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31 August, 2018

British University introduces ‘menopause policy’ to tackle taboo

A university has told its academics to say the word menopause three times a day in an attempt to cause a “dramatic culture change” among its staff.

The University of Leicester released a statement entitled “Let’s say ‘menopause’ three times a day” as it announced that it was “the UK’s first university to have a menopause policy”.

Andrea Davies, of the university’s school of business, is leading a research team to drive changes in attitude towards the menopause that includes the creation of a permanent “menopause café” in the staff dining area.

“The results have been surprising — it has helped men as well as women talk confidently about menopause,” the university said.

SOURCE




Medical Website Indulges Trans Community With New Term For Female Genitalia

Sounds rather rude.  It's part of the endless Leftist campaign to deny reality

A health information site titled Healthline, which serves a reputed 85 million people a month, is offering an “LGBTQIA Safe Sex Guide” that stipulates the word “vagina” is no longer appropriate for that part of the female genitalia. Instead, the proper term for that orifice is . . . “front hole.”

But why, you may ask? Why is a term that has been used for ages suddenly jettisoned in favor of the term “front hole?” The LGBTQIA Safe Sex Guide writes:

"For the purposes of this guide, we’ll refer to the vagina as the “front hole” instead of solely using the medical term “vagina.” This is gender-inclusive language that’s considerate of the fact that some trans people don’t identify with the labels the medical community attaches to their genitals."

As Jonathon Van Maren writes at Lifesite News:

Women who claim they are men, but are still anatomically female, feel that accurately labeling their genitals is problematic because they “don’t identify” with the medically correct terms. In other words, they accurately fear that if someone knows they have a “vagina,” those people will assume (quite safely) that they are female, when they have decided that they are not.

The term “front hole” has been bandied about for a while; last January Bustle quoted “sex educator” Kenna Cook pontificating, "Language for sex that is coded in anatomy is meant to reinforce a heteronormative, reproductive-based idea of sex … The terms people use for their sexual body parts are a large contributor to them feeling comfortable engaging in certain sex acts. Some trans men don't refer to their genitals with female-coded language, opting for 'boy hole' or 'front hole.'”

Anyone who promulgates that heteronormative, reproductive-based idea of sex should just shut their piehole.

Or else they’re just a rectum, or whatever you call it.

SOURCE




30 August, 2018

U.S. Treasury and CFPB should investigate payment blocking by credit card processors to conservative groups

Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging U.S. Treasury and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to investigate allegations that Visa and Mastercard are blocking financial donations to conservative non-profit groups:

“Reports that Visa and Mastercard may have engaged in a political blacklisting effort against Freedom Center and Jihad Watch are disturbing given recent actions by other financial services entities to choke off credit and basic banking services to conservative groups and businesses.

Visa’s denial that this is occurring is welcome if true. But the larger issue of the impact of the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center on access to social media platforms, financial services and fundraising, and past actions coordinating with DHS and federal law enforcement agencies to target those same entities needs to be addressed.

Southern Poverty Law Center should be permanently blocked from receiving any government contracts, awards or being included in any discussions related to criminal threats in America. Let’s be clear, SPLC is an organization that engages in political hit jobs and is not a credible watchdog.”

SOURCE






Facebook Bans Pastor's 'Love God, Defend America' Ad
    
The Facebook overlords are at it again, folks.

The latest victim is Steve Solomon — a radio host, pastor, and Army veteran from Knoxville, Tennessee. Pastor Solomon wanted to purchase Facebook ads to promote his radio program.

“Speak the truth, Love God, Defend America” — that’s was the pastor’s message.

But Facebook rejected the advertisement, claiming it was political.

“The text and/or imagery you’re using is related to politics or an issue of national importance, based on the definition we’re using for enforcement,” a Facebook representative told him in a written response. “However, your page is not authorized to run these types of ads.”

He was then told he had to obtain authorization from Facebook before he could post any advertisements that encouraged people to love God.

“Once you’re authorized to run these ads, choose the option to run this ad with the disclaimer you create in the Authorizations process,” the Facebook representative told him.

Pastor Solomon reached out to my team at the “Todd Starnes Radio Show” when he could not convince Facebook to reverse its decision.

“Nothing about the ad is political,” Pastor Solomon. “If anything, it’s heavily spiritual and moral.”

That’s a good point — but as we’ve discovered, nothing triggers a social media censor faster than advertisements promoting God and country. The Millennial tech geeks are easily triggered.

“I’m a pastor and served in the US Army in Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) so I LITERALLY defended America,” the pastor wrote. “Simply encouraging people to be honest, love God and love America is nothing controversial.”

Pastor Solomon is not the only Christian or conservative who has been punished recently for violating Facebook’s community standards.

“Multiple posts sharing articles by prominent conservatives have been temporarily censored on Facebook, under the excuse that they ‘look like spam,’” Tyler O'Neill reported on PJ Media.

The Tennessee Star, a conservative-leaning newspaper, reports that Facebook temporarily removed three stories that were critical of former Gov. Phil Bredesen, the Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate.

The same thing happened to one of my readers, who attempted to share a story I had written critical of Democrats targeting Christians in the state of California.

My column and the Tennessee Star news reports, all labeled as spam, were later reposted by Facebook. I find it hard to believe this was some sort of random occurrence or a technical glitch.

There seems to be a concerted effort by a group of militant social media goons to purge any content it finds offensive or contrary to its ideology.

Apparently, there is no room in its freedom-stifling world for conservatives, Christians, or patriots.

SOURCE



29 August, 2018

Twitter User Says Dana Loesch’s Kids Need to be ‘Murdered,’ Social Giant Says ‘No Violation’

Stalin lives!  From the French revolution on, human lives have never mattered to Leftists

Advocating murder has become an acceptable form of speech, Twitter has ruled — at least when the target of invective is the family of National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch.

On Sunday, a Twitter user responded to Loesch as she was trying to discuss the Florida shooting online with other Twitter users.

“The only way these people learn is if it affects them directly. So if Dana Loesch has to have her children murdered before she’ll understand, I guess that’s what needs to happen,” Loesch posted in a screenshot of the comment she received.

At a time when Twitter and other social media giants have been tightening the screws on what they allow from websites such as Infowars, Loesch appealed to Twitter for a ruling to punish the user.

Twitter sided with Loesch’s critic.  “We have reviewed your report carefully and found that there was no violation of the Twitter Rules against abusive behavior,” it wrote, according to the screenshot Loesch posted.

Loesch then drew the only possible conclusion: Fair is only fair when the threats align with Twitter’s politics.

SOURCE




Twitter Reverses Ruling After Backlash, Concedes It’s Against The Rules To Wish Death Upon Dana Loesch’s Children

Twitter reversed course Monday and suspended a Twitter account that said National Rifle Association (NRA) spokeswoman Dana Loesch “has to have her children murdered.”

“The only way these people learn is if it affects them directly,” Twitter user Milan Legius wrote in a reply to Loesch on Sunday. “So if Dana Loesch has to have her children murdered before she’ll understand, I guess that’s what needs to happen.”

Twitter initially ruled on Sunday that after “carefully” reviewing the reported tweet, that it had “no violation of the Twitter Rules against abusive behavior.” (

Following news coverage from media outlets including The Daily Caller News Foundation, Twitter “re-reviewed” the report on Monday and changed its ruling.

“We have re-reviewed the account you reported and have locked it because we found it to be in violation of the Twitter Rules,” Twitter wrote in an email to Dana’s husband Chris Loesch, who shared it with TheDCNF.

SOURCE





28 August, 2018

Must not agree with Trump on CNN

Pro-Trump CNN political analyst Paris Dennard made national headlines last Friday after going toe-to-toe with CNN counter-terrorism analyst Philip Mudd over the president’s decision to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. But now, Dennard has been suspended from the network.

Following the viral exchange, President Donald Trump praised Dennard as being “wonderful” and applauded him for refusing to back down against “weird” and “totally unglued” Mudd.

Mudd, who previously used the “n-word” toward host Don Lemon on CNN to prove he’s not racist, berated Dennard for arguing that former government officials with security clearances often land high paying jobs in Washington, D.C. Mudd lost his mind when Dennard said officials like Brennan politicize sensitive information to attack Trump and other Republicans.

Trump applauded Dennard and slammed Mudd on Twitter.

Not long after Trump’s tweet, The Washington Post published a hit piece claiming that Dennard was accused in 2014 of sexual harassment:

"A conservative commentator who was lauded by President Trump this week as “wonderful” and who has argued that past sexual indiscretions should have no bearing on Trump’s presidency was fired from Arizona State University four years ago for making sexually explicit comments and gestures toward women, according to documents and a university official"

The Post’s report said Dennard “did not dispute those claims,” and buried the fact that he said the acts were taken out of context and committed jokingly.

Soon after the Post report scorched across social media, CNN released a statement indicating that Dennard has been suspended following an internal review into the allegations.

SOURCE





   
Australia: When will they learn? Footy player sparks outrage after blackface appearance as Kanye West at club function - complete with Kim Kardashian and baby Saint

A footy player has sparked outrage after he attended a charity gala in blackface.

The West Adelaide player attended his club's annual fundraiser dressed as US pop star Kanye West, while his partner sported a Kim Kardashian costume.

The West Adelaide Football Club issued an apology after the picture ended up on their Facebook page in an album showcasing costumes from the iconic couples-themed event.

WAFC chief executive David Grenvold said concerns were raised with the player when he arrived at the venue, but he was allowed to stay and not required to change out of the costume.

'Yes, look, it was inappropriate and not something the club supports. There was absolutely some comments about maybe that is inappropriate,' Mr Grenvold said.

The unnamed player wore a plain white t-shirt with tight denim jeans and a gold chain, and painted his face black for the occasion.

The Kardashian look-a-like wore Kim's standard neutral tones, with a long blonde wig and white baseball cap.

She also held a baby doll in her arms - perhaps imitating one of the couple's children, Saint.

West Adelaide board member and African community spokesperson Joseph Masika said the insensitive move went against the club's culture, Seven News reported.

However, he said he did not believe there was any malicious intent behind the costume. 'It was something which would raise my eyebrows but as I said I believe it was an innocent act because of lack of awareness,' he said.

In response to backlash the club has promised to provide an information session for all players.

The photo has since been removed from the club's Facebook page.

