Leftist hate speech towards Israel in Scotland


Paul Donnachie

We read:

"A student at St Andrews University has been found guilty of a racist breach of the peace after he insulted the flag of Israel.

Donnachie has been expelled from St Andrews

The court heard that Donnachie and Mr Colchester entered the halls at 01:30 on 12 March to see another student who shared the flat.

Lithuanian-born Mr Reitblat said he had the 4ft by 3ft flag on the wall after being given it by his brother, an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldier.

He said Donnachie noticed the flag, and said Israel was a terrorist state and the flag was a terrorist symbol. He then unbuttoned his trousers, put his hands down his pants, pulled off a pubic hair and rubbed it over the flag.

Sentencing Donnachie, a history student and member of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, sheriff Charlie Macnair said: "This flag was his personal property. I consider that your behaviour did evince malice towards Mr Reitblat because of his presumed membership of Israel. "I'm satisfied that you said Israel was a terrorist state and the flag was a terrorist symbol and I also hold that you said that Mr Reitblat was a terrorist."

Sentence on Donnachie was deferred for background reports.

Outside the court, a tearful Donnachie said he would appeal. He said: "This is a ridiculous conviction. I'm a member of anti-racism campaigns, and I am devastated that as someone who was fought against racism I have been tarnished in this way."

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He tarnished himself. He's sure got a funny way of fighting against racism. Just an unthinking Left-indoctrinated fool, I guess.

Privacy mandates are bad news for web users

We read:

"When Congress returns from its summer recess, Internet privacy will be high on its agenda. Half a dozen bills introduced this session aim to address the privacy 'crisis' by imposing new regulations on businesses.

Amid this panicked flurry of legislative activity, lawmakers need to slow down and take a deep breath. While the state of Internet privacy today is far from perfect, federal meddling with the thriving online ecosystem will only hurt consumers."

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Must not "black up" -- for any reason



Two Australian guys above "blacked up" as a form of support for a black footballer -- the guy in the middle above. Big blunder!

Qantas has been slammed for encouraging two men to dress in blackface and posting the photo on Twitter.

The Twitter competition, held earlier this month, asked Australian fans to tell how they would show their support for the team for the chance to win two exclusive tickets to the game with New Zealand at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.

The competition winners arrived at the game dressed as their favourite player, Radike Samo, wearing Australia's famous green and gold and with their arms, legs and faces painted black. Qantas posted a photo of the duo on its official Twitter page.

But what was supposed to be "a show of support" sparked outrage among Twitter users, who labelled the "blacking up" stunt "appalling."

Qantas quickly removed the photo and apologised to its followers Sunday morning. "We understand it caused offense to some people, which is why it was removed. We are really sorry if it has upset anyone," the tweet read.

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"Holocaust" a dangerous word

Words like "meltdown" or "brain-dead" are sometimes used as a form of emphasis rather than as a literal description of anything. But you cannot use "holocaust" that way in Britain, apparently

Football pundit Tony Cascarino triggered an angry reaction on Twitter on Sunday after he described a player as having a "holocaust" of a game.

Discussing defender Armand Traore's performance on the pitch, Cascarino said: "Poor Traore at right back is having a holocaust because he's finding himself against (United winger) Nani, who's literally running him from everywhere and (Arsenal midfielder Andrey) Arshavin's just not tracking his runners."

Angry fans immediately hit out at his comments on Twitter. One user wrote: "Tony Cascarino should be sacked on the spot. He said an Arsenal defender was having a "holocaust". Appallingly ignorant."

Another micro-blogger branded the comment "horrendous", adding: "I hope Tony Cascarino is dealt with appropriately."

Sky Sports News said presenter Natalie Sawyer had apologised straightaway for Cascarino's remarks. It said in a statement: "Tony Cascarino made his comments in the heat of the moment. An immediate apology on behalf of Tony and Sky Sports was made on air as soon as possible for any offence caused."

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As everybody knows, I am a strong supporter of Israel but I am inclined to see this as just another kneejerk from the perpetually offended.

Technically, "meltdown" "brain-dead", "holocaust" and "kneejerk" are all used as metaphors and metaphors have a distinguished literary history

Disagree with Al Gore -- you are a racist

"Fighting for Mother Earth’s Civil Rights": Al Gore Says Debating With Him on Climate Science Is the Moral Equivalent of Being a Bull Connor Racist.

If you have a strong stomach and can withstand hate-filled self righteousness, watch him below



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Since his own father voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, I guess he knows a bit about the subject.

