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31 July, 2010
Another battle to fly the flag
We read:"The father of an Illinois soldier who gave his life in Iraq is battling a cemetery for the right to keep the 10-foot flag poles that bookend his son's memorial, MyFoxChicago.com reported.
Army Cpl. Albert Bitton was killed by a roadside bomb in 2008. For the past two and a half years the poles have displayed an American flag and an MIA/POW flag, one on each side of the headstone. It's a monument that his father, Elie Bitton, visits three times a day.
But last week, Ron Graeff, the cemetary’s new manager, ordered Bitton to take down the flags and flowers around the grave site because they violate the cemetery's rules.
Source
"Undocumented" no longer makes the cut. Illegal immigrants are now "displaced foreign travelers"
I mentioned this on IMMIGRATION WATCH recently but it obviously has a place here too"In the Forest Service's news release about the recent string of marijuana busts, I discovered a term of art I'd never encountered before:
"During the raid, a U.S. Forest Service K-9 team located Gauldry Almonte-Hernandez, a displaced foreign traveler from Michoacán Mexico, who had tried to flee the area and hide while officers were performing entry into the marijuana garden"
"Displaced foreign traveler"? Makes it sound like he meant to go to Disneyland, got lost, and ended up at a pot plantation in the woods south of Hayfork.
SOURCE
30 July, 2010
A loss for freedom of religion
Amazing that the Constitution can be so blatantly ignored. What part of: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" don't they understand? The "establishment" clause has been perversely treated but I don't see how any court can reasonably misinterpret "free exercise"."A federal judge has ruled in favor of a public university that removed a Christian student from its graduate program in school counseling over her belief that homosexuality is morally wrong. Monday's ruling, according to Julea Ward's attorneys, could result in Christian students across the country being expelled from public university for similar views.Muslims are REALLY anti-homosexual so we would just have to have one of those to enrol for a BIG backpedalling to occur
“It’s a very dangerous precedent,” Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, told FOX News Radio. “The ruling doesn’t say that explicitly, but that’s what is going to happen.”
“Christian students shouldn’t be expelled for holding to and abiding by their beliefs,” said ADF senior counsel David French. “To reach its decision, the court had to do something that’s never been done in federal court: uphold an extremely broad and vague university speech code.”
Ward’s attorneys claim the university told her she would only be allowed to remain in the program if she went through a “remediation” program so that she could “see the error of her ways” and change her belief system about homosexuality.
The case is similar to a lawsuit the ADF filed against Augusta State University in Georgia. Counseling student Jennifer Keeton was allegedly told to stop sharing her Christian beliefs in order to graduate.
Tedesco said both cases should be a warning to Christians attending public colleges and universities. “Public universities are imposing the ideological stances of private groups on their students,” he said. “If you don’t comply, you will be kicked out. It’s scary stuff and it’s not a difficult thing to see what’s coming down the pike.”
The Alliance Defense Fund told FOX News it will appeal the ruling.
Source
"Obese" or "fat"?
We read:"Doctors should call people "fat" rather than "obese" to make it clear that they needed to lose weight, a British health minister said on Wednesday."Obese" was once used only for the grossly fat but it is now much more widely applied. I favor reversion to the original usage
Anne Milton, a Conservative, said the term "obese" distanced people from the problem and that calling them fat would encourage "personal responsibility". She said many National Health Service professionals were worried that if they called people "fat" they might cause offence but she insisted that anyone with such a weight problem needed to know.
Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, which campaigns to raise awareness of the health problems of being overweight, accused Mrs Milton of scientific ignorance. "The word 'obese' is a medical description of a weight that is such it might dispose someone to medical problems," he said. "The word 'fat' is a stigmatising word that is the kind children use to insult each other.
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29 July, 2010
Augusta State University makes approval of homosexuality compulsory
I covered this a few days ago on EDUCATION WATCH but it obviously has a place here too. The news that a university has ordered a student to lose her religion has gone worldwide now"A graduate student in Georgia is suing her university after she was told she must undergo a remediation program due to her beliefs on homosexuality and transgendered persons.That freedom FROM religion clause in the Leftist version of the 1st Amendment again.
The student, Jennifer Keeton, 24, has been pursuing a master's degree in school counseling at Augusta State University since 2009, but school officials have informed her that she'll be dismissed from the program unless she alters her "central religious beliefs on human nature and conduct," according to a civil complaint filed last week.
Keeton's lawsuit alleges that the university's remediation plan noted Keeton's "disagreement in several class discussions and in written assignments with the gay and lesbian 'lifestyle,'" as well as Keeton's belief that those "lifestyles" are cases of identity confusion.
David French, senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, which filed the lawsuit against Augusta State University on Keeton's behalf, said no university has the right to force a citizen to change their beliefs on any topic...
"A student has a right to express their point of view in and out of class without fear or censorship or expulsion," French said.
Source
Senate rejects restrictions on free speech
Solid GOP opposition prevented cloture"With no Republican support, the Senate, voting 57 to 41 this afternoon, fell short of the required three-fifths majority to end debate on the DISCLOSE Act. The bill—which Democrats crafted as a response to the Supreme Court's ruling in the Citizens United v. the Federal Election Committee case—would set new campaign finance laws for some corporations, unions, and interest groups.From memory, this is the second time this bad bill has been declared dead so a resurrection is possible but unlikely.
Source
The aim of the bill was to attach such elaborate reporting requirements to political advertising by companies that most would not bother. Labor unions were of course exempt from its requirements.
