Canadian censorship overturned

After many years of battling by a Canadian pastor.  It takes time but if you get a case into one of the higher Canadian courts you are much more likely to get free speech protection

A Canadian man has won the latest round in court battles to obtain free speech. His crime was saying something that offended a longtime liberal advocate.

Pastor Stephen Boisson wrote letters to the editor of the Red Deer Advocate, expressing his Christian views on homosexual behavior. But University of Calgary professor Dr. Darren Lund reported Boissoin to the Alberta Human Rights Commission, accusing him of violating the law because jos letters were published.

The Commission then ordered the pastor to stop expressing his views on the subject "for the rest of his life," according to the Alliance Defending Freedom, that he pay Lund $5,000, and that he provide a written apology to the offended professor, even though Boisson and Lund did not know each other, and even though the pastor's writings did not target Lund.

The case worked its way through the system, with Alberta's highest court ruling in favor of Boisson, saying the letters constituted an expression of opinion not likely to expose homosexuals to hatred or contempt within the meaning of the law. So he was cleared of a charge of supposed "hate speech."

Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Benjamin Bull adds the court was critical of the law, and he believes that ought to be the end of the matter.

"Because the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the lower court's decision, it's going to be extremely difficult for religious or political debate to be found in breach of Alberta's human rights laws," the attorney asserts.

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American Universities are a sea of Fascism

With lots of poisonous little jellyfish swimming in them

Our campuses have become havens of bad ideas when it comes to censorship. Research by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE, where I work) reveals that 65% of the nation’s biggest and most prestigious universities have speech codes that either are flatly unconstitutional (at public colleges) or that violate free speech principles that they themselves espouse (at private colleges). This nationwide scheme of repression is the most systematic form of censorship that takes place on our nation’s campuses.

But then there are the individual cases — for instance, when a professor just takes a box cutter and cuts political speech he doesn’t like right off a wall.

This madness actually happened at Sam Houston State University in Texas last year, when Professor Joe E. Kirk decided that he didn’t like some of what was written on a “free speech wall” organized by student Morgan Freeman (no relation that I know of) and constructed by four student political groups. The wall was built to teach students about their free speech rights — and it certainly did so, although not the way they had intended. FIRE’s newest video has the story.

What did Kirk do? He objected to the fact that someone had written (warning, bad language coming) “f*ck Obama” on the free speech wall. He asked the students to cover it up. Considering that they were running a free speech wall, they refused. Kirk left and returned with a box cutter, and proceeded to physically cut the F-word off of the paper covering the wall.

“Hey! I don’t like swearing either!” you say. “Good for him!” Not so fast. This was hardly the only instance of that four-letter word on the wall. Whatever you may think of swearing (and it is constitutionally protected, particularly in the political context) the word is in common use at college, and it was written multiple times on the wall, including next to the name of President Bush. Kirk did not take any exception to those instances of the F-word. Nope, only for President Obama.

The students did exactly what you are supposed to do when you’ve been the subject of vandalism — they called the police. The campus police arrived, talked to the students and Professor Kirk, and proceeded to take Kirk’s side and threaten the students with a misdemeanor if they did not cover up the F-word everywhere on the wall! Realizing that their free speech wall had just become a government-approved speech wall, the students instead decided to quit and dismantle the wall.

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Atheists Launch Billboard Targeting Romney’s Mormon Faith‏

But no comments on Omama's professions of Christianity

American Atheists (AA), a non-profit devoted to advancing a secular cause, has, once again, launched an anti-Mormon campaign.

The organization’s new billboard in southern Florida takes specific and pointed aim at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s faith. The message, which is intended to negatively frame The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, invokes both homosexuality and race.  The billboard reads, “No Blacks Allowed. No Gays Allowed. Shame on Mormonism.”

Dale Jones, a spokesperson for the church, dismissed the ad in an email to CNN, writing, “This group seems not to know that there have been black members of the Church since our earliest history, and there are many faithful gay members of the Church today.”

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Secret Service investigate after man hangs Obama effigy from a noose on his front lawn

Secret service intervening in a political issue?