Letterman: An unlikely hero

We read:

"David Letterman is the late night host you hate to love and love to hate. In a word, he is annoying. However, he took a big, bold, courageous step on Monday.

A while back he made some jokes on his show about Al Qaeda leaders. The internet came alive with the usual jihadist and Al Qaeda crazies threatening mayhem, including cutting his tongue out and breaking his neck.

This often happens when people offend political extremists. The crazies come out of the woodwork to demand a groveling apology and to demand that people not offend them, whatever that means. In this new era of polite and politically correct speech, we cave in to others in an orgy of self censorship, anxious to cater to their tender sensitivities and avoid their wrath. We back down.

On his first day back from vacation, Letterman struck back. Not only was he funny, he was refreshing. Unlike the cowards and milquetoasts from other talk shows, news shows, and media outlets, Letterman did not back down. He showed no fear of the infamous Politically Correct Police, nor did he grovel for fear that “something” might happen. He stood up to his wannabe tormentors and gave as good as he got.

More surprising, CBS aired it. The video is at the end of this article.

Letterman proved there is no reason to fear. Not one thing happened as a result of his monologue. You pesky politically correct cowards and multi-culti macaroons take note; you cowardly media executives and producers pay attention: Nothing happened. A few internet crazies went ballistic, but it was all blowing smoke. No one paid any attention.

It’s about time. We are Americans. We will not be afraid to speak. We have freedom of expression, the press, and speech. We should never be afraid to invoke those freedoms. Every time we back down, whether for fear of reprisal or fear of harming tender sensitivities, we lose a bit of our freedom.

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Pole dancing as free speech again

Calling dancing speech has always seemed a stretch too far to me so I like this ruling:

"The Texas Supreme Court ruled unanimously Friday a $5 "pole tax" on strip clubs is constitutional.

Lower courts had previously said the so-called “pole tax” violated the First Amendment by placing an undue burden on free expression.

But the all-Republican state supreme court said in Friday’s ruling that the $5 fee is too small to be considered a burden, and that the state has a legitimate interest in curbing the “secondary effects of nude dancing when alcohol is consumed,” like potential violence.

According to the ruling, because the fee is not aimed specifically at nude dancing and clubs can “avoid the fee altogether simply by not allowing alcohol to be consumed,” it is not unconstitutional.

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As far as I can tell, SCOTUS has never ruled that pole dancing is free speech. Such rulings have been in lower courts only.

Mennonite college bans even the melody of the national anthem

I wouldn't be surprised if this became a starting point for a move to get the national anthem out of all schools. Left-leaning teachers would be keen on doing that.

"First, The Blaze reported that a tiny, 1,000-student Mennonite school in Indiana banned the words to the National Anthem, now however, Goshen College has banned the song in its entirety — melody and all.

According to Goshen’s president, Jim Brenneman, the words to The Star-Spangled Banner were “too violent.” The reasonable explanation being that the Mennonite faith reportedly endorses pacifism.

While the school band was allowed to continue playing the tune to the National Anthem, even that is now apparently too much.

The school’s board of directors allegedly told Brenneman to “find an alternative to playing the National Anthem that fits with sports tradition, that honors country and that resonates with Goshen College’s core values and respects the views of diverse constituencies.”

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How can you have music that honors the country unless the music is part of a patriotic song? It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

Facebook's 'Like' Button Declared Illegal by German State

In some ways, Germany today is just as nutty as it was in the 1930s

"Facebook's famous "Like" button has been declared illegal under Germany's strict privacy laws by data protection officials.

The north Germany state of Schleswig-Holstein demanded that dozens of websites that carry the button linking to the social networking site remove the offending item by the end of September or face a fine of up to €50,000 ($71,935), The Local reported Friday.

Thilo Weichert, of the state's data protection center, said the application allowed Facebook to illegally piece together a profile of web users' habits. "Facebook can trace every click on a website, how long I'm on it, what I'm interested in," he said.

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Racial abuse in Australian junior football

It's common worldwide. Sport tends to wind people up and some act incautiously in the heat of the moment as a result. Should not be taken too seriously

"A COUNTRY football umpire is the latest figure to be involved in a racial vilification case this year. He is alleged to have racially abused a player in a North Gippsland Football League match last weekend. The player was from Woodside Football Club, playing Cowwarr.

It is alleged the umpire racially taunted the indigenous player during the last quarter before the player retaliated by kicking a ball at the umpire's head.

