Another faked "hate crime"

From Britain:

"A Sikh schoolboy, who prompted an inter-faith vigil to promote peace, respect and tolerance after claiming his hair was chopped off by racist thugs, invented the story.

The 15-year-old, in tears, gave a graphic description of a vicious verbal and physical attack by four white males who struck as he walked near his home in Edinburgh. His story was widely reported because of its unusually aggressive nature. It is the Sikh tradition for males to keep their hair uncut and not to shave their beard or moustache.....

But it has emerged that he cut off his own hair, punched himself in the face and concocted the story. It is understood he was experiencing personal problems. Sources say that he felt torn between his Sikh values and more westernised ones. They said he had wanted to get his hair cut for some time, but was afraid of the reaction of some members of his family and the Sikh community...."

Source

Interesting how the liars are always immediately believed. It is such a great excuse for an orgy of self-righteousness. Hat tip to Gerald Hartup, who also has previous reports of similar incidents.

Only Whites may be Called Apes



I've met some pretty ape-like white guys in my time (the Russian boxer above even looks like one) so why can there not be ape-like blacks?

"A white fire department lieutenant will be suspended for mocking the city's former fire chief, who is black, with an advertisement featuring a chimpanzee.

Lt. Dave Carter, 40, admitted sending the clipping by interoffice mail in October to Assistant Fire Chief Stephen McInerny. The altered advertisement depicts a chimpanzee sitting at a table in a dress shirt and tie and suspenders. Above the chimp, the advertisement reads: "I've got an idea. You do my half of the project, and I'll go take a nap."

Carter added the words "Otis Latin Fire Chief" to the ape's chest, and wrote "Hey Justinak!" above the text, referring to Assistant Chief Jeff Justinak.

A city investigation has ended and Carter said he would be suspended for two months without pay, the equivalent of $11,433 of his $68,016 salary. He must complete two courses on diversity and sensitivity.

Source

I guess no blacks can be apes. That sounds like racism to me.

Incidentally, Nikolai Valuev, the Russian boxer above, was once routinely known as "The Beast from the East". He is 7 feet tall and also writes poetry.

Confused Yale Students

The Yale College Council speaks:

"YCC representatives said the appearances this semester of anti-Muslim and anti-gay posters on campus bulletin boards have given new urgency to the need to reevaluate student culture. YCC President Emery Choi '07 said it is important to maintain an atmosphere that encourages free speech, but intolerance abuses that right.

"These acts have no place on this campus," Choi said.

Source

"Free speech for those who agree with me" seems to be the spokesperson's definition of free speech. Joe Stalin said much the same.

Christmas Carols are "Torture"??

"Forcing store clerks to listen to the same holiday music over and over could be akin to torture and should change, a British noise pollution group said.

Source

I wonder why none of them seem ever to have complained of being tortured? I guess the Queen gets tortured too. Everywhere she goes they keep playing that same old national anthem.

Thanks to Scott

I am sorry to see that Scott Norvell has now given up his weekly "Tongue-tied" spot on Fox news. He obviously feels he has done his bit and may be feeling a bit burnt out after years at it.

We all owe him a big "Thank You" for all he has done to promote the cause of free speech

"Merry Christmas" is Hate Speech?

Leftists are great at ratcheting up the rhetoric -- accusing cautious centrists like George Bush of being a "Nazi" etc. So I suppose we should have expected this recent bit of hysteria:

"As some Americans' holiday season draws nigh, secular humanists, Christians, and non-Christian believers should all reflect on what will make this season different from any before it. Depending on context, wishing someone "Merry Christmas!" can now function as hate speech

Source

You have to feel sorry for the sad soul who believes such obvious nonsense. I am a complete atheist but I have just had a very merry Christmas (See here) and I certainly wish the same for everyone -- and I am not slow to say so.

"Hate-crime" Faker to be Prosecuted

We read:

"The Boise city prosecutor has filed a summons for a Boise State University student accused of making up an account of an anti-gay assault on the BSU campus. Authorities announced today that Alex "A.J." McGillis, 20, of Boise must appear in court on charges of resisting and obstructing officers

Source

Why not charge him with a "hate crime"? Most States have laws against that and he clearly was motivated by a hate of those who disapprove of homosexuality.

My previous comment on this was on 10th.

Pakistan Censors Truth About Muhammad

We read:

"The government has confiscated all copies of a book about the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and translations of the book because it contains "objectionable material" about the founder of Islam, said a notification.

The book, titled 'The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion', is written by Robert Spencer and published and printed by Regnery Publishing Inc, Washington DC, it added.

Source

The author of the book comments: "Objectionable material"? Interesting, as it is all from Qur'an, Hadith, and early Islamic biographies of Muhammad"

Christmas Crosses Attacked

We read:

"Bill Lower's holiday light decorations on Floral Avenue are an Ithaca community tradition. For more than a decade, the 400 block of Floral Avenue has shone bright with the 300,000 to 400,000 lights Lower displays on his 15- to 20-acre property.

The Grinch struck Lower's home sometime on Friday evening or Saturday morning and cut power to 150,000 to 200,000 lights. Vandals jumped Lower's fence and cut electric cords in nearly 200 different locations along the property....

Jay Gartlein, who helps Lower put up the decorations, said he found some of the vandals' targets curious. "They bypassed other decorations and went out of their way to wreck the crosses," he said.

Source

Leftist vandalism is nothing new. They think they have a right to attack or destroy anything or anybody they disagree with. They are the true heirs of Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot. And they sure hate anything Christian. Like Muslims, they see it as a rival religion.

Egg on the Face of British Authorites over Attempted "Hate Speech" Prosecution

We read:

" An English couple who were the subject of a police hate probe after complaining about the town's pro-gay policies will be paid $20,000 to end a discrimination suit alleging their civil rights had been violated.

After the Wyre Borough Council launched a diversity program to train its staff about LGBT issues and started a Lancashire wide scheme to promote gay friendly businesses and organizations Joe and Helen Roberts sent a letter to the council calling homosexuality "immoral".... Council officials turned the letter over to police who began a probe to determine if it violated British hate laws.....

In June the Roberts filed suit against the council. The couple claimed that Wyre Council and Lancashire Constabulary interfered with their human rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion under the Human Rights Act.

The case was to have gone to court in January but in an out of court settlement the couple agreed to drop the lawsuit in return for a public apology from the police and council and a cash settlement of $20,000 which Joe Roberts said would be given to a conservative Christian group that opposes homosexuality.

Source

Nice to see that one of Britain's wacky laws can sometimes do something useful.