Residents of a quiet southern California neighbourhood were shocked by a neighbour's decision to hang an effigy of President Obama in his front garden and even more astonished when the Secret Service came calling at his house a day later.

Agents arrived at the home of Eddie Million on Tuesday night after police received a complaint on Monday, and questioned the Moreno Valley man as to why he chose to hang a replica of the president from a tree.

Mr Million's tasteless Halloween decor has offended many as the image of Mr Obama - and in a wider context, an African American man - hanging from a noose, raised questions about the homeowner's motives and views on race.

An embarrassed Mr Million told The Press-Enterprise that the prank had not intended in any way to suggest he wished the president dead.

'This is just a misunderstanding. This is getting all blown out of proportion. It's down. It's gone. We didn't want to hurt the president,'  said the flooring company owner.  'It was just for a party.'

'A noose is scary. It’s Halloween. We have zombies in the back - figures, ghosts, zombies,' he explained of his choice to attach the Obama mask to a body and hang it.

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If the guy had put a Romney mask on the effigy, he would have been congratulated for his great sense of humor

College Bans Religious Homecoming Art‏

You would never think that the 1st Amendment guarantees you freedom to practice your religion!

Christian students at a Utah college said they were told by administrators that their homecoming decorations were “in poor taste” because they included religious messages and symbols, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

The Solid Rock Christian Club has also accused Snow College of infringing on free speech rights by reducing the group to a “second tier” status on campus. That means the group would no longer be able to reserve campus rooms, advertise events on campus or receive funding from student fees.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the club by the Alliance Defending Freedom.

“Colleges are supposed to be the marketplace of ideas, not centers of censorship,” said Travis Barham, of the Alliance Defending Freedom. “America’s colleges and universities should recognize that the First Amendment protects the freedom of all students to gather with those of like mind and to express their ideas, including religious students and religious ideas.

After the ADF sent a letter to the college, they received a reply from a Utah state assistant attorney general. The state official said religious views would continue to be prohibited from the homecoming event.”

Among those named in the lawsuit is Scott Wyatt, president of Snow College. He told Fox News that the lawsuit may be the result of a “simple misunderstanding.”

“This is a very small disagreement that we are working through,” Wyatt told Fox News. “I’m very optimistic we will come to a positive solution.”

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Marvellous what a bit of publicity does.

Given Utah's history, I would have expected an absolute horror there of religious persecution and bias.

Ann Coulter's use of the 'r-word' criticized


She's not bad looking for a lady in her 50s

Parents of children with special needs are demanding an apology from conservative political pundit Ann Coulter for tweeting after Tuesday's foreign policy debate that she approved of "Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retard [Obama]."

It appeared to be a response to critiques of Mitt Romney's debate performance, but it wasn't the first time Coulter used the "the r-word" during this election season. And, it's not the first time blogger Ellen Seidman has called her out on it.

"At this point, I'm thinking the woman must surely be aware that the word is offensive, and she chooses not to care. That's pretty vile and heartless," said Seidman, the mother of a special needs child who shares her world on the blog "Love that Max."

Still, the comment was favorited 1,215 times and earned 2,993 retweets as of this writing, presumably by a number of people who didn't find it offensive.

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Obama's views are VERY retarded from a conservative viewpoint.  He is still fighting the old Marxist class wars.  The Soviet experiment showed where that leads.

My comment above attached to the pic was of course designed to arouse ire from the boiler-suited brigade.  The fact that it true probably makes it even more "offensive"

Libya Grand Mufti: Remove References to Democracy and Religious Freedom From School Textbooks

The Libya Herald reported on Thursday that the “Fatwa Office” has asked the Ministry of Education in Libya to remove passages related to democracy and freedom of religion from school textbooks.

“Libya’s Dar Al-Ifta’ (the Fatwa office), presided by Grand Mufti Sheikh Sadeq Al-Ghariani, has called on the Ministry of Education to remove passages relating to democracy and freedom of religion from school textbooks,” the article states.

The statement claimed the information in the textbooks about Greek democracy might be “too detailed” for students to comprehend and that references to freedom of belief and religion should be removed because “it suggests to younger students that they could choose any religion they wanted,” according to the article.