North Gippsland league general manager Gordon Bailey said the issue was disappointing. "We got a complaint from Woodside about the alleged vilification of one of their players by an umpire," Bailey said. "The umpire and his association have agreed to attend a mediation session. Hopefully it will take place sooner rather than later."

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No freedom to advertise pharmaceutical drugs?

We read:

"Google Inc. has agreed to pay $500 million for carrying advertisements by online Canadian pharmacies targeting consumers in the United States, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The ads resulted in the illegal importation of prescription drugs, the Justice Department said. The $500 million represents the money Google made from selling the drug ads, plus the revenue earned by Canadian pharmacies from sales to American customers."

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I think that Google could have beaten the Justice Dept. in SCOTUS over this -- on 1st Amendment grounds. But they must have thought it wiser to settle.

Fla. Teacher Suspended for Posting Anti-Gay Marriage Views on Facebook

We read:

"A Florida history teacher has been suspended after it was revealed he wrote about his objections to gay marriage on his personal Facebook page. Jerry Buell, who was Mount Dora High School’s “Teacher of the Year” last year, reportedly wrote that he almost “threw up” in response to New York’s legalization of same-sex marriage in July.

According to Fox News, the school system received a complaint about the comment Tuesday and suspended and reassigned Buell the next day.

“It was my own personal comment on my own personal time on my own personal computer in my own personal house, exercising what I believed as a social studies teacher to be my First Amendment rights,” Buell told Fox.

Chris Patton, a communications officer for the school system, told Fox there was concern about how Buell might treat gay students in his class. He also disputed the notion that the comments were private.

“He has [more than] 700 friends,” Patton said. “How private is that – really? Social media can be troubling if you don’t respect it and know that just because you think you are in a private realm – it’s not private.”

He vowed Buell will not return to the classroom until “a thorough job of looking at everything – past or previous writings” is complete.

Buell said he thought the school is trying to silence Christian teachers, warning them not to express their views.

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A pretty clear 1st Amendment violation by the school there.

Update

The school has now backed down

Vogue magazine sparks racism row over article on 'slave earrings'



Italian fashion gobbledegook gets into trouble:

"Fashion magazine Vogue has sparked a worldwide race row after it ran a trend story on what it labelled 'slave earrings'.

The article, which has been roundly criticised for being 'overtly racist', appeared on the Vogue Italia website and recalled the style of earrings worn by 'women of colour' who were brought to the southern United States during the slave trade.'

The article in full read: 'Jewellery has always flirted with circular shapes, especially for use in making earrings. The most classic models are the slave and creole styles in gold hoops. 'If the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the women of colour who were brought to the southern United States during the slave trade, the latest interpretation is pure freedom.

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Italians generally seem rather resistant to political correctness -- as their amazing Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, often shows. But as an international outfit, I suppose Vogue has to disown the doings of its Italian tentacle.

But anyhow, what's wrong with celebrating the good taste of American blacks? You generally get praise for that. Just mentioning history is incorrect, apparently.

Must not pray for Israel?

We read:

"It’s been an odd few days for pop-sensation Katy Perry. Not only did she make history after tying Michael Jackson for having five #1 hits off of a single album, but now the week has taken a vitriolic twist. That’s because Perry faced a slew of angry responses from Palestinians and their supporters after she sent a tweet asking others to pray for Israel

Of course, it didn’t take long for the Twitterverse to light up with responses from Muslims, Palestinians and others who found the her message less-than-appealing.

It didn’t take Perry long to backtrack on her initial Tweet.

Considering Hollywood’s leftist tilt, it‘s a wonder she’s not an unabashed supporter of the Palestinians. Perry was raised in a conservative Christian home, which may explain her less liberal inclinations on the Middle Eastern conflict

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Must not call an astoundingly thick quiz show contestant astoundingly thick

Britain:

It is a quiz traditionally associated with the finest minds in the country. But media watchdog Ofcom has ruled that Channel 4 was right to brand one Mastermind contestant 'astoundingly thick'.

Simon Curtis recorded one of the show’s lowest scores in the history of the programme, but took umbrage when comedian David Walliams mocked him on a comedy show.

The programme, which was shown on Channel 4 in January, included a clip of Mr Curtis on Mastermind which was introduced by Walliams who said: ‘Sometimes in life, you have to know your limitations... if you’re not, let’s say, very bright, it’s probably not a good idea to go on a quiz show that tests your mental agility. ‘And by not very bright I mean, astoundingly thick.’

