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31 May, 2003

INCORRECT HISTORY

The nation's second oldest university, the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia has agreed to change their name. William and Mary has faced growing criticism that the name is offensive, and an "in your face" reminder of Western colonialism. In recent years, they have been under a lot of pressure to change the name in the face of growing political correctness. The university, which bears the name of the husband and wife founders King William III and Queen Mary II of England, was founded in 1693 and was the second college in the American colonies. Proponents of the change say that bearing the name of two English royals who sponsored colonialism is offensive to some.

Via Ravenwood


GOOD COMMENT

Regarding the use of "redneck" and "white trash", the truth is that white males have proved throughout the whole politically correct climate changes that they are the only group that can take a joke. All the other groups have chips on their shoulders.



30 May, 2003

ARMED SOLDIERS INCORRECT

In De Pere, Wisconsin, veterans marching in the Memorial Day Parade are not allowed to carry rifles. Ceremonial rifles that the veterans usually carry in the parade are now banned, "for the children".

"The committee felt that kids have been watching war and killing people for the first half of this year and we didn't need that in a happy event like our parade, which is essentially a kids show," said Jason Paul, chairman of the De Pere Kiwanis Memorial Day Parade.

So their parade is not in honor of the veterans, but just entertainment for the kiddies. I wonder if the veterans appreciate being likened to circus clowns. Apparently the idea is that the veterans were good enough to carry rifles across Europe, but not through the town of De Pere!

More here



29 May, 2003

There is a bit of egregious political correctness recorded here (Post of 26th) that may or may not be satire. What do readers think? Nothing seems too ridiculous for some PC types so it may be serious.


Theodore Dalyrymple says the ending of punishments for self harm in UK prisons has lead to a massive escalation in suicides and self harm incidents. More stupid do-gooder cruelty.



28 May, 2003

A fairly mind-boggling piece of political correctness here: Having access to a Bible makes the deliberations of a jury invalid! I thought that what went on in the jury room was supposed to be sacrosanct anyway.


AN AMBULANCEMAN caught speeding while taking a liver for an emergency transplant is facing a driving ban in a case that could halt the high-speed delivery of organs for life-saving operations. Yet another proof that political correctness has destroyed the British Police Farce.



27 May, 2003

The Agitator has a good comment on Time magazine's story on SARS: Respectfully suggesting that it may be more important to be accurate than to be PC.


Affirmative action in college admissions: "The graduation rates of those admitted under 'special criteria' fall well below the rates of regular admittees. Affirmative action prematurely pushes a AAA- ballplayer into the major leagues, increasing the likelihood of failure when the student would otherwise succeed at a less- competitive school."



26 May, 2003

YEP ... RACISM AGAIN!

Disgraced NYT reporter Jayson Blair sees his downfall as just racism at work..

THE AGITATOR has a different opinion and points out Rick Bragg, another NYT journalist who managed to win a Pulitzer Prize but forgot to attribute to a freelancer. One of The Agitator's commentators says: "My dad used to joke that the motto of the New York Times was "All The News That's Fit To Print -- and then some." Turns out it was no joke."

(His references to Hootie Johnson allude to the ongoing storm in a teacup about female membership at Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters. The press of course portray Johnson as a redneck know-nothing. The reality is a bit more complex)



25 May, 2003

A recent UK PC attempt to recruit more black police officers has been criticised as "slave trading"... You can't win.


The new MATRIX movie has been criticised for anti-albino prejudice. Even fantasy is dangerous these days.



