|
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)
****************************************************************************************
October 29, 2005Holy Moses! "African-American" is Incorrect Now
And you are not allowed to say that blacks run faster either -- even though they dominate running events in the Olympic Games. Note the following excerpt:
"Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry was reprimanded Wednesday for remarks about wanting to recruit more black athletes because they run faster. DeBerry, 67, in his 22nd season as the Falcons coach, apologized for the comments..... "There was no consideration to stepping down from my job," he said. "I feel like maybe a couple terms that I used should not have been used in any remarks that I would make to anybody. If I offended anybody by using the term African-American or by using the term minorities, I certainly did not mean to offend anyone....During his weekly press luncheon Tuesday, DeBerry said, in part, "It was very obvious to me the other day that the other team (TCU) had a lot more African-American players than we did and they ran a lot faster than we did. "Afro-American kids can run very, very well. Their (TCU's) defense had 11 Afro-American kids on their team and they were a very good defensive football team."
Even saying the obvious is now offensive in America. And how it can be offensive to compliment people on their athletic abilities when athletic ability is so prestigious in our society defeats my poor old brain too.
Update
Black sports columnist Michael Wilbon speaks some excellent good sense on the matter, saying: "DeBerry has nothing whatsoever to apologize for". Wilbon also comments on the call for more blacks in baseball.
Sense of Humor No Longer Tolerated
Low-fare regional carrier AirTran Airways can't take any hint of its being laughed at. As this excerpt shows:"AirTran Airways said Thursday that it still has not resolved its tiff with Anheuser-Busch Cos. over an ad the beer company ran, and later pulled, that took a jab at low-cost carriers and their pilots. The ad, part of Bud Light's "Real Men of Genius" campaign, was called "Mr. Discount Airline Pilot Guy" and chided pilots for "minimal experience" and inability to work for a "reputable airline." AirTran executives said this week they would consider stopping sales of Anheuser-Busch products on its flights because of the ad, which is still available on the Internet".In boxing, a guy who is easily knocked out is said to have a "glass jaw". There are a lot of glass jaws these days that don't even need a punch to knock them out. The constant victim-talk of the political correctness mongers seems to have caused childish sulks to become routine among adults now. It was once a term of contempt to say of someone that "he can't take it" but it seems that no-one can take anything now.
(Hat tip to Peachtree Jaunts)
Comments? Email John Ray
Surprise: school cancels Halloween celebration
If you can't even mention the Devil these days, it is obvious that the political correctness police (among whom our "educators" are prominent) will ban ANYTHING that is even vaguely religious if at all possible. And the supernatural references in Halloween were an obvious target. As we read in the following excerpt from the People's Republic of Massachusetts:
"When students at Underwood Elementary School walk to their classrooms on Monday, there will be no witches, SpongeBob SquarePants, or Johnny Damons there to greet them. No skeleton paintings or Frankenstein tattoos, either. The school's principal said yesterday he acceded to the complaints of a handful of parents who said that because the school's traditional Halloween celebrations offended their religious beliefs, they would not send their children to school if the revelry continued this year.... Of nearly a dozen parents interviewed outside the school yesterday, none supported the decision to cancel the celebration. Several parents said they are considering staging a protest by donning costumes on Monday and standing in front of the school."If they can cancel Halloween, what about Columbus Day and Valentines Day? We get Jewish holidays and Christmas off, so what's next?" asked Andrea Newman, whose two sons attend the school. ''All it takes is one person to be offended, and our school will ban it." Parents interviewed yesterday said they didn't mind not being able to celebrate the holiday, but they complained that it was political correctness run amok, particularly at a school where one-fifth of the student body is nonwhite and the website is in both English and Chinese. "The beauty of having diversity is to celebrate different cultures and holidays," said Renee Levin
So some sorts of diversity are good -- particularly if lots of people disagree with it. But other sorts of diversity are bad -- particularly if only a tiny minority disagree with it. Makes a lot of sense doesn't it? But it makes sense if you realize that the real agenda of political correctness is not to help anybody but to upset as many ordinary people as possible. The political correctness creeps love humanity. It's just people they can't stand.