The Blogspot Free Speech Policy

We read:

"Leading international Web log hosting service BlogSpot -- owned by Google -- is currently hosting several sites for terrorist networks such as al Qaeda in Iraq, who are using the free service to post their blogs in German, English, and Arabic.

After receiving complaints about these sites, Google posted a disclaimer that reads: "Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog's content is hateful. In general, Google does not review nor do we endorse the content of this or any blog."

Google maintains a policy of free expression, even if some of their blogs are unpopular or deemed offensive, moving to take down a site only if there's a threat against a specific individual.

Source

This is a perfectly acceptable policy to almost all libertarians: Warnings are fine. Censorship is not. It is encouraging that the Blogspot tentacle of Google is very different from the Google News tentacle. Most of my blogs would be off the air if Blogspot followed the same policy as Google News.

Cars not Allowed to be "Gay"

We read:

"The BBC has upheld a complaint against Jeremy Clarkson, the Top Gear presenter, after he described a car as a "bit gay". The ruling is a surprise since the corporation had defended Clarkson robustly when the remarks were broadcast in the summer.

He provoked the ire of the gay community when he asked a member of the show's audience if he would buy a two-seater Daihatsu Copen, retailing at o13,495. The man said, "No, it's a bit gay", to which Clarkson added: "A bit gay, yes, very ginger beer."

Source

"Gay" is just a general derogatory word among young people but "Ginger beer" is Cockney rhyming slang for "queer" so Clarkson was evidently saying that the car was the sort homosexuals would like. Apparently that opinion may not be stated.

'Macaca' named most politically incorrect word of 2006

We read:

"The Global Language Monitor on Friday named "macaca" as the most politically incorrect word of the year. The non-profit group, which studies word usage, picked the word after it was used by outgoing United States Republican Senator George Allen of Virginia, in the run-up to last month's Congressional elections, to describe a Democrat activist of Indian descent.

According to Global Language Monitor chief, Paul JJ Payack: "The word might have changed the political balance of the US Senate, since Allen's utterance (an offensive slang term for Indians from the Subcontinent) surely impacted his election bid."

The second most politically incorrect term was "Global Warming Denier," used for someone who believes that climate change has moved from scientific theory to dogma. "There are now proposals that `global warming deniers' be treated the same as Holocaust deniers: professional ostracism, belittlement, ridicule and, even, jail," Payack said.

Source

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

To all who come by here. And those who think it is "Winterval" or some such are welcome to their self-inflicted misery.

A REAL Christmas hater

From California (Where else?):

"A man used flammable liquid to light himself on fire, apparently to protest a San Joaquin Valley school district's decision to change the names of winter and spring breaks to Christmas and Easter vacation. The man, who was not immediately identified, on Friday also set fire to a Christmas tree, an American flag and a revolutionary flag replica, said Fire Captain Garth Milam.....

The man suffered first degree burns on his shoulders and arms, Milam said. Kern County Sheriff's Deputy John Leyendecker said the man had a sign that read: "(expletive) the religious establishment and KHSD." On Thursday, the Kern High School Board of Trustees voted to use the names Christmas and Easter instead of winter and spring breaks.

Source

Sanity and balance have never been very evident among the PC brigade.

David Irving, the Walking Controversy

I probably should not admit that David Irving does rather give me a laugh at times. I think that, like Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore, he is to a significant degree an entertainer. His latest comment, describing a particular colour of brown as "n*gger brown", was obviously a big tease, and it got him the headlines he wanted. He is what Australians would call a "stirrer".

Like Chomsky, however, he lets off his verbal grenades among other sensible-sounding utterances and he has certainly got a point with this:

"You can't have a genuine consensus about histories about a subject like the Holocaust... if the proponents of one argument are given the knighthoods and the money and their opponents are locked up in prison."

The pity of it is that Irving is actually an extremely knowledgeable historian as well. I doubt that there is any other historian who has immersed himself in the Nazi period as fully as he has. His books show that and he was also the only historian who immediately fingered the Kujau "Hitler Diaries" as a fake. I say a little more about Irving here.

Little Birdie Incorrect?



I can't improve on Taranto's comments about this so I will reproduce them:

"Remember that Waco Tribune article from yesterday about the 4-year-old sex predator? A reader calls our attention to an anomaly in the reader comments on the Trib's Web site. On Tuesday "Ed" posted the following:

My son was expelled in the 5th grade for telling another fifth grader that he liked her. I guess saying that to someone who doesn't feel the same way now cons***utes sexual harrassment [sic]. So much for dating!

"Cons***utes"? The next day, "Aschersleben" commented:

Isn't it ironic in this very context that in Ed's comment (Dec 19, 2006 9:24 AM) the word CONS***UTE reads consute?

It looks as though the Trib has some sort of zero-tolerance filter of its own that tries to screen out "bad" words and sometimes ends up hitting good ones.

Source

The bird above is called a Great Tit

Court allows a LITTLE bit of Free Speech

We read:

"A U.S. court ruled that the 2002 federal campaign-finance law went too far in barring corporations, labor unions and other interest groups from directly funding broadcast ads that mention federal candidates.

A divided three-judge panel, ruling in a challenge by Wisconsin Right to Life Inc., said the organizations have a free- speech right to directly fund ads that name a candidate, as long as they don't endorse or oppose the candidate.

Source

"as long as they don't endorse or oppose the candidate" is a rather large restriction.

Britain: Some political opinions are beyond the pale of polite society



It's getting as politically intolerant as Germany. The BNP is an anti-immigration party.

"The Sugar Plum Fairy in English National Ballet's production of The Nutcracker had to confront angry colleagues before yesterday's matinee performance after she was revealed to be a member of the British National Party.

Clarke said she believed that immigration had "really got out of hand". She added: "If everyone who thinks like I do joined, it would really make a difference."

Source

Here's betting she loses her job soon. If you read further in the article, she seems prepared for it.

No Flag Freedom

The usual attack on Southern pride in their history:

"A civil rights group is challenging an Eastern Kentucky high school's use of the Confederate emblem as its school flag, saying the symbol is hurtful to black students at other schools.

Source

The Ku Klux Klan were prominent Democrats in the first half of the 20th century -- which is a lot more recent than the North/South war. Maybe all representations of the Democrats should be banned too! If the Confederate flag is historically associated with racism, so are the Democrats. Modern-day Democrats don't support the Klan but nor do the students above support slavery

One Year in Jail for a Foolish Opinion

We read:

"An Austrian court has ruled that the convicted British Holocaust-denier, David Irving, should be released from prison and serve the remainder of his three-year sentence on probation....