SOURCE 



27 August, 2018

NASCAR Driver Loses Sponsorship Over Father’s Racial Slur … 35 Years Ago

The African American in the woodpile again

A sponsor announced on Friday that it has ended its partnership with NASCAR driver Conor Daly after it was reported that his father used racially insensitive language during an interview in the early 1980s.

Lilly Diabetes pulled its sponsorship from Conor’s No. 6 car in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity race, citing his father’s alleged use of the N-word 35 years ago, reported Fox News.

Derek Daly, a retired Indy 500 and Formula One driver, was fired days earlier from his role as WISH-TV’s Racing Analyst due to the controversy.

In a statement, the elder Daly admitted to using the word, but denied its connotation.

“I was a foreign driver new in America, driving for an American team, with an American crew, and with an American sponsor – and that if things did not go well, the only ‘”n...” in the wood pile’ would be me,” Derek Daly wrote, saying that the expression was common in his native Ireland and didn’t carry the same racist connotation.

He added that he was “mortified” after he was informed of the derogatory nature of the word and has not used the word since.

Lilly originally partnered with Conor to raise awareness for people living with diabetes. Conor was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 14 years old.

“The last 24 [hours] have been quite an unnecessarily difficult ride for my family. There is A LOT I want to say … but I’m still here and still racing,” Daly tweeted. “I appreciate the support from [Roush Fenway Racing] and ALL of you.

SOURCE






A defeat for the credit card censors

David Horowitz of the Freedom Center writes:

By now I'm sure you've heard the news of MasterCard and Visa colluding with Left-wing front groups to shut down our fundraising efforts.

And after 2 days of meetings with our attorneys I have good news and bad news.

The good news is they’re backing down. That’s right. Late last night we got a call that MasterCard and Visa reversed the action and we’d be able to get our donation platform up and running again.

The bad news is this is just the beginning of the most brutal battle for the future of our country. We’ve seen just how far they’ll go to silence anyone that dares question them.

And with the midterms around the corner and their ongoing assault on our President and anyone that supports him, we need to be prepared to fight like we’ve never fought before.

This is a wake up call. There’s nothing the Left won’t do to silence those of us that love this country — and there’s no telling what they’ll do next.

Via email from info@horowitzfreedomcenter.org




26 August, 2018

Google, YouTube targeted by Iran influence operation, shut down dozens of accounts

There is no problem with censoring lies and deception so this is to be applauded

Google has removed dozens of YouTube channels it says are linked to an influence operation run by Iran's state broadcaster.

The disclosure comes just days after Facebook, Instagram and Twitter purged hundreds of accounts that originated in Iran that were spreading disinformation in the United States and abroad.

In all, Google says it shut down 58 accounts on its video service YouTube and other sites. Each of the accounts had ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, or IRIB, according to Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president for global affairs.

"We identified and terminated a number of accounts linked to the IRIB organization that disguised their connection to this effort, including while sharing English-language political content in the U.S.," Walker wrote in a blog post.

Google removed 39 channels on YouTube, which had more than 13,000 views in the United States, 13 accounts on the social networking service Google Plus and six accounts on blogging service Blogger, the company said.

Google also said it took down 42 additional channels on YouTube linked to the Internet Research Agency, which has ties to the Kremlin.

Cybersecurity firm FireEye tipped off Google, which says it has briefed law enforcement officials and shared its findings with lawmakers.

This week, Facebook disclosed it had uncovered a network operated by Iranian state media and removed 652 pages, groups and accounts for "coordinated inauthentic behavior" on Facebook and Instagram.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted more revelations of nation-state disinformation campaigns may come to light in coming months. "I think it's safe to say we have a number of investigations going on, and we'll update you when we know more," he said.

Twitter said it removed 284 accounts for engaging in “coordinated manipulation.” The accounts in question also appeared to originate from Iran. Microsoft disclosed it had foiled a Russian military intelligence-backed effort to hack visitors of the websites of conservative think tanks which had broken with President Donald Trump and were advocating tougher policies with Russia.

SOURCE




Cuomo Attempts To Take GOP Candidate’s 30-Second Ad Off Air

The ad seems pretty accurate

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, tried to take down Republican gubernatorial nominee Marc Molinaro’s ad off the air Sunday for allegedly providing misleading information.

Molinaro released a 30-second advertisement, “Guilty,” that emphasized corruption from Cuomo’s top adviser Joe Percoco and State University of New York Polytechnic Institute founder Alain Kaloyeros, the New York Daily News reported Sunday.

The ad was recorded on Aug. 1.

“Andrew Cuomo’s top advisers are going to jail for stealing your tax dollars,” the narrator of the ad said. “And now he’s under investigation again for another pay-to-play scam.”

Cuomo filed a cease-and-desist letter to news stations for the ad referencing an investigation into health care organization Crystal Run for making questionable donations, which the campaign said does not involve the governor, according to the Daily News.

“It is false, cheap, and nasty — it is exactly what you would expect from Trump mini-me Marc Molinaro,” Cuomo spokeswoman Abbey Fashouer said to The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Crystal Run Healthcare donated $250,000 to his campaign in 2013 and executives and doctors, additionally, donated $400,000 collectively between 2011 and 2013.

Percoco was declared guilty for several counts of corruption in March, according to the Times Union on March 13. His sentencing was delayed four times for unspecified reasons and is scheduled for after the Democrat primaries on Sept. 13, according to the The Syracuse Post-Standard.

Kaloyeros was convicted of bid rigging on state contracts related to Cuomo’s “Buffalo Billion,” an initiative intended to strengthen western and central New York economies, the Times Union reported on July 13. The state contracts were worth over $850 million.

Molinaro hopes to take the governor position, while Cuomo is seeking a third term.

SOURCE






24 August, 2018

Freedom Center has been attacked

David Horowitz

We're under attack by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)...

For years, the SPLC has labeled the Freedom Center a hate group and tried to get organizations like Amazon, Facebook and Twitter to ban us and silence our message.

Yesterday, SPLC finally convinced MasterCard and Visa to cut us off. Now we can't process donations from any major credit card companies.

In fact, if you received Robert Spencer's e-mail last night, you may have noticed your donation was DENIED.

This blow could be the end of the Freedom Center. Decades of work, down the drain because the hateful Left wants to squash free speech and silence an organization that dares to question them.

As we get more information and meet with our attorneys, I will keep you up-to-date.

Email from info@horowitzfreedomcenter.org




Australian Radio jock uses old-fashioned expression

Being a bit of a tease, I sometimes use the expression.  It was common in my youth. These days, however, I say: "African-American in the woodpile"  I seem to get away with it

Alan Jones has labelled Matthias Cormann the 'n***** in the woodpile' and vowed 'not to yield' to those who find the 19th century phrase offensive.

The radio host used the term to describe the WA Senator as he discussed the Liberal leadership crisis, while calling on Malcolm Turnbull to resign and advocating Tony Abbott as the next prime minister.

'The n***** in the woodpile here, if I can use that expression, and I'm not going to yield to certain people who tell us that words in the language are forbidden, the person who's playing hard to get is Matthias Cormann,' Jones said. 

The term has similarities to the colloquial phrase 'skeleton in the closet' and was used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to describe a person who is the cause of a problem. 

Jones later apologised.

'I used an old and offensive figure of speech that I regret saying. People should be honest and forthright in their actions and that is not happening in the Liberal Party right now. I will have more to say on this tomorrow.'

Although usage of the phrase has declined dramatically since the early 1900s, Jones has repeatedly used it on live radio.

'N*****' is considered one of the most derogatory terms in the English language and 'is strongly racially offensive', according to the Oxford Dictionary.

SOURCE 





23 August, 2018

Trump Admin Files Suit Against Facebook For 'Discriminatory' Policies

I think this is just a shot across the bows for the social media  companies.  Trump is showing that he can get at them if they don't clean up their act

The Trump administration is going after Facebook for allegedly engaging in housing discrimination.

On Friday, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson filed a lawsuit against Facebook, accusing the tech giant of discrimination for allowing "landlords and home sellers access to advertising tools that limit which prospective buyers or tenants can view certain online ads based on race, religion, sex, disability and other characteristics," reports NPR.

Anna María Farías, serving as HUD's assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity, blasted Facebook for the alleged discrimination. "The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination including those who might limit or deny housing options with a click of a mouse," said Farías, adding, "When Facebook uses the vast amount of personal data it collects to help advertisers to discriminate, it's the same as slamming the door in someone's face."

In April, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and three other member organizations similarly filed suit against Facebook for allegedly enabling housing discrimination.

Facebook attempted to have the case dismissed, but was denied.

"The categorizing of Facebook users based on protected characteristics, and the mechanism that Facebook offers advertisers to target those segments of the potential audience, violate the FHA [Fair Housing Act]. Facebook's motion should therefore be denied," said Geoffrey Berman, serving as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Facebook intends to work with HUD to fix the issues at hand, a spokesperson told NPR.

On Saturday, the president voiced his discontent over the mounting censorship of conservative voices on social media, signaled potential action from the administration to stop it. "Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices," Trump wrote in a string of tweets. "Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen."

SOURCE





Bureaucratic Busybodies May Require Almond Milk, Soy Milk to Use Non-Milk Names

If Washington politicians, bureaucrats, and lobbyists have their way, consumers of common nondairy “milks”—such as almond milk and soy milk—may soon have to buy those products under obscure labeling such as “plant juice” and “tree-nut beverage.”

In another unfortunate instance of overcriminalization, after efforts to make it a crime to label nondairy products as “milk” stalled in the Senate, the Food and Drug Administration may now be trying to do through regulatory means what Congress has been unwilling or unable to do through legislation.

Today, the U.S. Code contains a literal A-to-Y list of misbranding offenses. The DAIRY PRIDE Act would, if enacted, complete that alphabet of horribles by adding a section (Z) for nondairy products labeled as “milk.”

Misbranding food is punishable with fines up to $1,000 and imprisonment up to one year, or up to $10,000 and three years, or both, if the government can prove that a defendant acted with intent to defraud or mislead consumers.

Fortunately, federal courts have fairly applied the law on behalf of American consumers and refused to say that nondairy products are misleading just because their labels say “milk.”