24 May, 2003

HOW POLITICAL CORRECTNESS ENCOURAGES TERRORISM

Excerpt from an article by V.D. Hanson

On the left, multiculturalists and postcolonial theorists were even worse, promulgating the relativist argument that there was no real standard by which to assess third-world criminality. And by mixing a cocktail of colonial guilt and advocacy about the soi-disant "other," they helped to create a politically-correct climate that left us ill-prepared for the hatred of the madrassas. Arab monsters like Saddam Hussein sensed that there would always be useful idiots in the West to march on their behalf if it came to a choice between a third-world killer and a democratic United States. More fools in the universities alleged that oppression, exploitation, and inequality alone caused Arab anger _ even as well-off, educated, and pampered momma's boys like Mohamed Atta pulled out their Korans, put on headbands, and then blew us and themselves to smithereens, still babbling about unclean women in the last hours before their rendezvous in Hell.

Just a minor quibble: Next time maybe VDH could use the good old English "so-called" rather than the French soi disant



23 May, 2003

DEFYING POLITICAL CORRECTNESS ABOUT THE PALESTINIANS

But it needs to be said:

If the Palestinian clamoring for the death of America is not enough to give us pause in our politically correct effort at transmuting their victim hood into statehood, then consider what kind of state would arise from such a nation of adolescents. A nation's government spawns from the collective character of its people. The reason Islamic populations are run by bureaucratic thugs and princely despots isn't because of America, it's because the Arab-Islamic culture is amenable to tyranny. Remorseless indifference to another's liberty has been their way since the first forced conversions to Islam by the conquering Arabians centuries ago. Under the emperor's new clothes lurk human shields, the murder of apostates, clitoridectomies, forced marriages, and harsh physical punishments for blasphemy and adultery to name a few. The minaret dictates what clothes can be worn, what books can be read, what prayers can be said. In the Palestinian controlled areas, girls suspected of breaking moral codes or dishonoring the family are murdered



22 May, 2003

NO "DIVERSITY" IN COLLEGE DORMITORIES?

News from Wesleyan University:

Transgender freshman will have the option of living in a "gender-blind" hall - one floor of a dormitory for students who don't want to be categorized as one gender or another. The new mission statement says freshmen who choose to live in the gender-blind area "will be assigned a roommate without the consideration of gender." University officials say they believe the hall is the first of its kind in the nation.

A famously liberal school, Wesleyan has garnered publicity in recent years for a course on pornography, a gay prom and rumors of a "naked dorm."

Peter LaBarbera of the Culture and Family Institute, a conservative group, called the new housing a case of "politically correct anarchy" that would draw more students into "gender confusion."


PC EDUCATION IN WALES

Jenny Rees writes from Wales:

Teachers are often referred to as "learning providers" while students and pupils have become "learners". In a chilling statement in one document we learn that Ms Davidson's plans for a 21st Century education will have "little resemblance to that understood as being a traditional good education".

Clearly the idea that pupils go to school to learn their alphabet and times table is out of fashion. Instead "learners" will "interface" with "learning providers". This Orwellian view of how education should be provided, (perhaps inspired by Ms Davidson's admiration for Cuba) is one that has no place in my vision.

In this the education department appears to feel that I am not alone, as they have also stated their intention to embarking on a "marketing" campaign to sell the benefits of this to parents and employers. The politically correct nonsense, which is damaging children's future prospects, must stop. My vision would be a system in which bright pupils from the most deprived areas of Wales are not held back by being in classrooms full of unruly pupils who don't want to learn, but are instead given the opportunity to shine even if that means moving schools.



21 May, 2003

ROBERT E. IS VERY INCORRECT

Another good one from Doug Hagin:

You would think the very last group in America to surrender to political correctness would be the Boy Scouts of America. Surely if any group knows all too well the persecution the practitioners of political correctness can bring it is the Boy Scouts.

So certainly common sense would dictate the Boy Scouts, who have not bent to the pressures to admit Gays into their ranks, would not willingly surrender anything to the control freaks on the far left.

Yet this is exactly what a Richmond area Boy Scout Camp is doing. Recently the executive board of the Robert E. Lee Council voted to drop the Southern hero's name from both its name and logo.

