|
TONGUE TIED ARCHIVE
|
The original site for this blog index is HERE. The Blogroll. My Home Page. My pictorial Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here. (Click "Refresh" on your browser if background colour is missing)
****************************************************************************************
December 17, 2005Truth Forbidden in Australia
Australia's largest city, Sydney, has been suffering a long time from the aggressive and criminal behaviour of young Muslim men who are the children of Arabs who were allowed into Australia as refugees during the civil war in Lebanon. And the politicized police have been made to treat the offenders concerned with kid gloves. Last weekend, young Anglo Australians got sick of police inaction and held a rally to deal with the Muslims themselves. Under the influence of the hot weather and much beer, however, the rally turned into a huge riot that the police could barely restrain.
The riot did however wake the authorities up to the fact that they were going to have to deal with the Muslim problem themselves and, under the pretext of restraining "racism" among Anglo-Australians, new laws have been rushed through that enable better police control of aggressive gatherings. We will see this weekend what happens as a result. I have been monitoring the ethnic incidents daily on my Australian Politics blog.
As I mentioned, the authorities in Sydney blame everybody but the Muslims (sound familiar?) and various media figures have been caught in that net. Note the following quote about popular Sydney radio announcer Brian Wilshire :
"The career of veteran 2GB announcer Brian Wilshire is in limbo after he called Lebanese-Australians "inbreds" and questioned their intelligence on air. Wilshire, 61, was yesterday pulled off air and made to apologise for comments he made on Thursday night. Discussing Middle Eastern boys involved in violence he said: "Many of them have parents who are first cousins, whose parents were first cousins ... The result of this is inbreeding."
Note that there was no attempt to look into the truth or falsehood of what he said. That was apparently seen as irrelevant. If you want to express your support for Wilshire, he can probably be reached here: surfreport@mrpc.net
Comments? Email John Ray
A Small Victory for Christmas Music
In Towson, near Baltimore, the local business association runs the town's Christmas celebrations ("The ceremony is sponsored by Baltimore County government and the Towson Business Association, which does most of the legwork"). And important in the celebrations are a local choir, a choir that has been there for many years to give voice on the big day when the Christmas tree is lit up and Santa arrives.
But this year the head of the business association, Susan Doordan, told the choir not to sing anything religious. But about half the songs the choir normally sings are in fact religious. So the choir rebelled. No songs at all for Towson this year, they said.
That got things rumbling. The head of the business association suddenly discovered that there was in fact no ban on religious songs and called the choir back and told them to sing whatever they liked.
The full story was here under the heading: "Tradition triumphs over political correctness at tree lighting" but has now been taken down and is now no longer available even in their archives. Why am I not surprised? The journalist who wrote the story was Loni Ingraham.
A Good Email
I get lots of emails both from readers of this blog and from readers of my other blogs. And I have often noted how the email address of the people who write to me ends in "mil" -- meaning that the writer is a member of the U.S. military. So no prizes for guessing that lots of military men greatly dislike political correctness.I thought that for once I might however put up an excerpt from one of the emails I have received from military men:
"I also wanted to tell you I enjoy the Tongue Tied web site. Keep up the good work. I also wanted to let you know I am a civilian contractor (retired Air Force) working in Iraq. The morale of both the troops and civilians here is really high. People take a lot of pride in serving their country and being part of history. I have a 21 year old son who is in the Army and is stationed in Baghdad. He just re-enlisted this week. I couldn't be prouder of him. I just wanted you to get a glimpse of things from my perspective".Thank goodness for the internet! Without it all we would hear is the doom and gloom that the media never tire of shovelling at us.
Memories
A newspaper in New Brunswick is under fire from a local town council for editing the poetry of a local war hero because the language might have offended modern readers, according to the CBC.
For a Remembrance Day edition, The Tribune honored Jacquet River legend Alfred Elsliger by printing his poem about life as a POW of the Japanese during World War II. The paper omitted, however, two lines reading: "It might be worse if the Japs were Chinks, We'd have to live on cats."