A court in September had upheld Irving's conviction, levied after a one-day trial on February 20 at which he pleaded guilty to a charge dating from 1989 of denying the Holocaust of European Jewry. But Irving had insisted that he no longer questioned the existence of gas chambers at the Nazi's Auschwitz concentration camp...

Austria is among 11 countries that have laws against denying the Holocaust, in which some six million Jews were slaughtered by Nazi Germany, mainly in the later years of World War II.

Source

Peter Singer often has some strange views but he makes some good points about the Irving prosecution. See here.

Prosecution for Unpopular Politics

Even a gesture can land you in jail in Germany:

"A German school bus driver could face jail time for giving the stiff-armed Hitler salute to pupils as they boarded each day.

Police said they also found compact discs with neo-Nazi rock music on board the bus in the southern town of Vilshofen and were investigating whether the 39-year-old driver had played them for the adolescents....

The suspect admitted during questioning to regularly giving the Nazi salute to the pupils over the course of several weeks.

Source

The guy has nutty politics but he is not alone in that

"Ain't as Good as it Used to be"

Readers here occasionally make that comment about this blog. It may be true. When Scott ran this blog it was the only blog he put up and he did it only 5 days a week. I however post to 10 blogs 7 days a week so I cannot give this blog all the attention I would like.

The solution is however in your hands. Send me interesting links and I will put them up. I am only one pair of eyes so there has to be a lot I miss. At the moment I just put up what I see that is of interest but I will happily put up what others see about restrictions on speech and self-expression.

"Methodist" Bigotry

But it's Leftist bigotry, not Christian bigotry

Should all points of view on an issue be vigorously and openly presented on a university campus? Universities routinely claim that they are. And if not there, where? So surely a political philosophy espoused by around half of the American popoulation should be well represented on ANY American university campus?

At Southern Methodist University a lot of the teachers appear to think not. There is a proposal that the university host the Bush Library after GWB finishes his presidency. BAD MOVE! Such a library could be RIGHT WING! And we cannot have ideas like that represented on a university campus.

A theology professor (an expert in "liberation" theology, no doubt) is circulating a letter that seems to be getting a lot of support from other faculty. It says, in part:

"There are two different visions of the library. One is for the library as a place for academic inquiry ... but the other vision is a strictly partisan center to promote the president's platform," said Susanne Johnson, the Perkins School of Theology professor."

And it goes without saying that there is no room for promoting a conservative platform at a university! But even the craziest Leftist ideas have a "right" to be promoted there, of course.

So are universities Leftist institutions or impartial ones? What they claim and what they are is very different. They are just the usual Leftist hypocrites.

(Hat tip to Keith Burgess-Jackson. Keith has another copy of the newspaper article up in case it gets taken down.)

Update: Up until a couple of days ago, SMU had on its home page a boast that its experts got to the "core of an issue faster". The link led to their PR people. So on Wednesday I wrote to the PR director as follows:

Dear Mr Best

I am pleased to hear that you get to the core of an issue faster. As I see it the core of the Bush library furore is that anything right wing should not be allowed on campus.

Why not? Is yours a specifically Leftist institution? Surely a real university welcomes BOTH sides of any debate!

Please explain your apparent bigotry as I am sure the blogosphere would be interested to hear it

I have of course received no reply. But I have received a response: The link to their PR operation has been taken down!

Methodist Madness



Methodists can hate Christmas too!

In Britain, the Methodists are the country's fastest shrinking denomination (Pentecostalists are the fastest growing). I would not be surprised if at least some American Methodist groups are in similar trouble.

The Southern Methodist University does at least seem to be in a pickle. It appears to have switched its loyalty to the Left rather than to Christ. And you can see a revealing symptom of that right in the middle of its current home page. On its home page it boasts that its library has acquired a rare copy (from the 1800s) of the first mass-produced Christmas card ever printed.

So it shows a picture of the card, right? Wrong! It shows only a tiny cut-out of the card -- a cut-out designed so that the the word "Merry" is shown but "Christmas" is deleted! Must not publicly mention the name of that dead white Jewish male who founded the faith 2,000 years ago in Palestine!

There was of course plenty of room on the front page for the full card had they wanted to show it. And for something over 100 years old, copyright was not an issue.

They're not even Christians, let alone Methodists! John Wesley would be amazed. No wonder real Christians are deserting "Methodists" like that.

Update: You can of course link through to see a full copy of the card but why were they afraid to put it on the front page directly? Because mention of Christmas might "offend" someone, no doubt.

Update 2: A reader writes:

Did you note on the SMU home page that the full name of the institution is only written in small print at the bottom of the page? That print is gray and is barely readable.

Going to the pages accessible from the "quick links" on the home page, the full name appears very rarely there too. They don't appear to want to use the name "Methodist" too much on their web site. I guess it would offend too many.

"Santa's Helpers" Incorrect

We read:

"A teacher at a western Louisville elementary school was told to change a Christmas tree bulletin board about two weeks ago after another teacher complained that it might offend some non-Christian students.

The Christmas tree at Brandeis Elementary was made out of construction-paper cutouts of children's hands. Above it, it said: "Santa's Helpers," principal Servita West-Jordan said.

West-Jordan said she asked the teacher to remove the word's "Santa's Helpers" because she agreed that students in the class who were Indian or Muslim might be offended because they don't necessarily believe in Christmas or Santa Claus.

Source

'Huck Finn' under Fire Again

From Arizona:

"A book being used in an American Literature class has a student and his mother so offended that the mother has threatened to file a civil-rights complaint. The mother, Dolores Fisher, alleges racial mistreatment, the segregation of her son and the use of a racial slur in the classroom.

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is required reading at Cactus High School. But it soon became a troubled tale when Fisher's 15-year-old son brought it home and said he wasn't comfortable reading it in class.

"I read it and I was in shock," she said. "When I went to high school in New York, I actually didn't have to read it because it was taken off shelves."

Fisher's upset with the derogatory word that appears more than 400 times in the book....

"It's a very good book by a very famous author," said parent Carl Stacey. "I think it has some good virtues in it. I don't see anything wrong with it at all."

Source

A previous attack on Huck Finn was noted here on Nov. 4th.

Britain: Must not Say that Homosexuals are Pedophiles

No free speech in Britain again:

"A Tory councillor who suggested gay people were paedophiles was given a conditional discharge today.

Peter Willows, who has been a councillor in the UK's self-styled gay capital Brighton and Hove for 12 years, made the comment at a mayor-making reception in May. The 75-year-old was asked by the editor of a gay magazine whether he thought a gay councillor was a paedophile, Brighton Magistrates' Court was told.