In the plant-based “milk” case, Conti wrote that the plaintiffs’ claims were just as “highly improbable” and “stretched the bounds of credulity,” because by the same logic, “a reasonable consumer might also believe that veggie bacon contains pork, that flourless chocolate cake contains flour, or that e-books are made out of paper.”.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, attempted to block Gottlieb’s plan, but the Senate voted 84-14 to let the agency do the dirty work that Congress could not do itself.

“No one buys almond milk under the false allusion that it came from a cow,” Lee said. “They buy it because it didn’t come from a cow. Consumers are not deceived by these labels.”

SOURCE






22 August, 2018

Twitter CEO says blocking content is perilous

While lamenting abusive conduct on Twitter, chief executive Jack Dorsey said any move to block content based on political or social views would stoke already rising concern about the power of social-media companies.

“We can’t just keep changing randomly, based on our viewpoints,” Dorsey said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” “That just adds to the fear of companies like ours making these judgments.”

His comments aired a day after President Trump said, “Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices.”

Earlier in the week, Twitter put temporary limits on the account of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for violating company policies.

Trump, in his tweet, said social-media companies “are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others” and said his administration “won’t let that happen.”

Dorsey said he’s open to changing the platform to help avoid abuses. Possible initiatives include adding context to misinformation, he said.

SOURCE






Australia: Threatening violence based on gender, race, religion or sexual orientation will see offenders JAILED for up to three years under new laws

Threats of violence are not usually regarded as protected free speech so I support this.  Threats can be very worrying

People who threaten or incite violence against religious minorities, transsexuals, those who are gay or have AIDS face up to three years in jail.

Individual perpetrators of this crime also face $11,000 fines under new laws coming into effect in New South Wales this week. 

Corporations face a maximum penalty of $55,000.

The state government has issued a warning on Facebook to anyone who is contemplating harassing or threatening violence against someone based on a specific religious belief or affiliation, sexual orientation, intersex status or HIV/AIDS diagnosis.

The Crimes Amendment (Publicly Threatening and Inciting Violence) Act of 2018 defines 'gender identity' as exhibiting mannerisms or an appearance that is at odds with someone's biology.

It regards 'intersex status' as 'having physical, hormonal or genetic features' which are neither male nor female or a combination of both. 

SOURCE 




21 August, 2018

More Leftist racism: Jamie Oliver is accused of 'cultural appropriation' for launching "jerk rice": A Caribbean dish

Why is it incorrect to  eat anything with an ethnic origin?  It's just race consciousness to say you should not

Jamie Oliver has been accused of cultural appropriation by Labour's shadow women and equalities minister and other social media users for launching 'punchy jerk rice'.

Dawn Butler, the MP for Brent Central in north west London, picked up on comments from social media about the product and joined in with her own criticism.

She suggested Oliver was using the word jerk to increase the sales of his rice and his product was not faithful to the original Caribbean recipe which is usually a marinade for meat.

Jerk can refer to a type of cooking which involves marinating meat in a jerk spice mixture, or the marinade itself. It originated in Jamaica.

Jerk can refer to both the spice mix or the style of cooking which originated in Jamaica. The name is believed to have come from charqui, the Spanish word for dried meat.

Many jerk recipes involve meat such as chicken or pork, but Mr Oliver's £2.30 microwaveable rice offering is vegetarian, with the packaging suggesting it is 'seriously good' with chicken wings. 

SOURCE





Texas school removes 'sexist' sign from hallway that told girls to 'act like a lady' after uproar

This is all part of the absurd Feminist pretense that there are no differences between men and women.  It's pretty rough or misled women who don't act like ladies.  It comes naturally to most women -- but in varying degrees.  Most men, on the other hand, have to be taught to be gentlemen.  And the refusal to teach that leads to a lot of coarseness of male behaviour towards women.  So feminists are behind a lot of disappointed women.  They need to see that they are behind a lot of the male behaviour that they deplore -- but there is no way that they will back off

A 'sexist' sign at a Houston school has been removed after it caused an uproar on social media. 

The quote, which sat above a row of lockers at Gregory-Lincoln elementary school in Houston Independent School District, read: 'The more you act like a lady, the more he'll act like a gentleman.'

Many expressed their horror, saying they believed the quote was victim-blaming and perpetuating the women are responsible for men's actions

The quote began drawing controversy on Friday when Houston resident Lisa Beckman tweeted a picture of it.

'This is the wall at Gregory-Lincoln Middle School in Houston ISD,' she wrote in a post accompanying the tweet.

'It's perpetuating horrible gender stereotypes, shaming women, and relinquishing boys of all responsibility. It's sexist, mysogonistic [sic], and discriminatory! I'm horrified.'

The tweet has since been liked more than 23,000 times and has been retweeted more than 9,000 times.

Twitter users were stunned by the post and took to the social media platform in droves to share their outrage.

'"So remember girls, if he's treating you horribly then you had it coming. Now enjoy class!" - the people who put this up apparently,' tweeted one user.

SOURCE




20  August, 2018

Maine: Small town manager accused of hate speech for supporting traditional marriage

Sadly, hate speech has come to our small community of China with our new town manager Dennis Heath. It is an unfortunate sign of the times that hate speech has washed across us from the president, governor, Waterville mayor and now the China town manager — and it seems to be acceptable.

SOURCE

Facebook posts made and shared by China’s new town manager might raise questions about whether he can separate his religious views and beliefs from his work as a municipal official, but members of the town’s Select Board, which was unanimous in selecting him, were impressed with his background and skills.

Over the years, Dennis Heath, a 58-year-old pastor and career Air Force veteran, has made opinionated posts about women, homosexuals and Islam and shared articles from websites known to spread conspiracy theories and false news.

During his time in Stonewall, Heath shared articles and posts that stated he supported “traditional marriage.” After the Supreme Court’s decision in the case that legalized same-sex marriage, Heath shared an article in 2015 from The Blaze, conservative Glenn Beck’s television, radio and internet network, about the Texas attorney general declaring that local clerks could defy the ruling and deny marriage licenses to those couples. Accompanying the article, Heath wrote, “I would that all states follow suit. We can stand firm in our adherence to godly living against the tide of evil.”

When asked if he would allow a clerk to deny a same-sex couple a marriage license because of the clerk’s religious beliefs, Heath said he would not.

“The way it is now, I couldn’t do that and I wouldn’t do that,” he said Thursday from his office at the Town Office. “What I was essentially saying in respect to this whole thing is that the decision about what constitutes marriage legally is not something that the Constitution confers on the federal government or the judiciary; otherwise, it would have been included in the Constitution. It’s my opinion that it should be a decision that should be made by the states through their constitutions.”

He said, however, it is his religious belief that same-sex marriage is contrary to the Bible, but the fact that he has a religious belief that’s different does not give him the ability to override the law.

Also in 2015, Heath shared posts from other users disparaging the Muslim faith. One post that Heath shared showed a picture of a billboard that read, “Everything I ever needed to learn about Islam, I learned in five minutes on 9/11/2001.” Heath said those were the words of someone else that he shared. “Essentially, that’s me saying, ‘I can see that.'”

SOURCE





HS Cheerleaders Under Fire After Their Patriotic Shirt Is Called ‘Racist’

In 2018, the term “racist” has lost virtually all meaning.

Cheerleaders at Dodge County High School in Eastman, Georgia, have come under fire for supposedly “racist” T-shirts they were selling to raise funds for the squad, according to WMAZ-TV in Macon.

The shirts in question read, “In Dodge County, we stand for the flag, kneel for the cross, that’s Indian pride.”

How exactly is that racist? With the exception of “Indians,” which is the school’s mascot, there is nary a mention of race on any part of that shirt.

To most people, the shirt is simply a pro-flag, pro-Christian article of clothing. And it is.

But to others, like Eastman resident Deneen McLeod, the shirt is racist … for reasons. McLeod told WMAZ-TV the shirt “stands for the hurt of black people getting killed, beat by police officers and getting off with it. So therefore, we as black people … to us, that’s what it looks like.”

Shortly after Dodge County Board of Education member Shirley Ikedionwu posted a since-deleted Facebook rant about the shirts, the school topped selling them.

Despite the school caving into nonsensical pressure, White Hat Auto manager Nikki Mullis is still selling the shirts out of her shop.

“There’s no violation of anything right now,” superintendent Michael Ward said. “They’re just voicing their political views. As long as it’s not vulgar or obscene, they’re within the dress code policy.”

Of course, this raises a question: If the shirts are neither vulgar nor obscene and are within dress code policy, why did the school stop selling them?

SOURCE





19 August, 2018

Must not joke about floods

There are extensive droughts in parts of Australia so accounts of floods elsewhere can be a bit painful

AN attempt at a joke has backfired spectacularly on Australia’s Ambassador to the United States, Joe Hockey.

The former treasurer took to Twitter overnight to share a video news report about heavy rain and flooding in India.

“Please sent to Australia — rain welcome party will be arranged,” Mr Hockey wrote, in an apparent joke about the country’s continuing drought crisis.

However, the death toll from flooding in the Indian state of Kerala has hit 75 and could rise even further, as authorities battle to rescue trapped residents.

The insensitive remark has sparked a social media backlash, with Twitter users attacking Mr Hockey and labelling him “out of touch” and a “jerk”.

“Really Ambassador @JoeHockey? When scores of people have died? On the anniversary of India’s independence? And at the same time your government and India want deeper ties?” Prasanna Kovalam wrote.

Terry Dwyer added: “You should give a little more thought before commenting on a disaster. Try to imagine how you would feel if your family was caught in it.”

SOURCE




Natural births incorrect

When UK footballer Harry Kane announced the arrival of his baby daughter to the world, he was just like any proud dad.

"Our beautiful addition to the family," he tweeted alongside a picture of himself, his partner Kate and their newborn.

"Vivienne Jane Kane. So proud of @KateGoodlandx for having the most amazing water birth with no pain relief at all."

He then went on to add the hashtags #mygirls and #hypnobirthing.

Seems innocent enough, right?

So what about this birth announcement has people so outraged?
No pain relief

If you hadn't guessed already, the reason people were angered by the athlete's tweet was his reference to the fact his partner gave birth without pain relief.

Things were kicked off by broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer who tweeted in response: "I’m delighted for @HKane & his family but why on earth should anyone be ‘proud’ of not having pain relief while giving birth? Utterly absurd! There’s a reason why women get pain relief during labour: because it bloody hurts.”

And scores of women were quick to agree with her.