The Council plans to adopt a new name by next year. " The ballot box is open for any and all ideas" Scout executive Robert A. Tuggle said of the decision. Really? All ideas? Or just those not honoring Confederate heroes or other figures not considered to be "sensitive" or " inclusive" enough to please the bigots on the left?

Tuggle also stated the Scouts wanted a new name, which would be "more geographically descriptive, so that when we market ourselves outside of this area-- people will know what part of the country we are in."

Is this guy serious? There is no name with greater Southern connotation than the name of the south's greatest hero.


20 May, 2003

Is the Bible hate literature?

"An attempt to broaden Canada's hate-crimes laws to include protection for homosexuals has sparked a fierce debate in Parliament over whether the Bible and the Koran could be branded as hate literature. It centers on a bill from gay Member of Parliament Svend Robinson that would make it a crime, punishable by up to two years in prison, to incite or promote hatred against homosexuals. But his attempt to end gay-bashing has brought warnings that pastors or imams could be thrown into jail for preaching homosexuality is evil and that their scriptures could be banned or confiscated."

More here



19 May, 2003

Here comes ... the bridesman?

This summer, as Americans walk down the aisle, wedding-goers will be seeing more men in the bride's party and women in the groom's party, according to experts. "It's absolutely becoming more popular," said Elizabeth Howell of the Emily Post Institute, an etiquette organization formed in 1946 by the famous civility expert. And Howell doesn't see any problem with the gender-bending trend that strays from tradition.

So what are the rules for these Friends-era weddings? Do "bridesmen" wear hot pink suits if the bridesmaids' dresses are that color? Do "groomswomen" wear tuxedos?

And then there's the question of what opposite-sex attendants should be called. Howell prefers "honor attendant" for both genders to terms like bridesman, best woman or man of honor. But Olivia Johnson of upstate New York, was recently asked to be her friend Ian's "best man." ... "We were drunk when he asked me to be his best man," said the 26-year-old. "But I hope that's what I'll be called."

But it's exactly this humorous element that bothers Dr. William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights: "A marriage ceremony is a serious statement, not Saturday Night Live," he said. "I think it's incredibly immature to bring politically correct politics into a church."


AN ITALIAN VIEW OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!

NEW Zealand's Italian ambassador has hit back at the nation's drivers, labelling them "very, very bad" after several reported him for speeding and dangerous driving, it was reported today. "New Zealand drivers are very, very bad drivers and also very dangerous because they don't think all the time," ambassador Roberto Palmieri fumed in a report in the Dominion Post. "The driving here is very regulated but you drive erratically." Palmieri also described New Zealand as a small Anglo-Saxon country where people tended to be politically-correct and tell on each other. Palmieri's outburst came after he said New Zealand motorists had reported him to the police four times for speeding, an accusation he denied.



18 May, 2003

Bad kids rule as teachers gagged

Political correctness has really gone mad in some Australian schools:

SCHOOL children who accuse their teacher of verbally or psychologically abusing them have been given the right to complain to child protection investigators.

Teachers are aghast at the new guidelines covering the protection of 750,000 students in schools across the State of New South Wales, which allow complaints to be made against them for non-physical "abuse". Under the controversial provisions, teachers can be investigated for "targeted and sustained criticism" of a student and for "belittling, teasing and making unreasonable demands". They also are prevented from "socially isolating" children who are disruptive or naughty in the classroom.

The changes also have incensed parents and school principals, who believe that the new rules seriously undermine class discipline and potentially jeopardise students' safety.

More here


UK burglar sues household defender for loss of income and 'loss of enjoyment of martial arts'. No wonder crime has skyrocketed in Britain with political correctness fostering this sort of thing.



17 May, 2003

PC IS FUN FOR A BLACK CONSERVATIVE

When it came to disciplining, my parents did not play - and I thank them for it. Of all the expressions that I now look back fondly on, my favorite is: "Boy, you done lost your mind, showing your ass like that in front of me." That expression was reserved for those occasions when you completely forgot yourself and surrendered to wild, bold, saucy abandon. It was seldom trod territory and you'd know that there were "going to be consequences for your actions" so you had to make the best of the moment.