"James Ledward asked Willows, 'Do you think Paul's a paedophile?"' prosecutor David Packer said. "Willows replied to that with, 'I know you are not Paul, it's the other gays'." The barrister said the words "equated gay people with paedophiles".

Willows, who the court heard has "fixed, traditional views on marriage, church and families", was found guilty of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress after a day-long trial.

Source

Contrary to some summaries of the matter, he clearly did NOT say that ALL homosexuals are pedophiles. That many are, however, is undoubted. I guess I would be breaking the law to say that in Britain.

And what's wrong with saying that ALL homosexuals are pedophiles, anyway? Lots of other silly things are said and believed. Some people even believe that Leftism is motivated by compassion!

There is a good letter to the editor about the case here. Excerpt: "Does this mean we are to assign a section of the police force as TAFSS (The anti-free speech stormtroopers)?". Letters do not stay up for long so I have also reproduced it on POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH.

British university union votes to gag Jewish society

The usual antisemitism of the British Leftist elite:

"The student union at a prominent British university has voted to gag the Jewish Society from complaining against an increasingly intense anti-Israel campaign by the university's Palestinian society.

The student union at the University of Leeds, home of a large Jewish student population, last Friday voted on a motion proposed by the Palestinian Solidarity Group to ignore complaints by the Jewish Society "as long as Judaism as a faith is not offended."

The Palestinian Solidarity Group, which has a history of hostile campaigning against Israel, using terms such as "apartheid" and "racist," claimed that the existing practice of considering every complaint received by the student union as a real complaint constituted "an arbitrary use of authority."

Students have voiced concern that the motion singles out the university's Jewish students and denies them basic rights enjoyed by other students and student societies.

Source

Followed of course by lots of waffle saying that they are not doing what they are doing.

Islamic Pun a No-no



Must not make ANY jokes involving Islam -- even in Australia:

"A proposed TV commercial featuring Sam Kekovich holding a slab of meat and announcing "Is lamb" has been dropped for fear it might offend Muslims.

The idea was for Kekovich to stand over a barbecue with an Imam (Islamic religious leader) on either side of him as he grilled chops. Kekovich was to hold up a chop to the Imams and say: "Is lamb"..."

Source

But saying and doing things that offend Christians is routine everywhere, of course. Christians are recognized as mature adults capable of handling life's adversities. Muslims are seen as children likely to throw a tantrum.

Harry Potter off the Hook

This time:

"The Georgia Board of Education voted Thursday to uphold a local school board's decision to leave Harry Potter books on library shelves despite a mother's objections.

The board members voted without discussion to back the Gwinnett County school board's decision to deny Laura Mallory's request to remove the best-selling books.

Mallory, who has three children in elementary school, has worked for more than a year to ban the books from Gwinnett schools, claiming the popular fiction series is an attempt to indoctrinate children in witchcraft....

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, published by London-based Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, have been challenged 115 times since 2000, making them the most challenged texts of the 21st Century, according to the American Library Association.

Source

Anything popular can be expected to be attacked. I posted on this case previously -- on October 5.

The Media Need David Duke

Many readers here will by now know something of the controversy about an interview on CNN with David Duke that was conducted by Jewish TV anchor Wolf Blitzer. Some people say that Duke should not have been interviewed.

To me, putting a Holocaust denier up against a pro-Israel Jewish interviewer was simply theater. CNN wanted ratings and it got them. It certainly had nothing to do with CNN defending free speech.

What several people have pointed out, however, is that it is the Left-leaning media who keep David Duke in front of people. Without the media he would be nothing. So why do they do it? It is not only because angry clashes are good TV. If that were so, why not continuously put Leftist Noam Chomsky's support for holocaust deniers and antisemites in front of audiences -- with Jewish advocates attacking him? It just doesn't happen.

Both on this blog and on Political Correctness Watch I have drawn attention to several incidents of Leftists "making up" hate-crimes in order to give themselves an orgy of self-righteousness. David Duke serves the same purpose. He is not made up but he is very rare so he has to be trotted out time and time again. The fact that practically all conservatives despise him is glided over.

And when the media trot Duke out they always somehow manage to associate him with the GOP and with conservatives generally. It's part of their propaganda campaign saying that it is conservatives who are are racist -- despite the fact that most antisemitism these days comes from the Left, despite the fact that the Ku Klux Klan were Democrats, despite the fact that more Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and despite the fact that Hitler was a socialist. Even in the generally racist 19th century, Britain had a flamboyantly Jewish Prime Minister (Disraeli). And who put him there? The Conservative Party! And in Australia blacks were first given the vote by the very conservative Menzies government in 1962.


If David Duke did not exist, the media would have had to invent him.

Christmas Carols now "Too Noisy"

The latest excuse for stopping Christmas celebrations -- from the Unhinged Kingdom:

"A children's Christmas choir was left in tears after shopping centre security guards told them to shut up. The 23 children - aged three to five - were ordered to stop singing carols because they were too noisy.

Nursery school teachers had taken the kids to entertain shoppers at Nottingham's Exchange Arcade, reports the Sun. Claire Ellis, 38, mother of three-year-old singer Harrison, said: "It's disgusting. Christmas is a time for hearing little ones sing. Naturally they get excited but this was a special day for them."

Sharon Hastings, supervisor at Jesters Child Care Nursery, in Gedling, Notts, said: "I couldn't believe it when we were asked to leave. We hadn't caused any disruption and we weren't being loud." And store manager Lorraine Harvey said: "None of our customers complained about the kids."

Source

The fact that they were upsetting little kids did not matter of course. Any normal person would love to hear the little kiddies sing.

Another Weak Excuse to Attack Christmas Celebrations

From California:

"A high school choir was asked to stop singing Christmas carols during an ice skating show featuring Olympic medalist Sasha Cohen out of concern the skater would be offended because she's Jewish.

A city staff member, accompanied by a police officer, approached the Rubidoux High School Madrigals at the Riverside Outdoor Ice Skating Rink just as they launched into "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" and requested that the troupe stop singing, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Thursday.

Source

Nobody thought of asking the Jewish girl first, of course -- which is what they would have done if their concern had really been for her.

Skeptical View of Global Warming Attacked

Canada again:

"The chancellor of British Columbia's Thompson Rivers University has become a public enemy after uttering judicious words on global warming on a Canadian Broadcasting breakfast show last week.

Chancellor Nancy Greene Raine, previously an Olympic skiing champion and national heroine as Canada's official "female athlete of the century," told listeners: "In science, there's almost never black and white. We don't know what next week's weather is going to be. To say in 50 or 100 years, the temperature is going to do this, is a bit of a stretch for me."

