in the days since Thomas' abrupt retirement.

Rabbi David Nesenoff said he is facing an "overload" of threatening e-mails calling for a renewed Holocaust and targeting his family — a barrage of hate he said he planned to report to the police on Wednesday.

"This ticker tape keeps coming in," Nesenoff told FoxNews.com. "We got one specific one saying, 'We're going to kill the Jews; watch your back.'"

Nesenoff said he was shocked not only by Thomas' original remarks — which he called anti-Semitic — but by the wave of insults and threats he has received since his videotape brought about her public shaming and the end of her 50-year career at the White House.

"This is something that I thought was a couple of people here or there, [but] it's mainstream and it's frightening," the Long Island rabbi said. "[Thomas] is just a little cherry on top of this huge, huge sundae of hate in America."

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Anti-British bigotry from Obama

Since BP is mainly an American company these days, it is also another example of the vacuum between his ears.

"The British business community has expressed alarm at "anti-British" sentiment it says US President Barack Obama is whipping up for political reasons as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill worsens. A leading British business figure has written to U.S. President Barack Obama to warn him that his criticism of BP over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill appears "prejudicial and personal," Sky News revealed yesterday.

Hinting that the U.S. government was guilty of double standards, Napier went on to say: "There is a sense here that these attacks are being made because BP is British. "If you compare the damage inflicted on the economies of the western world by polluted securities from the irresponsible, unchecked greed and avarice of leading USA international banks, there has not been the same personalised response in or from countries beyond the US."

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See also here, where an eminent Briton fires back: "Writing on his website, the Tory peer Lord Tebbit attacked President Obama, saying: “The whole might of American wealth and technology is displayed as utterly unable to deal with the disastrous spill — so what more natural than a crude, bigoted, xenophobic display of partisan, political, presidential petulance against a multinational company?”

Publishing Company Under Fire for Putting Warning Label on the U.S. Constitution‏

I thought I had mentioned this insulting far-Left rubbish before but I can't see where I did that so better late than never:

"A small publishing company is under fire after putting warning labels on copies of the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and other historical documents.

Wilder Publications warns readers of its reprints of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, Common Sense, the Articles of Confederation, and the Federalist Papers, among others, that “This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today.”

The disclaimer goes on to tell parents that they "might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work."

The warning seems to be offending more people than the documents themselves. Amazon.com’s customer reviews of Wilder’s copy of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation show an overwhelming number of people speaking out against the disclaimer, describing it as “insulting,” “sickening” and “frankly, horrifying.”

Almost all of the reviews discussing the disclaimer end with the same thought: don't buy from this publisher.

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Wilder publications is a small print-on-demand company run by an eccentric science fiction writer, Warren Lapine. The offensive text seems most likely to be the work of Mr Lapine himself.

The firm also has a list of Christian books but, as far as I can tell, they are well outside the Christian mainstream -- Swedenborg and the like.

All of Mr Lapine's previous publishing ventures appear to have gone broke so I think Wilder publications is headed the same way

TX: Lewisville schools proposal on Web conduct raises free speech concerns

We read:

"Angela Armstrong is proud to be a teacher and never thought twice about making references to her profession on her Facebook page.

But those online remarks could get her into trouble under a recent proposal presented to the Lewisville school district. It would prohibit employees from criticizing the district or even affiliating themselves with the school on social networking sites.

"What a disappointment to read that I can no longer affiliate myself with a district I'm proud to work for," Armstrong told the Lewisville school board at its May 17 meeting.

The second-grade teacher at Camey Elementary School said the proposed rules restrict her right to free speech and could invite a lawsuit. "Are you really willing to take on the First Amendment of the United States Constitution?" she asked....

School board trustee Brenda Latham agreed. "This is crossing a line," Latham said of the proposed rules for employees. "We can't mandate what they say or don't say on their own time with their own technology."

District spokeswoman Karen Permetti said the guidelines are being rewritten and will be presented at Monday's meeting. "The purpose was not to hinder First Amendment rights but to communicate appropriate behavior for social networking," she said. [According to whom? The school board obviously would not have a clue by the sound of their first attempt at it. They're just drunk with their petty power]

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