Women Driving Racing Cars
This bit of incorrectness gave me a laugh:"Jenson Button, the Formula 1 driver, has dismissed the ability of women to compete in Grand Prix racing by claiming they are unsafe to drive during their periods and that their breasts stop them fitting into small racing cars. In an extraordinary interview, Button dismissed the prospects of Danica Patrick - an American racing car driver, who finished fourth in this year's Indianapolis 500 - moving up to compete in Formula 1 on the grounds that her figure could distract male pit mechanics. He told men's magazine FHM: "Danica is very quick. But in F1 cars I can't see it happening due to the G-force in fast corners. And one week of the month you wouldn't want to be on the circuit with them, would you? A girl with big boobs would never be comfortable in the car. And the mechanics wouldn't concentrate. Can you imagine strapping her in?"I don't care whether he was right or wrong but I am glad he still felt free to say it. And lots of people felt free to disagree with him too. Which is as it should be. It's called free speech.
Tar Baby
A library official in Philadelphia is being criticized for referring to a colleague in an email as a "tar baby," according to NBC-10, a term union officials insist is racist.
Kevin Vaughn, associate director of the Philadelphia free library, meant to send an email to the library director, but instead forwarded it to the person he was writing about -- branch manager Susan Rigsby.
Union official Mike Walsh called the term a "highly offensive" racial slur.
Susan Rigsby is white.
PC Policing
Police in Australia are being told to treat minority suspects differently from other ones so as not to be accused of cultural insensitivity, according to the Herald Sun.
Among the counsel being given to officers in Victoria in a religious diversity handbook are that they should consult Muslim religious leaders in cases of domestic violence involving people of that faith.
Advocates for Islamic women called the guidelines appalling and dangerous. "The implication is one needs to be more tolerant of violence against Muslim women," said Joumanah El Matrah of the Islamic Women's Welfare Council.
Police are also warned against interviewing Aboriginal suspects or setting court hearings during Aboriginal ceremonies involving "initiation, birth, death, burials, mourning periods, women's meetings and cultural ceremonies in general." They are also advised not to bother a Sikh who is reading the Sikh Holy Script -- a process that normally takes 50 hours.
(via the Say Anything blog.)
Mark Your Calendars
Supporters of Transgender rights will kick off what's being described as the first "Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color Job and Education Fair" in New York in December, according to Reuters.
At least 10 companies already have signed up for the fair, organizers said, and as many as 25 might show up. One of the main things on the agenda, they say, is that pesky male-female that unfairly dominates public discourse in America.
Damien Domenack, a landscaper, says society's "two-gender system" poses a problem in everything from job applications to drivers' licenses to health-insurance forms. He wants a third option, to describe gender preference.
"We're limited to two boxes, male and female," said Domenack, 24, who was born female and calls herself a "transman." "There's just two options, and I can't put my true identity."
Good Question
A high school paper has refused to run an ad from a local Korean-owned restaurant because it says imagery used in it promotes stereotypes and puts a minority group in a bad light, reports the Oregonian.
John Lee, owner of the Hawaiian Grill restaurant in Cedar Mill, Ore., uses an illustration of an Asian man in his ads because it resembles himself. Administrators at Sunset High, however, say it is offensive.
Lee, who immigrated from Korea at age 10, says he has been using his logo on signs and menus for years with no complaint. "I'm Asian American, so why would I want to make fun of Asians?" he said. "Why are we pushing the racial issue to the farthest extent?"
Blinded by the Bowl
The city council of Rome has banned round goldfish bowls after animal rights extremists complained that they were cruel, according to Reuters.
The classic spherical fish bowls have been banned, along with the practice of giving away fish or other animals as fairground prizes.
Rome's Il Messaggero newspaper claimed the bowls cause fish to go blind.
PC MP
The AP reports that the opposition political party in New Zealand has created a new position in its shadow cabinet: an official spokesman for "political correctness eradication."
National Party leader Don Brash said his party is determined to push reforms through Parliament to "deal with some aspects of political correctness."
Acting Prime Minister Michael Cullen said the appointment had a slightly "fascist" ring to it.
Chilling
A Colorado State University student group is under fire for using an image of a person hanging from a tree in a flier advertising a political forum, according to the Rocky Mountain News.
The Collegiate Farm Bureau advertised a forum upcoming on ballot measures that would impact higher education funding. Above the offensive image were the words: "Does CSU's Future Hang on Refs C and D?"
Some on campus said the image too closely resembled a racially motivated lynching, and CSU President Larry Penley issued a campus-wide e-mail denouncing it as chilling and offensive. He said action may be taken against the group's faculty adviser.