28 July, 2010
WIKILEAKS
The recent Wikileaks activity is obviously a big free speech issue so I present below two more or less opposing views of what is involved. Rather amusingly, both come from Left-leaning sources
The WikiLeaks war logs change everything
“Whatever our keepers of intelligence secrets do know, and whatever abuses they’ve done to our civil liberties to learn them, they must feel less sure today about keeping it all contained. When that many people have access to information, however compartmentalized their bosses may think they’ve made the system, some of it will get out, which leads to something else we should worry about. …
The WikiLeaks war diary will absolutely spur our powerful institutions to look for increasingly draconian ways to clamp down on how we share information. What WikiLeaks represents is what governments and corporations fear: a threat to their cultures of secrecy and dominance in their domains.”
Source
Not the Pentagon Papers
“Just because some documents are classified doesn’t mean that they’re news or even necessarily interesting. A case in point is the cache of 92,000 secret documents about the Afghanistan war that someone leaked to WikiLeaks, which passed them on to the New York Times, Britain’s Guardian, and Der Spiegel in Germany. All three published several of these documents — presumably the highlights — in today’s editions.
Some of the conclusions to be drawn from these files: Afghan civilians are sometimes killed. Many Afghan officials and police chiefs are corrupt and incompetent. Certain portions of Pakistan’s military and intelligence service have nefarious ties to the Taliban. If any of this startles you, then welcome to the world of reading newspapers. Today’s must be the first one you’ve read.”
Source
I am inclined to share the concerns of the first article: That a crackdown designed to prevent further leaks may imperil free speech generally. Whether any such legislation would get past SCOTUS is another matter, however. Their decisions are pretty unpredictable but they have lately leant towards protecting free speech.
27 July, 2010
An overused tactic?
I would like to think the comment below was correct but I do think that it is only partly so. The accusation still has some power to embarrass less cynical people"It has come to the point where the term ‘racist’ has become so completely overused that it is losing its impact. There was a time when a person so accused would take great offense and spend much time demonstrating a lack of racist tendencies.
The typical response now is to sigh and accuse the other person of making the accusation due to having run out of actual arguments. The reason it was overused is because the person making the accusation typically did resort to it due to having run out of actual arguments.
Now an outside observer, hearing a progressive refer to someone else as a racist, hears ‘he’s saying that guy isn’t a progressive.’”
Source
British firemen must not complain about their facilities
In case they are right in what they say (which they probably are)"A Stockport firefighter has won £80,000 in damages after an employment tribunal found he was unfairly dismissed over a row about reclining chairs.
Christopher Bennett, who has arthritis, was sacked for gross misconduct for sending an email to colleagues asking whether the chairs caused back pain.
The tribunal found his right to freedom of expression under the Human Rights Act had been breached.
Mr Bennett, who was sacked in 2008 after 25 years of service, was among a number of firefighters who found the new £400 chairs uncomfortable, the tribunal heard.
He stated in the email: "From day one we have moaned and complained but silently... The majority of firefighters have asked in private to not use the... chairs. "We are instead forced to rest on the concrete floor or outbuildings or blow up mats. This by its very nature is robbing us of our professional pride, not to mention human dignity."
A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said: "We demand the highest standards of behaviour from our entire staff. "Mr Bennett's actions fell far below those standards when he ignored the email policy and advice from both his line manager and his union representative.
Source
26 July, 2010
Australia: Police charge alleged creator of Facebook hate page
Queensland speech laws are rarely enforced so this is something of a surprise. Obviously there are limits to tolerance of nastiness"The woman believed to have created an abusive Facebook hate page aimed at 22-year-old Sunshine Coast murder victim Justine Jones was today charged by Gympie detectives.
The 22-year-old local woman was charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend in relation to alleged postings on Internet sites and social networking sites around July 17 - an offence punishable by up to three years imprisonment.
She is due to appear in Gympie Magistrates Court on August 2.
The woman, who is believed to have used the fake name Wendy Woods, allegedly boasted online about her “achievement” of having the Justine Jones hate page mentioned in the media, and described herself as a “troll”, a person who defaces internet tribute sites with the aim of causing grief to families and is connected with a group of other trolls who cause havoc on memorial websites.
Source
Even paintings of pigs frighten the cowardly Dutch
Memo to self: Must eat more bacon"Three paintings depicting pigs have been pre-emptively removed from a hospital in Leerdam because they might offend Muslims.
One patient, not actually himself a Muslim, made a complaint about the paintings because he wanted to avoid Muslims having confrontations with the pigs. The leadership of the healthcare institution, the Linge Polyclinic, thereupon decided to remove the paintings immediately, Algemeen Dagblad newspaper reports.
The artist, Sylvia Bosch, is astounded. "One week earlier, I had an e-mail from the clinic saying that they were getting nice reactions. After a single complaint, they had to be taken away immediately."
The Linge Polyclinic has stated that the pictures were removed because "all visitors must feel comfortable in the institution".
Source
25 July, 2010
More trouble for bloggers
And this time it is not censorship from the government or Google that is the problem. The problem is a profit-hungry "legal gentleman". You can read about him here. He is buying up off newspapers the copyright to their back issues and looking for anybody who has reprinted any of the content concerned. He then threatens them with legal action for breach of copyright.
Needless to say, many bloggers are "offenders". Most of what bloggers put up would appear to be covered by the "Fair use" provisions of copyright law, however. Fair use is a legal doctrine that recognises that the monopoly rights protected by copyright laws are not absolute. The doctrine holds that, when someone uses a creative work in way that does not hurt the market for the original work and advances a public purpose - such as education or scholarship - it might be considered "fair" and not infringing.