(Here's a point of etiquette: When exhibiting one's derriere, it is advisable that you make sure that a number of sober, credible witnesses (preferably of the sort not given to reporting UFO sightings or alien abductions) are present thereby insuring that the necessary inquiries are made by the proper authorities in the event of your sudden disappearance or demise.)

Anyway, the reason I like the expression so much is that as a black, conservative Republican, who works in the mainstream press no less (go figure), I have occasion to show my derriere quite frequently. And I do so with wild, bold, saucy abandon. I never shrink at an opportunity.

But here's the best part: I suffer little to no "consequences for my actions" for a couple of notable reasons. Number one, most black people tend to marginalize me because they consider me a traitor to my race - so who cares what they think? And, besides, what are they going to do - accuse me of being a racist towards black people.

The second reason can be chalked up to the politically correct environment that has been erected by liberals. In such an environment my skin color serves as a sort of lead shield against any retribution whenever I break a P.C. law. G-d certainly does work in mysterious ways, don't he?

In other words, I can get away with saying and doing things that a whole lot of other people (especially white males) would be pilloried for.

I know a lot of you know what I'm talking about because I've gotten a number of e-mail from people saying that they'd lose their jobs or would be labeled a racist for saying and doing some of the things I write about.

For instance, I don't have to hold my tongue whenever I hear some liberal black person or liberal white person whining that too many black people are in prison. I gleefully point out that that's a good thing because so many black people are committing crimes.

More here.


16 May 2003

PC INFESTS EDUCATION

It is appalling that many of our college and high school campuses have become incubation centers for politically correct dogma. Consider a few recent examples.

_ Indiana University's Commission on Multicultural Understanding gave an award to graduate student B. Afena Cobham, in part for calling on a student newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student, to terminate editor John Paul Benitez for publishing an editorial cartoon critical of affirmative action. The Cobham demand letter said: "We call upon John Paul Benitez to resign from his position with the IDS immediately. If he refuses, then he should be removed. His action is not protected free speech and has no place on a college campus."

_ Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts officials refused to grant two student groups permission to have a pig roast in the college quadrangle, claiming it might offend vegetarians. Brian Harcourt, a member of both clubs, said, "The campus allows many other different types of cookouts, and they never seem to have a problem with them." One university spokeswoman claimed the issue went beyond just offending vegetarians. But she admitted, "I'm not a vegetarian, but I personally don't want to look out my window at a pig roasting on a spit. ... An ice cream social would be nice."

_ The University of Massachusetts at Amherst hired a firm for $10,000 to help design a new mascot to replace the Minuteman, which has been the UMass symbol since it replaced the previously politically incorrect "Redman" in 1972. School officials said the design firm expressed concern "with the single-gender ethnicity of the Minuteman, and the fact he's carrying a firearm [in the logo] is also a concern."

_ A decommissioned A-4 Skyhawk Marine fighter plane has been on display in front of Encinal High School in Alameda, Calif. since 1984. But when the school principal sent the plane off to be sanded and repainted a few months ago, a small group of teachers and parents vowed to block its return because it represents American militarism.



15 May, 2003

PC CHILD ABUSE

Twelve-year-old Sarah Akins, a sixth-grader at Connolly Middle School in Tempe, Ariz., "found a 2-inch pocketknife . . . in the front pocket of her backpack during lunch," the East Valley Tribune reports. Half an hour later, she showed the knife to her teacher, who sent her to the principal's office, where she was confined for the rest of the day:

"The principal interrogated her, tried to intimidate her into admitting she had brought it from home," [father] Larry Akins said. "She has been ostracized from her friends. She was treated as if she was a terrorist." Sarah said she wasn't allowed to stand up, go to the bathroom, get a drink or call her parents. "I asked them if I could call home, and they wouldn't let me call," she said.

