Tongue Tied 3

Must not mention that Mohammed took children to bed -- He married a 6-year-old

What starts out as a peaceful debate between a Christian man and a Muslim woman quickly turns violent when the Christian claims "Mohammed was a pedophile" which spurs the usual reaction from the religion of peace: uncontrollable violent outrage.

See the video here

Background on Mohammed's lusts here

McDonald's is digging in its heels in support of homosexuality

As I pointed out a couple of weeks ago, McDonalds has this year gone political. They have been leaning over backwards to support the homosexual agenda -- homosexual marriage etc. Christian groups have objected to that and called for a boycott of McDonald's -- but McDonald's is unmoved:

"McDonald's, however, has been unapologetic about its pro-gay stance, asserting that organizers of the boycott are motivated by a hateful agenda against homosexuals. "Hatred has no place in our culture," McDonald's USA spokesman Bill Whitman told The Washington Post.

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McDonald's can of course argue in favor of whatever they like but Christian groups can also then argue against McDonald's and ask Christian people to boycott them. Burger King must be rubbing their hands with glee.

But claiming that objections to homosexuality are "hate" rather than loyalty to Bible teachings is really going out on a limb. As a conservative commentator says:

"However, when McDonald's steps up to the mic to address the media, a veritable rainbow of true colors is revealed. While referring to customers with traditional family values, spokesman Bill Whitman regurgitated this little McNugget to the Washington Post: "Hatred has no place in our culture."

Nice job, Bill. I'm sure the hundreds of millions of customers you've just smacked down with this little insult are itchin' for a Happy Meal now.

Get it? If you happen to support the historical definition of marriage - which is, and has always been male-female - then you're a drooling, inbred hatemonger.

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You would think McDonald's to be in too much trouble from the food freaks and obesity warriors to insult the majority of Middle America as well.

I rather hope that enough people feel insulted for it to show up in McDonald's bottom line. The executives responsible for this nonsense might then be fired.

The latest reports however are that McDonald's are not budging -- and neither are the Christian groups. As well as asking for a boycott, some groups are now picketing McDonald's branches.

I have always defended McDonald's from the food freaks who claim that McDonald's food is "unhealthy" but I think in future I will leave McDonald's to fight their own battles.

Predictably, the media are ignoring the Christian campaign. Claims that McDonald's food is unhealthy always get plenty of coverage, however.

The BBC goes too far (?)

We read:

"During the Beeb's normally sedate and contemplative Thought For The Day, journalist Clifford Longley mused on the subject of Africa. The problem with the continent was: "African culture has always lacked a developed sense of common humanity," before going on to claim that Africa suffered from a propensity to "turn to massacre and genocide".

Of course, no genocide has ever occurred in Africa. The mass murders in Rwanda, the Congo, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and countless other African countries are actually our fault, and the West must take all the blame.

Quite rightly, such insensitive comments led to the BBC's Black and Asian Forum to complain that the comments were "racist and xenophobic" as well as the usual rot about Longley being insensitive to other people's hurt feelings.

There's just one flaw -- Longley wasn't making these points himself. He was actually quoting a Nigerian theologian who has long bemoaned the refusal of African countries to take responsibility for their own actions. Ooops...

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An introduction to NewSpeak

Some good points in the excerpt below:

"WorldNetDaily reported yesterday on San Francisco's official condemnation of the Catholic Church specifically for its position on sexual morality. What caught my attention was this paragraph: "According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution condemning the 'act of provocation' by what it termed an 'anti-gay,' 'anti-choice' organization that aimed to 'negatively influence the politics of America's most tolerant and progressive city.'"

Evidently, "tolerant" doesn't mean what I thought it meant. If it did, then San Francisco would, ummm, what's the word ... ah! tolerate those who hold sincere, but opposing views. Like, say, a religious organization?

Evidently, "progressive" doesn't mean what I thought it did, either. Or even what the liberals who've adopted it define it to mean. They define "progressive" to mean "a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties."

Why should anyone feel marginalized by their government while their most cherished beliefs are condemned? That is the main argument advanced by pro-Islamic groups like CAIR, and they use it because it is a fair one. Freedom of religion is the most basic of American rights.

If you were a heterosexual pro-family, pro-life Catholic citizen of San Francisco and heard your most bedrock beliefs condemned as: "insulting to all San Franciscans," "hateful," "defamatory," "insensitive" and "ignorant," how protected would you feel your civil rights were in the most "tolerant and progressive" city in America?

Here's a tantalizing idea. Islam is both restrictive of women's rights AND prohibits homosexual conduct. And it proscribes the death penalty for those who violate its provisions. But no such resolution condemning Islam for its anti-gay and anti-choice rights is likely. That would rightly be neither "tolerant" nor "progressive."

"Progressive" and "tolerant" now have to take their place with archaic words like "illegal" and "immigrant" and "nuanced" and "unbiased" and "racist" and "liar" on the Endangered Meaning List. They used to have a definite meaning. Now, they have so many meanings as to render them meaningless.

"Illegal" used to denote criminal behavior, which was frowned upon. Now, applying that term to a person who is unlawfully living as an immigrant inside the country is a "racist pejorative" whereas the act of being an illegal alien inculcates with it certain rights not available to legal American citizens. Instead, they are "undocumented workers seeking a better life" - unless they are from a country other than Latin America. (If they are from Europe or Canada, they're still illegal aliens.)

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Appeals Court Approves City Council Ban on Prayer 'In Jesus' Name'

We read:

" The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that the city council of Fredericksburg, Virginia had proper authority to require "non-sectarian" prayer content and exclude council-member Rev. Hashmel Turner from the prayer rotation because he prayed "in Jesus' name." Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing the decision, said: "The restriction that prayers be nonsectarian in nature is designed to make the prayers accessible to people who come from a variety of backgrounds, not to exclude or disparage a particular faith."

Ironically, she admitted Turner was excluded from participating solely because of the Christian content of his prayer.

Gordon James Klingenschmitt, the former Navy chaplain who faced court-martial for praying "in Jesus name" in uniform (but won the victory in Congress for other chaplains), defended Rev. Hashmel Turner: "The Fredericksburg government violated everybody's rights by establishing a non-sectarian religion, and requiring all prayers conform, or face punishment of exclusion."

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Wayne State University does its best to silence opponents of abortion

We read:

"Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed suit Wednesday after officials of Wayne State University refused to allow a pro-life student group the same access to student fees and facilities that other student groups have. "Student groups shouldn't be discriminated against for their beliefs," said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Joseph Martins. "Access for these groups to funding and facilities must be provided without regard to the group's viewpoint. When a public university enforces a viewpoint-discriminatory policy, the school violates the Constitution."

The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the school's student fee policy, which precludes student groups with religious viewpoints from benefits that are extended to student groups with nonreligious views. Andrea Bezaire, president of WSU Students for Life, submitted a budget request to WSU's Budget Committee to help fund the group's Pro-Life Week 2008 events. The committee denied the request "because of the spiritual and religious programming references in the cover letter."

In Bezaire's appeal of the denial, she removed all religious references in order to meet the budget committee's demands. Even so, the university replied by again denying the group's entire budget request, with some student council members stating that the subject matter of the group's events was inappropriate and would greatly offend women who had an abortion.

The lawsuit also challenges a reservation policy which WSU used to deny the group access to a room because the university officials found the proposed pro-life event to be "unsuitable."

"Universities cannot enforce policies designed to suppress student groups from presenting religious perspectives on societal issues," said ADF Senior Counsel Nate Kellum. "Wayne State currently extends funding to student groups with a whole range of different views; it cannot single out this one for discrimination. What it really appears to come down to is that the values of Students for Life conflict with the politically correct philosophies embraced by the university, and that is not a sufficient legal basis for discriminating against the group."

Source

Supremes disallow 'hate crime' law

'Preaching about sin of sodomy should not be made illegal'

"The Supreme Court in Pennsylvania has declared the "hate crimes" laws used to jail the Philadelphia 11 in 2004 violated the state constitution. In a four-line statement this week, the court said the ruling from the lower Commonwealth Court "is affirmed for the reasons ably set forth in the opinion of the Honorable James Gardner Collins, which opinion is adopted as that of the Supreme Court."

"We are very happy that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled in our favor to stop the governor and a group of corrupt politicians from sneaking a 'hate crimes' bill through the Pennsylvania legislature," said Judge Roy Moore, of the Foundation for Moral Law. "Preaching to homosexuals about the sin of sodomy should not be made a 'thought crime' in Pennsylvania or any other state," he said.

Michael Marcavage, director of Repent America and a petitioner in the case, said, "Having been arrested, jailed and charged with a 'hate crime' for preaching the Gospel, I am elated that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling in striking down Pennsylvania's expanded 'hate crimes' law." ...

The group of Christians, who were given the title Philadelphia 11, had been giving their testimony on public property at the city's tax-funded celebration of homosexuality in the city's downtown in 2004. But based on a 2002 "hate crimes" plan then in force in the state, they were arrested, jailed and threatened with up to five decades in jail.