"Should I ask to have my next filling done without an anaesthetic?" tweeted one.

SOURCE




17 August, 2018

There are songs that whites must not sing?

One of Broadway’s most successful torch songs has been caught up in the middle of the race row that’s been skittering through showbiz in recent years. Dreamgirls’ crowd-pleaser And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going was due to be performed as part of The Best of the West End, an evening of musical numbers at the Royal Albert Hall, by white singer Mazz Murray.

But when the show’s producers approached Dreamgirls’ owners for permission to use the ballad in The Best of the West End, they were told that it wasn’t “appropriate” for a white woman to sing it.

SOURCE





MasterCard shuts down Robert Spencer’s Patreon account, offers no explanation

Patreon is a facility for making donations to writers whose work you like

Robert Spencer, best selling author and director of Jihad Watch, has had his Patreon account disabled. Mr Spencer sent out a Tweet earlier today explaining:

“I’ve been axed from Patreon, without explanation, warning or notice — no doubt as part of the ongoing efforts of the Left to deny all platforms to those who reject its agenda.”

Patreon’s official Twitter page responded to Mr Spencer blaming the decision on MasterCard saying, “We emailed you earlier today which explained that unfortunately Mastercard required us to remove your account.

How long before credit cards and banks refuse service to you and I based on our political ideology?

Brittany Pettibone rightly warned, “Censorship starts with banning us from private utilities like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube, but it ends with them banning us from our Internet providers, cell phone carriers, private bank accounts, etc. Anyone who thinks I’m being hyperbolic, have a look at Europe: Martin Sellner has been de-platformed from 12 private bank accounts in 2018 alone.”

SOURCE






16 August, 2018

That awful word FAT again



ERIN Molan has responded to the wave of criticism levelled at Channel 9’s Sunday Footy Show panel over their “totally unprofessional” segment shaming former NRL star Dave Taylor.

Taylor’s rugby league club has slammed Molan and co. for making fun of the towering prop’s weight.

Taylor, who is playing for the Central Queensland Capras in Queensland’s top league after playing for the Canberra Raiders last season, was labelled the “Gutsy Player of the Week” during a segment on Sunday’s show.

Several members of the show’s panel — which included Erin Molan, Peter Sterling and Brad Fittler — laughed as they poked fun at Taylor’s appearance.

“He was a gun player in his day, wasn’t he?” asked host Molan, to which NSW Blues coach Brad Fittler responded, “What an athlete”.

Former Tigers player and co-host Joel Caine also joined in. “Well Dave, look, it’s a three-letter word, fit, OK, but it’s very easy to turn the ‘i’ into an ‘a’, that’s all I’m saying — get that ‘a’ back to an ‘i’,” he said.

Molan apologised on Twitter shortly after the media storm.

SOURCE





WA university refuses to ban realistic endocrinologist

A US pediatric professor, who says the transgender movement is based on ideology rather than science, will speak at the University of Western Australia despite pressure to ban him.

A student petition with more than 6000 signatures is protesting the appearance on Friday of pediatric endocrinologist Quentin Van Meter, who is on a national tour sponsored by The Australian Family Association.

Dr Van Meter has said that using puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria was akin to child abuse.

"Transgender is actually a delusional disorder," he said. "It's a state of mind with no biologic basis for it that can be found."

Dr Van Meter is president of the American College of Paediatricians, which is known for its opposition to marriage equality, gender reassignment and abortion.

A UWA spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday that while the university did not endorse the opinions of its speakers, cancelling the event would "create an undesirable precedent for the exclusion of objectionable views" from the university.

SOURCE 





15 August, 2018

Australia: Facebook deletes posts quoting former Prime Minister John Howard

FACEBOOK is being accused of “censoring” John Howard after the social network deleted a post from an account quoting the former Prime Minister.

The Australian Family Association posted a Daily Telegraph story to its Facebook page on August 8 and provided no comment other than quotes from Mr Howard in which he condemned the Australian Defence Force’s push to ban words such as “him” and “her”.

AFA Director Damian Wyld told Miranda Live that they “boosted” the post with Facebook’s approval, but an hour later it had disappeared from the site.

“It just spontaneously vanished,” Mr Wyld said.

“Facebook suggesting it’s impartial is something that needs to be revised and re-visited”.

“There’s also the question of how their algorithms work, whether they have the ability to sit down and look at every single post that a user puts up.”

Australian Family Association Director Damian Wyld.
Mr Wyld told Miranda Live host Miranda Devine he believes the social media network monitors “key phrases and trigger words” in order to disable posts.

He said the AFA hasn’t been able to reach Facebook and find out why the post was red-flagged. “We sent them a please explain and nearly a week later we’ve heard nothing from them.”

SOURCE 




A statue of the Scottish-born founding father of the Canadian nation has been toppled in a symbolic rebuff almost 130 years after his death

Officials in Victoria, capital of British Columbia, decided to remove the bronze statue of Sir John A Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, because of his treatment of the country’s indigenous population.

Macdonald, whose family emigrated from Glasgow in the early 19th century, brokered the deal that established the country 150 years ago. He was also the architect of the 1876 Indian Act, which led to native Canadian children being forcibly taken from their parents.

Lisa Helps, Victoria’s left-wing mayor, said that the Macdonald statue was a “painful reminder of colonial violence” and deserved to be toppled

SOURCE





14 August, 2018

White chocolate biscuit is "racist"



A New Zealand biscuit television commercial has been slammed as 'racist' by angry customers after the ad claimed the colour of a biscuit could affect its taste.

The commercial was supposed to introduce a new white chocolate biscuit with a hint of humour.

But angry customers shared their frustration with the commercial for Griffin's new Toffee Pops Caramelised White Chocolate biscuits, with some people calling the ad 'horrible and hateful', Newshub reported.  

The Advertising Standards Authority complaints board found the TV ad was not being racist, despite garnering a number of complaints from outraged consumers, who said its appeal to children worsened the racial overtones.

'The colour of a biscuit character's face is called into question in terms of whether they might be as good to eat as the other characters,' one person wrote.

'It encourages racism and with the animated style is likely to appeal to children. Horrible and hateful role modelling in a multicultural society.' 

But the creators of the advertisement defended the commercial, saying it was designed to be 'tongue-in-cheek' and in deed aimed at a much older audience. 

The animated ad featured three classic three milk chocolate Toffee Pops biscuits having a conversation with a new white chocolate version of the treat.

In the video, one of the three milk chocolate biscuits introduces the newly-created white chocolate biscuit by saying, 'welcome on board'.

The white chocolate biscuit replied, 'please to meet you all', with the other bickies saying, 'that's an interesting coat', and 'yeah, love it'.

The Griffin's website promote the new treat as a 'deluxe edition of luxurious caramel toffee smothered in decadent caramelised white chocolate'. 

SOURCE

Griffin's make excellent biscuits.  They should export them






‘Father of Texas’ Under Fire in the City Named for Him

The war on history continues in Texas. An agency in the city of Austin recently released a memo suggesting renaming numerous streets and roads, removing statues, and generally eliminating references to the Confederacy.

But the recommendations from Austin’s Equity Office didn’t stop with Confederate figures.

Perhaps most absurdly, the memo suggested renaming Austin because Stephen F. Austin, the “Father of Texas” for whom the city is named, owned several slaves and accepted the existence of slavery in the 1820s.

A rather ridiculous and highly inaccurate report from Newsweek, which has not been corrected as of publication of this piece, says Austin was a “former Confederate leader” and founded the city of Austin in 1839.

Both of those “facts” are untrue.

Austin died in 1836 and was not the founder of the city. He never was associated with the Confederacy, which came into being in 1861.

Though these are likely just sloppy factual errors, the labeling of Austin as a Confederate is an illuminating example of where this debate over historical statues and memory is going.

The distinction between “defensible” Founding Fathers and “indefensible” Confederates is blurring as anyone who in any way represents ideas or values not accepted in modernity must not only be denounced, but eradicated from public life.

Austin was a key figure in leading Texas to its independence, and eventually annexation by the United States, cementing his reputation as the Father of Texas (although Sam Houston also bears that honor).

In the struggle, Austin suffered enormously for his people and rotted in prison after Mexican authorities captured him. Eight months after Texas gained its independence in April 1836, he died of pneumonia and sheer physical exhaustion at age 43.

If Austin goes, what about Washington, D.C.? Or Washington state?

The truth is, the proposal to change the Texas city’s name is as preposterous as it would be costly.

SOURCE







13 August, 2018

NFL Muzzles Jerry Jones After His Pro-Anthem Comments

Nobody will ever confuse the NFL with some sort of moral bastion filled with nothing but upstanding citizenry.

Sure, there are some genuinely good people, such as David Johnson and Drew Brees. But there are also people like Michael Bennett, who blatantly spread lies about the Las Vegas police and stands accused of assaulting an elderly person; and Jameis Winston, who may very well be the worst person in the NFL.

That being said, the NFL has never sought to quiet the league’s most outspoken players. Whether it’s players like Malcolm Jenkins speaking out for criminal justice reform or Benjamin Watson speaking out on his strong pro-life beliefs, the league has generally let its players say whatever they want, whenever they want.

The refusal to quiet NFL players has been one of the primary contributors to the league’s ongoing public relation woes with fans, and even with President Donald Trump.

When Colin Kaepernick first began kneeling for the national anthem, wearing socks depicting cops as pigs and accusing America of being a racist cesspool, the league could and should have nipped the issue in the bud.

Alas, it didn’t. Now the league has had to deal with a viewership decline that doesn’t show any signs of slowing.

SOURCE





Sexist New Zealand road signs to be changed after girl’s letter

A YOUNG girl has convinced New Zealand’s transport authority to change one of its road signs after pointing out it wasn’t inclusive to women.

CONCERNS voiced by a seven-year-old New Zealand girl regarding “unfair” road signs that exclude women have been heard by the country’s transport authority.

Zoe Carew wrote to the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) after she noticed a sign that read “Linemen”, which warns motorists about crews working on electricity poles and telecommunication cables.

Her letter and the response she received from the NZTA were posted to Twitter by Zoe’s mum, Caitlin Carew, who praised her daughter’s initiative.

In the letter, Zoe suggested they change the signs to a more gender neutral term like “Line-workers” after pointing out that women can work in the industry too.