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University Photoshops Crosses Off of Christian Football Fans’ Chests‏

Despite their team’s stellar playing record, a group of Louisiana State University football fans is less-than-enthusiastic after the public college altered a photo to digitally-erase crosses that were painted on their chests.

The Photoshopped image came to the fans’ attention after the university sent out an e-mail about the Tigers’ recent win on October 13. In the picture, the religious symbol was noticeably scrubbed off of the Christians’ bodies.

The men depicted in the image call themselves “The Painted Posse,” a group of believers who are also avid fans. They are known, as CampusReform.org notes, for painting their bodies with LSU colors and crosses and attending every home game. When they saw the photo, devoid of the crosses, they were stunned.

The school wasted no time in admitting that the crosses were purposefully removed and that the action was taken in an effort to avoid offending non-Christians.

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So Christians offend people just by existing?

Antisemitism thriving in France

France has a large Muslim population of North African origin who do physically attack Jews at times so this is no surprise.  Jewish organizations want Twitter to take the antisemitic tweets  down but I think a better solution would be to ship the unhappy Muslim souls back to where they came from in North Africa.  There would be no Jews to bother them there.  Almost every last Jew was kicked out from there long ago

Twitter has been engulfed in a wave of French anti-Semitic posts using the hashtag #unbonjuif, meaning “a good Jew” in French.

The tweets were condemned by French anti-racist and Jewish organizations on Monday.

Typical tweets with the “good Jew” hashtag included phrases such as “A good Jew can pump up your tyre with his nose,” “A good Jew wears a Gucci kippa” or “A good Jew is a dead Jew,” reported Yediot Ahronot.

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NC: Hate speech from blacks is OK?

Lesbians celebrating a "homophobe"?  Leftist thinking defies all reason.  Because Farrakhan is both black and Muslim he has reached an unbeatable peak of holiness, apparently

Another local elected official has gone on record against hate speech following the ongoing controversy regarding hate leader Louis Farrakhan’s recent events in Charlotte and several LGBT-friendly elected officials’ appearances at them.

Farrakhan is a documented hate leader of the hate group Nation of Islam. Both have a history of anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT hostility, according to the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center.

Mecklenburg County Commission Chairman Harold Cogdell, however, has said he had “no regrets” after attending a Farrakhan event and refused to condemn Farrakhan’s hate rhetoric. County Commissioner Vilma Leake was also at the Farrakhan events. She has not responded to repeated requests for comment.

Openly lesbian Charlotte City Councilmember LaWana Mayfield has taken center-stage in the controversy. She attended a Farrakhan speech on Oct. 13 at which she said the leader was “doing God’s will.” She has repeatedly refused to condemn the remarks.

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Is "not optimal" the new word for "evil"?

The Left keep telling us that "There is no such thing as right and wrong" (except racism, intolerance and homophobia, of course).  Obama appears to agree

The mother of an American diplomat killed during a terrorist raid on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi has hit out at Barack Obama for describing the attack as 'not optimal', saying: 'My son is not very optimal - he is also very dead.'

During an interview shown on Comedy Central, Obama responded to a question about his administration's confused communication after the assault by saying: 'If four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal.'

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline today, Pat Smith, whose son Sean died in the raid, said: 'It was a disrespectful thing to say and I don't think it's right.

'How can you say somebody being killed is not very optimal? I don't think the President has the right idea of the English language.'

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Video at link

I think he was really dismissing the deaths of American representatives as trivial.  It clearly has never occurred to him to care.  Some context below:

Nazi Twitter account silenced in Germany‏

Germans are clearly not as grown-up as Americans.  There are some naughty words that they must not hear unless they go berserk.  It's a wonder Germans are not embarrassed by such policies.

Twitter, for the first time since its launch in 2006, has blocked access to an account. German police call the neo-Nazi group that operates the account a criminal organization.  The Nazis' tweets are blocked only in Germany, under Twitter's policy of "country-withheld content," the New York Times reported, in a first for the company that, up to now, has been almost entirely hands-off in terms of regulating content.