For "possession of a dangerous instrument capable of intimidating or inflicting bodily harm to another person," the school suspended her for the remainder of the year, though it later shortened the sentence to time served--12 days

Via The WSJ


GOLFING INCORRECTNESS

Singh acknowledged his dissatisfaction with Annika Sorenstam gaining a sponsor's exemption to compete during next week's Bank of America Colonial in Fort Worth and indicated he would withdraw if paired with her. "I'm surprised the way it came out," he said while preparing for this week's Byron Nelson Championship. "There was no attack on Annika. If it was, it wasn't put that way. What I actually said about missing the cut was that if I miss the cut, I'd rather see her miss the cut as well. Hopefully, I won't miss the cut, because I don't want to go back and have a woman beat me." Nevertheless, Singh again shared his belief the PGA Tour should remain all-male. "This is a man's tour, and there are guys out there trying to make a living," he said. "It's not a ladies' tour. If she wants to play, or any woman for that matter, if they want to play the men's tour, they should qualify to play like everybody else."



14 May, 2003

TERRORISM CORRECT

One of the most incisive critics of today's politically correct cant is Theodore Dalrymple, the pseudonym for an English physician/psychiatrist who prefers the comfort of relatively anonymity. His most recent contribution to the cause of international clarity is a brief essay on the City Journal Web site, entitled "The Morality of Terror".

Basically, Dalrymple sums up his thesis in two cogent opening paragraphs:

"At the recent meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference in Malaysia, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr. Mohammed Mahathir, said 'the causes of bitterness and anger . . . of terrorists should be identified and removed.' He added that people would not be willing to blow themselves up and kill others if they did not have a reason.

Indeed not: human beings always have a reason for behaving as they do. The question is not whether they have a reason, but whether the reason they have is a good one..."

Theodore Dalrymple doesn't believe the terrorists' have a good reason. And he most definitely doesn't belong to the "We must understand the root causes" school of morality or foreign policy.

Yet, in contrast, the Malaysian Prime Minister's original remarks were sympathetically reported by a surprising number of news sources in Europe and North America.

However, should that really be a surprise? Opposing reactions to a variety of Islamofascist terror attacks around the world in the last three years have underscored the great divide that separates the politically-correct proponents of an enlightened leftism of "tolerant" multiculturalism (and peace at any price) and those few of us still living in the real world.

Repeatedly, no matter what the murderous provocation, the liberal-left tolerance crowd have still managed to find "root causes" for the actions of ethnic terrorists in the form of such "blame the victim" golden-oldies as injurious Western globalism, imperialism, economic exploitation, insensitivity and arrogance. And of course, once the left finds "roots causes," then it goes without saying that no guilt or responsibility can be assigned to the left's designated "victims" of such root causes -- even terrorists who may have just bombed, maimed or murdered innocent American, Israeli, Australian or Indonesian civilians.

More here.



13 May, 2003

INCORRECT HISTORY

From an excellent article by Doug Hagin:

Worry about terrorism? National security? Securing our borders? No, forget those very real dangers the political correctness nuts are busy worrying about offensive paintings.

This latest tale of politically correct inanity comes to us from James City, Virginia. At a Radisson hotel there a group of judges and court officials attending a judicial conference demanded the management cover two paintings of Civil War battles. Why would historical paintings deserve such scorn? Why they contained the dreaded Confederate flag in them of course. So the hotel management, instead of telling the conference attendees to get a life and grow up caved in, covered the paintings with sheets for the duration of the conference.

Another example of a few whiny, all too easily offended leftists being rewarded for being ignorant and petty.

Yes, one would have to be petty in the extreme to take offense at a historical painting. If these judges and court officials are so thin-skinned they can not tolerate some historically accurate paintings how are they fit to do their jobs?


THE PERILS OF IGNORING BLACK DISHONESTY

The WSJ makes it pretty clear that the recent big scandal about a lazy, lying and deceitful journalist at the New York Times is another example of the ill effects of affirmative action and double standards for blacks.