The result was a "furor on campus," reports the local Kamloops Daily News. Professors have demanded Ms. Greene Raine's ouster from the ceremonial post

Source

No room for dissent (or even commonsense) when talking about a Holy of Holies.

Attempt to Censor Christian Game

Much gorier games rarely attract a squeak from the Left:

"Targeted largely at conservative Christians, it's a violent video game with a difference: Combatants on one side pause for prayer, and their favored interjection is "Praise the Lord."

Critics say "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" glorifies religious violence against non-Christians. Some liberal groups have been urging a boycott, and on Tuesday they urged Wal-Mart to withdraw the game from its shelves.

Source

Must not be "Boisterous"

Some fool of a student editor failed to realize that you are not allowed to say ANYTHING about blacks unless it is sympathy for their "oppression". And satirizing affirmative action is WAY beyond the pale:

"An editor at a Tufts University conservative journal has apologized for publishing a satirical Christmas carol that ridiculed black students and campus affirmative action policies.

The controversial carol, entitled, "O Come All Ye Black Folk," was published in the most recent edition of the Primary Source, which bills itself as "the journal of conservative thought at Tufts University."

The parody of "O Come All Ye Faithful" calls black people "boisterous" and proclaims, "Born into the ghetto. O Jesus! We need you now to fill our racial quotas."

The lyrics also say, "No matter what your grades are, F's, D's or G's, give them all privileged status."

Source

Must not Depict American Indians as American Indians

Not sure why:

"An independent student newspaper at Dartmouth College says it was a mistake to publish a Page One illustration of an Indian brandishing a scalp as part of a debate over the treatment of minorities on the Ivy League campus....

The offending issue was published a week earlier under the headline "The Natives are Getting Restless." It contained articles critical of College President James Wright, athletic director Josie Harper and a student group, Native Americans at Dartmouth.

Source

It seems that the Indian group being criticized did not like mention of the fact that their ancestors scalped people. Hell, two of my ancestors came to Australia chained up in the holds of convict ships and I don't care who knows it. History is part of reality and to deny reality is psychopathological.

IQ: Unmentionable but Important

Prof. J.P. Rushton has an excellent review here of Richard Lynn's latest monograph: IQ And Global Inequality. Rushton calls the book "The Most Important Contribution To Economic Understanding Since Adam Smith". The book shows that around half of the variance in wealth differences between nations can be accounted for by the average intelligence of the populations of those nations. It is screamingly politically incorrect to say that poor nations are poor in part because of their low collective IQ and you are unlikely to read it anywhere other than here but all the evidence shows that it is the truth, nonetheless.

Lynn is an emeritus professor of psychology in Northern Ireland and his book is no mere rant or expression of opinion. It is an exhaustive treatment of the scientific evidence for and against his thesis.

IQ is not the only factor in determining which countries are the rich ones, of course. Capitalism (degree of economic freedom) is the other big factor. And China is an excellent example of that. The Chinese are on average one of the world's most intelligent populations and now that they have gone capitalist in their economic system, they are leaping ahead economically.

Fat Racist Rosie O'Donnell



We read:

""The View" co-host is in hot water for using the expression "ching chong" to describe Chinese people talking about Danny DeVito's drunken appearance on her show. "The fact is that it's news all over the world. That you know, you can imagine in China it's like: 'Ching chong . ching chong. Danny DeVito, ching chong, chong, chong, chong. Drunk. 'The View.' Ching chong," O'Donnell said on a Dec. 5 episode of "The View."

The statement didn't sit well with John C. Liu, a New York City councilman, who fired off a letter to "View" co-host Barbara Walters. "The 'ching-chong' bit is not a trivial matter," Liu told FOXNews.com. "It really hits a raw nerve for many people in the community - many like myself, who grew up with these kinds of taunts. We all know that it never ends at the taunts."

Source

But as a prominent Leftist, she gets a pass of course. Such language from her is just "humor". Had she been a prominent conservative (Such as a GOP Senator who used a word that can be insulting in French), it would have been splashed in the papers for months.

Update

There is a video here of Michelle Malkin really taking O'Donnell apart.

We Need a Muslim to Bring Back Christmas Celebrations?

It seems that allegedly "down-to-earth" Yorkshire in England does:

"A banner wishing people 'Merry Christmas' will adorn Dewsbury Town Hall for the first time in years.

Council chiefs have binned a five-year-old 'politically correct' ban on displaying such signs.

Tory Councillor Khizar Iqbal, cabinet member for community cohesion, said his group planned to adorn all town halls with banners wishing people a 'Merry Christmas'.

Source

If Khizar Iqbal is not a Muslim I will be surprised. It is at least a Pakistani name. The move is certainly a credit to him but what does it say about the Anglo councillors of the past?

Service outages

Both blogger.com and Haloscan seem to be having difficulties at the time of writing. Blogspot blogs are slow to come up and Haloscan (the Commenting service) seems to be off the air altogether.

If I click on the "Status" report for blogger.com, all I get is: "You are not authorized to view this page"! Very helpful and informative!

Christmas Trees Removed from Seattle Airport

Sounds like they jumped at an excuse to diss Christmas -- what one would expect of Seattle:

"All nine Christmas trees have been removed from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport instead of adding a giant Jewish menorah to the holiday display as a rabbi had requested....

Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky, who made his request weeks ago, said he was appalled by the decision. He had hired a lawyer and threatened to sue if the Port of Seattle didn't add the menorah next to the trees, which had been festooned with red ribbons and bows....

"Everyone should have their spirit of the holiday. For many people the trees are the spirit of the holidays, and adding a menorah adds light to the season," said Bogomilsky, who works in Seattle at the regional headquarters for Chabad Lubavitch, a Jewish education foundation....

"They've darkened the hall instead of turning the lights up," said Bogomilsky's lawyer, Harvey Grad.

Source

Not a very wise Rabbi, I would think, but the Lubavitchers are not noted for moderation.

The Rot Spreads to Spain

The anti-Christmas crusade seems to be weakening a bit in the English-speaking countries but some Spaniards seem determined to take up the slack:

"A school in traditionally Catholic Spain has cancelled Christmas celebrations so as not to offend children who are not Christians, ABC newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Hilarion Gimeno school in Zaragoza said teachers had put forward various reasons for not celebrating Christmas, but ABC said the worry was that Muslim children might be upset.

The school will not put on a nativity play or hand out presents, but pupils will be free to decorate the halls and sing carols."

Source

Medical Coverup

This blog covers political censorship almost exclusively but there are plenty of other attempts to suppress the truth. I have just put up a mention of some censorship of medical information on my Food & Health Skeptic blog. I suspect that some nervous obstetricians put pressure on the medical journal concerned. Some recent research suggests that a routine childbirth procedure might be bad for the baby.