Even if a blogger is in the right and is covered by "fair use", the prospect of a court case is of course intimidating and it appears that many have opted to pay the "legal gentleman" settlement money rather than go to court.
One of the blogs targeted is Clayton Cramer's Armed Citizen blog. So Clayton has just suspended the blog until the matter is finalized. He has also temporarily taken his main blog private so that only invited users (I am one) can see it. It has always been a good libertarian/conservative blog so it is a pity to see it no longer fully accessible.
Clayton is all fired up and even seems to think that he can get the lawyers in this scheme disbarred. He is certainly not surrendering. So wish him every success.
As I have the means to defend lawsuits, I myself would not be intimidated by a lawsuit so this blog will continue. The fact that I live in Australia would also probably cause the guy to go after easier prey.
A matter of concern, however, is that the bloghoster for this blog may be buffaloed into shutting me down. So right now take a note of where the mirror sites of of my blogs are hosted. See here. If the main blog is shut down, the mirror sites will continue.
Actually, this blog and my GUN WATCH blog are probably not in any great peril as on both I usually publish only short excerpts that are clearly permitted under copyright law. On some of my other blogs, however, I do often reproduce full articles. So we shall see what we shall see.
Prayer forbidden!
One would think that the 1st Amendment guarantees freedom FROM religion"Arizona school children are told they can't pray in front of the Supreme Court building ... Two University of Texas Arlington employees are fired for praying over a co-worker's cubicle after work hours ... In Cranston, R.I., a high school banner causes controversy when a parent complains it contains a prayer and demands that it be removed.
There are more legal challenges to prayer in the United States than ever before, says Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist organization whose business is booming as Americans increasingly tackle church vs. state issues.
In Augusta, Ga., the city's law department just issued a legal opinion defending the city's practice of a pre-meeting prayer, saying it does not violate federal law. The statement was in response to the Freedom From Religion Foundation's letter to the mayor's office urging him to stop the invocations at the start of meetings. The foundation sent similar letters to three cities in South Carolina.
"These are flagrant violations of the laws," Gaylor says. Not so, says Nate Kellum, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the Arizona school children and their teacher, Maureen Rigo, who say they were told they couldn't pray on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington.
"Religious liberties are under attack across the country," Kellum says. "My sense is that there's some type of knee-jerk reaction, almost an allergic reaction, if someone sees the expression of religion," he says. And the bulk of the complaints are directed at Christians, he says.
Source
24 July, 2010
Queer acceptance legally enforced
We read:"A school district in Mississippi has agreed to pay a recent high school graduate $35,000 in damages and adopt a policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, according to a statement released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The settlement comes after the ACLU sued the school district in Fulton, Mississippi, on behalf of Constance McMillen, a lesbian teen who was told by Itawamba Agricultural High School officials she and her girlfriend would be ejected if they attended the school-sponsored prom.”
Source
Video criticising Obama under heavy attack
We read:"Alex Jones is on high-alert after someone managed to compromise the “ChangeDaChannel” You Tube account and criminally remove the most-viewed version of “The Obama Deception” available online, which had more than 6.5 million views and whose URL link ranked among the top of all “Obama” related searches.Once again I have to say: "Read the whole thing". The video is back up again for the moment.
The channel’s owner was tipped-off about the breach, and was subsequently able to change the password and prevent further deletions of Alex Jones and other patriot documentaries. Both he and members of the Infowars staff believe the video could have only been pulled from behind the scenes at Google or by a government-level cybersecurity admin with access to YouTube records, as the passwords were carefully guarded and unlikely to be guessed at.
The film, which has been attacked before, was censored at a critical time. Just one day before on Friday’s broadcast, Alex challenged activists to drive “Obama Deception” up in the search engines. Only a few hours later, Google trends rankings revealed that it was the #1 search term, above Lindsay Lohan, the BP Oil Spill or the death of George Steinbrenner.
Source
23 July, 2010
Climate Change Scepticism Could Soon Be a Criminal Offence
I mentioned this on GREENIE WATCH recently but I think it clearly has a place here too:"People who are sceptical of climate change could soon be facing criminal charges in the European Court of Justice, British National Party leader and MEP Nick Griffin MEP has said.
Speaking in an exclusive Radio Red, White and Blue interview on this week’s “Eurofile” report, Mr Griffin told interviewer John Walker about a recent sitting of the European Parliament’s subcommittee dealing with the matter, which had passed a ruling which in effect placed legal sanction against anyone who dared question the origin, cause or effect of “climate change.”
Mr Griffin revealed how he could not get a straight answer out of the committee while it was in session, but that afterwards it was admitted to him that that intention of the rule was to criminalise dissension on the topic of “climate change.”
Source
Black woman not allowed to say that she is a female dog
She wanted to describe herself as "NOT the 'whiteman's b----.'". I think I would have allowed that. It would have enabled the retort: "Well, whose b---- is she?""A legislative candidate from Wisconsin can't use a profane, racially charged phrase to describe herself on the ballot, an election oversight board decided Wednesday.
Ieshuh Griffin, an independent running for a downtown Milwaukee seat in the state Assembly, wants to use the phrase, "NOT the 'whiteman's b----.'"
State law allows independent candidates to have five words describing themselves placed after their names on the ballot as long as it's not pejorative, profane, discriminatory or includes an obscene word or phrase...
Roxanne Dunlap, a white woman from Sussex, felt compelled to speak up in the middle of the meeting, saying she was offended by the statement. She said if a white candidate wanted to have the statement "not the black man's b----" put on the ballot, it would be soundly rejected.
Source
22 July, 2010
Atheists or Satanists?