Elsliger's family and the Jacquet River town council were hopping mad when they saw the omission and demanded an apology, but the editor was unrepentent. Said Tribune editor Tim Jacques: "In 2005 it wasn't something I was prepared to run. Actually I should have either taken the whole thing out and run something else or run it in its entirety, and I wasn't about to run it in its entirety."
His Name was Lola
A new law in Brazil may soon require most businesses in a Rio suburb to install third bathrooms for folks who aren't quite sure what sex they are, reports the AP.
The bill passed by the Nova Iguacu city council would require night clubs, shopping malls, movie theaters and large restaurants to cater to the roughly 28,000 transvestites in town.
City Councilman Carlos Eduardo Moreira, who sponsored the bill, said he got the idea when dozens of transvestites showed up recently for a samba show. "It was a real problem. The women didn't feel comfortable having them in the ladies' room, and the men didn't want them in their bathroom either," he said.
That was Quick
Update: Ford Caves to 'Small Group of Vocal Extremists.' Again.
More Painful Truth
USA Today reports that Arab-Americans are seething over a planned billboard campaign that features an Arab man holding a grenade in one hand and a drivers license in the other.
James Zogby of the Arab-American institute says the ad, sponsored by group that wants tighter restrictions on drivers licenses and due to go up near the state capitol in North Carolina, is racist.
"I think the motivation is anti-immigrant," he said. "They are creating fear ... over Arabs. The message is very clear: 'Arabs are dangerous, Arabs should not get driver's licenses.' "
But the billboard's sponsor, the Coalition for a Secure Drivers License, says the issue is terror.
"I think it's an important message to get out to North Carolinians that they have a driver's license that is vulnerable to getting into the wrong hands," says Amanda Bowman, president of the . "A driver's license functions as the internal passport in the U.S."
Reason for the Season
A McDonald's restaurant in Raleigh, N.C. is under pressure to change a sign out front wishing passersby a Merry Christmas, according to WRAL-TV.
Some in town say the sign, which reads "Merry Christmas, Jesus is the Reason for the Season," comes on a bit too strong.
Among those who complained was Amanda Alpert, who called McDonald's corporate offices to ask that it be changed. "It offends me because it specifically talks about Jesus, Merry Christmas," she said.
McDonald's officials told Alpert to get a life. Hopefully.
Those right-wing loonies. Clearly making all this stuff up.
Who Knew?
Black men, says a writer in the London Times, will think twice before seeing the new King Kong movie because the story "feeds into all the colonial hysteria about black hyper-sexuality" and "touches the raw nerve of the Darwin-based association between black men and apes."
The filmmaker, Peter Jackson, used the same hackneyed stereotypes in his Lord of the Rings triology, so Kong's racism comes as no surprise to writer writes Kwame McKenzie. In those films, he says, "the most fearsome baddies were big black and just a bit too Maori looking, the good guys - well white."
Mr. McKenzie says the folks who do movie ratings should look for negative racial stereotypes in addition to sex and violence.
Speaking of Vocal Extremists
Gay rights groups are criticizing the Ford Motor Co. for not advertising in gay-themed media, according to the Detroit News, apparently taking the position that Ford has no right to decide for itself where to spend its ad dollars.
The activists say Ford is caving to pressure from pro-family groups like the American Family Association. They call the decision to stop advertising Jaguar and Land Rovers in gay magazines an "effort to appease a handful of vocal extremists."
Ford officials said simply that advertising decisions would be based only on business interests and not politics.
Even in Russia
Pravda says Muslim activists in Russia are agitating to get Christian symbols removed from the country's national emblem in the interest of multi-culturalism and human rights.
The emblem features images of St. George slaying a dragon, as well as crowns and orbs adorned with Christian crosses.