12 May, 2003

A BASEBALL PLAYER GETS IT RIGHT

A baseball player said that having gays on his team would be bad for the team spirit. Here is part of his reply to his critics:

Why is our society so worried about what is politically correct nowadays? I'm not a gay-hater. I couldn't care less if you're gay. For people to treat this like it's a witch hunt, to crucify the Neanderthal redneck baseball player for stating his opinions on a sensitive issue, scares me.

I'm tired of being politically correct. I have no social agenda. This is not a big deal until they make it a big deal, and by "they" I mean anyone who got their feathers ruffled. This is America. Are you saying that if you have a voice that is in the majority that you should not use it because you're worried what someone else will say? Isn't that the kind of prejudice everyone wants to stay away from?

KIDS AND PC BOOKS

This survey finds "Politically correct" books are just boring students to tears.

One series of novels, incredibly popular with Australian teens is the John Marsden "TOMORROW WHEN WAR BEGAN" series. John Marsden is Australia's no 1 bestselling writer for teenagers. The books feature a mixed group of teens struggling to survive and grow up in a future Australia under foreign military occupation. The book features resistance drawn from "pre-war" gun owners. Considering the way 'the gun lobby' has been portrayed in Australia in recent years, this is probably a small victory against PCness.

As quoted on Dissecting Leftism



11 May, 2003

Christian care workers forced out for opposing gay adoptions

Two social workers have been forced out of their jobs because they are opposed to adoption by homosexual and lesbian couples. Norah Ellis and Dawn Jackson, both highly regarded employees with unblemished records, were threatened with dismissal by Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council unless they changed their position, which is based on their Christian faith. The pair, who have more than 50 years experience between them, were told that they faced dismissal as their attitudes contravened the council's objective of "promoting social inclusion, equality of access and opportunity".


INCORRECT PATRIOTISM STILL LIVES

The English are starting to reassert some national pride, both as English: "With a bit of luck, it will be remembered as the World Cup that brought rehabilitation to the flag of St George. After years of association with football hooligans and the racist far Right, the simple red cross of England's patron saint has been recaptured by ordinary Englishmen and women."
... and as Brits: "Led by an imposing figure of St George on a horse clad in his colours, protesters marched through the streets of Telford yesterday after their local council insisted on flying only the European flag from its buildings. Telford and Wrekin council has enraged many local people by refusing to fly permanently the Union flag or the Cross of St George"
.. so it must be banned of course: "An English university has banned students from flying the flag of St George before or after the World Cup in case it causes racial tension."



10 May, 2003

DON'T MENTION THE WAR ...

Chip Chaffee, a 13-year-old student at Vermont's Walden School, was excited last fall when he learned of a "narrative writing project" that would be assigned this spring: He closed himself into a room over Thanksgiving vacation at his father, Earl Chaffee's, house in Woodbury, and wrote a fictional war story inspired by current events and his father and grandfather's military experience. Chip's father served from 1986 until 1990 in the U.S. Air Force, reaching the level of sergeant. Chip's grandfather saw action in World War II. Chip was also extremely concerned about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Earl said. Chip spent three days working on the tale which featured his father, step-father, grandfather and himself as main characters involved in military action in Afghanistan. . . . Chip said when he tried to turn the story in, his teacher refused to accept it because it contained violence.

More here. Via the WSJ


BRITISH JUSTICE ... MAYBE

British Home Secretary David Blunkett may be physically blind but he can see some things a lot more clearly than many of the politically correct of his party. He plans to change the law so that the most depraved killers die in prison. The Times has learnt that he will outline a "highly prescriptive" set of principles under which anyone who abducts and kills a child would never be freed. So-called whole life terms would also be imposed for terrorist murders and for premeditated, sexual or sadistic multiple murders. Judges would also have to fix minimum tariffs for other murderers. These would range up to 50 years, with terrorists, people who murder police or prison officers or witnesses, and contract killers all having to serve at least 30 years.