I mentioned the following report on POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH recently and identified it just a bit of attention-seeking silliness. But a reader has pointed out that the "ritual" concerned is very reminiscent of Satanism, which, from what I hear, consists largely of mocking or "reversing" Christian ceremonies -- reciting the Lord's prayer backwards, for instance."American atheists lined up to be "de-baptized" in a ritual using a hair dryer, according to a report Friday on U.S. late-night news program "Nightline."Even the hot air could be seen as an allusion to the heat of hell. Being an atheist myself, I certainly don't believe that atheism generally leads to Satanism but there are possibly some weak minds who could be tipped in that direction by militant atheism.
Kagin donned a monk's robe and said a few mock-Latin phrases before inviting those wishing to be de-baptized to "come forward now and receive the spirit of hot air that taketh away the stigma and taketh away the remnants of the stain of baptismal water."
SOURCE
Kagin and his "followers" could bear watching by those in a position to do so. "Cultbusters" occasionally do some good for badly misled people.
Kagin or Kagan is however usually a Jewish name so perhaps it is all just another example of Jewish contempt for Christianity (much seen in the ADL and to an extent in the ACLU. The ACLU is about a quarter Jewish and Jews are prominent in it). Most Jews are not religious in general and many are probably atheists.
The Stagliano victory party
Judge tosses out pornography prosecution"At the victory party Friday night after having had all charges against him dropped in federal court, pornographer John Stagliano, his lawyers, his family, and colleagues from the adult industry raised a toast to his freedom.I get the impression that this was simply a vindictive prosecution based on the fact that the Federal goverenment didn't like Stagliano's libertarian politics or his donations to libertarian thinktanks.
But because his wife is pregnant and his daughter is underage, and because one of the films under indictment was called Milk Nymphos, the champagne flutes were filled with an unusual fluid: milk.”
Source
Larry Flynt, publisher of "Hustler" walked away (or wheeled himself away) from an obscenity prosecution in 1999 so the Stagliano prosecution never had much hope. It was prosecution as punishment.
21 July, 2010
FBI communication led to mass blog site shutdown
It seems that the Blogetry shutdown was an over-reaction by the webhost (Burst.net) in response to a "Voluntary Emergency Disclosure of Information request" from the FBI. Rather than giving the information requested, Burst.net just wiped everything.
I think I smell a damages lawsuit coming up somewhere but even if there is no legal attack on Burst.net it is pretty clear that other customers of such an irresponsible company should be thinking about taking their business elsewhere
The attempt by Burst.net to hide behind "Terms of Service" violations is as shallow as a birdbath. Most webhosts have such a huge list of vaguely-worded "Terms of Service" that they could find in the list some justification to knock down ANYTHING posted on their servers if they wanted to."A popular website that hosted more than 70,000 bloggers was shut down suddenly last week after the FBI informed its chief technology officer that the site contained hit lists, bomb-making documents and links to Al Qaeda materials, it was reported on Monday.
When the WordPress platform Blogetery.com went dead, the initial explanation from the site’s host, Burst.net, was that ‘a law-enforcement agency’ had ordered it to shut down, citing a ‘history of abuse.’ The explanation caused a wave of conspiracy theories in the blogosphere.
But according to a report on CNET Monday, Burst.net shut down Blogetery.com when it became spooked by a letter from the FBI, in which the bureau detailed the presence of terrorist materials among the blog posts.”
Source
Hate-speech against the tea partiers
CNN Guests say Black Tea Partiers are Like Jewish Guards in Nazi Concentration Camps"CNN this weekend invited a "diversity consultant" on its "Saturday Morning" program that actually likened black Tea Party members to Jews that worked as guards in Nazi concentration camps.There is no doubt about where the hate comes from in American public life.
For his part, host T.J. Holmes did a fairly good job of playing devil's advocate to his two race-baiting guests, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill of Columbia University and Luke Visconti, owner of Diversity Inc.
Despite Holmes's efforts to impart some balance to the discussion -- imagine that! -- the schedulers might have done a better job finding an opposing view to the disgustingly offensive anti-Tea Party rhetoric on display.
Source
20 July, 2010
Ridiculous pornography trial violates Constitution
We read:"The Obama Administration’s prosecution of John Stagliano is a travesty. As Reason magazine’s Richard Abowitz wrote, ‘The case against Stagliano concerns the selling of movies performed by consenting adults to entertain adult DVD viewers who have chosen to watch these films. In a free and open society this is exactly the kind of prosecution that should not happen.’”
Source
Lies are protected free speech???
We read:"A federal judge in Denver has ruled the Stolen Valor Act is "facially unconstitutional" because it violates free speech and dismissed the criminal case against Rick Strandlof, a man who lied about being an Iraq war veteran.
U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn issued his decision this morning. "The Stolen Valor Act is declared to be facially unconstitutional as a content-based restriction on speech that does not serve a compelling government interest, and consequently that the Act is invalid as violative of the First Amendment," Blackburn wrote in his opinion.
Where do we start? Dressing up in a uniform you did not earn and wearing medals you did not earn is not speech. It is theft.
This judge is a Bush 43 so there isn't a "Democrat judges" angle on this. Also, the legal team for these a55hats comes from The Rutherford Institute.
They won with logic like this: John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, said the law is poorly written and should not be used to prosecute people for simply telling lies.
Source
19 July, 2010
Gadsden flag banned by Facebook?
If true, this would close many (most?) Tea Party pages! As the election gets nearer, Leftists are cracking down more and more on any opposition"Facebook has sensationally banned the official Alex Jones Facebook page after a customer services representative admitted that all material containing images of the famous Gadsden flag was being deleted by the social networking giant.I have just put up the Gadsden flag on my Facebook page. Could be interesting.