The criminal charges later were dismissed and the group members then challenged the law itself, suing over its adoption. The Supreme Court's ruling affirms the 4-1 decision in the Commonwealth Court that the amendments were unconstitutional.

Source

Spanish Pro-Family Group Files Charges Against Homosexual Groups for "Hate Speech"

This could be an interesting one:

"A Spanish pro-family activist group, HazteOir, has filed charges against the organizers of the 2008 Madrid "Gay Pride" march for "hate speech," according to the group's website. HazteOir accuses the march organizers of making hateful statements against Catholics, pro-family organizations, and those politicians opposed to the Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) . The PSOE, which currently occupies the position of Prime Minister and holds a majority in the Spanish Parliament, supports special "rights" for homosexuals.

Amongst numerous other things, "Gay Pride" marchers in Madrid held a banner depicting Pope Benedict XVI on fire and calling him "chief of the inquisitors."

"Yet again, the march has been marked by attacks against the Catholic Church, mockery of the bishops and slogans against Christians, " writes HazteOir.

Article 525.1 of the Spanish Penal Code, which HazteOir is invoking to support their case, applies a heavy fine of 8 to 12 months of pay to those who seek to "hurt the feelings of the members of a religious confession" by "publicly, by word or through any type of document, make fun of their dogmas, beliefs, rites, or ceremonies, or publicly humiliate those who profess or practice them."

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French face prosecution for 'insulting' government employees

We read:

"When Jean-Jacques Reboux was stopped in his battered Citro‰n AX by police in Paris and accused of obstructing the traffic, he protested his innocence. "I was in a traffic jam at a crossroads and I wasn't obstructing anything at all," he told The Times. First, Mr Reboux called the police officer a canard (a duck). Then he lost his cool and called him a connard, which translates roughly as stupid bastard.

The term landed the Parisian publisher in court and he was fined 150 euros ($236) this month for the peculiarly Gallic crime of outrage, or insulting a public official. The offence - which carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a _7,500 fine - dates from Napoleonic times and is designed to protect "the dignity ... of a person charged with a public service mission".

Behind the legalese is the belief that civil servants are the embodiment of a French State that deserves the respect and support of all its citizens. The number of prosecutions for insulting police officers and other civil servants has risen from 17,700 in 1996 to 31,731 last year in what critics say is an abuse of government power.

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Death threat for editor over Islamic cartoon

We read:

"A newspaper editor has received death threats from militant groups for publishing a cartoon of a radical woman Islamic leader encouraging her pupils to wage holy war. Najam Sethi, chief editor of the Daily Times, one of Pakistan's most respected English language newspapers and its sister paper Daily Aaj Kal, now moves under heavy security after ultra-conservative Islamic elements warned him of serious consequences if he did not repent. His house in Lahore is now guarded by six army commandos.

The threats were provoked by the publication of a cartoon in Aaj Kal depicting Umme Hassan, principal of a radical women's madrassa, in a veil "educating" female students to wage jihad and embrace martyrdom.

Ms Hassan is the wife of Abdul Aziz, the prayer leader of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, who was jailed after the mosque was stormed by Pakistani troops last year. The madrassa she headed was demolished in the operation in which more than 100 people, including 11 soldiers, were killed. Addressing a rally on the anniversary of the Red Mosque raid in Islamabad last week, Ms Hassan declared that the cartoon was blasphemous, equating it with Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Source

Racist to diss Obama -- says hip-hop artist "Nas" and 620,000 others

I guess Nas didn't really mean his song "Hate Me Now":

"At 2:30 p.m. tomorrow, Nas is joining the Web sites ColorOfChange.org and MoveOn.org to deliver a petition with more than 620,000 signatures demanding that the network end what the organizations call a "pattern of racist attacks against black Americans including presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle." "Fox poisons the country with racist propaganda and tries to call it news," Nas said in a statement. A spokesperson for Fox News could not be reached for comment at press time.

A press release announcing the event accuses the network of an alleged pattern of incidents, which "many believe are a veiled attempt to prey on racism and intolerance and cast the Obamas as `outsiders,' " citing as evidence an onscreen graphic that referred to the candidate's wife as "Obama's baby mama," a pundit who "confused" Obama with terrorist al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and then joked that both should be "assassinated," and the now-infamous comment by a Fox anchor who described the Obamas' fist bump as a "terrorist fist jab." It also cites an incident in February, when Nas nemesis Bill O'Reilly talked about calling a "lynching party" to deal with Michelle Obama.

Source

I think the 620,000 would have a lot more reason to criticize Fox if Fox used the sort of language that Nas uses in songs such as "Shoot 'Em Up", "Got Urself A Gun" etc.

See here for the Fox response to the petition.

Prominent Leftist blog "Think Progress" says must not quote Steve Sailer

I am a bit surprised that a CNN figure quoted Steve myself. Steve insists on telling it as he sees it. There are no "unmentionables" for Steve. He is however unfailingly rational so I guess that can even get through to CNN at times:

"Today, CNN's John Blake has an article titled, "Could an Obama presidency hurt black Americans?" In the piece, Blake notes that some commentators - including African-Americans, whites, Latinos, and conservatives - warn that "an Obama victory could be twisted to suppress the push for racial equality." One of the white commentators Blake cites is Steve Sailer....

It's unbelievable that CNN would use Sailer, who, as Jesse Taylor notes, is more than just a conservative pundit. He has repeatedly made racially insensitive remarks.....

Several of Sailer's comments appeared on the site VDARE, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a white nationalist hate group. It's doubtful that Sailer's opinions are representative of most whites.

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The full post gives the quotes from Steve Sailer that they object to. Follow the links to read Steve's reasoning in detail.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a far Left outfit that classifies almost any conservative organization as a white nationalist hate group.

Should a whole State be branded as homosexual?

Misleading advertising, it seems to me:

"A recent controversy in South Carolina over an ad and promotional campaign based around the message "South Carolina is so gay" has brought up questions related to the best ways to target this audience in a progressive media environment tethered to changing cultural morays. The campaign included ads posted around London tied to the city's Gay Pride Week celebrations, reports MSNBC.com. After the political blog "The Palmetto Scoop" uncovered the ads, Republican state Sen. David Thomas said in a statement, "South Carolinians will be irate when they learn their hard earned tax dollars are being spent to advertise our state as 'so gay.'" But the travel agency that commissioned the ads stands by its message: Andrew Roberts, chief executive of the company, Amro Worldwide, said the ads were intended to "send a clear message to everyone who sees this campaign that it is long past time that 'so gay' should be used as a negative phrase of disapproval," reports MSNBC.com.

Surprisingly, South Carolina's top state tourism officials said they were not aware of the campaign. However, they issued a statement saying the campaign "sends a powerful positive message," MSNBC.com reports. "For our gay visitors, it is actually quite wonderful for them to discover just how much South Carolina has to offer-from stunning plantation homes to miles of wide sandy beaches," the statement said.

But some experts disagree. For example, MSNBC.com reports that Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, a conservative activist group in Columbia, South Carolina said in an interview, "I think with today's economy, we have to be really smart with our tourism dollars, and South Carolina's market, very clearly, is the family-friendly market. So if we want to spend our dollars in a way that's wise, we need to go after our market, and our market is families."

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Democratic Sen. John Kerry sinks into the tar

We all know -- from hearing lots of past Leftist shrieks about it -- what a wicked "racist" term "tar baby" is:

"Democratic Sen. John Kerry uses the term "tar baby" to defend Democratic Sen. Barack Obama.

"John (McCain) is trying to use that big Tar Baby out there, you want to lose, you don't want to win. Of course Barack Obama wants America to be successful" - Kerry on MSNBC.

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Since a Leftist said, it you will likely never hear of it again. If a conservative politician had said it apologies at least would have been demanded -- as they were here.

Kossacks suppress mockery of themselves

Similar mockery aimed at conservatives is routine, of course:

"Just as I finish a piece laughing at DailyKos for claiming that it is conservatives that feel they have to "create their own alternate reality" because of their "rigid ideology," I find a story out of The Austin American-Statesman where the DailyKos forced that paper to pull a story that had a mildly satirical take on last weekend's Netroots Nation conference in Texas. Apparently, the DailyKos folks didn't like The Austin American-Statesman's "reality" so the Kossacks flooded the paper with their insistence on creating a new one.

The original article by the Statesman's Patrick Beach knocked the nutrooters for the so-called "surprise" Gore visit, said it turned into a "faint-in," and that their general feeling was "terribly self-confirming," among other snippy comments... fun, but snippy. The general tone of the piece was that of amusement at how seriously the nutrooters took themselves. And, even more galling to said nutrooters, this story was the front page editorial of Sunday's edition.