German authorities, who banned the group Besseres Hannover ("Better Hanover") last month, asked Twitter to disable the account entirely, but Twitter's remedy still allows access to the Nazis' tweets outside of Germany.  The use of pro-Nazi rhetoric and symbols is illegal in Germany.

To some, Twitter's compromise with Germany represents a show of good will that could prevent a broader government crackdown on the service in the future, Gizmodo points out.

But to others, it’s a slippery slope: If Twitter will censor an account because a national government asks it to, what precedent and expectation does that set?  Would Twitter censor the "illegal" accounts of rebels or dissenters at the request of Libya or Iran?

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Associated Press defends use of the term "illegal immigrant"

Rather a surprise

Terms like “undocumented” and “unauthorized” can make a person’s illegal presence in the country appear to be a matter of minor paperwork. Many illegal immigrants aren’t “undocumented” at all; they may have a birth certificate and passport from their home country, plus a U.S. driver’s license, Social Security card or school ID. What they lack is the fundamental right to be in the United States.

Without that right, their presence is illegal. Some say the word is inaccurate, because depending on the situation, they may be violating only civil, not criminal law. But both are laws, and violating any law is an illegal act (we do not say “criminal immigrant”). Finally, there’s the concern that “illegal immigrant” offends a person’s dignity by suggesting his very existence is illegal. We don’t read the term this way. We refer routinely to illegal loggers, illegal miners, illegal vendors and so forth. Our language simply means that a person is logging, mining, selling, etc., in violation of the law — just as illegal immigrants have immigrated in violation of the law.

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Israeli Flags Now Illegal in Dearbornistan

First, Christians were banned in Dearbornistan. Now, it's Jews who are illegal. Why not just declare the place an outpost of Saudi Arabia and be done with the whole business.

"On 9-14-2012, Dearborn Fordson High School principal called the police on me for driving with 2 Israeli flags on my truck."

When the students began their assault he rolled down his window asking them to stop. After they pulled him over the police used the rolled down window as a pretext to accuse him of instigating the altercation. 

While being questioned by the police in front of the high school the reader received death threats. The police denied hearing them though the individuals involved were only a few feet away.

"The Dearborn police were one car behind me when this student threw a bottle on my windshield. The police did not stop the student, but instead stopped me for 30 minutes asking me why I would display Israeli flags on my truck."

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The pains of Proflish

"In normal English, 'parse' means to identify the grammatical functions of the words in a sentence. But in Proflish, the professor tongue, which is the status language of planet earth, the language to which all other languages aspire, 'parse' means anything you want it to mean.

In this case, it appears to mean something like 'look at.' Well, says the Martian, why can’t he just say 'look at?' That’s sort of a puzzler, but I can think of two, related reasons. One, he would be understood immediately, and that is not the goal of anyone speaking Proflish. Two, he would reveal the fact that he is saying nothing."

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Only Republicans make "gaffes"

So what happened after the Big Bird comment? The Web filled with Big Bird spoofs, and the folks at "Saturday Night Live" (yes, I watch and laugh regardless of who might be the target) brought Big Bird himself onto the program. To SNL's credit, they also captured Vice President Biden's outrageous reactions in the VP debate perfectly.

But the media that reports on this stuff are neither as humorous nor as evenhanded. They proved that the day after the debate, when major news sites began making a huge issue out of Romney's description of how he sought to put more women into government after he was elected as governor in Massachusetts. He said that when he requested help in finding more qualified women, groups brought "whole binders" full of women ... oh, how horrible. Suddenly, the media had their next gaffe, and within hours Big Bird was pictured on the Web holding -- oh, yes -- a binder that said "women" on front of it.

Editorials popped up saying Romney had destroyed the advantage he was gaining among female voters. One news service listed the campaign's major "oops" moments as: Clint Eastwood's speech at the GOP convention, Romney's Big Bird reference and Romney's "binder" comment. Wow, all Republican/Romney gaffes -- none by Obama or the Democrats.