No wonder Blunkett is taking on the British justice system. Look at this:

"Government lawyers trying to keep the Norfolk farmer Tony Martin behind bars will tell a High Court judge tomorrow that burglars are members of the public who must be protected from violent householders. The case could help hundreds of criminals bring claims for damages for injury suffered while committing offences. ... Home Office lawyers dispute Mr Martin's contention that he poses no risk to the public because he only represents a threat to burglars and other criminals who trespass on his property."



9 May, 2003

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS KILLS

Theodore Dalrymple in the Spectator points out how the suicide rate in British prisons has exploded since the UK's abolition of the Death Penalty. He thinks the two are not unrelated and the reformers may be part of the problem:

"Until the 1980s, when the suicide rate rose, it was an offence in prison to harm yourself or to make a suicidal gesture. Unless the doctor considered that you had a bona fide illness that led you to act in this fashion, you were charged with wasting medical time, and lost remission. The abolition of this harsh-sounding regulation was replaced by a more 'caring' attitude, and conferred certain advantages in prison upon those who claimed to be suicidal, which resulted - as any sensible person would have expected - in a large increase in acts of self-harm, of which there are now at least 20,000 per year in our prisons. But the abolition of punishment for self-harm achieved its most important end: the gratification of the reformers' narcissistic urge to feel humane..."


BLACK CLAIMS = TRUTH

In the early 1990s there was a plan to build a bridge from the little town of Goolwa in South Australia to Hindmarsh Island, which sits at the mouth of the Murray. At the last moment, Aboriginal women claimed the island was special to them for reasons that could not be revealed. They successfully applied to the then minister for Aboriginal affairs, Robert Tickner, for an order banning the bridge. About a year later another group of Aboriginal women came forward and said that the claim of what became known as "secret women's business" was a hoax. A royal commission was called, and found that secret women's business had been fabricated. Ever since then, the conventional wisdom has been that the affair, and the willingness of white people to believe the Aboriginal women, marked the high-water mark of politically correct soft-headedness and sentimentality.



8 May, 2003

PC HUMOURLESS

As Buckley observes, since the rise of political correctness in the 1970s, our culture has increasingly been dominated by moral relativists. Moral relativists cannot laugh at anyone's foolishness or evil, for laughter is necessarily judgmental _ hence the ubiquity of humor in the military, that most comfortingly judgmental of professions, and its near-absence on university faculties. Buckley, who directs the Economics and Law Center at the George Mason School of Law, knows first-hand the humorlessness of academe and its consequences: "The loss of a sense of humor has impoverished academic discourse, where nonsensical theories that could not survive the test of ridicule are now taken seriously."



7 May, 2003

Political Correctness Instilling Pacifism In Children

From Doug Hagin:

Over the past few years many of my columns have dealt with zero-tolerance policies in schools and how these policies are hurting kids. It is quite clear the forces of political correctness are indoctrinating our children with a message of pacifism, while frankly punishing kids for being kids.

The cases are all too familiar, children suspended or expelled from schools for playing cops and robbers, drawing a picture of a soldier, bringing water pistols to school, even for pointing a chicken tender and saying "Bang."

The cases of similar incidents could easily fill months and months of my column. The school administrators, driven by fear of school shootings, have enacted rigid zero-tolerance policies, which are obviously being enforced with zero-common sense. And there is more behind the intentions of these policies than preventing school violence.

The trend is to teach children that all violence is always wrong. Certain schools have even gone so far as to ask students to sign pledges never to use a weapon in self-defense or in defense of others. Students who refuse are flagged as potentially violence prone and dangerous. Imagine teaching young people that self-defense is bad and undesirable. Imagine teaching them defending themselves against an attacker makes them no better than the attacker.