The probation worker complained to Ofcom that he was portrayed as being of ‘low intelligence’ and that he had not given his consent for it to be shown.

In its defence, Channel 4 said that it was obvious Mr Curtis was not literally ‘astoundingly thick’ as he was on Mastermind in the first place. But it added: 'This was the worst specialist subject performance ever seen on Mastermind.’

Ofcom agreed and refused to uphold any of Mr Curtis’s complaints. It ruled: ‘We recognise that these comments carried the potential to be offensive and insulting to Mr Curtis. ‘However we took the view that it would have been clear to viewers from the beginning of the programme that Mr Walliams - himself best known as a comedian - intended to provide humourous and light hearted opinion and comment on examples of past television clips.’

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Good to see that British officialdom sometimes gets it right.

NJ GOP lawmaker quit over wife's Carl Lewis email

We read:

"A freshman Republican lawmaker resigned because his wife sent "an offensive and racist" email to the Democratic state Senate campaign of nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, a GOP official acknowledged Monday.

Delany and his wife, Jennifer Delany, are white. Lewis, a political novice who's among the greatest athletes of all time, is black.

Jennifer Delany's email to Lewis' campaign said, in part, "Imagine having dark skin and name recognition and the nerve to think that equaled knowing something about politics."

"Former Assemblyman Pat Delany's wife inexplicably sent an offensive and racist email in response to a routine email from Carl Lewis' campaign; her actions were inexcusable," Layton said.

Lewis is running for state Senate in New Jersey's 8th Legislative District. Delany was part of the opposing GOP Assembly slate in the district.

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I suppose the email was a bit nasty but it was also a fair comment. Does being able to run fast make you a good representative? And is there any doubt that his skin color would have influenced his nomination? An inexperienced know-nothing became POTUS because of his skin color. The racism lies in nominating dummies because of their skin color -- not in criticizing that.

The latest from the very "incorrect" Pat Condell

NOBODY is allowed to criticize Obama



We read:

"Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Thursday used Facebook to criticize President Obama’s recent decision to halt prosecutions of illegal immigrants. Early Friday morning, the post had more than 10,000 Likes, before Facebook removed it.

Brewer’s Facebook post criticized a controversial policy decision by President Barack Obama’s administration to limit deportations of illegal immigrants. It was accompanied by an illustration depicting her as “Rosie the Riveter” and a slogan that read, “Arizona – doing the job the feds won’t do.” In the image (pictured above), her face is superimposed onto the famous character representing American women who worked in factories during World War II.

Facebook told Brewer the image violated its rules: “Facebook censored the post and removed it because the photo apparently violated their ‘Facebook Community Standards,’” Brewer posted on the social network, according to The Arizona Republic. “I just got this automatic email from them at 5:12 AM,” Brewer said, adding that she had been “feeling quite proud about the post, because it had generated so much interest.”

Facebook said it was sorry for deleting the post; the company issued a statement saying that “the post was removed in error. We apologize for the inconvenience.” The social network said it mistakenly removed the post, but did not provide further details, such as whether the removal resulted from complaints by other Facebook users.

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"Illegal" is a slur?

I would have thought it was a description. But if it is a slur it is an earned one

"It is rare that a story involving illegal immigration goes by on Fox News or their blog, Fox Nation, without the use of the slur "illegals" to describe undocumented immigrants.

Fox News has chosen to ignore the specific instruction of the Associated Press Style Book, which urges journalists not to shorten the phrase to exclude the word "immigrant," and calls by several news associations to stop using the word because it "pollutes" and can "skew public debate" on immigration.

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Nivea pulls ‘offensive’ ad



Some advertising genius really goofed. Where has he been all his life?

"Companies like to push the envelope with their ads. Sometimes the gamble works, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes, like in the case of a new advertising campaign from Nivea, the whole thing turns into a fiasco.

Nivea, a company that specializes in skin-care products, recently released a print ad that it has since pulled. How to best describe the ad? It shows an African American man preparing to toss a decapitated head (his own?) with an afro-style haircut. The ad copy reads: "Re-Civilize Yourself." The underlying message seems to be that afros are not civilized.

Nivea has since taken down the ad and issued an apology via Facebook. "Thank you for caring enough to give us your feedback about the recent 'Re-civilized' Nivea for Men ad. This ad was inappropriate and offensive. It was never our intention to offend anyone, and for this we are deeply sorry. This ad will never be used again. Diversity and equal opportunity are crucial values of our company."

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