“I don’t really want to be a line-worker when I grow up because there are so many more exciting things I would like to do, but some girls might want to learn to be a lineswoman,” she wrote.

“Why does it say ‘LINEMEN’ when the people working on the lines may be men or women?”

She labelled the sign “wrong and unfair” to women and the NZTA appeared to agree with her.

The company’s chief executive Fergus Gammie wrote back to Zoe informing her that the signs would be updated.

SOURCE




12 August, 2018

An interesting comment from a reader

Here is the censorship problem as I see it, for Google, Twitter, and all blogs that censor in some way:

IF you do not edit or restrict or act on posts, then you are a blind transmitter, like the telephone, the usmail, UPS, etc....

IF you decide to edit, restrict, select, censor, or in some way shape or form review, whether human or by human created software that follows human desires (or they would not use it), then you are a publisher and are fulfilling that role and ARE responsible for what is said that you did not remove.

Which is why blogs should not censor, they become publishers responsible for content.  Payment does not make a  publisher, being a gate keeper does





Australia's Woolworths is savaged online after declaring its imported beans were 'far superior' to Australian-grown ones – only to issue apology for rogue tweet hours later

Pretty nonsensical claim

Woolworths has been savaged online by customers after sending a tweet claiming imported goods were 'far superior' to locally sourced products.

The tweet was in response to a complaint from customer and ABC journalist Emma Fields who posted a photo of imported beans and green peas.

'Seriously disappointed that all of these beans and peas for sale @woolworths are imported. Surely we can do better than that!' the post read.

The Woolworths Twitter account was quick to respond. 'Hi Emma, we're sorry to hear about disappointment towards our tinned beans. We aim to provide the best quality products to our customers and sometimes this means supplying imported products as they're far superior,' the response read.

Understandably the response left Miss Fields less than impressed.  'Thanks, be sure to tell the ‘relevant team’ it would be great if they could support Australian farmers rather than the ones in Italy and America,' she wrote.

'Especially when many farmers in Aust (sic) are facing dry & tough conditions.'

The response from Woolworths drew the ire of many Twitter users who saw the statement as contrary to the companies promotion of 'proudly' sourcing locally grown products.

A follow-up tweet from the supermarket giant attempted to clarify the statements.

'We apologise for yesterday's Tweet - it does not reflect our view of Australian grown products. In fact, 96% of all our fresh fruit and vegetables are proudly sourced from Australia,' the tweet read.

SOURCE



10 August, 2018

'Chocolate baby' is hate speech, apparently

Pregnant Big Brother star Skye Wheatley has issued a bizarre statement denying she is racist after making a questionable joke about having a mixed race baby.

In a YouTube Q&A video released Monday, the 25-year-old teased her boyfriend Lachlan Waugh about the paternity of their child, asking him how he'd react if she gave birth to a 'chocolate' baby.

Following the controversial remark, Skye took to Instagram on Tuesday to clarify she is 'not racist' and loves all people regardless of their skin colour.

She wrote: 'I am not racist so everyone needs to relax [and] calm down. I love all people regardless [of] if you [are] white, Asian, tan, black, caramel, albino.'

Skye also shared a stock photo of a baby, alongside the caption: 'This is a chocolate baby. I think chocolate is the most beautiful thing on this planet. 

'Don't even try to say I'm racist [because] I ain't having it.'

SOURCE




Facebook Stands By Farrakhan’s Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories After Removing Alex Jones Content

A most blatant double standard

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s official Facebook page is rife with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and other hateful speech that have not been censored by Facebook content monitors, a Daily Caller News Foundation review of the page reveals.

Videos posted to Farrakhan’s Facebook page show the Nation of Islam leader claiming that Jews are secretly controlling government agencies to suppress black Americans and blaming Jews for “weaponizing” marijuana with “chemicals” to “feminize” black men.

Neither of those videos violates Facebook’s rules prohibiting hate speech, a Facebook spokeswoman told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a phone interview Tuesday.

Another video that showed Farrakhan warning against interracial marriage — which he blames on “the enemy” in Hollywood — to keep the black race “from being any further mongrelized,” was originally ruled not to violate hate speech rules, according to the Facebook spokeswoman.

After this article was published, the spokeswoman called back and said that a closer review by the company’s content monitors determined Farrakhan’s use of the word “mongrelized” did violate Facebook’s rules, and that the video would be deleted.

Facebook and other tech giants, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple, banned right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from their platforms Monday, saying he violated prohibitions against hate speech.

Facebook defines hate speech as a “direct attack on people based on what we call protected characteristics — race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, and serious disease or disability. We also provide some protections for immigration status. We define attack as violent or dehumanizing speech, statements of inferiority, or calls for exclusion or segregation.”

Farrakhan has repeatedly advanced anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on his Facebook page.

SOURCE





9 August, 2018

Twitter suspended conservative commentator Candace Owens

That good ol' Leftist double standard again

Twitter suspended conservative commentator Candace Owens on Sunday for imitating New York Times editorial board member Sarah Jeong’s anti-white tweets, but restored Owens’ account access following a backlash on social media.

Owens, the communications director for conservative activist group Turning Points USA, on Saturday sent out a pair of tweets quoting Jeong’s anti-white statements — which did not earn her a Twitter suspension — but swapped out the word “white” with “Jewish” and “black.”

Twitter on Sunday suspended Owens’ account for 12 hours, citing her tweet about Jewish people as a violation of Twitter rules.


Twitter restored Owen’s access following a sharp backlash. The social media company chalked up Owens’ suspension as an “error.”

“Twitter takes reports of violations of the Twitter Rules very seriously,” Twitter’s support team wrote in an email to Owens, who shared it with TheDCNF. “After reviewing your account, it looks like we made an error.”

“This was our mistake and we’ve apologized to the account owner for the error,” a spokeswoman for Twitter told TheDCNF. The spokesperson did not say whether a human content monitor or an algorithm was responsible for suspending Owens’ account.

Owens’ objective in sending out the provocative tweets was to demonstrate what she sees as a racial double standard, she told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a phone interview. And she thinks Twitter proved that point beautifully. (RELATED: How The Left Turned Big Tech Into Their Speech Police)


SOURCE




No criticism of Muslims allowed

Boris Johnson has sparked outrage after saying women who wear burqas look like “letter boxes” and bank robbers.

Britain Prime Minister Theresa May has joined calls for her former Foreign Secretary to apologise for the remarks, made in a newspaper column earlier this week.

Mr Johnson, who left Mrs May’s government last month in a dispute over Brexit, disparaged burka wearers in a column that, ironically, defended their right to wear the full face veil.

He said he opposed banning burqas and other face covering garments but felt it was “absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes.”

Mr Johnson’s remarks came after Denmark last week followed France, Germany, Austria and Belgium in banning face-coverings in public places.

In a column for Britain’s Telegraph newspaper Mr Johnson said he felt “fully entitled” to expect women to remove face coverings when talking to him at his MP’s surgery, and said schools and universities should be able to take the same approach if a student ”turns up … looking like a bank robber.”

His article drew criticism from Muslim groups and fellow politicians. Mohamed Sheikh, founder of the Conservative Muslim Forum, said the article had been “totally out of order.” Middle East Minister Alistair Burt criticised Mr Johnson for comments he said “many people would find offensive.”

SOURCE

Jacob Rees-Mogg on the Boris Johnson burka row:

‘It's hard to see what he should apologise for. He has defended people's right to wear the burka whilst saying it is an inelegent garment. Neither of those two proposals are unreasonable’



8 August, 2018

Censorship of Alex Jones ratchets up

Jones has been saying much the same thing for two decades so why the hate of him now?  Partly to help Dems in the mid-terms and partly as just another sign of increasing media intolerance of dissent in the age of Trump.

And if conspiracy theories about the 9/11 events disqualify him from being heard, what are we to make of the fact that in some polls, two thirds of Democrat voters also believed that 9/11 was a put-up job?

Apple Inc, YouTube, Facebook Inc and Spotify all took down podcasts and channels from U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, saying on Monday that the Infowars author had broken community standards.

The sweeping moves are the broadest actions yet by internet companies that have suspended or removed some of the conspiracy-driven content.

Since founding Infowars in 1999, Jones has built a vast audience. Among the theories he has promoted is that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington were staged by the government.

Facebook said it removed the pages "for glorifying violence, which violates our graphic violence policy, and using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies."

Infowars editor-at-large Paul Joseph Watson said in a tweet that the broad take-downs amounted to censorship and were intended to help Democrats in the national election this fall.

"Infowars is widely credited with having played a key role in electing Donald Trump. By banning Infowars, big tech is engaging in election meddling just three months before crucial mid-terms," Watson wrote on the Infowars Web site.

Only one program provided by Infowars, "RealNews with David Knight," remained on Apple's podcasts platforms on Monday. BuzzFeed earlier reported that Apple had removed the library for five of Jones's six Infowars podcasts, including the shows "War Room" and the daily "The Alex Jones Show."

Music and podcast company Spotify said on Monday that it had now removed all of Jones's Infowars programs from its platform, after last week removing some programs.

A representative said that Spotify took seriously reports of hate content. "Due to repeated violations of Spotify's prohibited content policies, The Alex Jones Show has lost access to the Spotify platform," the representative said.

Facebook had earlier suspended the radio and Internet host's personal profile for 30 days in late July from its site for what the company said was bullying and hate speech.

SOURCE






Australia: Must not question global warming

There has been such a torrent of global warming propaganda in the media that people have overlooked the most basic physics:  Global warming would produce more evaporation off the ocean and hence MORE rain, not less

WHILE large swathes of Australia endure the worst drought on record — prompting bankruptcy, desperation and suicide — our agriculture minister has refused to acknowledge climate change has any part in it.

For good measure, David Littleproud added he doesn’t “give a rats” whether climate change is man-made and said Australia should focus on keeping the “lights on” instead of switching to renewable energy.

The stunning outburst on ABC’s bush edition of Q&A last night has sparked a wave of severe criticism and there are even calls for him resign.

The audience in Lismore in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales could even be heard gasping and booing as the Minister made a series of controversial comments.

He told host Tony Jones that his electorate of Maranoa, which spans southwestern Queensland, had been in a drought for eight years, saying: “There’s no silver bullet to this apart from rain.”

However, when he was asked by the host if he believed the drought was linked to human-induced climate change, Littleproud said: “Look, that’s a big call.”