Censorship is however not the only way of hiding the truth from people. Deceptive propaganda can also leave people sadly misinformed. I will have an example of that on Food & Health Skeptic tomorrow.

"Racist" to Speak English in Texas

English is the international language of aviation. All pilots have to understand English so they can understand control-tower instructions -- which are also all in English (or supposed to be).

Extending that policy to all employees at a Texas airport got shot down as "racist", however:

"A short-lived policy in Austin's aviation department that would have required airport employees to pass an English proficiency test to keep their jobs was rescinded Friday.

Aviation director Jim Smith told employees in a Nov. 30 memo that the ability to read, write and speak English is essential to safety, security and customer service at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport."

Source

A Brave Man

But how many whites would be game to take up his invitation?

"In response to the controversy over Michael Richards' use of the n-word during a performance at the Laugh Factory, the owner of a Los Angeles club welcomed comics who used the racially charged term Friday night.

"Someone had to stand up for comics and freedom of speech has to rule the day," said Enss Mitchell, owner of Comedy Union. "No matter if you agree or disagree with what someone says, you have to allow them the opportunity to say it."

Mitchell, who is black, said he wasn't encouraging anyone to use the word but he wanted to create an atmosphere in which performers feel comfortable talking about anything they want.

Source

Australian Soldiers in Iraq not Allowed to Blog

Inexcusable bureaucratic heavy-handedness:

"The Australian Defence Force has banned soldiers from writing online journals and has deleted blogs from troops serving in Iraq. Critics say the soldiers are being denied the very freedoms they are fighting for.

The blogs were destroyed in September, hours after pictures of Australian soldiers playing with guns surfaced on the internet in the days before the inquiry into Private Jake Kovco's death in Baghdad.

Australia's leading defence think-tank, a civil libertarian and an internet expert have blasted the move as heavy-handed, saying it denied freedom of speech and destroyed Australian history. "This shows how far behind the times the ADF is," Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman said. "If the American army allows blogs, why doesn't the Australian army? If it does not pose a security threat, why are these soldiers being denied the rights of democracy that they are fighting for?"

Source

The above sounds like a good argument for posting on blogspot to me. Blogspot have a very strong (though not cast-iron) policy of "delete nothing". And it helps us to understand anonymous blogging. I use my own real name and am open about my particulars but I seem to be in a minority in doing that.

Yet Another Faked "Hate Crime"

We read:

"Boise Police recently said the Boise State University student leader who claimed he was attacked because of his sexual orientation confessed to detectives he fabricated the report. Investigators said the student admitted using a stick and his fists to self-inflict his injuries and that other evidence connected to his initial report had also been fabricated.

Police spokeswoman Lynn Hightower said the student's confession of a false report is consistent with evidence uncovered by detectives during their investigation.

Source

The university left had an orgy of righteousness out of it first, though. There is so little real hate emanating from conservatives that the Left have to make it up all the time. There is an active group of conservative students on campus so the faked incident looks like an attempt to "get" them.

Now Pediatricians Want Censorship

We read:

"Inappropriate advertising contributes to many kids' ills, from obesity to anorexia, to drinking booze and having sex too soon, and Congress should crack down on it, the American Academy of Pediatrics says. The influential doctors' group issued a new policy statement in response to what it calls a rising tide of advertising aimed at children. The policy appears in December's Pediatrics, scheduled for release today."

Source

Duty Finally Trumps Beauty



I have posted a couple of times previously (e.g. August 11) about the corrupted version of the West Point motto "Duty, Honor, Country" that was posted at the entrance to a California VA facility. The word "Duty" was replaced by "Beauty".

Vietnam veteran Robert Rosebrook was greatly offended by the California version of what the military are about and set out his objections at length here, among other places.

He has just advised me that the sign has now been taken down amid almost total media silence. The replacement sign will simply say: "Honoring our Veterans".

The backdown was reported in a local paper only, the "Brentwood News" (story not online so I have put it online here and here -- PDF).

The reasoning given in the paper in defence of the "Beauty" sign is truly pathetic.

CAIR attacks Free Speech -- Again



Popular Jewish political commentator Dennis Prager has recently said that the oath of office for a U.S. Congressman should be taken in conjunction with the Bible only. A recently-elected Congressman, Keith Ellison, wants to use the Koran.

I usually agree with Prager but I don't on this one. Whatever makes your oath most sacred to you should be used, in my opinion.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations does not agree with Prager, either, but, instead of being content simply to register disagreement with Prager -- as I have just done -- they want him punished for expressing his view. They want him removed from a semi-government job that he holds. The (Jewish) Anti-Defamation League disagrees with Prager too.

Details here

Must not Use the N-word Even in a Joke

Unless you are black, of course. Then you can use it all the time:

"Andy Dick is apologizing for using the same racial slur that got ex-"Seinfeld" star Michael Richards in trouble last month.

Dick, a former co-star of the 1990s sitcom "NewsRadio," jumped on stage during a routine by Ian Bagg at L.A.'s Improv on Saturday night and used the n-word in an apparent attempt to joke about Richards, the celebrity Web site TMZ.com reported Tuesday....

According to TMZ, Dick had been heckling comedian Bagg from the audience and then joined him onstage, when the two discussed Richards. When Dick exited the stage, he suddenly grabbed the microphone and shouted at the crowd, "You're all a bunch of...'" - using the n-word.

Source

It sounds like Andy might have had a bit too much of the singing syrup. A British TV personality, Bruce Jones, seems to have had similar problems with the singing syrup recently. There is a picture of the happy Mr Jones here.

Gingrich Wants to "Revise" Free Speech Rights

We read:

"Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday in Manchester said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism. Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a 'different set of rules' may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message. ...

Gingrich spoke to about 400 state and local power brokers last night at the annual Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment award dinner, which fetes people and organizations that stand up for freedom of speech."

Source

There has been a lot of discussion of the Gingrich remarks. See, for example, here and here.

Signs Protected by the First Amendment?

Why not?

"The car Chris Pagan wanted to sell is long gone. But he kept the 'for sale' sign, in case he might need it as evidence in a three-year federal court battle over his right to use the sign. In 2003, Pagan parked a 1970 Mercury Cougar with a 'for sale' sign in front of his Sharon Road home. But Glendale police threatened to cite him under an ordinance forbidding such signs on vehicles in public areas. ...

Pagan filed a federal lawsuit, launching a freedom-of-speech crusade against the village's half-century-old sign regulation. 'This is not a trivial thing. Glendale was seeking to throw me into the criminal justice system and subject me to jail time -- and they can't do that when they're violating the First Amendment,' said Pagan, who could have been fined up to $250 and spent 30 days in jail.

