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TONGUE TIED ARCHIVE
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November 05, 2005Another Football Coach Risks his Arm
A brave man! Press excerpt below:"A week after Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry was publicly reprimanded for insensitive comments about black athletes, Joe Paterno did not shy away from the topic of race during Tuesday's Big Ten coaches teleconference. At one point, the topic of the teleconference turned to the increased scoring in the Big Ten this season. After first mentioning that improved indoor practice facilities have helped the conference recruit kids from warm-weather climates, Paterno offered a supplemental explanation. "You have to be careful the way you say things sometimes," the Penn State coach said. "Poor [Air Force coach] Fisher DeBerry got in trouble, but the black athlete has made a big difference. They have changed the whole tempo of the game. Black athletes have just done a great job as athletes and as people in turning the game around."A lot of people did end up rallying to DeBerry's defence. So that -- plus the fact that it was only the truth being spoken -- probably emboldened Paterno. So I guess DeBerry ended up striking an effective blow for free speech after all.
Anything to Avoid Mentioning the C-word
Even if it makes what you are saying totally incomprehensible to 99% of people:
"A Somerset tourist attraction has denied changing the way its exhibits are dated for reasons of political correctness. Cheddar Caves Museum is using Before Present (BP) labels rather than Before Christ (BC) because it is easier to understand, a spokesman claimed. "We'd still use AD and BC when a piece can be dated, but BP when its age is effectively prehistoric," he said. BP dating is a year-numbering system counting back from 1950. Although not usually used in museums, it is used by scientists when carbon dating".And the guy has got the brass to say that his weird dating system is "easier to understand"!
A Real Halloween Horror
Read this press excerpt:"A Tulsa parent is outraged over how her child was disciplined at school for wearing a costume. Crystal Harris says her 5-year old son was forced to take off his costume, and go through the entire school day with only his underwear on. The incident happened Monday at Walt Disney Elementary. School officials acknowledge they have a policy that forbids costumes, and that's why the teacher did what she did. They say they've have apologized to the family. Harris says however the teacher should be disciplined for embarassing her son. Harris' son has not been back to school since the incident, and she says she's considering legal action".How these Leftist teachers hate little kids! How brave of them to traumatize a 5 year old boy! Their twisted ideologies are all that matters to Leftists, not people. They perpetrate real horrors in the name of opposing make-believe horror.
Bible Study Ban
A resident assistant in a dormitory at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire has been told that he cannot hold informal Bible study sessions in the dorm because it would amount to an illegal endorsement of religion by a state employee, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Lance Steiger held the weekly sessions with a small group of friends for much of last year, but over the summer he was told to stop.
Deborah Newman, associate director of housing and residence life, told Steiger: "As a state employee, you and I have a responsibility to make sure we are providing an environment that does not put undue pressure on any member of our halls in terms of religion, political parties, etc."
Steiger insists that the ban is an infringement on his First Amendment rights.
"I work for the school," he says. "It's my job, but I do have personal time. I should be able to talk about whatever I want to talk about in my own room. It's my home. It's where I live."
Fragile Experiments in Civility
A faculty member at Cornell University in New York wants the administration to pull the plug on the conservative paper there, the Cornell American, to silence what she calls a "disgusting piece of trash that has absolutely no intellectual merit whatsoever."
Writing in the Cornell Sun, associate professor Anna Marie Smith says those in charge of the student activities fee that partially funds the American should yank that money and that the university should insist that the paper stop using the Cornell name.
Smith rules out censorship, but then goes on to say that "the University is a special and at times fragile experiment in civility. As an intellectual community, we have the right - and duty - to block extremist hate discourse that lacks any redeeming intellectual
features from our campus."What apparently irked Smith is an article in the American decrying the lack of media attention to black-on-white crime in the area.
Santa Stifled
The UK's Daily Mail says staffers at that country's Inland Revenue Department have been asked not to donate during work hours to a charity that deliver toys to tots for Christmas because of the group's Christian connections.