“I don’t give a rats if it’s man-made or not,” he added, saying that hardworking Aussies were already feeling the pinch from rising energy bills.

“We can’t do it at the moment,” he said. “We have to be able to turn the lights on, turn the pumps on.”

He then took aim at environmentalists — blaming them for sabotaging the national water infrastructure fund.

“My predecessor Barnaby Joyce created a national water infrastructure fund,” he said. “$2.5 billion to build water resources, to be able to irrigate and have reliability of water. “Unfortunately every time we go to build something, the state finds a reason not to and finds some frog that wouldn’t like the temperature of the dam or a butterfly that may not like it.”

At that point, Mr Littleproud was cut off by boos from the audience, but he hit back at the critics. “I’m sorry, but you’ve got to make a decision … do you want an agricultural sector or do you want to live Kumbaya?” he said.

The comments have been roundly criticised on social media, with many calling for him to resign.

SOURCE 




7 August, 2018

Wikipedia censorship

New York Times editorial board member Sarah Jeong’s Wikipedia page includes no mention of her racist tweets that resurfaced after her new position with the newspaper was announced, apparently because activist editors for the free online encyclopedia won’t allow any mention of her tweets.

There has been a lot of debate amongst Wikipedia writers and editors about whether or not mention of her racist tweets should be included on her page.

One edit request in favor of adding a section about her tweets said:

Sarah Jeong is infamous for her racists tweets on twitter, most of the people who know her name will know her by her tweets. Because of this, I think it is misleading to not say a single line about her racist tweets and simply label her as “an American journalist specializing in law and technology topics”.

An editor responded to the requests by saying, “First, it uses the word ‘found,’ which suggests a mainstream authority, preferably a scientific one. Second, ThePostOnline is an explicitly right-wing news site, according to wikipedia’s own article on it, and therefore not a reliable source.” (RELATED: NYT’s Sarah Jeong Also Sent Anti-Cop, Anti-Men Tweets)

In response to the point the editor made, another writer added, “I am aware that she is ‘notable’ for appearing in earlier news articles, but anyone learning of her in the coming days will be learning about her because of this controversy, not because they are interested in a random journalist. I’m having a hard time understanding why it’s not on the page already.”

It also included links to articles from the Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and The Hill, among a list of news outlets.

SOURCE






Australian Defence Farce: Army personnel banned from saying 'him' and 'her' to avoid 'gender bullying'

The armed forces should NOT be used to push a minority ideology.  They are traditionally non-political

Australian Defence Force personnel have been instructed to avoid terms like 'him' and 'her' in favour of more gender-neutral language.

A new LGBTI guide has recently been developed for the Australian Defence Force Academy, which trains future members of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

The guide, aimed at ADFA staff, stresses the importance of being 'mindful of respectful and disrespectful behaviours or language in relation to LGBTI members'.

Staff have been told to consider 'avoiding stereotyping' and using 'the correct pronouns and preferred name of sex or gender diverse members wherever possible'.

The guide also encourages the use 'gender neutral language when referring to relationships or gender identities' and 'the mental health and welfare of members'.

Staff are told to apologise to fellow personnel 'in the event they make a mistake'.

'All ADFA personnel need to appreciate that the deliberate use of non-inclusive language, exclusion and bullying due to gender diversity are some of the behaviours which can affect LGBTI members,' the guide says. 

The guide warns that 'unacceptable behaviours' will not tolerated and will be dealt with swiftly to maintain a learning and working environment which is inclusive.

Brigadier Cheryl Pearce, Commandant ADFA, wrote it was her intent the guide would become a valuable resource for staff making decisions regarding LGBTI members.

SOURCE 





6 August, 2018

Shadowbanning: Twitter's Revenge on Trump

The article below by an heroic Polish King Daniel John Sobieski is much longer than I usually put up here but it covers a lot of ground

Twitter, like its Facebook cousin, now claims to have “fixed” the “error” involving the failure of prominent conservatives such as Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to not appear in Twitter’s search box and denies it engages in the practice known as “shadow banning”:

Twitter has denied shadowbanning, saying that the apparent suppression of autocomplete search suggestions for Republican congressman Matt Gaetz is an “error.” A Twitter spokeswoman denied shadowbanning exists, and told Breitbart News that the issue with Matt Gaetz’s search results is being fixed:

As we have said before, we do not shadowban. We are aware that some accounts are not automatically populating in our search box, and [are] shipping a change to address this. The profiles, Tweets and discussions about these accounts do appear when you search for them.

Yes, Virginia, shadowbanning exists as Twitter plays “trick or tweet” with conservatives. As a shadowbanned Twitter user, I have seen my tweets suddenly become “unavailable,” followers suddenly “unfollow” en masse, Twitter analytics stats suddenly flatline and set to zero, and attached photos or explanatory graphics suddenly become “unavailable”. If you are a prolific Twitter conservative, you will be accused of “automated” behavior and have your account locked or even suspended. Once I was suspended for “aggressive following behavior” just for following all conservative accounts Twitter suggested I should follow.

Users on Twitter have the option of “blocking” accounts they do not wish to hear from or find offensive. Liberals intent on shutting down debate on Twitter, just like they have done at major universities, find a willing accomplice in Twitter’s algorithms, enabling them to get Twitter to do their dirty work. As Jim Hanson writes at Fox News Opinion:

When I check I often find that a user who has blocked me is someone I have never interacted with. So why the block? Often, it’s due to being on a block list created by a liberal activist group. Twitter supports block lists and makes it easy for users to mass-block entire universes of people they don’t even know.

But Twitter now uses factors such as the number of people who have blocked an account to determine whether to classify it as “low quality” content. The company also uses the number of complaints or reports on the account. If the number of these exceeds certain thresholds, an account can be deemed low quality and access to tweets from that user are severely diminished.

Shadowbanning takes many forms and, as social media icons Diamond and Silk can attest, is only “fixed” when prominent names get caught up in the censorship. Tens of thousands of not-so-famous conservatives on Twitter and Facebook can attest to disappearing tweets, mysteriously static or dwindling follower and friend numbers and the uncertainty that once a tweet or post is made anybody is allowed to see them.

The “error” affecting conservative lawmakers such as Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows, and Devin Nunes appears to be in retaliation for the increased focus on the censorship of conservatives by social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook:

Twitter’s censorship goes beyond just targeting pro-Trump accounts, they are now actually targeting lawmakers who support the President.

Last week, Rep. Gaetz shredded Twitter during a hearing about the censorship of conservatives on social media in the House Judiciary Committee. So now he’s wondering if this is why the social media giant moved to shadowban his account.

Gaetz tweeted: BREAKING: @Twitter deliberately targeting @RepMarkMeadows, @Jim_Jordan, @DevinNunes, & me to be #Shadowbanned.

Is it only a coincidence that these allegations would arise the week following my heated exchange with Twitter Executives before the Judiciary Committee??

Coincidence? I think not. Twitter co-founder Evan Williams has apologized for any role Twitter may have had in President Trump’s victory and accumulating evidence suggests that ever since Twitter has been trying to make amends:

The co-founder of Twitter apologized Saturday for the social media platform’s role in Donald Trump’s rise to the White House.

In an interview with the New York Times, Evan Williams said that he recently learned that President Trump said he believes Twitter put him in the White house.

“It’s a very bad thing, Twitter’s role in that,” he said. “If it’s true that he wouldn’t be president if it weren’t for Twitter, then yeah, I’m sorry.”

Gaetz has suggested that the biased treatment of conservative politicians on Twitter and “errors” that do not seem to affect progressive socialist Democrats may amount to an “in-kind” political contribution:

Rep. Matt Gaetz is considering filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) over Twitter’s alleged suppression of his account, the Florida Republican told The Daily Caller News Foundation on Wednesday.

Gaetz was one of several prominent conservatives, including members of Congress and the chair of the Republican National Committee, whose accounts Twitter suppressed by making it harder to find in the site’s search function, a Vice News investigation published Wednesday found.

“Democrats are not being ‘shadow banned’ in the same way,” the report concluded, noting: “Not a single member of the 78-person Progressive Caucus faces the same situation in Twitter’s search.”

Twitter announced in May that the company would rely on “behavior-based signals” to boost the visibility of some accounts and to suppress the visibility of others as part of a step “to improve the health of the public conversation on Twitter.”

And what behavior-based signals would Twitter use? Conservative pro-Trump hash tags or themes perhaps? Indications of conservative support may already be employed in triggering shadowbans:

Covert (and overt) censorship of conservatives and right-wingers has been a reality on Twitter for some time. In January, Twitter employees were caught on camera discussing “shadowbanning” some conservative accounts, and classifying others as “bots” if they made too many tweets about “God, guns, and America.”

Thanks to James O’Keefe of Project Veritas, we know some of the details of, methods, and reasons for Twitter’s pro-active censoring of conservatives:

Twitter direct messaging engineer Pranay Singh admitted to mass-banning accounts that express interest in God, guns, and America, during a Project Veritas investigation.
“Just go to a random [Trump] tweet and just look at the followers. They’ll all be like, guns, God, ‘Merica, and with the American flag and the cross,” declared Singh, who was secretly recorded by Project Veritas reporters. “Like, who says that? Who talks like that? It’s for sure a bot.”…

“So if there’s like ‘American, guns,’ [in the account bio] can you write an algorithm to just take all those people out?” asked one undercover reporter.

“Umm, yeah, it’s actually how we do it,” Singh replied. “You look for ‘Trump,’ or ‘America,’ or any of, like, five thousand, like, keywords to describe a redneck, and then you look, and you parse all the messages, all the pictures, and then look for stuff that matches that stuff… You assign a value to each thing, so like Trump would be .5, a picture of a gun would be like 1.5, and if the total comes up above a certain value, then it’s a bot.”

Well, I do all of that, and I am not a bot. I am a conservative who supports Trump.  Would Twitter shadow ban users who constantly say “Impeach 45” or “Trump is Putin’s puppet”? Planned Parenthood and its ilk are not affected so why should pro-life Christians who support the Second Amendment?

SOURCE




‘Undocumented Immigrant’ Is a Made-Up Term That Ignores the Law

The news media is reporting that an internal email at the Justice Department has reminded its lawyers that the legally correct term they should be using in their briefs is “illegal alien,” not the euphemism “undocumented immigrant.”