While some fan pages remain up, the official Alex Jones Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/realalexjones has been terminated. Other Alex Jones pages run by Infowars readers have also been deleted, such as the page that was formerly at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Real-Alex-Jones/.
If Facebook has embarked on a policy of banning political expression and images it deems offensive then the company should be more open about the fact. While Facebook didn’t consider it necessary to delete a fan page dedicated to the British murderer Raoul Moat, it is now purging all material related to the Tea Party movement, states’ rights and the Gadsden flag, which is a symbol of resistance against tyranny and was originally used by the United States Marine Corps.
Source
Feminist Canadians: Pamela Anderson's new PETA ad banned for treating actress like a piece of meat
It was MEANT to! Those are some confused Canadians. Feminists just don't like good-looking women is what it is all about. Even PETA can't trump that hatred"Pamela Anderson's racy new vegetarian advertisement for pressure group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was banned today in Canada for being "too sexist".
The New York Daily News said the animal rights ad features the 43-year-old Baywatch star posing in a blue string bikini with her body parts marked with labels including "rump", "breast" and "ribs" - accompanied by the slogan "All Animals Have the Same Parts".
Canadian officials rejected the campaign in Montreal at the 11th hour today claiming the ad went against the equal rights of men and women. "It is not so much controversial, as it goes against all principles public organisations are fighting for in the everlasting battle of equality between men and women," an official wrote in an email to PETA.
Source
18 July, 2010
Why were 73,000 blogs shut down all at once by the U.S. Government?
This is very alarming indeed. Obama's USA worse than China??"The United States Government shut down about 73,000 WordPress blogs on a single Web site in a move that some fear signals an increasing disregard for individual free speech rights. The action follows the high profile government seizure of seven online movie sites weeks ago. The U.S. move dwarfs current Chinese government activity that shut down only “dozens” of blogs in China."Developing", as they say. At least this blog is hosted by Google and they are probably too big to mess with.
Recently targeted by federal action, the free WordPress blogging site Blogetery abruptly came offline after hosting provider BurstNet complied with undisclosed demands from authorities. A message viewable upon visiting the Blogetery site gives this message from its owner: "After being BurstNet customer for 7 months our server was terminated without any notification or explanation.”
A link on the site leads to a forum called Web Hosting Talk, where the site operator has posted correspondence with BurstNet, that suggests federal involvement in the incident.
Those first to learn about the Blogetery shutdown seemed to think that the move was due to intellectual property concerns. The online discussion supposedly with the Blogetery owner suggests that users of his site prompted frequent cease and desist demands from copyright holders to which he responded with appropriate action against users of his site.
Original speculation seemed to be misguided upon the release of comments from BurstNet that disclosed that the action against Blogetery was not “typical” and required instant compliance with federal demands to close the entire Web site. Some reports seem to suggest that intellectual property rights actions typically target specific users of a service rather than the entire operation.
Now, some fear that the suffering of the innocent together with the guilty as the free speech of many appears to have been infringed by government action. Such fear supposes, of course, that not all 73,000 blogs on Blogetery were lawbreakers.
Source
Leftist "humor"
Unfounded abuse is funny? To Leftists, crass insults count as humor, apparently. Intelligence, insight or originality not required"Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown slammed comedian Kathy Griffin for making a crude joke about his two daughters.Abuse is all that Leftists are good at
Griffin, star of “My Life on the D List” made the comments on the Bravo network Tuesday night. The segment features Griffin being shown a photograph of Brown by two CNN reporters, John King and Dana Bash. Griffin identifies Brown in the picture, saying, “Scott Brown, who is a senator from Massachusetts and has two daughters that are prostitutes.” Bash erupts in laughter at Griffin’s comment.
But Brown wasn’t laughing, blasting Griffin and Bravo for the segment.
“People can call me any name they want, but families are off limits," he said in the statement made through spokeswoman Gail Gitcho. "I love my daughters Ayla and Arianna very much, and any parent would be proud to have them as children. Kathy Griffin and Bravo ought to be ashamed of themselves.”
At the end of the clip, Griffin runs a disclaimer “from Bravo’s legal team,” saying the girls are not, in fact, “prostitutes.”
Ayla Brown is a former NCAA basketball player and recording artist. She is now a contributor for CBS’ “The Early Show.” Arianna Brown is currently a pre-med student at Syracuse University.
Source
17 July, 2010
Must not depict Obama alongside Hitler and Lenin
Even though there are many ideological similarities. But displaying pictures of GWB with a Hitler mustache etc. were just fine, of course"The North Iowa Tea Party has removed a billboard comparing President Obama's socialism to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin after holocaust survivor groups and many on the organized Left objected, according to an Associated Press story for July 14.
The billboard claimed that "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive," and had Obama's "Democrat Socialism" between Hitler's "National Socialism" and Lenin's "Marxist Socialism."
“The message they intended was to point out the similarities between Obama’s policies and the socialist policies of Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin,” communications specialist Michael Fiala of Mason City, Iowa, explained in his blog, “like nationalized health care, the collusion of government and business to interfere with free markets, and government collaboration with labor unions aimed at control to name a few.”
Indeed, Hitler's National Socialism bailed out the automobile industry in the depths of the depression, creating Volkswagen as a state socialist enterprise, similar to how the Bush-Obama policy utilized bailout funds to rescue General Motors and Chrysler.