A memo circulated in the department says it cannot continue to associate itself with Samaritan's Purse because it does not adhere to diversity guidelines. The ban comes following complaints from trade union activists.
Samaritan's Purse, led by US evangelist Billy Graham's son, Franklin, annually sends more than a million shoe boxes from Britain to children in places like Azerbaijan, Armenia, Romania, Serbia, Sudan and Mozambique.
The memo tells staff: "We are not dictating who you can or cannot support, but you will appreciate that as a department we cannot be seen to promote activities that do not broadly fit with our philosophy or which could bring us into disrepute by association."
The J-Word
The student newspaper at Wright State University in Ohio, The Guardian, says a Christian band due to perform at a homecoming dance was first asked to change its tune and then uninvited altogether for fear of offending non-Christians on campus.
The Christian rock band Ambassadors reached a verbal agreement with school officials after first agreeing not to use the word Jesus and to tone down the "worship" aspects of their music. But after more consideration, the school dropped the band altogether.
"We didn't want students to be offended," said Gabrielle Howard, president of the University Activities Board. "I'd rather see them play at a venue more appropriate for their sound instead of asking them to change."
The Season is Upon Us
The Times of London reports that even though the Xmas holiday is nearly two months away, some local authorities around London already have decreed that seasonal light displays will not be overly Christian.
Council officials in Lambeth, in South London, have dubbed the displays "Winter Lights" and "Celebrity Lights" to reflect the fact that lots of religious festivals take place during the winter and no one should feel left out.
Caudillo Politics
A group of California university students who formed a club with the word "caudillos" in the title is under attack from fellow Latinos on campus for using an inappropriate and insulting term, according to the Stockton Record.
Latino students at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, Calif. formed Caudillos Fuerza Unida ("Leaders Unified in Strength") in May.
Members of the rival Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or MEChA, on the campus say use of the word is equivalent to use of the word "Nazi" by an Anglo group.
"It's absolutely unacceptable for a student group to call themselves caudillos," said Daniela Montejano, president of the group. "Caudillos are known for tyranny."
If All Else Fails
A San Francisco State University instructor who became combative when questioned by security officers in a campus office building around midnight claims racism is behind the charges being leveled against him, reports the San Fran Chronicle.
Antwi Akom, an associate professor of Africana studies, faces misdemeanor charges of battery and resisting arrest for allegedly assaulting an officer in the Ethnic Studies and Psychology building. Officers say he started squawking about racism and shoved one of them up against a wall when they questioned him about being in the building so late.
"In our opinion, it's obvious that this is a case involving racial profiling by the San Francisco State police," said Akom's lawyer.
Get to the Movies Much Gael?
Mexican actor Gael Garcˇa Bernal is complaining that Latino actors in US films are stereotyped and Hollywood only produces movies that perpetuate derogatory stereotypes of Hispanic people, according to the Times of London.
Hollywood's age-old cliche of Latino "bad guys" has given way to the even more nefarious image of the "Good Latino," Garcia says.
"There's also the Good Latino stereotype. They always come from the slums with dogs playing in the dirt and people everywhere and a room full of kids. To be the Good Latino they then have to get away, to go to university and then marry the white girl.
Speaking at the National Film Theater in London, the star of Y Tu Mama Tambien and The Motorcycle Diaries also said these are "scary times" in America. Fear-mongering on the right about a Hispanic Menace swamping the U.S. with their culture and language is making people anxious, he said.
"This kind of thing is allowed now after September 11. As if the US wasn't made rich by all the people that came and brought their culture with them," Garcia said.
Stamp Struggles
Hindus in the UK say a Christmas stamp featuring The Holy Family in Hindu attire is insensitive to their faith and should be withdrawn, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The image, featured on a 68p stamp, is one of a series of six mother and child stamps being issued by the post. It is an Indianized version of a European print of Mary and Joseph with St Anne and the two angels. The original, dating to the 17th century, hangs in Bombay.