"It is not only the matter of the Russian State Emblem," says the chairman of the spiritual administration of Russian Muslims, Nafigullah Ashirov. "They put up crosses on frontier posts and city entrances, Orthodox icons can be seen hanging on office walls. All these facts, which include sending Christian symbols into space, assigning Christian icons to Russian troops, missile troops in particular, the presence of four large crosses on the Emblem testify to a certain pressure of Christian symbolism in the country."
Since Russia is technically a secular state, the Muslims say, all such symbols should be removed from the public sphere.
Food, Nutrition and Calories
A little while ago I put up a post ridiculing an "expert" who said that food can be high in calories but have no nutritional value. The statement is absurd because the human body produces calories from food and if food is not nutrition what is?A number of readers have however written to me who agree with the "expert" -- usually taking the trouble to tell me also how their own diet of fruit and nuts (or whatever) has benefited them.
So I think I may have been a bit unfair to the "expert". I suspect that in current American usage "nutrition" means "food that I approve of". Being a straight-talking Australian, that caught me by surprise.
A New Low, Even for Madison
Third-graders in Madison, Wisc. won't be allowed to ring bells to raise money for the Salvation Army as they have in the past because one parent complained about the kids helping a religious-based charity, according to The Capital Times.
Students from Chavez Elementary have for years helped out the red kettle brigade during the Christmas season, along with hundreds of students from around the county. For some, it qualifies as part of their community service obligation.
Principal Howard Fried said the school administration stood down immediately when faced with the complaint. "When the objection was raised, the administration downtown told us, in no uncertain terms, not to allow it," he said.
Homophobic Incident
A UK author who said during a radio interview that it might not be such a hot idea to allow homosexual men to adopt young boys during a radio interview found herself under investigation by local police for her "homophobic incident," according to the Daily Telegraph.
Children's rights campaigner Lynette Burrows took part in a panel discussion about the UK's new civil partnerships act on a regional BBC program. During the course of the discussion she said placing boys with homosexual fathers was as risky as placing girls with two heterosexual men.
Scotland Yard said a member of the public complained of Burrows' homophobia and police are obligated to follow-up on such "priority crimes." No charges were filed.
Richard Pryor: RIP
A college student in Ohio who attempted a humorous look at race relations in a student newspaper column is now staring down the barrel of a state civil rights investigation and will probably spend the rest of his adult life in sensitivity training seminars.
The Akron Beacon Journal reports that the leader of Ohio's Civil Rights Commission was at Kent State University last week paying a visit to columnist Aman Ali and the editors at the Daily Kent Stater.
In a column titled ``Black People Need to Start Sharing,'' Ali use the word "nigga" several times and all sorts of racial stereotypes. "Black people, it's time you guys start sharing. We want to use the word too," Ali wrote. "You guys already have so much cool stuff already, like doo-rags, spinner rims and most importantly, fried chicken."
As luck would have it, the son of the chairman of Ohio's Civil Rights Commission attends Kent State.
The editors have spent the last week groveling.
Crossing the Line
Family members of fallen highway patrol officers and their supporters are rallying in Utah to fend off a lawsuit from atheists claiming that crosses erected on public highways in honor of those officers are unconstitutional, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The state chapter of American Atheists Inc. says the officers should be memorialized, but not with Christian symbols. "For so long, religious symbols and symbology have received special preferences and treatment. When we ask for a level playing field, they scream intolerance," says the group's Michael Rivers.
Doug Wright of KSL radio, who has championed the cause of family members who want the crosses to remain, called the suit egregious and insensitive. "This time they've crossed the line," he said.
Race Card
A NAACP boss in Connecticut is angry because his local paper won't back his efforts to switch from an at-large city electoral system to a district one is teaming up with Latinos to accuse the paper of racism, reports the Republican-American.
The Latino activists are pissed because of a wire story which mentioned the fact that there is drug trafficking in Puerto Rico. They say it gave the impression that Puerto Ricans were drug addicts, and say it shouldn't have been published.