This did not sit well with the nutrooters in question. So, in the true spirit of "tolerance," respect for "freedom of speech," and an interest in a "free press," the denizens of the DailyKos whipped themselves up into a frenzy of complaints. The din was so loud that the compliant folks at the Austin American-Statesman acquiesced to the demands for retribution. The Statesman pulled the piece from their website and made abject, groveling apologies to the folks at the DailyKos.

Source

I have put the original article up here in case it becomes inaccessible elsewhere.

Conservatives can take it. Leftists can't. Why? I think Milan Kundera was on to something when he said “No great movement designed to change the world can bear to be laughed at or belittled. Mockery is a rust that corrodes all it touches.”. Yaacov Ben Moshe has more on that.

"Pornography" Law Suffers Yet Another Court Defeat

This was an idiotically broad law -- requiring internet service providers to stop kids from seeing female breasts etc. How could the companies do that? Even parents often cannot:

"A US federal appeals court today struck down COPA, the Child Online Protection Act, a Clinton-era censorship law that the Justice Department has been struggling to get implemented for a decade. (The ACLU filed suit as soon as COPA was signed in 1998 and won an immediate injunction.) The battle has made it to the Supreme Court twice, and the DoJ has essentially never gotten any satisfaction out of the courts. This was the case for which the DoJ famously went trolling for search histories.

In the ruling issued today, the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court ruling that COPA violates the First Amendment because it is not the most effective way to keep children from visiting adult Web sites. The law would require sites to check visitors' ages, e.g. by taking a credit card, if the site contained any material that is "harmful to minors," whatever that means.

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Background on the law here. Any defeat for censorship makes it potentially harder for other attempts at censorship to succeed.

Note that the above issue of what children are allowed to see is quite separate from the issue of pornographic images of children. The ISP companies have agreed to block sites with child pornography on them. See here.

Court condemns double standards

I am glad someone does. There sure is a lot of it about:

"CBS did not breach the federal government's decency rules when Janet Jackson's breast was briefly exposed in a routine during the 2004 Super Bowl half-time show, a federal appeals court sitting in Philadelphia has ruled. The court found that the Federal Communications Commission had unevenly applied its standards for judging whether broadcast content was indecent when it fined CBS $550,000 for the notorious "wardrobe malfunction." It said many other examples of broadcast nudity had gone unpunished before the incident, which triggered widespread viewer complaints.

Singer Jackson's right breast was briefly exposed - for about one-half of one second - at the end of a sexually suggestive dance routine during the halftime show, as her co-performer Justin Timberlake ripped away her bustier.

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, calling the finale of the dance routine a "deceitful and manipulative act," said that the dancers had submitted a script and participated in rehearsals that gave no hint of what would really happen during the halftime show.

The majority opinion also said CBS could not be held liable for their conduct because Jackson and Timberlake were functioning as independent contractors.

Yet the court said that because the FCC had overlooked on numerous other occasions examples of broadcast nudity it was in effect changing the rules in the middle of the game. "In finding CBS liable for a forfeiture policy, the FCC arbitrarily and capriciously departed from its prior policy,'' wrote chief judge Anthony J. Scirica. "Moreover, the FCC cannot impose liability on CBS for the acts of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, independent contractors hired for the limited purposes of the halftime show."

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And it's also exceptionally refreshing to see that the modern custom of blaming everybody but the actual guilty party got a knock on the head.

Why is only one of these cartoons tasteless and offensive?



Regular readers of Tongue Tied will know why from long experience. It is an examnple of the golden rule of hate speech: Only conservatives can utter hate speech (or hate cartoons) while anything that Leftists say is "free speech", no matter how offensive it is.

The first cartoon did in fact come from a Leftist source -- which is why it was simply dubbed offensive rather than hate speech -- but it mocks a Leftist so that must be condemned. But a cartoon that ridicules a conservative? No problem!

The media were filled with condemnations of the Obama cartoon. Even McCain and various GOP figures condemned it. But the second cartoon (which also appeared in a well-known source) has aroused not a murmur in the media in the 4 weeks since it first appeared.

And note that the second cartoon depicts torturers as Asians (albeit Asians who look rather like Obama, Hillary and GWB). From anybody else that would be "racist".

Political asylum from persecution in Britain?

On April 18, 2006, I wrote the following:

"I regard antisemitism as totally misguided but believe that persecuting believers in it only gives it credibility to those who are persecuted. Last Wednesday, two people, Luke O'Farrell and Simon Sheppard, who publish a British antisemitic website, were arrested by Humberside police in Britain because of what they had written. Details here and here. And what was the reaction from the guys who were arrested? It was:

"To attempt to silence a man is to pay him homage, for it is an acknowledgement that his arguments are both impossible to answer and impossible to ignore"

So a fat lot of good arresting them did. It just reinforced their views and gave those views more credibility to others.

The matter has now gone to trial and the two Brits werre convicted of hate speech. While out on bail, they took a direct flight to Los Angeles and have now claimed political asylum in the USA. Some details here

The prospect of their getting any sort of sympathetic hearing in California seems slight to me. I guess they flew there because it was the only alternative they knew to what they would call "Jew York". I think it is true, however, that what they said would not be a crime in America.

There is no doubt that the two men are stock-standard antisemites with stock-standard theories about Jewish conspiracies. When what is happening in the world seems inexplicably wrong, people have blamed that wrongness on the Jews ever since the Pharaohs.

What rather appals me about the present case is that two "little people" are being assailed for it when the major source of such hatred in Britain undoubtedly comes from Muslims and the Left -- and that is virtually ignored. Once again it seems that it is only white conservatives of Christian background who can utter "hate speech".

In Britain recently, a TV channel did a program which showed local Muslims uttering very definite hate speech. So what did the British police do? Did they prosecute the Muslims concerned? No. They prosecuted the TV channel! Details here. The Muslims concerned have not been touched to this day as far as I can ascertain.

Hate speech against the Catholic church

We read:

"A San Francisco city and county board resolution that officially labeled the Catholic church's moral teachings on homosexuality as "insulting to all San Franciscans," "hateful," "defamatory," "insensitive" and "ignorant" will be challenged tomorrow in court for violating the Constitution's prohibition of government hostility toward religion.

Source

British slang under attack



"Chav" is a uniquely British word which has become widely used in recent years. It reflects the British dislike of colorful dress and assertive behavior. It refers to assertive but poorly educated white youths who dress in an ostentatious way. Chavs endeavor to impress others by their accessories -- bling of various sorts and accessories in Burberry check, as in the cap above. Burberry is a British luxury goods brand, which has probably been severely damaged now that chavs have shown such a liking for its emblem.

"I am not in the habit of agreeing with the socialistic Fabian Society, but they have a point. Chav does not derive from "Cheltenham Average" or "Council House and Violent". It comes from a Romany word for "boy". The origin is irrelevant, though, for it is the meaning that hurts.

Certainly the stereotypical chav is an absurd figure in his white tracksuit and bling, a silly hairstyle and Burberry accessories, perhaps accompanied by a nasty bullish terrier.

But many people use chav as a smokescreen for their hatred of the lower classes.

Source

On my reading, "chav" is in fact normally used for a particular type of behavior rather than class identity. "Oiks" is the more general derogatory term for working class people in Britain.

If you read the article in full, you will see a reference to "public schools". Outside Britain, the schools concerned would be described as "private schools". Taxpayer-funded schools are described as "State" schools or, usually, "Comprehensives".

No separation of Mosque and state?

We read:

"I bring you today’s version of “ACLU Hypocrisy in Action.” It seems the State Department is selling calenders that feature “the mosques of America.” If the State Department sold a calender of the “Churches of America” how fast do you think the ACLU would be up in their grill about the mythical separation clause? Faster than the French surrendering is my guess.

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Obama wants to censor Fox News

Post below recycled from Don Surber. See the original for links

How dare Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama - who boycotted a debate on Fox News - complain about that network? And how dare the American media ignore this full frontal attack on the First Amendment? Sayeth Obama to Glamour magazine in defending his wife, a public figure who draws $300,000-a-year-plus from a hospital he gave a million-dollar earmark:

"It's infuriating, but it's not surprising, because let's face it: What happened was that the conservative press - Fox News and the National Review and columnists of every ilk - went fairly deliberately at her in a pretty systematic way . and treated her as the candidate in a way that you just rarely see the Democrats try to do against Republicans."

Obama wants a cone of silence around him, his wife and anyone else. He blames Fox News for his every screw-up he has had - telling San Francisco elites that Pennsylvanians are rubes who cling to their guns and religion - having the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright as his mentor - having the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers kick-off his political career - his wife saying she was never proud of this country until her husband won the South Carolina presidential primary.

As a man, Obama is entitled to his opinion. But presidents have great power and they should never target critics for retribution. That's what makes his words dangerous, and that is why the media should demand an apology. Like Fox News or not - many in the media oppose a "fair and balanced" approach to the reporting of straight news - the news media should stand up against this. Apparently, many of my colleagues think the First Amendment covers only the syncophants of the left.