Members of the group said the flier was designed with Halloween in mind. "At this time of year, you see skeletons all over in peoples' yards," one said. "It just didn't dawn on any of us. We just didn't see the harm in it."
'Derisive Stereotypes'
Minority students at the University of Chicago are in an uproar about a party held in campus housing dubbed the "Straight-Thuggin Ghetto Party," reports the Chicago Maroon.
The party, held in a dorm and approved by school officials ahead of time, was one of a series built around the theme of musical eras.
"All of the earlier themes were based on the music and culture of a certain era, such as the early '80s and the early '90s," said one student who attended the party. "The theme of the party was the MTV hip-hop scene. It could have easily been titled the `hip-hop' party."
Generating the most controversy were a series of pictures from the party posted to a student's website. The pictures showed students wearing sideways baseball caps, exposed underwear, bandanas, and other accessories.
After seeing the pictures, Aron Cobbs of the Organization of Black Students, wrote to administrators complaining that the students who attended the party were "performing derisive stereotypes commonly associated with impoverished Black communities (i.e. urban `ghettos') for the purpose of mocking a disadvantaged group of human beings."
Pigs and Ham Sandwiches
Was the story I mentioned yesterday about a ban on piggy banks "fake but accurate"? Apparently the banks concerned have denied the story. But I guess they would after all the adverse publicity. Anyway, the story has been heavily covered in the mainstream media and we all know how careful they claim to be about their "fact checking", don't we?
But whether that particular story is true or not, there have been other similar stories about pandering to Muslim "sensitivities" about pigs that do appear to have been confirmed -- such as this one.
One of the things I asked in my post yesterday was: "Will we soon be banned from eating ham sandwiches?" And it seems that I might have been a bit prophetic there. A reader writes: "Actually the company across the street from us has already told the vending companies to delete all pork products from the break rooms and cafeteria. Why? The Muslim employees. So, the Muslim employees have decided, backed by a spineless, whimpering management, that no employee can buy pork products at lunch. What's next, banning the employees from bringing a ham sandwich from home?"
I report, you decide
It Had to Happen
I knew that piggy banks could not last. In case you have not seen the story already, note the following press excerpt:
"British banks are banning piggy banks because they may offend some Muslims. Halifax and NatWest banks have led the move to scrap the time-honoured symbol of saving from being given to children or used in their advertising, the Daily Express/Daily Star group reports here. Muslims do not eat pork, as Islamic culture deems the pig to be an impure animal. Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, backed the bank move. "This is a sensitive issue and I think the banks are simply being courteous to their customers," he said".How come WE have to give up OUR customs when THEY come to live in our countries? How about Muslims showing some "sensitivity" to our customs? Will we soon be banned from eating ham sandwiches?. It's the same logic (or lack of it).
Pig Trauma
The Miami Herald reports that students at a Florida law school are being urged to shun a pig-kissing fundraiser because the event violates the pig's rights.
The Nova Southeastern University chapter of the national law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta says that it will hold it's fifth annual "Kiss the Pig Charitable Fundraiser" despite complaints from the school's dean, professors and an animal-rights student group that it "traumatizes" the pig in question.
For the fundraiser, professors are given a piggy bank and students donate money. The one who collects the most money has to kiss a pig from a local petting farm. Money from the fundraiser goes to the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood.
Back to Normal in Louisiana
African-American students at Louisiana State University marched across campus to protest some school fans' habit of flying a flag that kinda, sorta looks like the Confederate one during tailgate parties and at football games, reports the Baton Rouge Advocate.
Marchers, who started at LSU's African American Cultural Center and ended near Tiger Stadium, demanded that the administration ban the display of purple-and-gold Confederate flags because they disrespect black students.
"When you take the Confederate flag and put it in school colors, that's offensive to something I love," said marcher Westley Bayas.
Ms. Guevara Says ...
Amherst Regional High School will stop using the term 'freshman' to refer to ninth-grade students because the term is not inclusive enough for some members of the faculty there, according to the Concord Monitor.
Students in ninth grade will now be referred to as ... wait for it ... "ninth-graders" in all official documents and morning announcements.
ARHS Assistant Principal Marta Guevara, who pushed for the change, said the decision to move away from 'freshman' came about after a production of the The Vagina Monologues two years ago.