But the image of Obama sandwiched on the billboard by Hitler and Lenin overshadowed the project. "The purpose of the billboard was to draw attention to the socialism. It seems to have been lost in the visuals," North Iowa Tea Party leader Bob Johnson told the Associated Press for July 13. "The pictures overwhelmed the message.”
Source
Facebook defends Raoul Moat fan page
We read:"Social networking site Facebook has refused to take down a memorial page for British killer Raoul Moat. More than 35,000 people have joined a group called "RIP Raoul Moat You Legend", leaving sympathy messages for the killer. Many of the messages are anti-police.The author of the site has now taken it down but Facebook are to be commended for sticking to their guns.
Prime Minister David Cameron earlier expressed his bewilderment that Moat, 37, should attract any sympathy. He described him as a "callous murderer".
Suggesting that any sympathy should be reserved for the victims, the Prime Minister told MPs: "It is absolutely clear that Raoul Moat was a callous murderer, full stop, end of story. I cannot understand any wave, however small, of public sympathy for this man. There should be sympathy for his victims and the havoc he wreaked in that community. There should be no sympathy for him."
Moat shot and seriously wounded his ex-partner and killed her boyfriend. He then shot a traffic police officer, a 42-year-old father of two, in the face, blinding him.
Facebook management rebuffed Downing Street, however, suggesting users who had posted supportive messages of the murderer were entitled to their views.
Source
Anybody who regularly reads POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH or Strange Justice will know what lazy SOBs the present-day British police often are so an opportunity to vent about them would be understandably popular
16 July, 2010
Court rejects FCC’s ban on “fleeting expletives”
We read:"The 2nd Circuit has once again struck down the Federal Communication Commission’s indecency policy, calling it ‘unconstitutionally vague’ because it creates ‘a chilling effect that goes far beyond … fleeting expletives.’Anything that reins in the FCC is welcome
The dispute between the FCC and several major TV networks appeared before the Manhattan-based federal appeals court for a second time after it was sent back by the Supreme Court.
In April 2009, the justices voted 5-4 that the FCC’s ban on brief, one-time utterances of profanities — or so-called ‘fleeting expletives’ — was not ‘arbitrary and capricious,’ as the 2nd Circuit had ruled in a 2-1 decision.”
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Censorship as “tolerance”
European logic:"The ubiquitous European hate-speech laws represent a clear and present danger to freedom of expression in the Western world. Not only do they interfere with the basic right of the individual to speak his or her mind even if it causes offense, they are inherently arbitrary and prone to abuse.
The determination of which expressions are ‘hateful’ or ‘derogatory’ is highly subjective; the atheist and the fervent believer are unlikely to agree on where the limits of religious satire should be drawn.
And in an era of identity politics, when people are encouraged to think of themselves primarily as members of racial, religious, or ethnic groups with special rights rather than as individual citizens with equal rights before the law, ‘racism’ and ‘hatred’ have become very broad concepts indeed.”
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15 July, 2010
Florida Atheists Sue Over Prayers at City Meetings
We read:"A Central Florida atheist organization has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Lakeland over opening city commission meetings with prayer.But would they be game to question invocations to Allah? Or would they just sit there quietly and congratulate themselves on how "tolerant" they were?
The lawsuit comes after the Atheists of Florida voiced specific outrage over the use of the name "Jesus Christ." An April 5 meeting became heated after a citizen got into a yelling match with the atheists, prompting commissioners to recess the meeting.
Courts have ruled invocations at meetings of government bodies are constitutional under some conditions. Lakeland’s policy has been ruled constitutional by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which stipulated that governments must make a reasonable effort to incorporate all religious faiths.
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Update: TSA drops policy blocking 'controversial' sites
I reported on this on the 6th, being one of many to do so. It looks like we notched up a success. Any success at getting decency out of the TSA is pretty amazing. Maybe someone reminded them that there is an election in less than 4 month's time."After an uproar from conservative bloggers and free-speech activists, the Transportation Security Administration late Tuesday rescinded a new policy that would have prevented employees from accessing websites with "controversial opinions" on TSA computers at work.
The ban on "controversial opinion" sites, issued late last week, was included as part of a more general TSA Internet-usage policy blocking employee access to gambling and chat sites, as well as sites that dealt with extreme violence or criminal activity.
But the policy itself became controversial as the Drudge Report and a number of conservative bloggers highlighted the possibility that the policy could be used to censor websites critical of the agency or of the Obama administration in general. The American Civil Liberties Union also questioned the language.
Source
14 July, 2010
Belief in a "moderate" Islam is compulsory
We read:"Today we witness the blatant desperation in our culture and media for a “moderate Islam” — an Islam that many non-Muslims vehemently insist exists, but that mysteriously eludes them. This moderate Islam will make everything better, we are told, once the “extremists,” who are the “minority” in Islam, will be sedated. This sedation will be most easily achieved, the argument continues, when the Islamophobes stop blaming Islam after Islamic terrorists point to Islamic scriptures in explaining what inspired them to perpetrate their terrorist attacks.I very rarely say this but "read the whole thing" in this case.
Meanwhile, in terms of the planet that we happen to be occupying, a “moderate Islam” is nowhere to be found; no school of Islamic jurisprudence exists that counsels Muslims to renounce the Qur’an’s teachings on Islamic supremacism and the obligation of violent jihad. And yet, to suggest the truth of this reality in our culture gets one only the accusation of being a racist and an “Islamophobe.”
Source
Hate crime against Muslims?