Equal Time = Liberal Time

Post below recycled from Weekly Standard. See the original for links

Democrats like Sen. Durbin and Sen. Kerry are eager to resurrect the so-called Fairness Doctrine, whereby radio stations will be required to give equal time to liberal talking heads. They know this would kill talk-radio, a traditionally conservative medium, which would instantly become unprofitable if stations were forced to give liberal hosts equal time despite the fact no one would listen to them. I'm sure Sen. Durbin and Sen. Kerry are tickled pink, however, that they get to talk about free speech and compelling government interests even as they gag their political enemies.

If the Fairness Doctrine is justified with the airwaves, why not with newsprint as well? Today Howard Kurtz reports, "With this week's Newsweek cover story on Obama's religious beliefs, he has been featured on Time and Newsweek covers 12 times in the past three years, compared with five for McCain." If Sen. Durbin and Kerry are so preoccupied by the absence of fairness and diversity on radio stations, surely they would agree the same compelling interests apply to print media. No, actually, they wouldn't, because fair speech is liberal speech in their minds.

Of course, the Fairness Doctrine is a relic of a time when there were so few channels existed that government did have some compelling interest in ensuring all sides were equally represented. No such interest exists today. That goes for radio stations just as much as magazine covers.

Racist statement of the day

Post below recycled from Prairie Pundit. See the original for links

From NY Governor Patterson as quoted in the NY Sun:

"Governor Paterson, delivering a speech today at the NAACP's 99th annual convention at Cincinnati, suggested that the defeat of Senator Obama in the presidential election would be a victory for racism in America.

So it's vote for the black guy or you are a racist. Not vote for him because you agree on policy reasons, but because you are a racist if you disagree with him on those policy issues. What utter unadulterated nonsense. If Patterson keeps up this kind of rhetoric people are going to think he is not very smart. They might also think he is a racist bigot who opposes McCain because he is not black.

Some strange definitions of "terrorism"

We read:

"A man of my acquaintance was recently in attendance at a kind of educational seminar (for lack of a better term) conducted by the Department of Homeland Security. As a local emergency services provider, he's treated to such events periodically. This time around, along with his "weapons of mass destruction awareness training," he was also informed that those supporting a strict interpretation of the Constitution are terrorists.

Most recently, a high school student who wrote a story for a creative writing class has been accused of making terrorist threats. Now, although I oppose such draconian censorship measures, I wouldn't have been surprised to learn he'd written about some student showing up in school with a gun, or some other student determining to set off a bomb on school grounds. In the age of zero tolerance, the authorities seem to consider the fiction of today the certain fact of tomorrow. But no, this kid wrote about zombies. That's right. He wrote about zombies taking over the school. Given last summer's big success of the movie remake of Dawn of the Dead, perhaps his story wasn't as creative or original as it might have been. But indicative of terrorism? As one of my heroes, John Stossel, would say: Give me a break!

Source

Incorrect British TV dramas

You cannot portray what you want to portray in Britain:

"Broadcasters are failing to reflect ethnic diversity in the nation's favourite television programmes, according to a report out today. Shows including EastEnders, Coronation Street, The Vicar of Dibley and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? were accused of stereotyping ethnic minorities in the report commissioned by Channel 4. It concluded that today's "overwhelmingly white" broadcasters produced more specialist ethnic programmes in the past.

The report cited Asian corner shop owner Dev in Coronation Street and black single mother Denise, who had two children by two fathers in EastEnders, as examples of stereotyping and tokenism in soaps.

The study, by Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, was commissioned after the allegedly racist abuse of Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood star, on last year's Celebrity Big Brother. It calls for a financial levy on every TV show to fund schemes aimed at fostering diversity.

Most white viewers said that broadcasters were doing a good job, but black and Asian ethnic groups did not agree. The report also found that Eastern Europeans, as relative newcomers to Britain, had no expectations of being represented.

Source

Media suppress Jackson's use of the "N-word"

We read:

"TVNewser has been sent the transcript of what Jesse Jackson said Sunday morning July 6, as he prepared for an interview on Fox & Friends Weekend. Below is the partial transcript we received in our tips box, and confirmed to be authentic by Fox News Channel representatives.

"Barack...he's talking down to black people...telling n-s how to behave.

So, yes. Jesse Jackson did use the "N" word. But it was not directed at Barack Obama. Fox News and Bill O'Reilly have maintained there was more on the tape, but that the un-aired portion was not relevant to the issue at hand: about whether Obama was "talking down" to the black community.

Source

So much for burying the N-word... Could you imagine if that were a white conservative saying that?

Lots of comment on the blogs -- e.g. here

Those unmentionable "wetbacks" are still roiling Brandeis

Brandeis university administrators earlier this year attacked a professor (Donald Hindley) because he mentioned the term "wetbacks" in class. He mentioned it only to describe it as derogatory. He was CONDEMNING use of the term, in other words. But he was threatened with dismissal just for mentioning the word.

Fortunately, the faculty had some guts and united behind the accused professor -- causing the administrators to back down somewhat. They sent the professor a brief letter saying that they now considered the matter closed -- without saying why or admitting any error. At no time did they give the professor a proper hearing or admit that he had done nothing wrong.

Most people concerned are still very unhappy over the affair and want the moronic deeds of the administrators decisively disowned and rejected by the university president. They want a clear "not guilty" verdict for Prof. Hindley from President Reinharz. That he has so far refused to give. So FIRE is still on his tail. See here

If you read the Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament, you will see that the prophets often condemned the Israelites for being "stiff necked". President Jehuda Reinharz would appear to have inherited that foolish tendency.

Must not use "black" language

Verizon Wireless drops content provider over racism charges:

"A threatened boycott against Verizon Wireless has been canceled, after the wireless provider suspended a distribution deal with 1938 Media after complaints about an allegedly racially insensitive video. Under the now defunct agreement, suspended last week, Verizon Wireless planned to distribute 1938's comedy skits about the technology industry over V CAST, its 3G EV-DO network for delivering audio, video, and games to cell phones....

Then, though, community activists complained that one of 1938's earlier videos -- "Where Are the Black Tech Bloggers?" -- was racist, and that Feldman had a "history" of using negative racial stereotypes on his site.

In the video, which Feldman claims is satirical in intent, Feldman poses as a black blogger for a fictional Web site dubbed "TechNigga.com," who is promoting a site known as "Ho-trackr.com."

Source

As Imus found out, under the Leftist racism that rules America, blacks can say "nigga" and "ho" but whites must not. You can access the video here. Even some blacks have said it is funny but I have not found time to watch it so any readers who do so might want to leave a comment.

Furore over deleted posts at Boing Boing

A blogger deletes some of her own posts. So?

"Unpublishing from a website certainly is not uncommon, particularly after a lawyer sends a letter demanding it. And on obscure personal blogs presumably it happens all the time - a writer simply may have a change of heart. But when Boing Boing was recently discovered to have unpublished all references to a blogger named Violet Blue, some of its readers treated the decision as a step of utmost consequence, even though it took place about a year ago. A relevant discussion thread on the site, boingboing.net, has grown to more than 1,400 messages, the NY Times reports.

The issues here are clearly larger than the material itself, which amounted to at least 70 or so posts by one of the site's contributors, Xeni Jardin, in which she referred to the writings of - or simply gave a shout-out to -Blue, who is the weekly sex columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle and a former friend of Jardin, reports Times writer Noam Cohen...

Jardin, who says she was the one who took down the posts, conceded that the decision to unpublish was uncharted territory. She would not discuss what precipitated her move other than to say it "wasn't a weird cover-up" and was based on "private matters and public behavior," she told the Times...

"The idea of someone unpublishing you is horrifying," Blue told the Times, casting the action as violating the informal "best practices" that have developed around blogging. "That is why this is a bigger issue than someone versus someone. Really, it is between Boing Boing and the world."

Source

I guess it's a sort of free speech issue but the blogger was obviously well within her rights. That the deleted links were to some sort of sexy site seems to be the problem.

Australian government minister 'free to call Scientologists bastards'

Hurrah for my native land!

"The South Australian Government was at odds with the Church of Scientology last night after backing the right of a senior state minister to brand its members "bastards".

Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith has also questioned the organisation's tax-free status in comments to an anti-Scientology group called Anonymous, which it posted on popular internet site YouTube.

While declaring Dr Lomax-Smith was entitled to her opinion, a spokeswoman for Premier Mike Rann distanced the Government from the remarks, saying they represented a private view, The Australian reports.

Source

Former Diplomat Gets Prison for Hate Crime

Post below recycled from Interested Participant. See the original for links. Some guy foolishly said what a lot of Americans must think after 9/11 and the many horrors we hear about from the Islamic world

A 50-year-old career foreign service officer retired from the U.S. State Department, W. Patrick Syring, pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of Arabs and was sentenced to one year in prison. Syring admittedly made racist threats against employees of the Arab American Institute including President James Zogby.