James Griffin, president of the Greater Waterbury NAACP, jumped on the bandwagon after the paper printed an editorial saying Hispanics need to be more active politically. Griffin said the editorial was offensive.
Gone Mad
A school principal in Australia has apologized after a family complained that her liberal use of the word Christmas in school newsletters discriminated against them, according to the Brisbane Courier-Mail.
Yeppoon State School head Laurelle Allen apologized to Paul and Melanie Jowsey, who said they don't celebrate Christmas and oppose the "historical dominance of Christianity" in Australia. The family said Allen's use of the C-word 10 times in three newsletters during one week unfairly favored Christians.
The couple didn't like such phrases as "Christmas concert" and "Christmas disco," nor the principal's greeting: "I would like to take this opportunity to wish all families a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and safe Christmas holiday period."
Are Blondes Now Politically Incorrect?
First, a news excerpt:
"Miss Iceland Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir was crowned the surprise winner of the Miss World 2005 in a lavish ceremony watched live by millions across the globe. The 21-year-old Reykjavik student, daughter of Miss Iceland 1983, expressed her delight and astonishment at beating out a field of 102 young women from around the world. The green-eyed brunette will serve as a goodwill ambassador and charity fund-raiser for children's causes throughout next year and is likely to profit from a host of modelling and acting contracts.... Vilhjalmsdottir is a student from Reykjavik who has interned as a policewoman during her summer holidays while studying courses in anthropology and aspiring towards a career in law".The winner:
Miss Russia Yulia Ivanova won the bathing suit section:
Miss Australia:
I thought Miss Australia looked better but perhaps I am biased. But note that she is a blonde and even the ENTRANTS from such such fair-haired populations as Russia and Iceland were dark-haired. Since I think it is no mystery that "gentlemen prefer blondes" (Why otherwise are two thirds of the blonde ladies walking around the place not born that way?) so I have no doubt that we are once again being told by the powers that be that our attitudes are all WRONG and that we should have a different ideal of feminine beauty from that which most of us do have.
And the ideal of beauty displayed by Miss Russia is appalling. If ever a girl looked like she needs a good feed, she does. But the lady I most like the looks of (looks only) is Pamela Anderson, so I guess I would think that!
Update
No blonde hair in the photo below either:
(Miss World 2004, Maria Julia Mantilla Garcia of Peru(2L) hands over her crown to 2005 winner Miss Iceland, Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir(2R) as first runner up Miss Puerto Rico, Ingrid Maria Riviera Santos(R) and second runner up Miss Mexico, Dafne Molina Lona(L) look on.)
Comments? Email John Ray
Georgia Strikes Back
Leftist tyranny in the schools has got so bad that a law is now seen as needed to protect school staff who say "Merry Christmas"!"There's still no peace on Earth in the fight over Christmas and public places. A new bill in the Legislature would protect public workers or public school students from being punished if they say "Merry Christmas" to each other, instead of "Happy Holidays."
The Tragic Dutch Sparrow
I guess this is a sort of animal (think PETA) correctness but it is in any case totally unbalanced -- and unbalanced in the sense of being insane. First a press excerpt:"A sparrow that knocked over 23,000 dominoes and almost derailed a world record attempt before being shot dead will be enshrined in the Rotterdam Natural History Museum, the museum said Friday....Although common, the house sparrow's numbers have fallen by more than 50 percent in the past 20 years due to human encroachment on their habitat. On Friday, public prosecutors in The Hague issued a euro200 ($235) fine to the exterminator who killed the bird.
A common bird was shot to stop it messing up an event on which many people had worked hard for a long time and it is treated as a national tragedy. I can only conclude that the Dutch have become totally unhinged by all the hostile Muslims in their midst. They seem to be totally unable to do anything to stop the Muslims other than post thousands of armed gurads everywhere so they waste their time and energy on trivia which they can control. All sense of proportion and all perspective have been totally lost.