Guevara said the school wants to make students "aware of the possible misogynistic, oppressive or non-inclusive language."
Updates
Players from Michigan, visiting Iowa City for a big game against the University of Iowa, aren't nearly as worked up over the fact they have to dress in a pink locker room as some members of Iowa's law faculty, according to the Toledo Blade.
Angry residents of White Settlement, Texas gave the city's plans to change its name to something more 'inclusive' a pretty resounding thumbs-down in a meeting over the weekend, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Plans by city officials in Detroit to spend public funds to finance an 'African Town' shopping and entertainment district are still alive and well, and will be discussed by the council this week, reports the Detroit News. Some whites, Arab-Americans, Latinos and others are a little irked that their taxes are paying for a business district made up exclusively of black-owned businesses and catering to a black clientele.
It Was Inevitable
A columnist for the Naples Daily News in Florida says the University of Miami should ditch the Hurricanes nickname because it's insensitive to folks in storm-ravaged areas.
"Hurricanes is no longer an appropriate nickname for a sports team," writes Tom Hanson. "The NCAA can complain about Seminoles, Utes and Illini, but how many people need to die or become homeless before someone calls Miami's moniker out of line?"
"Hurricanes should be taken seriously. They shouldn't be cheered."
Viscount Horatio Nelson
As I hope we all know, last Friday was the 200th anniversary of the destruction of a large Franco/Spanish fleet at Trafalgar by a British force under the command of Admiral Nelson -- thus ending the threat of an invasion of England by Napoleon. In the expected politically correct way, official British government celebrations have been muted for fear of "offending the French". See one account of that here.
So I am going to do my little bit here to mark the event and I don't give a damn about whom it might offend.
I want to concentrate on just one thing: Why did Nelson in effect commit suicide during that battle? He stood in full view in a prominent position on his flagship dressed in every bit of the colourful regalia he was entitled to. He made himself as prominent a target as he could, in other words. And he remained there even when his ship came to close quarters with a French ship full of musketeers. One of those musketeers eventually got him, of course.
Why would he do such a thing? He was the most popular man in England at the time and was sleeping with the most beautiful Englishwoman of the day. He can hardly have been depressed. I think the reason is is clear. He was displaying a virtue that is incomprehensible to the politically correct whiners of today: Heroism.
He knew that his fleet was heavily outnumbered and he knew that the fate of England hung on the battle. And as every military man knows, the spirit and morale of your troops is a hugely important factor in who wins a battle. So although his sailors already regarded him as someone not much less than the Messiah who would lead them to the promised land, Nelson wanted to ensure that every one of his men was a lion of courage. And he did that by setting the example personally.
Update
I am delighted to read that, despite initial British government resistance, popular enthusiasm ensured that the great victory and great heroism of Viscount Nelson was in the end properly celebrated in Britain. See here
Comments? Email John Ray
Babies Incorrect
A nice American Christian family (see here) have just had their 16th child and the invariably vituperative San Francisco far-Left columnist Mark Morford is trying his best to portray that as pathological. Excerpt:"Who are you to say that the more than slightly creepy 39-year-old woman from Arkansas who just gave birth to her 16th child yes that's right 16 kids and try not to cringe in phantom vaginal pain when you say it, who are you to say Michelle Duggar is not more than a little unhinged and sad and lost?...But that would be, you know, mean. Mean and callous to suggest that this might be the most disquieting photo you see all year, this bizarre Duggar family of 18 spotless white hyperreligious interchangeable people with alarmingly bad hair, the kids ranging in ages from 1 to 17...
It's wrong to be this judgmental. Wrong to suggest that it is exactly this kind of weird pathological protofamily breeding-happy gluttony that's making the world groan and cry and recoil, contributing to vicious overpopulation rates and unrepentant economic strain and a bitter moral warpage resulting from a massive viral outbreak of homophobic neo-Christians across our troubled and Bush-ravaged land...."
There is really no arguing with someone as hate-filled as that but I suppose I should mention that large families of 10 or more children were normal in 19th century America and Australia and still are in many parts of the world today. I myself am descended from one such family. And Morford's claim that such large families are causing the world to become overpopulated is certainly common Green/Left rhetoric but is totally fact-free in the usual Leftist way. Almost all of the countries of the developed world are in fact at the moment undergoing sub-replacement birthrates. So their populations are in fact in the process of SHRINKING. Only immigration is keeping the numbers up.