"The charges stem from messages he left at AAI in the midst of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. "The only good Arab is a dead Arab," Syring said in a profanity-laden July 2006 voice-mail message delivered to AAI, which promotes Arab American participation in elections and policy issues.

After federal prosecutors in the District accused him of intimidating the workers based on their national origin, Syring sent an incendiary message to a television station where Zogby had been interviewed. In the March 2008 e-mail, Syring repeated some of the language from his phone call and accused Zogby of "promoting the interest of Hezbollah, Hamas and Arab terror."

Syring was also ordered to complete 100 hours community service and was fined $10,000.

According to U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, "There is no room in our society for the intolerance of other races or national origins, particularly by those who hold positions in the government." That's interesting since Syring's words don't seem to be substantively different from Islamists who regularly call for the deaths of Jews, Christians and other infidels in public pronouncements.

Funny, but I don't recall the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division prosecuting the Islamists for intolerance of other races or national origins. Agreed, they don't hold positions in the government but a hate crime is a hate crime. Right?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Syring. My complaint is against hate crime prosecutions which regularly appear to be more political than criminal in nature.

Boneheaded Purdue University still attacking student cleared of Racial Harassment

We read:

"Two months ago, in the face of withering public criticism, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) revoked its original finding that student-employee Keith John Sampson had committed racial harassment by reading a book at work that celebrated the defeat of the Ku Klux Klan in a 1924 street brawl. Now, IUPUI is claiming that Sampson was in fact punished for some other behavior, but the school refuses to reveal any details of this alleged conduct. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is calling on IUPUI to either reveal and prove this alleged offense or stop publicly smearing its own student.

"This looks like a classic example of a college making things worse in an unprincipled attempt to save face," FIRE Vice President Robert Shibley said. "IUPUI's own letters to Sampson made clear that his reading a book about the Ku Klux Klan was the problem, and the university claims to have completely exonerated him of all charges. If so, why are its spokespeople now telling The Wall Street Journal that the problem was really some other mysterious conduct that the university will not reveal to anyone, including Sampson himself?"....

"If IUPUI really thought that Sampson had engaged in some 'racially harassing' behavior rather than reading a book, there is no reason why they would not have brought it up at the time-and no reason why they couldn't say what it is now," Shibley said. "This apparent whispering campaign against Sampson is truly appalling. IUPUI has either brazenly violated due process by finding a student guilty without a hearing and without even letting him know the allegations against him or, more likely, is lying in an attempt to stave off further embarrassment. Either way, the school has bitterly betrayed one of its own students."

Source

It wasn't the Bernie Mac Obama thought he knew

I guess lots of readers have heard of the "sexist" joke made by raunchy comedian Bernie Mac at an Obama fundraiser. Some details here. Anything that speaks ill of women is sexist, of course. But you can mock men all you like.

I have not so far seen anyone put up a full version of the joke as told at the Obama function but it is a very old and well-known joke anyhow. Below is the last version of it that I heard. You will see that it actually speaks ill of men too. Or does it? Is it bad to accuse a man of homosexuality? We keep being told that it not:

"A young boy went up to his father and asked him, "Dad, what is the difference between potentially and realistically?" The father thought for a moment, then answered, "Go ask your mother if she would sleep with Robert Redford for a million dollars. Then ask your sister if she would sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars. Then ask your brother if he'd sleep with Tom Cruise for a million dollars. Come back and tell me what you learn from that."

So the boy asked his mother and she replied, "Of course I would! I wouldn't pass up an opportunity like that." The boy then asked his sister and she replied, "Oh my God! I would just love to do that! I would be nuts to pass up that opportunity!" The boy then went to his brother and asked, "Would you sleep with Tom Cruise for a million dollars?" "Of course," the brother replied. "Do you know how much a million could buy?"

The boy pondered that, then went back to his dad. His father asked him, "Did you find out the difference between potentially and realistically?" The boy replied, "Yes,dad. Potentially, we're sitting on three million dollars. But realistically, we're living with two sluts and a queer.

Bernie Mac is well-known for profane language so Obama should have known what he was getting when he approved the hiring of the man. But Obama often seems to find out with surprise that people he knew were not what he thought they were.

Russian blogger sentenced for "extremist" post

We read:

"A Russian man who described local police as "scum" in an Internet posting was given a suspended jail sentence on Monday for extremism, prompting bloggers to warn of a crackdown on free speech online.

Savva Terentiev, a 28-year-old musician from Syktyvkar, 1,515 kilometres (940 miles) north of Moscow, wrote in a blog last year that the police force should be cleaned up by ceremonially burning officers twice a day in a town square.

Convicted on charges of "inciting hatred or enmity", Terentiev was given a one-year suspended term on Monday, Russian news agencies reported.

Source

It's what you expect of Russia but the sentence was in fact very mild. Canada is worse.

Texas School Bible course passes constitutional muster in principle

We read:

"A proposed Bible course for public schools would not violate the First Amendment, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Wednesday, although he would not approve any specific curriculum.

In the letter, Abbott's deputy attorney general Andrew Weber said, "We believe that a court would find the proposed (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) facially constitutional. "Because we have not reviewed curricula and courses proposed pursuant to the TEKS and section (of the law), we cannot conclude whether courses offered under that section will be constitutional," Weber wrote....

Board members are not likely to approve more specific standards for the Bible course because the attorney general's letter "just reinforces that the framework is acceptable," said Bradley. The course, which would be voluntary for high school students, is scheduled to take effect in the 2009-10 school year.

Source

No doubt the ACLU will get into the act soon.

Birth certificate petition shut down by threat from Obama supporter

Post below recycled from Red Ink . See the original for links

By now, even the people living under rocks have heard about Obama's forged birth certificate. This is worrisome for a number of reasons. First off, that he and/or his campaign staff thought the general public was that stupid/gullible (well, on second thought, he DOES have a lot of supporters, maybe a lot of them ARE that stupid.), and secondly why on earth would they feel that they needed to submit a forgery? Is he a native US citizen or not? Or is this about his name? or his parent's religion? Either way, it is a reasonable thing to look at since after all, there is that little legal requirement that he be a native US citizen, and not just a naturalized one. One person put up a website for an online petition calling for the REAL birth certificate to be released, but within hours of it going up, someone, using the site operator's home address, left a veiled threat against the site operator and his family.

""Petition Closed

A veiled threat was made against myself and my family which included our home address, so I have decided to close the petition for good. It is truly sad that political discourse in our country has come to this. "

McDonald's attacks Christians

We read:

"Those who oppose homosexuality for religious reasons are participating in "hate," according to an official for McDonald's, the worldwide purveyor of Big Macs and Happy Meals. "Hatred has no place in our culture," corporate spokesman Bill Whitman told the Washington Post in response to a campaign by the American Family Association for a boycott of the burger-and-fries outlets because of the corporation's advocacy for the homosexual lifestyle. "That includes McDonald's, and we stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination and harassment," Whitman said.

"Throwing out any pretense of being neutral in the culture war, McDonald's has taken up the rhetoric of gay activists, suggesting those who oppose same-sex marriage (SSM) are motivated by hate," the AFA said in a new alert about its campaign today. "AFA has asked for a boycott of McDonald's restaurants because of the company's promotion of the gay agenda. AFA asked McDonald's to remain neutral in the culture war. McDonald's refused," the group said.

Source

Why can't McDonald's stick to selling hamburgers?

Atlanta Stripped of 'Men at Work' Signs After Complaints of Bias

We read:

"Political correctness rules the road in Atlanta - which is replacing all its "Men at Work" signs with gender-neutral ones after a women's magazine editor complained of bias. The project, which involves painting over the existing 50 "Men at Work" and "Men Working" signs with those that say simply "Workers Ahead" or "Workers," will cost a total of $1,000, Atlanta Public Works Commissioner Joe Basista told FOXNews.com.

About half of the city's 100 Public Works employees are women, said Basista, so he complied with PINK magazine editor Cynthia Good's request to stop warning passersby of men at work when women were right there alongside them. "It seemed like the right thing to do," Basista said. The change-over, which Basista wants to complete by the end of the month, has met with little resistance so far, he said....

Source

We used to have 'Men at Work' signs in Australia too but they were eventually withdrawn out of embarrassment. Usually, there was nobody to be seen working at the place concerned. "Roadworks ahead" is now the most common sign.

Educational Mexican comic now banned



We read:

"A comic-book character popular in Mexico for generations has run into a cultural barrier at the border, where Americans see him as a racist caricature. For more than 60 years Mexicans have followed the adventures of "Memin Pinguin." But the dark-skinned Memin's exaggerated features in "Memin for President" came as a shock to Houston, Texas, Wal-Mart shopper Shawnedria McGinty. "I was like, OK, is that a monkey or a boy?" McGinty said. "To me it was an insult."