Ramesh Kallidai, secretary general of the Hindu Forum of Britain, said the image was insensitive because it showed Hindu people worshipping Christ.
"It is the equivalent of having a vicar in a dog collar bowing down to Lord Ram on a Diwali stamp," he said. "These things need to be done with sensitivity."
Last year, the post stayed away from Christian themes altogether in order to avoid such offense.
PC MP, Chapter 1
New Zealand's PC MP is already on the job, reports the NZPA, challenging a teachers' union stance on transgender issues as an example of political correctness run amok.
Wayne Mapp, who was named the National Party's anti-political correctness czar last week, questioned why the union was obsessed with the topic of transgender teachers.
"Is this what our taxpayer dollars are funding in schools? They really are out of control and should stick to teaching," Mapp said. "No one is supporting the harassment of anyone, but the PPTA should focus on children's needs not cross-dressing teachers."
First They Came for Christmas, Then ...
Students and their parents in California are finding Halloween to be a blacklisted holiday in the public schools there, too, according to the Kitsap Sun.
One parent who attends Cottage Elementary in Arden Arcade, Calif. received a note home from school last week reading, "I have been asked to let you know that no costumes of any kind will be allowed at school ... Students cannot decorate their body in any way to make it look like they are in costume."
It announced a "fall celebration," but insisted that "is not related to Halloween in any way!"
The paper says its a nationwide trend, one attributable to wingnuts who perceive the holiday to be rooted in pagan or demonic ritual.
And in Toronto, the National Post reports that school district officials sent out a memo to teachers this week saying traditional Halloween festivities are disrespectful of Wiccans and might make some kids feel left out. "Many recently arrived students in our schools share absolutely none of the background cultural knowledge that is necessary to view 'trick or treating,' the commercialization of death, the Christian sexist demonization of pagan religious beliefs, as 'fun,' " says the memo.
Silly Kids
Another batch of students is in trouble for dressing in thuggish attire, according to the Dallas Morning News, this time in Texas.
Students at Highland Park High School were denounced as racially insensitive for their Homecoming tradition of Thug Day, in which students dress as gang members and rap stars.
The Morning News put three reporters on the tory, and they traced the behavior to the racial isolation the kids live in and the emotional distance they feel from the civil rights movement.
"They think America is colorblind and that racism has disappeared," said Charles Gallagher, a sociology professor at Georgia State University said to be an expert on white perceptions of race. "Color becomes a style - if a white kid wants to put on a FUBU shirt, he can do it. They can have something like this and say, 'I wasn't being racist - I was just playing with these symbols.' "
Australia is Less "Correct"
Would the following headline be allowed in America?"Black weekend for Aussie women sportThe Hockeyroos suffered their first loss to New Zealand in five years and 22 matches to cap a black weekend for Australian women's teams against their trans-Tasman foes. The 1-0 loss in the first Test of the three-match Oceania World Cup qualifying series followed the Australian netball team's record 61-36 defeat to the world champion Silver Ferns on Saturday night, also in Auckland........."
More on Blacks in Sport
The big trouble Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry just got himself into by noting that blacks tend to be faster runners reminds me of an earlier similar episode (from 2003), where a black sporting manager also attributed superior sports performance to race. Excerpt:
"Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker, dismissing suggestions he made a racist assertion when speaking with reporters about day baseball, stands by his comments that black and Hispanic players are better suited to playing in the sun and heat than white players. "I'm not playing the race card. I'm telling it like it is," Baker said by telephone Monday. "What I meant is that blacks and Latins take the heat better than most whites, and whites take the cold better than most blacks and Latins. That's it, pure and simple. Nothing deeper than that."Despite a lot of pressure, and to his credit, Baker refused to apologize but I don't suppose that option was really open to DeBerry. Keith Burgess Jackson said all that needed to be said about the Baker episode.