The Justice Department leadership is correct. Illegal alien is the correct legal term that should be used.

“Undocumented immigrant” is a politically correct, made-up term adopted by pro-illegal alien advocacy groups and liberal media outlets to obscure the fact that such aliens have violated U.S. immigration law and are in the country illegally.

Precision in the law is a vital principle, since the exact words used in statutes, regulations, contracts, guidance documents, and policy statements can significantly affect how they are applied and interpreted.

If we are going to discuss and debate the issue of immigration and what our public policy should be, we should at least use accurate, precise terms, and talk about, for example, legal aliens vs. illegal aliens.

Government lawyers in particular have an obligation to use the correct language of the federal statutes they are sworn to uphold and enforce.

Federal immigration law uses the term “illegal alien.” For example, 8 U.S.C. §1365 is a provision that deals with a reimbursement program the federal government has for states that are incarcerating illegal aliens. Its very title refers to “illegal aliens,” and that term is used in the statute itself, which defines an illegal alien as anyone “who is in the United States unlawfully.”

“Alien”—rather than “immigrant”—is the correct legal term, since “alien” is defined in 8 U.S.C. §1101 (a)(3) as “any person not a citizen or national of the United States.”

The Supreme Court, which has decided numerous cases involving federal immigration law, also uses the correct, precise legal term of “illegal alien.”

In 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen pointed this out in his decision granting an injunction against the implementation of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, the so-called DAPA program.

As Hanen said in a footnote:

The Court also understands that there is a certain segment of the population that finds the phrase ‘illegal alien’ offensive. The court uses this term because it is the term used by the Supreme Court in its latest pronouncement pertaining to this area of the law. See Arizona v. U.S., 132 S. Ct. 2492 (2012).

Hanen was, of course, correct in his assessment. The Supreme Court used the term “illegal alien” not only in that case, but in numerous prior decisions, some of which are cited in Arizona v. U.S.

SOURCE



5 August, 2018

'Try 'people'!' Feminists including BBC Woman's Hour host Jane Garvey declare 'guys' should NOT be used as a term to address groups of men and women

I am inclined to agree with this one.  It's just bad grammar

Feminists including BBC Woman's Hour host Jane Garvey have declared that 'guys' shouldn't be used as a gender neutral term to address groups of men and women.  

Radio 4 presenter Garvey, 53, sparked the debate after posting on Twitter: 'New rule- 'Hi guys!!' NEVER say this.'

She advised using the word 'people' to address groups instead of 'guys', explaining further 'I am not a guy'.

Other social media users were quick to react to her post, with many agreeing that it is one of their bugbears.

One posted: 'Common parlance among the young isn't it? Infuriatingly so, especially when used by waiters'.

Another added: 'I took issue with an Edinburgh hotel bartender who repeatedly called me and my female friend 'guys'.

SOURCE




Bureaucrats told: use gender-neutral speech

A major Victorian government department is promoting the first Wednesday of every month as "They Day", asking its 10,000 employees to avoid "gendered" language and instead refer to others using neutral pronouns such as "they" or "them".

In a move criticised for pushing political correctness and identity politics under the guise of inclusiveness, the Department of Health and Human Services has issued staff with stick-on badges featuring preferred pronouns and produced a short film to highlight the issue.

In a memo emailed to staff, which has been seen by The Australian, They Day is promoted as a "new recurring calendar event" aiming to create awareness of "gendered pronouns". "Non--binary identities are just as valid as binary gender identities," the email says. "Names don't always correspond to a person's gender. There may be a gap between a person's gender identity and your perception of the person. Saying `they' is more flowing and inclusive than saying `he' or `she'."

An initiative of the department's Pride Network, They Day follows the contentious -release of the government's Inclusive Language Guide in 2016 that discouraged the use of "heteronormative" terms such as "husband" and "wife".

Also aimed at public sector employees, the guide cautioned against assuming that everyone was heterosexual and recommended the use of alternative gender-neutral pronouns of "zie" and hir".

Victorian Equality Minister Martin Foley, a strong proponent of the language guide, declined yesterday to comment on They Day or whether he would encourage its rollout more broadly. A spokeswoman for the department said the Pride Network did not receive government or departmental funding for the event or the film, which features staff from various departments speaking about their preference for neutral pronouns.

"DHHS is proud to be an inclusive workplace," the spokeswoman said.

According to its latest annual report, the department is in the process of working towards achieving a "bronze" employer award in the Australian Workplace Equality Index in recognition of its LGBTI inclusion initiatives.

It is also considering labelling bathroom facilities to meet the specific needs of LGBTI employees who are non-binary, gender-fluid, transgender or intersex. The Pride Network is a volunteer organisation that has previously received one-off department funding to help acknowledge events of significance, such as World Aids Day and the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia.

It is understood that other departments will consider adopting They Day.

Opposition spokesman Tim Smith criticised the initiative yesterday, accusing the Andrews government of being "obsessed with political correctness". "The Department of Health needs to spend more time on running hospitals and less time on gendered pronouns," he said. "When or if they reduce surgery waitlists to zero, then they can worry about `pronoun badges'."

Centre for Independent Studies senior research fellow Jeremy Sammut described the initiative as a push by activists to "enforce speech codes to promote gender ideology".

"If you were speaking directly to someone you didn't know, you wouldn't rudely refer to them in conversation as `he' or `she', let alone `they': you would say `as you said', or `where are you from' which is natural and polite," he said. "They Day is therefore just politicising the language of everyday social interactions to promote the gender ideology and embed identity politics into daily life.

"I therefore think many people will resent this kind of kindergarten-style indoctrination and conscious-raising that is being dressed up as inclusiveness."

SOURCE 





3 August, 2018

Australia: Banned by La Trobe University

An email from Bettina Arndt

Big excitement here this week. I'd been invited by the La Trobe Student Liberal Club to speak about whether there was a rape crisis on our campuses. My gig was supposed to be on August 14 until the university administration earlier this week pulled the plug, claiming my talk didn't "align with the values of the University and the strong campaign they've been running against sexual violence on campus."

La Trobe, like all our universities, has been promoting the fake rape crisis for years now, even after the Human Rights Commission release their survey results showing there was no such problem.

I ended up having a very entertaining exchange with various members of the administration and asked them a series of embarrassing questions seeking their evidence that there was a rape problem on campus. Eventually they backed down and said the event can go ahead, although they are making noises about the Liberal Club being charged for extra security. So we will see how this all plays out.

It looks like we will put back the date to sometime in September, to give the students time to sort everything out. Other Victorian universities are also keen so it may be that we will end up doing a Melbourne event sponsored by a number of the Liberal students clubs. Do spread the word. I am keen to speak about this issue on any Australian campus that offers an invitation. I think it is appalling that our universities are too lily-livered to take on the feminists and call out their lies on this issue. 

Via email from bettina@bettinaarndt.com.au



Facebook Tackles Leftist Agitprop

Believe it or not, Facebook made a move this week that conservatives might cheer, however mildly. “Today we removed 32 Pages and accounts from Facebook and Instagram because they were involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior,” Facebook said in a statement. “This kind of behavior is not allowed on Facebook because we don’t want people or organizations creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they’re doing.”

According to The Daily Caller, “Many of the named pages and accounts seem to espouse progressive or left-wing political messages.” Even NBC admitted, “Most of the campaign focused on left-leaning issues such as women’s rights, the rights of indigenous people and general resistance to the Trump administration, according to a sample of about a dozen posts released by Facebook.” One page was called the “Resisters,” and it was trying to schedule protests in DC.

Then again, this wasn’t exactly a massive effort. Those 32 “bad actors” accounted for just $11,000 in ads and a following of 290,000 people. A proverbial drop in the bucket considering Facebook’s billions of users and billions in value.

SOURCE





2 August, 2018

That unmentionable FAT again

You are not even allowed to tell your kids that they are fat, apparently.  This brings up the issue of "fat shaming".  Telling someone they need to lose weight is very offensive, apparently. But should it be? Losing weight is very difficult and fat shaming might be just the thing needed to provide the necessary incentive.  Fat is socially unpopular so losing weight will in general be advantageous

The number of overweight children in Australia has doubled in recent years, with recent data from the Institute of Health and Welfare revealing one in four children are now overweight or obese.

According to statistics, eighteen per cent are classified as overweight while eight per cent fall into the obese category.

The deepening crisis has prompted experts and commentators to debate whether or not parents should intervene by telling children they are 'overweight', and, if so, how best to broach the subject.

With almost two in three Australian adults now overweight, parenting expert Dr Justin Coulson said mothers and fathers are part of the problem.

'When you walk into the average family room on a weeknight, parents are also on their screens – they're not as active as they once were,' he said.

But in terms of combatting the growing problem, Dr Coulson believes you can't  make people better by making them feel worse.

'Studies show that one of the worst things we can do is to tell a child they are overweight - kids who are told this are much likely to have weight issues ten or fifteen years later because they start to believe it and live it out,' he said.

Facebook users weighed in on the subject as well, with many placing responsibility with mums and dads. One posed the question 'if not parents, then who?', while another agreed by writing that open, honest and carefully worded conversations are essential.

'You don't have to say you're fat... being supportive is key. Grow up and be parents, kids are SO protected from harsh realities!'

Some had a different view and said there should be no need to speak to children about weight gain if you create a trend of healthy household habits from the start.

Asked about addressing nutrition, Dr McMillan said it's best to start early and focus on health holistically rather than weight alone.

'Teach children about nutrition and how it is important for their brain function at school and to have energy for everything they want to do throughout the day. - it's about emphasising health.

'As parents, you should never talk about your body in a negative way around your children,' she said, explaining that this can impart negative associations with food.

SOURCE 




Nunes Is Done Playing Games: Threatens Legal Action of Conservative Censorship

Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that he’s looking to possibly take legal action against Twitter after reports surfaced indicating the company is censoring conservatives.

“I don’t know what Twitter is up to. It sure looks to me like they are censoring people and they ought to stop it. And we’re looking at any legal remedies that we can go through,” Nunes said Sunday.

Nunes, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman, added that he was receiving complaints that people were unable to find him on Twitter — suggesting he had been shadow banned.

Shadow banning is hiding content or accounts without outright deleting them through the use of special algorithms that make the content or accounts effectively harder to search for.