McGinty and Houston community activist Quannel X want the comic books removed from the stores. "This is absolutely insensitive toward race, in particular the African-American culture, and also people of color," Quannel X said. "This is poking fun at the physical features of an entire people."

But Mexican readers who grew up following the shenanigans of Memin say critics need to look beyond the cover and understand the stories. "They will bring a smile to their face because we're so fond of that character," said Javier Salas, a Spanish-language talk show host on Chicago radio station WRTO. "We respect him, we love him. And that's why it's so absurd for us to hear complaints from people who don't know, don't understand Memin."

Memin is a poor Cuban-Mexican kid with bug eyes, thick lips and protruding ears. The mischievous and caring boy helps his mother by selling newspapers and shining shoes. "We grew up reading, learning and educating ourselves with a lot of the topics they always touched on, which was honesty, justice, tolerance. He was a very unique character," Salas said.

Wal-Mart spokesman Lorenzo Lopez said the retailer has instructed stores to remove the books from shelves and discontinue sales.

Source

There was an upheaval about this in 2005 as well. It seems that Mexico is actually more tolerant than the USA.

First They Came For Your Freedom Of Speech

Post below recycled from Riehl World . See the original for links

The Liberal Democrat Party is probably still reeling from recent setbacks on the gun control issue. But they appear to be continuing forward with their efforts to curtail speech ... starting with politicians:

"Feinstein (D-CA) would have the [Senate] Rules Committee act as a censor board, forcing [congressional] members to get approval for the act of communicating on external websites. Further, it would appear that the Feinstein proposal would attempt to exercise editorial control over these sites, at least indirectly.

Over on the House side, Nancy Pelosi wants to:

... impose rules barring any member of Congress from posting opinions on any internet site without first obtaining prior approval from the Democratic leadership of Congress. No blogs, twitter, online forums -- nothing.

Also, the internet censorship rules being proposed for the Congress might extend to external web sites whose members communicate with Congress.

When liberals can't win a debate, which is typical, they opt to change the debate, or curtail the opposition's ability to present their arguments. If the nanny-state, socialist, liberals in Congress get their way ... they'll be the only ones with a voice. And that voice will be telling you how to live and what to think.

Black racism

We read:

"Given Barack Obama's historic run for the Oval Office, African American-themed cable network TV One plans to break from its usual entertainment programming to provide extensive coverage of the Democratic National Convention in August.

"Sen. Barack Obama running for president is a huge deal for TV One as it is for the African American community," said Johnathan Rodgers, president and CEO of TV One, a channel in about 40 million homes. "African Americans have fallen in love with his candidacy, his family . we will be covering the democratic convention all the time."

But John McCain shouldn't expect the same treatment. The network doesn't plan any coverage of the Republican Convention.

Source

Jesse Jackson was 'crude, hurtful' about Obama

A bit of jealousy, I suspect:

"Jesse Jackson, a prominent US civil rights leader and failed Democratic presidential candidate, has apologised to Barack Obama for a "hurtful, crude" remark that was picked up by a TV microphone - but which one network has said is too off-colour to broadcast. Reverend Jackson, a minister from Senator Obama's home town Chicago, said he made the comment in a private conversation with a fellow guest on a Fox News program after taping had finished, not realising microphone were still on and that his remark would be recorded.

Fox has said the comment was made to one of the network's reporters. An item on its website claimed Rev. Jackson's comment was: "I want to cut his nuts off", although another report puts it differently.

A Chicago newspaper columnist reported Rev. Jackson told him he had been talking about Senator Obama's speeches to black churches across the US about personal morality, then said: "The senator is cutting off his you-know-what with black people".

Jackson sought to pre-empt that embarrassment to the Obama campaign with his apology. "I was in a conversation with a fellow guest at Fox. He asked about Barack's speeches lately at the black churches. I said it can come off as speaking down to black people," Rev. Jackson said on CNN.

Source

Video clip here

Bad "black hole"

We read:

"County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections "has become a black hole" because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud "Excuse me!" He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a "white hole."

Source

I guess the protester did not know any physics. Sounds dumb to me. Or as Taranto said: "Maybe the Texas Legislature is just niggardly when it comes to funding science education"

That pesky woodpile and inhabitant again

Britain:

"David Cameron was dragged into a race row last night after one of his frontbenchers made an unfortunate remark during a House of Lords debate. Lord Dixon-Smith, the Tory spokesman for communities and local government, referred to concerns about government housing legislation as the "nigger in the woodpile".

The phrase described fugitive slaves who hid in piles of firewood as they fled persecution in the American Deep South in the mid-19th century. In November a Tory councillor in Bedfordshire resigned after using the same words.

Mr Cameron said last night that the remark - which is recorded in Hansard - was "not appropriate" but he refused to dismiss him. Instead Lord Dixon-Smith went twice to apologise to Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the Lords. He told The Times afterwards that the remark had "slipped out without my thinking".

He said that he had realised his mistake when in the chamber and apologised. "It was common parlance when I was younger, put it that way," he said. He emphasised that he now considered the matter closed.

Source

Canadian Pastor Convicted of Hate Speech Appeals Human Rights Commission Ruling

At last this crap will be scrutinized by a proper court:

"Alberta Pastor Steve Boissoin has filed an appeal to the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal ruling that convicted him of hate speech. The pastor was found guilty last November of having written a letter to the editor in the Red Deer Advocate that was "likely" to expose homosexuals to hatred.

LifeSiteNews spoke with Boissoin's attorney, Gerald Chipeur, who said that he is confident that the court will grant the appeal and overturn the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal's decision.

"We are very optimistic, because the Constitution is so clear," said Chipeur. "We were surprised to have lost before the Tribunal, but we believe that the courts will conclude that there has been a violation of the constitutional rights of our client. We feel very confident in our arguments, and we do expect the courts to intervene and reverse the decision."

Last month the Alberta Tribunal issued a remedy ruling that ordered Boissoin to pay $7,000 in fines, to never speak disparagingly about homosexuality or about the complainant Darren Lund, and to apologize to Lund in a letter to be published in the Red Deer Advocate. Besides the sum of the fines, Boissoin has also had to spend many tens of thousands of dollars in defending himself against Lund's complaint since the case began.

The appeal filed with the Queen's Bench criticizes the Tribunal's decision on numerous points, including the nature of the remedy ruling, for which the Tribunal is accused of having "exceeded the limits of its jurisdiction and the constraints of law, natural justice and the Charter." ....

Chipeur concluded his interview with LifeSiteNews, saying that, in his opinion, the Human Rights Commissions, in prosecuting "hate speech" at all, have turned human rights laws "on their head" and have made them "a weapon against the individual."

Source

Ex-hostage Betancourt: Tone down 'hate' speech

Some people never learn:

"Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt urged Colombia's president and others in the South American nation Monday to tone down their "radical, extremist language of hate" toward the leftist rebels who held her captive for six years. Betancourt, a politician with dual French-Colombian citizenship who was released last week in a Colombian military operation, skirted questions about her own political future in the interview with French radio. She was campaigning for Colombia's presidency when she was captured in 2002.

Noting the possibility that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe could seek a third presidential term, Betancourt said, "Why not?" She praised his efforts toward her release, but also sent him a warning. "Uribe, and not only Uribe but all of Colombia, should also correct some things," she said. "We have reached the point where we must change the radical, extremist vocabulary of hate, of very strong words that intimately wound the human being."

Source

She is a Greenie and Greenies are usually extremely impractical so I guess this is not entirely a surprise. But I wonder exactly what she does want us to call kidnappers and murderers?

Islamo/Left attacks on Wilders continue

Post below recycled from No Pasaran. See the original for links

This is the kind of thing the ICC [International Criminal Court] is really meant for:

"A Jordanian prosecutor on Tuesday charged Dutch politician Geert Wilders with blasphemy and contempt of Muslims for making an anti-Koran film and ordered him to stand trial in the kingdom, judicial sources said.

In Riyadh, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a league of 56 Muslim nations, said it was "deeply annoyed" after Dutch prosecutors said on Monday they would not take action against Wilders as he was protected by the right to free speech.

"The decision ... encourages and supports the irresponsible defamatory style followed by some media outlets and instigates feelings of hatred, animosity and antipathy towards Muslims," the Saudi Arabia-based OIC, said in a statement.

Doing anything they can to suppress bad news at the cost of anything, including occasionally free speech. On the other hand a pressure group of concerned, caring European types show their colors:

Dutch prosecutors said Wilders was not inciting hatred of Muslims as he did not call for acts of violence against them. A Dutch anti-discrimination group, The Netherlands Shows its Colours, said it would appeal the prosecutors' decision.

I'm sure they're all about freedom of speech and liberties, `n stuff, given that they pushed for a different prosecution of Wilders in the Netherlands based partly on "statements made in public". Next stop on the neo-fascist lefty love train: thought crimes. They have yet to explain to anyone how it is that the things other people say are somehow worse that the things they actually do.