Let's be honest. Romney became Gov. Romney when binders were still being used to hold generated lists and other documents. And he filled his administration with bright and capable individuals, both male and female. Those who know his staff then and inner circle now are well aware of this fact.

But suddenly his two "debate" gaffes are merged into an alleged war on children and Big Bird, as well as an attack on women in the workplace. And this is how real media bias works -- not in your face, but building on one little comment linked to the next one.

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Texas AG intervenes in cheerleader banner dispute

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Wednesday he will defend high school cheerleaders who want to use Bible verses on banners at football games.

Abbott has filed court papers to intervene in a lawsuit that cheerleaders at Kountze High School filed against the school district complaining that a new policy violated their freedom of speech. In September, district officials told the cheerleaders to stop using Bible verses at football games after the Freedom From Religion Foundation complained.

The atheist group argued that using banners with phrases such as, "I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me," violates the First Amendment prohibition on the government establishing a religion.

After the school told the cheerleaders they could no longer use Bible verses, they filed suit in Hardin County district court. State District Judge Steve Thomas put a hold on the new school policy while he considered the arguments, and the cheerleaders continued to make the banners. He is expected to rule Thursday.

Abbott said that since the cheerleaders create the banners without school funding, they qualify as free speech and should not be banned.

"This is student-led expression, and that's perfectly constitutional," Abbott said.

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The thought police telling kids heterosexuality’s not the norm

Miranda Devine comments from Australia

SO now it’s a thought crime to regard heterosexuality as the norm in human relationships. This is called “heterosexism”, joining racism and sexism as the new no-go zone, and the Proud Schools pilot program rolled out to 12 Sydney and Hunter high schools over the past two terms is aimed at stamping it out.

The program defines “heterosexism” as the practice of “positioning heterosexuality as the norm for human relationship”, according to the Proud Schools Consultation Report. “It involves ignoring, making invisible or discriminating against non-heterosexual people, their relationships and their interests. Heterosexism feeds homophobia.”

So there it is. If you think the vast majority of people are attracted to the opposite sex and that heterosexual human relationships are the norm, you are feeding homophobia.

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Texas high school reportedly silences 'Dixie'

"Dixie" is actually about a black and was popularized by black minstrel shows so it is NOT anti-black

A Texas high school has reportedly silenced its traditional rendition of “Dixie” during football games, as communities in the Lone Star state debate how to handle vestiges of the Old South.

The Austin American-Statesman reports that Travis High School in Austin began singing “Travis Fight” after a Rebels score during football games instead of the long tradition of singing “Dixie.”

Austin school district spokesman Alex Sanchez said teachers at the 1,300-student school have discussed changing the school’s fight song for a year. Austin’s school board didn’t vote on the song change, he said.

Officials at Hays High School in nearby Buda, meanwhile, have decided to keep the traditional fight song despite a racially-charged incident in May in which two students allegedly wrote racial slurs and urinated on the door of an African-American teacher.

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Tweet from British diplomat enrages Argentina

Britain’s ambassador to Chile has been threatened  with violence by furious Argentines over a joke he made about their football team and the Falklands conflict.

Jon Benjamin made the faux pas on Twitter to his 10,000 followers when he tried to send a private  message to a friend.

It referred to a lewd terrace song often sung by Chilean football fans in rhyming Spanish when they play teams from the neighbouring country: ‘Argentines, gays, they took the Falklands off you because you are cowards.’

In a reference to the offensive song, Mr Benjamin, 49, boasted that he was attending a game: ‘Which islands did they take off who and for being what? Perhaps I’ll discover the answer at the national stadium. I’ve already got my ticket.’

The message upset Argentine fans, who took to Twitter to threaten the diplomat, who is in his first posting as ambassador. One threatened to beat him up if he ever met him while another called him a ‘clown’.

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I can't say I sympathize in any way with Argentines.  The invasion of the Falkland Islands was very popular in Argentina but if you were a Falkland Islander, would YOU want to be governed by Argentines?  Ever since Peron (a Fascist) Argentina has been an economic basket case.  And their present economic policies are just as stupid and destructive as ever.  And most of them still think that Peron was a great guy.