On Wednesday, Pagan's case will be debated in an unusual hearing before all 14 judges of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals."

Source

NH Town Kicks Christ out of Christmas

"A Christmas controversy is brewing in Hillsboro after a church was kicked out of the upcoming community-wide celebration.

It all has to do with a pastor's plan to read "The Night Before Christmas" along with a Bible passage. "It basically is the account of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, so we wanted to read that and also read 'The Night Before Christmas,'" said the Rev. Greg Lull of the Valley Bible Chapel.

Source

Racist Rolf



Rolf Harris is an Australian-born artist and singer who is particularly popular as a children's entertainer in England. He has received the highest accolade possible for a portrait painter in that the Queen recently sat for him.

He has now apologised for using racist language in the song that launched his career, Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, written in 1957:

"The opening lines tell of a dying stockman giving his friends instructions on how they should treat his pet animals, such as "keep me cockatoo cool, Curl" and "take me koala back, Jack" before the fifth verse:

Let me Abos go loose, Lou,
Let me Abos go loose.
They're of no further use, Lou,
So let me Abos go loose.
Altogether now!

In an interview with Radio Scotland to be broadcast on Sunday, 76-year-old Harris admitted that those lines were racist and said he wished he had never written them.

Source

At the time, it was common for Aborigines (often abbreviated as "Abos") to work in the Australian cattle industry as cowboys etc. They were however viewed as unreliable employees (principallly because of their custom of "going walkabout" (decamping) at unpredictable and inconvenient times) and were paid less than white employees. It was however one of the few employment avenues open to many of them because of their low levels of education etc.

Subsequently, empoyers were forced by law to pay Aborigines at the same rate as white employees -- thus bringing to an almost total end Aboriginal employment in the cattle industry. They are now heavily dependant on welfare payments from the Federal government.

Interestingly, the judges who brought down the equal pay ruling said at the time that they knew that the Aborigines were less valued employees and that the ruling would throw most of them out of work. The Harris song did then express the common view of Aborigines at the time -- as being of little use. Similar views are probably still widely held but can no longer be safely expressed, of course.

Some people of ill-will have apparently suggested that the line in the song, "Let me Abos go loose" implies that Aborigines were enslaved at the time. Only a Leftist would think so. The evident meaning of the line is to "Let them go" in modern parlance -- i.e. cease to employ them.

Democrat Immunity from "Racism"

U.S. Senator Joe Biden of Delaware is very much a conservative Democrat but he is a Democrat. Is that why he can boast to Southerners that his home State was a slave State that would have joined the Confederacy if it could?

"Delaware, he noted, was a "slave state that fought beside the North. That's only because we couldn't figure out how to get to the South. There were a couple of states in the way."

Source

Had he been anyone but a Democrat politician, his remarks would have been condemned in the media from coast to coast. But what do we in fact hear? An almost complete coverup. Compare the constant media hammering given to Senator Allen over his use of a nonsense word that happened to mean something bad in French. And what about the pummelling Senator Trent Lott got for his gracious salute to the aged Strom Thurmond?

OK to Insult Poles

When will I figure out the rules about whom you are allowed to insult and whom you are not allowed to insult?

"BERLIN: A newspaper has published pictures comparing the Polish President to a potato on the eve of a summit between Germany, Poland and France - five months after the three-way meeting was abandoned following a similar gibe. Tageszeitung printed pictures of Lech Kaczynski, whose twin brother is the Prime Minister, next to potatoes asking: "Which one of you is it that's coming again?"

Source

Am I imagining it if I think that there would have been a worldwide uproar if the President concerned had been from an African or a Muslim country? Yet few countries could have endured more suffering and victimhood in the last 100 or more years than the heroic Poles. Being the ham in the sandwich between Germany and Russia has never been fun. But I guess that the Poles have committed the terrible offence of being white and Christian.

Technicolor Santa



The Dutch Santa Claus ("Sinterklaas") has been in trouble since last year -- because he traditionally has a helper called "Zwarte Piet" (black Pete). The Dutch Santa gets it easy, you see -- instead of climbing down chimneys himself, Piet does that job for him and that does rather blacken Piet. A nice bit of Dutch realism.

But black and white are politically perilous colors these days of course so this year Sinterklaas has FOUR helpers -- with blue, green, yellow and red faces. Details here

The picture above shows Sinterklaas with the "old" Zwarte Piet -- taken on a visit by Sinterklaas to Bondi Beach in Australia. There are a lot of immigrant Dutch families in Australia too that need looking after, you see.

Another Attack on Christmas by the ACLU

The American Center for Law and Justice is at the moment drawing attention to a lawsuit from the ACLU which they are helping to defend:

"We represent several school officials and teachers who have been charged with engaging in what the ACLU calls "illegal acts." The ACLU claims that the plaintiffs have been harmed, injured and "suffered irreparable damage" through the Christmas program because of its "Christian themes and songs." The ACLU will then ask for these actions be declared "unconstitutional and illegal."

It gets even worse. The plaintiffs and the ACLU allege that several kindergarten students role-played a nativity scene of the birth of Jesus-and had the audacity to sing "Away in the Manger" and "Joy to the World."

Source

It would be a strange day if Christmas celebrations were found to be unconstitutional in the USA. The people under ACLU attack are from the Wilson County School System outside of Nashville, TN.

It would be perfectly reasonable if the ACLU were asking for non-Christian children to be allowed to opt out from the celebrations but in their usual simple-minded way the ACLU claim that it is only by stopping EVERYBODY from celebrating Chistmas that non-Christians can have their views respected.

STACLU has also recently commented on the matter.

No Free Speech at Johns Hopkins Either: Update

Johns Hopkins University has revealed itself as a thoroughly Stalinist organization. I noted here on Nov 2 the protest about a fancy-dress party invitation posted on the net by the university's Sigma Chi fraternity. The party theme was to be "Halloween in the Hood" and the invitation encouraged guests to wear "regional clothing from our locale" with jewelry including "bling bling ice ice, grills" and "hoochie hoops". The party itself featured a skeleton pirate hanging on a noose.

(Note that no mention of race was made and that almost all pirates were white. And is anybody claiming that bling, grills etc. are NOT to be found in a "Hood"?)

For that bit of innocent fun, the organizer of the party, Justin Park, has now been found guilty of that most dreadful political crime -- "racial stereotyping" (plus a whole list of other preposterous offences that would have done Stalin's apparatchiki proud) -- and has been handed all sorts of punishments, including banishment from the university for a year.