Judge orders Minutemen road sign to be reposted



We read:

"A federal judge has ordered Caltrans to repost the San Diego Minutemen road sign on a two-mile stretch of Interstate 5, a victory for the anti-illegal immigration group.

The Minutemen were granted a northbound stretch of the highway near the Border Patrol's checkpoint south of San Clemente in November as part of the Adopt-a-Highway litter cleanup program. They were reassigned to state Route 52 near Santee in January after complaints to the agency about the group's controversial nature and the location near the checkpoint.

The group, alleging free-speech discrimination, sued Caltrans in February and in May requested a preliminary injunction to restore the sign while lawsuit was pending. District Judge William Q. Hayes on Friday granted the preliminary injunction, saying there was not enough evidence to support the safety risk...."

Source

It's a pretty innocuous sign but apparently it was still "offensive" to the easily offended.

Hate speech against atheists!

Chris Hedges is a crazy Leftist journalist who has been a great critic of the "Christian Right". So you might think he would have a soft spot for atheists, right? Most Leftists seem to. But not Chris Hedges! Here is just a small excerpt from his comments on some prominent atheists:

"So you have, within these new athiests, a convergence, a political convergence with the Christian right who, supposedly, they've set themselves up against. If you look at the kinds of things that Christopher Hitchens writes and says about the Muslim world, it could be lifted from the most rabid sermon from a Christian fundamentalist.

So opponents of ALL religion are no good because Islam must be honored! The fact that Hitchens and Co. are scathing about BOTH Christianity and Islam is no good at all. Christian fundamentalism bad; Muslim fundamentalism good.

It's not really surprising. Leftists love their fellow haters among the Islamists. It is hate of the rest of us that is right! Not religion, not atheism, not anything else.

Note that the Muslim site from which the above is taken does not seem to have worked out how to use a spellchecker. I have not altered the way they spell "atheist".

Background on Hedges here

Hedges makes a great contrast to how Christians respond to atheists. Christians will certainly try to convert atheists but other than that their main response is to pray for them.

Now it is a British cop being rewarded for delicate feelings

No sense of humor at all:

"Scotland Yard's most prolific sharpshooter has been secretly awarded 5,000 pounds in damages for "hurt feelings" because a female police chief jokingly called him a "serial killer". The firearms officer - who is nicknamed "Killer" because of his prowess in shooting dead suspects in armed sieges - received the payout after the Metropolitan police decided that to defend the action at an employment tribunal would be a waste of public money.

The expensive joke was made by Commander Sue Akers, a highly regarded Met officer who is in charge of Scotland Yard's fight against gun crime.... Akers's faux pas came at a social function when she introduced herself to the firearms officer with the words: "I've always wanted to meet the Met's very own serial killer." The officer is a member of the elite CO19 firearms unit and has shot dead a number of suspects in his career. Colleagues say he failed to see the funny side of her remarks.

Akers was said to have been distraught at his reaction and later made a formal apology. However, "Killer" insisted his feelings had been hurt and that he had been maligned. He filed a formal complaint about the joke and it was feared he might take legal action at a tribunal.

Source

I guess he knows how crazy Britain is about hurt feelings and decided to make a bundle of money out of it. I doubt that he will be very popular after this, though.

Another backdown from the Canadian Human Rights Commission

We read:

"The Canadian Human Rights Commission has dropped a complaint by a homosexual activist against Catholic Insight a Toronto-based national Catholic news magazine. A year and a half - and many thousands of dollars in legal fees - after a nine-point human rights complaint was filed by Edmonton-based homosexual activist Rob Wells, Catholic Insight has been informed that the case has been dropped. However, a judicial review before the Federal Court is still possible should the complainant pursue that avenue.

In a letter the Commission noted that it decided "to dismiss the complaint because the material (produced by Catholic Insight) is not likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt based on sexual orientation." It added that "the file on this matter has now been closed."

"We welcome the Canadian Human Rights Commission's decision in this matter and were confident from the outset that we would be vindicated," said Father de Valk. He added that his publication not only has the right, but the responsibility, to report, analyze, comment on, and criticize where necessary, homosexual activism as it pertains to important social issues such as the nature of marriage, adoption rights, the allocation of social benefits, burdens on the health system caused by unhealthy behaviours and so on.....

Given the consistently unsuccessful nature of these homosexual activist attacks upon it, Catholic Insight will now examine the prospects of launching countering legal actions against those who have been unnecessarily harassing and financially burdening the publication, said Father de Valk.

Source

Canadians seize children because of mother's political beliefs

We read:

"Manitoba Child and Family services was in court Monday to argue for permanent guardianship of a girl and boy, after the girl was sent to school sporting a swastika -- a symbol typically associated with racially-motivated hate groups.

The children's mother denies she has done anything wrong. "I think I'm a pretty good mother. I've raised my children to have pride in themselves. That's all I've ever done." she told CTV News, as she sat beneath a banner with the slogan "White Pride Worldwide."

Child services was called to a city elementary school in March after the girl, 7, arrived at school with a Swastika, the words "Hail Victory" and "Aryan Pride" written on her arms and one leg in permanent maker. The number "14/88," a reference to Hitler, was also written on the little girl. The 14 refers to the number of words in the slogan: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." The 88 stands for HH and means "Heil Hitler."

Police and officials from the department went to the family's Winnipeg home and seized the girl's two-year-old brother, and in the process discovered what they said was evidence of the parents' neo-Nazi beliefs.

The mother of the children has maintained she is not a neo-Nazi, but is simply proud of her northern European background and describes herself as a "white nationalist." She said her daughter drew the swastika on her own arm after taking part in a "white pride" racist march in Calgary. When the girl's teacher washed the symbol off, the mother and daughter drew it on again with a marker.

The mother said drawing the swastika was stupid, but insisted the act harmed no one and her beliefs are a family matter. "It's OK to be proud to be a native, it's OK to preach black power," she said, before adding, "But when you're white and you're proud, it's wrong."

Source

Black pride is fine but white pride is to be severely punished? Where does the criminalization of political beliefs end? Speaking ill of homosexuals could cause you to lose your kids next? In Canada it would be no surprise. In the USA even the ACLU has on occasions defended the rights of neo-Nazis to express their beliefs.

Being white sure is bad in Britain

"Racist" for white man to accuse other whites of being white?

We read:

"A white man has been prosecuted for racially abusing three white security guards. Jonathan Wicks was taken to court for calling the men 'honky wannabe cops'.

He was on a night out with friends in Reading last September when the incident happened. He said: 'I was outside the Oracle Shopping Centre and as a joke started pushing and rattling one of the bicycles that was locked up outside, as I'd had a few drinks. 'The security guards told me to move on and that's when I made the comment - I didn't think about it, I just said it as a joke....

He said last night: 'I admit I was being a bit cheeky, but I never meant to be offensive or racist at all. 'Honky is a word that a lot of my black friends use to describe a white person, so I suppose that's why I was charged with racial abuse. But it's ridiculous that I was taken to court over it.

Source

Privacy takes a dive

We read:

"YouTube has been ordered to give up records of each clip watched on the popular video-sharing website, along with the date, time and IP address of each person who watched it, to media giant Viacom.

In a ruling that could have major implications for online privacy around the world, US District Court judge Louis Stanton granted Viacom access to the records as part of its ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit against Google and its subsidiary YouTube.

Each time a video is played, YouTube's "Logging" database records the user ID and IP address of the viewer, the date and time of the request and the ID of the clip - and includes details of videos embedded on websites other than YouTube.

Source

Attacks on free speech are bad enough but something that inhibits what you watch is even worse in a way. And if a private company can get these details, where does it stop?

Naughty blackface in Britain

The shrieks over blackface makeup never seem to end:

"A white actor "blacked-up" to play an African government official in a role-play exercise staged by the elite squad leading the fight against organised crime, The Times has learnt.

The incident, which has led to accusations of crass racism, occurred in a recruitment process for candidates applying to be overseas liaison officers for the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).

A high-level internal investigation into the racism claims is under way. The allegation involving Soca - which boasts on its website that it "fully embraces the principles of diversity" - is the latest in a series of race rows threatening to engulf police and law enforcement agencies.

Source

Why can a white man not pretend to be a black man if he wants to? Is blackness sacred? If so that sure sounds like racism.

Pictures of puppies now banned?



Muslims in Scotland are demanding it:

"A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims.

Tayside Police's new non-emergency phone number has prompted complaints from members of the Islamic community.

The choice of image on the Tayside Police cards - a black dog sitting in a police officer's hat - has now been raised with Chief Constable John Vine.

The advert has upset Muslims because dogs are considered ritually unclean and has sparked such anger that some shopkeepers in Dundee have refused to display the advert....

A spokesman for Tayside Police said: 'Trainee police dog Rebel has proved extremely popular with children and adults since being introduced to the public, aged six weeks old, as Tayside Police's newest canine recruit. 'His incredible world-wide popularity - he has attracted record visitor numbers to our website - led us to believe Rebel could play a starring role in the promotion of our non-emergency number.