“I had no idea what shadow banning even was. For several months, people have been contacting me saying that, ‘Hey I tried to find you on Twitter, I couldn’t find your account. Why is that?’” Nunes said.

He pointed to a recent Vice News article, without naming it, that showed how four Republicans were effectively shadow banned, while Democrats were unaffected.

The four House Republicans affected were members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus: Nunes, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mark Meadows of North Carolina.

“They don’t call it shadow banning but, effectively, we were getting caught up in some type of trap to where people couldn’t see our Twitter feed,” he added.

Twitter denied censoring conservatives in a blog post on July 26, after President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that he too will look into taking any possible legal action against the company.

SOURCE



1 August, 2018

A double standard

John Schnatter, founder of the solidly profitable Papa John’s (Nasdaq:PZZA) was forced out last week for using a naughty word, while Elon Musk remains CEO of the eternally loss-making Tesla (Nasdaq:TSLA) despite tweeting one. The last three decades have supposedly made massive improvements in corporate governance. Well, whatever that is, it doesn’t seem to work in any rational fashion.

The Schnatter and Musk cases, to an outside observer, seem remarkably parallel. Schnatter, who had already been relieved of his status as CEO for criticizing the National Football League, which Papa John’s sponsors, had been forced to undergo pubic relations training with a PR firm Laundry Service. In the course of that training, he gave an example of racism in earlier era, saying that Colonel Harland D. Sanders (1890-1980), the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, was prone to use the n-word. Laundry Service reported Schnatter to the Papa John’s Board, who used it as an excuse to fire him altogether, something they had clearly been itching to do. What’s more they then unilaterally put in place a poison pill provision blocking Schnatter from attempting to buy control of the company (he currently owns 30% of the shares).

Schnatter founded Papa John’s in 1984 and had run it ever since, growing it to sales of $1.7 billion, 2017 net income of $107 million and a market capitalization of $1.5 billion. In the other example, Elon Musk CEO of the perpetually loss-making Tesla (admittedly with a market capitalization of a bloated $52 billion) wrote a tweet calling an unconnected rescuer of the young Thai footballers a “pedo,” possibly a less “bad” word than the n-word but an offense surely worsened by being direct rather than merely a quotation and in a public forum. Yet there appears to be no question of career damage for Musk, provided his increasingly implausible management of Tesla succeeds even remotely along the lines of his forecasts.

SOURCE




The New York Times Just Published One Of The Most Racist Articles You'll Ever Read

If Twitter is looking to weed out the racism on its platforms, it may want to start with The New York Times. The paper recently published one of the most racist tweets you'll ever see: "New Hampshire is 94% white. It is now trying to figure out how to change that."

Attached to the tweet is a bigoted screed about New Hampshire's whiteness infestation. It begins with the sad tale of a certain Catalina Celentano, who moved to the state and discovered, to her horror, that most of its residents speak English. "She found herself in an ethnic vacuum," the author reports. One worries how Ms. Celentano will react when she learns that the vast majority of the Earth is a non-Spanish speaking "vacuum."

The article continues:

New Hampshire, like its neighbors Vermont and Maine, is nearly all white. This has posed an array of problems for new arrivals, who often find themselves isolated and alone, without the comfort and support of a built-in community.

It has also posed problems for employers in these states, who find that their homogeneity can be a barrier to recruiting and retaining workers of different ethnicities and cultural background.

The issue prompted about 100 business leaders, government officials and members of nonprofit organizations to meet Thursday to search for ways that New Hampshire — which is 94 percent white — might lure other racial and ethnic groups, as well as younger people."

Let us now consider how this all would look if it was written about any other race. Imagine the reaction if The New York Times published something like this:

"Detroit, like Atlanta and Birmingham, is nearly all black. This has posed an array of problems for new arrivals, who often find themselves isolated and alone, without the comfort and support of a built-in community.

It has also posed problems for employers in these states, who find that their homogeneity can be a barrier to recruiting and retaining workers of different ethnicities and cultural background.

The issue prompted about 100 business leaders, government officials and members of nonprofit organizations to meet Thursday to search for ways that Detroit — which is 83 percent black — might lure other racial and ethnic groups, as well as younger people."

Change just a few words and suddenly it becomes extremely racist. Or rather, its racism suddenly becomes apparent to even the most obtuse observer. It is racist to treat the preponderance of a certain race as an objective problem. It is racist to try and lower the percentages of a certain race just for the sake of lowering it. It is racist to move to an area and accuse it of being an "ethnic vacuum" just because most of the residents have a different ethnicity from your own. It would be racist if I went to South Korea and scolded it for being Korean, and it is racist if Hispanics follow a similar procedure when they come to America.

The only way to alleviate the racism in this case is to arbitrarily declare that racism, by definition, applies only to the prejudices of white people, but never to the prejudices against them. This is not the definition that you'll find in the dictionary, but it is the definition advanced by the left-wing extremists running academia. College students these days are actually taught that racism is a white invention and an exclusive tool of white oppressors. The hatred of white people by other races is justified, which therefore means it is not racism. But what about the racial hatred that a member of a non-white race may have towards some other non-white race? That doesn't exist, according to our nation's university professors.

SOURCE









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Is the American national anthem politically incorrect? From the 4th verse:
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."


Mohammad

The truth can be offensive to some but it must be said

The war on "cultural appropriation" is straightforward racism

"HATE SPEECH" is free speech: The U.S. Supreme Court stated the general rule regarding protected speech in Texas v. Johnson (109 S.Ct. at 2544), when it held: "The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." Federal courts have consistently followed this. Said Virginia federal district judge Claude Hilton: "The First Amendment does not recognize exceptions for bigotry, racism, and religious intolerance or ideas or matters some may deem trivial, vulgar or profane."


Even some advocacy of violence is protected by the 1st Amendment. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that speech advocating violent illegal actions to bring about social change is protected by the First Amendment "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."


The double standard: Atheists can put up signs and billboards saying that Christianity is wrong and that is hunky dory. But if a Christian says that homosexuality is wrong, that is attacked as "hate speech"


One for the militant atheists to consider: "...it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg" -- Thomas Jefferson


"I think no subject should be off-limits, and I regard the laws in many Continental countries criminalizing Holocaust denial as philosophically repugnant and practically useless – in that they confirm to Jew-haters that the Jews control everything (otherwise why aren’t we allowed to talk about it?)" -- Mark Steyn


A prophetic comment on Norwegian hate speech laws: As Justice Brandeis once noted, repressive censorship “breeds hate” and “that hate menaces stable government,” rather than promoting safety; “the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies.”


Voltaire's most famous saying was actually a summary of Voltaire's thinking by one of his biographers rather than something Voltaire said himself. Nonetheless it is a wholly admirable sentiment: "I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it". I am of a similar mind.


The traditional advice about derogatory speech: "Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you". Apparently people today are not as emotionally robust as their ancestors were.


The KKK were members of the DEMOCRATIC party. Google "Klanbake" if you doubt it


A phobia is an irrational fear, so the terms "Islamophobic" and "homophobic" embody a claim that the people so described are mentally ill. There is no evidence for either claim. Both terms are simply abuse masquerading as diagnoses and suggest that the person using them is engaged in propaganda rather than in any form of rational or objective discourse.


Leftists often pretend that any mention of race is "racist" -- unless they mention it, of course. But leaving such irrational propaganda aside, which statements really are racist? Can statements of fact about race be "racist"? Such statements are simply either true or false. The most sweeping possible definition of racism is that a racist statement is a statement that includes a negative value judgment of some race. Absent that, a statement is not racist, for all that Leftists might howl that it is. Facts cannot be racist so nor is the simple statement of them racist. Here is a statement that cannot therefore be racist by itself, though it could be false: "Blacks are on average much less intelligent than whites". If it is false and someone utters it, he could simply be mistaken or misinformed.


Categorization is a basic human survival skill so racism as the Left define it (i.e. any awareness of race) is in fact neither right nor wrong. It is simply human


Whatever your definition of racism, however, a statement that simply mentions race is not thereby racist -- though one would think otherwise from American Presidential election campaigns. Is a statement that mentions dogs, "doggist" or a statement that mentions cats, "cattist"?


If any mention of racial differences is racist then all Leftists are racist too -- as "affirmative action" is an explicit reference to racial differences


Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? "You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated." -- Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862


Gimlet-eyed Leftist haters sometimes pounce on the word "white" as racist. Will the time come when we have to refer to the White House as the "Full spectrum of light" House?


The spirit of liberty is "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." and "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." -- Judge Learned Hand


Mostly, a gaffe is just truth slipping out


Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)

First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean

It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.


It seems a pity that the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus is now little known. Remember, wrote the Stoic thinker, "that foul words or blows in themselves are no outrage, but your judgment that they are so. So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you. Wherefore make it your endeavour not to let your impressions carry you away."


"Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason?" -- English poet John Milton (1608-1674) in Areopagitica


Hate speech is verbal communication that induces anger due to the listener's inability to offer an intelligent response


Leftists can try to get you fired from your job over something that you said and that's not an attack on free speech. But if you just criticize something that they say, then that IS an attack on free speech


"Negro" is a forbidden word -- unless a Democrat uses it


"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper


Why are Leftists always talking about hate? Because it fills their own hearts


Leftists don't have principles. How can they when "there is no such thing as right and wrong"? All they have is postures, pretend-principles that can be changed as easily as one changes one's shirt


When you have an argument with a Leftist, you are not really discussing the facts. You are threatening his self esteem. Which is why the normal Leftist response to challenge is mere abuse.


The naive scholar who searches for a consistent Leftist program will not find it. What there is consists only in the negation of the present.


The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) could have been speaking of much that goes on today when he said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."


I despair of the ADL. Jews have enough problems already and yet in the ADL one has a prominent Jewish organization that does its best to make itself offensive to Christians. Their Leftism is more important to them than the welfare of Jewry -- which is the exact opposite of what they ostensibly stand for! Jewish cleverness seems to vanish when politics are involved. Fortunately, Christians are true to their saviour and have loving hearts. Jewish dissatisfaction with the myopia of the ADL is outlined here. Note that Foxy was too grand to reply to it.


Foxy


Email me here (Hotmail address).




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Another picture page (Rarely updated)



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http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/42197/20151027-0014/jonjayray.com/

OR: (After 2015)
https://web.archive.org/web/20160322114550/http://jonjayray.com/