And his fate was decided in absentia -- i.e. it was decided at a secret trial to which he was not invited and at which he was not represented. These Stalinists couldn't arrange a show trial so they denied him justice entirely.

More details here.

More Leftist Dedication to Free Speech

We read:

"Violence erupted at a Michigan law school Thursday when protestors tried to block a speech by Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo. Police were called after protestors pulled a fire alarm prior to the speech on immigration policies. There were at least three violent incidents with protestors targeting student backers of the event, Tancredo, R-Littleton, said today. "One was spit on, one was kicked, and one was punched," Tancredo said in an e-mail. "Tires were also slashed."

Source

Liberty or Death

Les Bates has an interesting warning about what the First Amendment protects America from. He says that if free speech is suppressed, the arguments will have to come out of the barrel of a gun. Since Leftists are antigun and therefore are presumably less likely to own guns, they should perhaps ease up from their attacks on free speech. They might not survive the alternative very well. Fortunately, it is extremely unlikely to come to that in the USA. But we see in Iraq what lack of tolerance between different belief-groups leads to.

Religious Songs not Allowed

A far-Left local council at work in the Unhinged Kingdom:

"A mother and toddlers' group has been threatened with closure unless it stops singing traditional Christian songs, it has been revealed.

Childcare officials have attacked the weekly sessions which feature sing-alongs with youngsters, claiming they are too religious and need to be more 'inclusive'.

The drop-in group has been warned it will lose its 7,000 pounds-a-year government grant which is distributed by Labour's Haringey Council in North London, unless it agrees to remain 'non-religious' in future.

It has been told to stop teaching children songs about 'loving Jesus', to consider dropping the word 'Christian' from its title and instead be more welcoming to gay families.

Source

So we should re-write Christmas songs so that they "welcome" homosexuals? Any suggestions? Let's see: Maybe "Rudolph the red-nosed homo, had a very shiny butt.... "??

Santa Claus Deemed Too 'Religious' for School Fundraiser

We read:

"A Christmas-themed event to raise money at a public elementary school in Warwick, N.Y., has been altered to accommodate a parent's complaints that the program would illegally spotlight a "religious" figure - Santa Claus. "Breakfast With Santa" has since been changed to "Winter Wonderland Breakfast"

Source

Someone must have sabotaged my Bible. I cannot find Santa Claus in it anywhere.

This SOUNDS Good in Principle

A surprising idea from one of the most reliable pulpits of the Left:

"The BBC triggered outrage yesterday by calling for the views of extremists and fundamentalists to be given the same weight as those of mainstream politicians.

The corporation's head of television news, Peter Horrocks, said groups such as the Taliban and the far-Right BNP need more airtime - at the expense of moderate opinion.

He said all views need to be treated with the same respect, describing his proposals as 'radical impartiality'.

Source

Nasty old cynic that I am, however, I am betting that 99% of the "extreme" views they would broadcast would come from the Muslims and the Left.

This SOUNDS Good in Principle

A surprising idea from one of the most reliable pulpits of the Left:

"The BBC triggered outrage yesterday by calling for the views of extremists and fundamentalists to be given the same weight as those of mainstream politicians.

The corporation's head of television news, Peter Horrocks, said groups such as the Taliban and the far-Right BNP need more airtime - at the expense of moderate opinion.

He said all views need to be treated with the same respect, describing his proposals as 'radical impartiality'.

Source

Nasty old cynic that I am, however, I am betting that 99% of the "extreme" views they would broadcast would come from the Muslims and the Left.

Scotland Limits "Hate Crime"

Is a crime worse because it is directed against a minority member? "Yes" seems to be the universal claim of the Left. And that idea has been enshrined in law in various places -- notably in Canada. Scotland, however, is holding back a bit. Despite considering making it especially bad to commit crimes against certain privileged groups -- such as homosexuals -- they have decided that it is only crimes involving race and religion that will be especially penalized.

Why a crime against someone who happens to be regarded as part of a majority should be treated more lightly never seems to be answered. If someone bashes me, do I hurt less because I am white and heterosexual? Is crime against me less important? One is reminded of Shakespeare's powerful reply to antisemitism in "The Merchant of Venice":

"Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases. Heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?"

These days, one could substitute "white man" for "Jew" and "homosexual" for "Christian" in the above.

Details of the Scottish legislation here

Ya Gotta Love it!

The Australian parliament is at the moment in the middle of passing laws which give Australians the legal right to abuse the English! And they can even use copyright material to satirize the English. Australia's Attorney General writes:

"Either way patriotic Australians will be free to mock the British team without the threat of lawsuits. The Government has ensured the use of copyright material for the purposes of parody or satire will be protected.

Source

The England cricket team is playing in Australia at the moment (and getting badly beaten) so old English/Australian rivalries are very vocal at the moment. Cricket has the sort of importance in Australia that baseball has in America.

Meanwhile, some English-born people in Australia are grumbling about the term "Pom" -- which is how Australians frequently refer to the English:

"A group of thin-skinned English expats wants the word Pom banned, claiming it is a racial slur on a par with the most appalling insults. British People Against Racial Discrimination has gone to the Advertising Standards Board in an attempt to derail the latest Tooheys [beer advertising] campaign which mocks the warm-beer-drinking Brits. The ads claim Tooheys' supercold brand is "cold enough to scare a Pom"...

"The Oxford Dictionary classes Pom as being derogatory just like wog, wop, dink, dago, coon and abo, it's every bit as bad as the term n*gger," BPARD spokesman David Thomason said yesterday.

Source

They've got the proverbial snowflake's chance of getting anywhere with their complaint of course -- if only because the English sometimes refer to Australians as "Colonials", which is clearly derogatory, but "Pom" has no obvious independent meaning.

Britain: Must not Abbreviate "Pakistani"

We read:

"A race row has broken out after a councillor defended the use of the word 'Paki'. Councillor Ian Robinson, who is a school governor, asked: "Is Paki such a wrong word?" during a public meeting..... "We have used this word for donkey's years but apparently you can't say it any more.....

And Salim Mullah, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said he understood the word to be wrong, and advised friends, especially white people, against it. He said: "The word is not a respectful term. I would use a different phrase, like a member of the Pakistani community'. "A lot of people feel uncomfortable when someone uses 'Paki'."

But Councillor Robinson was supported by Pendle Council's Labour leader, Councillor Mohammad Iqbal, who said he had been called "a lot worse" and that he saw the term as an abbreviation, not an insult.

Source

There is a similar "sensitivity" in Australia. To abbreviate "Aborigine" as "Abo" is sometimes claimed to be racist, though the actual derogatory term for Aborigines is "boong" (pronounced as in "book").