'We did not seek advice from the force's diversity adviser prior to publishing and distributing the postcards. That was an oversight and we apologise for any offence caused.'

Source

Hungary: High court defends free speech against Leftists

And zaps proposed "hate speech" law:

"The Constitutional Court on Monday struck down legislation on hate speech, as well as a clause on funding church-run schools. President Laszlo Solyom sent the amendments to the Court for preliminary review in March. The amendments were passed by Socialist MPs without the support of the cabinet.

In declaring that hate speech may not be punishable, the Court said the right of free speech may not be denied simply because comments offend the interests, views or sensitivity of others, or if those comments are offensive or humiliating to individuals.

The Court said the right of free speech may not be denied simply because comments offend the interests, views or sensitivity of others, or if those comments are offensive or humiliating to individuals.

The court also struck down an amendment that would have enabled members of ethnic minorities and organizations to take legal action over offensive remarks affecting their group.

Source

Good to hear that sanity survives in one part of Europe. I guess that their experience under Communism has something to do with that.

"Star-spangled banner" becoming incorrect?

It appears to be optional in Denver, Colorado. I guess it does mention -- horrors! -- GOD in the 4th verse:

We read:

"Mayor John Hickenlooper's annual State of the City address may get more attention for what wasn't included than what was. At the start of the event Tuesday morning, City Council President Michael Hancock introduced singer Rene Marie to perform the national anthem. Instead, she performed the song "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," which is also known as the "black national anthem."

When she finished, the audience responded with mild applause. The national anthem was never performed....

City Councilman Charlie Brown took to talk radio Tuesday afternoon to criticize the absence of the national anthem at the State of the City proceedings. "There is no substitute for the national anthem, period," Brown said. "And that's what really bothered me. You know when we fly the flag, the American flag, it's always the highest flag, as it should be. And that didn't come across today, that didn't happen today."

Source

The words of the "black" song are given at the link above. It's not a bad song but it is not the long-accepted and legally proclaimed anthem of America.

A couple of comments from Free Republic:

* "You know, I thought for a while that we were getting over our racial issues as a nation."

* "As long as whites exist, there will be racism. Not because whites are pining for the good old days of Jim Crow, no, but for the simple reason we are the excuse many need for failure. Decades of failure to embrace the chances their parents and grandparents won for them with blood and sweat, decades of blaming whitey when they refused to accept that they have a place beside every other man and woman who chooses to stand on their own two feet. Whites are scapegoats for nearly every social and economic ill. It's easier than taking a look in the mirror and accepting responsibility for your own shortcomings than doing something about it."

Australian restrictions for visit of Pope

We read:

"New regulations making it a crime to annoy or inconvenience people gathering in Sydney during Pope Benedict XVI's visit later this month were criticized Tuesday as a heavy-handed blow to free speech.

The laws will apply in dozens of areas of downtown Sydney - including the city's landmark opera house, train stations and city parks - that are designated venues for World Youth Day, a Catholic evangelical festival at which the pontiff will conduct mass and lead prayer meetings.

The regulations give police and emergency services workers power to order anyone to stop behavior that "causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day event," according to a New South Wales state government gazette. Anyone who does not comply faces a 5,500 Australian dollar (US$5,300) fine.

Source

A lot depends on how this is enforced. The aim is to give police undisputed power to stop Leftist "protesters" from disrupting the Papal visit -- and the powers apply only during the visit. If Leftists confined their "protests" to speech only, the restrictions would not be needed but it usually takes police to keep Leftist demonstrators peaceful. Causing maximum disruption seems to be their usual aim -- lying down in front of vehicles, throwing things etc., etc.

Must not be praised by David Duke

We read:

"Task force members will once again gather on the UO campus tonight, prior to a lecture by Tomislav Sunic, a former Croatian diplomat and political science professor at several universities in the United States. Sunic has been interviewed several times by David Duke, a former Louisiana state representative and Ku Klux Klan member who on his Web site credited Sunic with possessing "one of the greatest intellects of European mankind." The Pacifica Forum's Web site offers similar praise of Sunic.

Michael Williams, an Anti Hate Task Force member, said the group probably would not have organized today's rally in protest of Sunic's message, so soon after Irving's talk, had it not also been for the recent spate of hate speech-related crimes in Eugene. "It's all very disturbing," he said.

Pacifica Forum founder Orval Etter said he is unfamiliar with Sunic's work and referred questions to forum member Jimmy Marr, who did not return a telephone message left at his home Monday evening. Etter said he believes media attention given to recent incidents and the task force's protests have fueled the string of hate crimes.

Source

I basically know nothing about Sunic other than what a quick Google search reveals but I see that Sunic opens one of his essays with "No political phenomenon can be so creative and so destructive as nationalism" so I suspect that it is a balanced account of national feeling that the Leftist students at the University of Oregon find threatening

"N-word" now forbidden

We read:

"Second-grader Jaiden Haber was sent to the principal's office -- not for bad behavior, but for her T-shirt's slogan. Last week, the principal told Jaiden, 8, to change her shirt, which read, "N the 'N' Word" and "It's time!"

Jaiden's mother, Karen, 45, said teachers at Northwest Elementary in Amityville should have "seized the moment" to discuss the shirt because it aimed to encourage tolerance.

But district superintendent John Williams said the word's inflammatory effect outweighed the shirt's potential educational value. He said Amityville schools strive to regularly instill cultural lessons. "To send a little white girl wearing this shirt into a very diverse district that is almost 90 percent nonwhite was not the way to address this word," he said yesterday. "It's a lightning rod."

A gym teacher noticed Jaiden's shirt and sent her to the principal, who asked her to change into a school shirt because hers was a "distraction," Williams said.

That violated Jaiden's First Amendment rights, said Tara Keenan-Thomson, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union's Nassau chapter. "All students have the right to wear what they want, and this does not stop at the school gates, regardless of content or how old she is," she said.

Source

The "N" apparently meant "end" so it was intended as an "anti-racist" slogan. I have long foreseen that usages such as "n*gger" will become banned but I am little surprised to see that it has gone past that and extended to "N-word". The Left have really done a great job of muzzling America.

On the other hand, the Principal may have been right in seeing the shirt as dangerous for the girl. There was a case recently where a guy lost his job because his fellow black employees were upset about his wearing a "clan" badge (he was of Scottish descent). Apparently to the blacks concerned there was only one clan: The KKK. So some blacks kids might have thought the girl was dissing them -- and attacked her for it.

So is the Principal assuming that blacks will behave in dumb ways?

Some REAL hate crime

NYC blacks threw rocks at a bus full of Jewish toddlers but no media outrage and student protests about that:

We read:

"Police say four teenagers have been arrested on hate crime charges for throwing rocks at a school bus full of Jewish toddlers.

Police say the three girls and one boy yelled epithets last month as they broke windows on the bus in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. The children were not hurt.

The case is part of a string of incidents that have stirred tensions between black and Jewish residents in Crown Heights. The teens are all 14-years-old and are black.

Source

As the blogger at the link above says:

"Jew hatred everywhere. Everywhere you go.... there it is. Of course the thing that galls me is if this was a school bus of Muslim children or a school bus of black children and white teens were yelling racial epithets, the country would be in an uproar. The media would be sleeping on lawns in Brooklyn .......... the leftist mainstream is morally bankrupt. Depraved.

They blinked!

Mark Steyn has made history! The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed the complaint against him -- as I predicted they would. It would have threatened their survival had they done otherwise. So the end result of the Muslim whining was simply to give Mark reams of free publicity. Virtue has its reward. Read the whole story on Mark's site.

More on the shutdown of anti-Obama blogs

There is quite a nice readable article here on the shutdown. I liked the following comment:

"Johnson and the other people interviewed for this article all agreed that Google was partly to blame for the outages. It was because of the search giant's "guilty until proven innocent" approach, they said, that allowed the attackers to shut down the blogs so easily.

"My biggest objection is not necessarily that these people did this, but that Blogger had the policy that basically locks you out," Snedeker said. "In other words you're guilty until proven innocent, instead of the other way around, and that was what frustrated me."

"I understand the need if you have some complaints from people that you need to investigate it," Johnson said. "But you also have to make sure that the person filing the complaint is legitimate."

I must say I feel a bit cheesed: Why wasn't my Obama blog attacked? Not worth attacking?

NYC councilman: Criticism of Mugabe is racist

We read:

"New Yorkers and longtime HA readers will know exactly which councilman it is. For the rest, it's Charles Barron, who dabbles in apologizing for the worst socialist degenerate dictators when he isn't busy calling black cops "house negroes" or fantasizing about slapping white people randomly for his mental health. He played host to Mugabe in NYC six years ago; these days he confines himself to denying that his pal's thugs are raping and murdering women from the opposition.

Source

Video clip at the link above