We read:"So earlier this week, a mosque was set on fire in Georgia – yet more evidence of the anti-Muslim backlash that’s sweeping the country.Seems that what we actually had was hate-speech against non-Muslims from CAIR
At least, if you listened to The Council on American-Islamic Relations. Upon hearing the news of the crime, they reacted the way you’d expect. Says, CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper…"Given the recent wave of incidents targeting American mosques, a possible bias motive for this apparent arson attack must be considered… Unfortunately, there is a vocal minority in our society promoting anti-Muslim bigotry, and that minority is experiencing little or no pushback from mainstream religious and political leaders.”Uh yeah, I wish he’d expand on all these incidents, but maybe he’ll be too busy removing egg from his face. That’s because fire investigators have pretty much figured out who set fire to the mosque, and it’s a dude named Tamsir Lucien Mendy [pic below]. Investigators said Mendy belongs to the congregation.
Now, if you were to ask me, I’d say it’s really hard to be an anti-Muslim bigot, when you’re a Muslim. But knowing CAIR, I doubt they’ll let that silly detail clog up their angry ideology: its only goal is not to bridge differences, but to foment conflict through tthe idea of backlash – especially since no such phenomenon exists.
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13 July, 2010
Extreme black hate speech is no problem
The Glenn Beck video below is about a guy ("Minister King Samir Shabazz") whom the Obama admin. refused to prosecute even though the DOJ had a watertight case against him for voter intimidation at a polling station. Note that the rant was filmed AFTER the polling incident. It's not ancient history.
Far from being ostracized, Obama protects this extreme hater. Can you imagine how a white guy would be treated if he said the same about wanting to kill black babies? Every legal and not so legal chance to "get" him would be taken.
One might also note that incitement to violence is not normally regarded as protected free speech -- and this guy sure was inciting violence.
Naughty, naughty
It seems in poor taste to me but I think that about most modern art"A huge poster of a Nazi swastika behind a 1940s-style naked pin-up model clad only in a Mickey Mouse-mask and stretched across a building has stirred controversy in Poznan, western Poland.
A new art gallery is using the work titled "NaziSexyMouse" by Italian artist Max Papeschi to advertise an exhibition, but a city councillor has tried to take legal action, saying it violates a law banning the display of Nazi symbols.
"For Poles, the swastika symbolises the suffering and death of more than six million Poles," said councillor Norbert Napieraj.
But the public prosecutor's spokeswoman Malgorzata Mikos-Fita told AFP on Friday that no legal action would be taken against the gallery for publicly displaying the poster as "it did not break the law."
Gallery curator Maria Czarnecka said that "we don't have to remove it as it's a work of art. If it were just a swastika, it would be propagating Nazi symbols. The law allows such symbols to be used in academic and artistic contexts."
Source
12 July, 2010
A Canadian government has finally recognized Muslim hate speech
But they waited until the guy left the country before they launched a prosecution! What a pathetic lot they are!"A Muslim immigrant who called for "the slaughter of Jews" in online postings has become the first person to be charged with promoting genocide in Canada, police said on Friday.
Salman Hossain, a 25-year-old from Bangladesh who apparently left Canada in May, was charged with five counts of promoting hatred and advocating or promoting genocide over postings on his website and blog, as well as on a third-party website, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said.
Source
Handing out leaflets and writing to newspapers makes you unfit to own a gun?
Judge sends sheriff back to school:""U.S. District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett has ordered Osceola County Sheriff Douglas L. Weber to issue a gun permit to a resident and to complete a college-level course involving the First Amendment.
Bennett’s written decision on Wednesday involves the case of Paul Dorr, of Ocheyedan, who was denied a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Dorr and his son, Alexander, were denied gun permits after being engaged in extensive First Amendment activity -- protesting, passing out leaflets and writing letters to the editor -- the opinion notes.
“The court finds a tsunami, a maelstrom, an avalanche, of direct, uncontroverted evidence in Sheriff Weber’s own testimony to conclude beyond all doubt that he unquestionably violated the First Amendment rights of at least Paul Dorr,” Bennett wrote in his ruling."
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11 July, 2010
Pastor must not mention Jesus??
What sort of prayer is it if you don't say to whom the prayer is directed? If it's directed to the Christian God, how come you can't mention Christ? Very strange theology! Unless it's a prayer to the Devil, of course."A North Carolina pastor was relieved of his duties as an honorary chaplain of the state house of representatives after he closed a prayer by invoking the name of Jesus.OK to offend Christians, apparently
“I got fired,” said Ron Baity, pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. He had been invited to lead prayer for an entire week but his tenure was cut short when he refused to remove the name Jesus from his invocation.
Baity’s troubles began during the week of May 31. He said a House clerk asked to see his prayer. The invocation including prayers for our military, state lawmakers and a petition to God asking him to bless North Carolina.”
“When I handed it to the lady, I watched her eyes and they immediately went right to the bottom of the page and the word Jesus,” he told FOX News Radio. “She said ‘We would prefer that you not use the name Jesus. We have some people here that can be offended.’”
When Baity protested, she brought the matter to the attention of House Speaker Joe Hackney.
“I told her I was highly offended when she asked me not to pray in the name of Jesus because that does constitute my faith,” Baity said. “My faith requires that I pray in His name. The Bible is very clear.”
When the clerk returned, Baity said he was told that he would be allowed to deliver the day’s prayer – but after that – his services would no longer be needed.
Source
Must not mention that the Catholic Church opposes homosexuality
And for a Catholic to AGREE with Catholic teaching is completely beyond the pale. No freedom of religion in an American university."The University of Illinois has fired an adjunct professor who taught courses on Catholicism after a student accused the instructor of engaging in hate speech by saying he agrees with the church's teaching that homosexual sex is immoral.