6 May, 2003

The catalogue of PC oppression recently published by Diane Ravitch has received a lot of comment. Paul Walfield has a satirical take on the plight of California schoolchildren as revealed in the book.

5 May, 2003

PC ENDANGERS KIDS

"ABORIGINAL children were being returned to abusive homes by government departments paralysed by fear of being branded racist or creating another stolen generation, a leading advocate for Aboriginal children and women said yesterday. "Too many things happen to Aboriginal kids," Pamela Greer told a national conference on justice and children in Adelaide. "There are too many people who want to say, `We can't do things because we'll be seen as being racist'. Whole Aboriginal departments are paralysed by a fear of being racist. "Departments of community services don't want to create another stolen generation so we find a lot of Aboriginal children are left in a dangerous situation because some white or black worker doesn't want to be called racist. It happens all the time." Ms Greer, who has 10 years' experience training Aboriginal communities about violence against women and children, cited the case of Jackie Pascoe......"

The above is the beginning of a story available online to subscribers only. It appeared in The Weekend Australian of 03-05-03 on P. 8 under the heading "Fear of racist charge 'puts children at risk' " and was written by Thea Williams.


An amusing new bit of political correctness I had not noticed before: Hispanics have "dark" hair, not "black" hair. Looks like I had better use the word whilst I am still allowed to: BLACK, BLACK, BLACK!



4 May 2003

PC ENCOURAGES FASCISM

From Britain:
One of the shocking results of the local authority elections has been that the British National Party has become the second largest political group in the authority for Burnley, Lancashire. The BNP are as crazy as Al-Muhajiroun. They are so anti-immigration they would like to repatriate me back to the West of Ireland. They have no understanding that, if you're British, you're an immigrant. You could be a Celt who arrived from Central Europe 4,000 years ago, a Viking who came on a working holiday or you may have just landed at Heathrow Airport but you're still an immigrant. The appeal of their message stems from the unfortunate fact that the previous administration in Burnley created white and Asian ghettoes, and because they were so politically correct they gave more money to the Asians than the whites. It was fundamentally undemocratic and fundamentally dumb, but it was just so multicultural. Avid fascists have been elected to office.



3 May, 2003

BIBLE INCORRECT?

Well it seems to be in Spain, anyway:

"But secularization has dug in so deep that Spanish government officials must keep their religion close to their chests, says Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, a Jesuit priest and professor of theology for the archdiocese of Madrid. Quoting the Bible or citing religious values `"is neither politically correct nor politically productive,'' he said."



2 May, 2003

MORE FANTASIES FROM U.S. "TEXTBOOKS"

Students are now reading history books that, to avoid the appearance of "ethnocentrism," eschew the very idea of progress. One middle school textbook "lauds every world culture as advanced, complex, and rich with artistic achievements, except for the United States." Textbooks "sugarcoat practices in non-Western cultures that they would condemn if done by Europeans or Americans.... They condemn slavery in the western world but present slavery in Africa and the Middle East as benign.... " Publishers of literature textbooks actually subscribe to the notion that "everything written before 1970 was either gender biased or racially biased.".

More here.



1 May, 2003

CANADIANS THE VICTIMS OF PC THIS TIME

I find it interesting that the world health organization decided to place Toronto in the "banned" cities for travelers. While there is no doubt that this virus is a problem, it is not the kind of problem in toronto to justify a ban. The responsibility for this mess rests squarely on the Chinese and their closed system which failed miserably to disclose the problem. Now it seems that the international organization is playing politically correct by picking a Western nation to sit next to China in the banned list and it so happens to be Canada's bad deal. looking at cases, Singapore and Vietnam are in worse shape and yet the organization has not placed a travel ban on them!?


WITCHES CORRECT

Wiccans and pagans have often protested against children books and cartoons depicting witches as evil. Hanna-Barbera and WB now apparently heard their protests and released a politically correct video, "Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost", and a tie-in book, "Scooby-Doo and the Hex Files"