The professor, Ken Howell of Champaign, said his firing violates his academic freedom. He also lost his job at an on-campus Catholic center.
Howell, who taught Introduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought, says he was fired at the end of the spring semester after sending an e-mail explaining some Catholic beliefs to his students preparing for an exam.
"Natural Moral Law says that Morality must be a response to REALITY," he wrote in the e-mail. "In other words, sexual acts are only appropriate for people who are complementary, not the same."
An unidentified student sent an e-mail to religion department head Robert McKim on May 13, calling Howell's e-mail "hate speech." The student claimed to be a friend of the offended student. The writer said in the e-mail that his friend wanted to remain anonymous.
"Teaching a student about the tenets of a religion is one thing," the student wrote. "Declaring that homosexual acts violate the natural laws of man is another."
Howell said he was teaching his students about the Catholic understanding of natural moral law.
"My responsibility on teaching a class on Catholicism is to teach what the Catholic Church teaches," Howell said in an interview with The News-Gazette in Champaign. "I have always made it very, very clear to my students they are never required to believe what I'm teaching and they'll never be judged on that."
Source
10 July, 2010
Italian journalists oppose privacy law
'The gagging law denies citizens the right to be informed’ says the above front page from an Italian newspaper -- which is rubbish. It prevents willy-nilly bugging of people, that is all
Having "exclusive" sources is the Holy Grail for journalists and too bad if it needs an invasion of privacy to achieve that"There will be no news in Italy today; or, at least, hardly any. That is not a prediction, but fact: none of the main newspapers are appearing because their reporters and editors are on a 24-hour strike. Today they are due to be joined by radio, TV and some internet journalists.
The action is over a parliamentary bill proposing a law that Silvio Berlusconi’s government claims safeguards privacy. Most of Italy’s editors, judges and prosecutors say it is intended to shield politicians, and particularly the prime minister, whose career has been ridden with financial and sexual scandals.
The so-called ‘gagging law’ would curb the ability of police and prosecutors to record phone conversations and plant listening devices. It would also stop journalists publishing the resulting transcripts.
Investigators seeking to listen in on a suspect would need permission from three judges. Regardless of circumstances, eavesdropping warrants would expire after 75 days, after which they must be renewed every three days.”
Source
Facebook Allows Hate Speech Against Fat People
This one has always rather puzzled me. "Obesity" is highly hereditary. Only with great difficulty can fat people help themselves. Yet there is no end to public condemnation of them.
Yet homosexuality is also largely inborn and also for them it is only with great difficulty that they can help themselves. So why is homosexuality zealously protected but "obesity" is not? Why is discrimination against one group just fine while discrimination against another group is the darkest of sins?
Clearly there is no principle involved. Discrimination is good or bad simply according to the politics of the day."Facebook protects many groups from hate speech. Here's one they don't offer protection to: Fat People. Check out these Facebook groups:In case anybody thinks my comments about obesity are motivated by self interest, see below a picture of me taken in my early 20s
• beautiful girls, all over the world, except you. fat bitch.
• If sex is such good exercise, why are there fat sluts?
• You're not "thick", you're a fat-ass in denial
• I don't hate you 'cause your fat, you're fat because i hate you.
• "Do you ride Elephants in India?"..."No, do you ride fat people in America?"
• i hate fat/ugly people that try to act bitchy. like no, your fat.
• Friends don't let friends bang fat bitches
• I would carry you to the moon and back...LOL jk, your fat and i'd die
• Being Fat and Ugly
• we all know a fat slag who thinks their fit
• You're wearing a tight clothes and you're fat....that's not good.
Terrible grammar and lack of creativity aside, this cannot stand. When a user starts a Facebook group, they're notified that:
"groups that attack a specific person or group of people (e.g. racist, sexist, or other hate groups) will not be tolerated. Creating such a group will result in the immediate termination of your Facebook account."
The entire purpose of the above groups is to propagate hate speech against fat people, specifically women. Can you imagine similar slurs being cast on any other group? Yes, you can. That's why Facebook is so rigorous in removing groups that attack federally protected minorities.
That's fantastic--except lots of minority groups that aren't federally protected under the EEO laws, including gay or transgendered people, and Facebook appears to have silenced hate-groups against them.
And it's not because there isn't a single person on Facebook who hates gay or transgender people enough to take two minutes to start a group. It's more likely that every time a group of that nature pops up, it's very rightfully flagged and removed.
Well, the fat-hate groups listed above have been flagged numerous times, and yet they remain. What's worse, multiple women have had their pictures used without their permission in Facebook fat hate groups. Bloggers such as Fat Nurse, Definatalie, and Pretty in Plus all write of experiences with this.
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9 July, 2010
Left-influenced Christians putting on a display of righteousness
They don't seem to have read Matthew 6: 1-6 or Matthew 23:23. "Apologies" seem to be big among Leftists. Leftists are good at empty words. Comments below by David Yeagley, ancestrally a Comanche"What’s wrong with this picture?
Members of the Texas Apostolic Prayer Network (TXAPAN) kneel before Comanche Nation chairman Michael Burgess and two other Comanches, and “apologize” for a “battle” at Palo Duro Canyon in 1874.
This story was told on the front page of the Comanche Nation News, June edition, 2010. The dramatic prayer incident took place this past April 23 and 24. To my knowledge, this event was not advertised among the Comanche people, nor was there any general invitation given. The June edition in the Comanche paper is the first I knew of it. I know I’m not the only Comanche that was unaware of it.
This event is ironic, the history dubious, and, in my opinion, the incident somewhat egregious. With all due respect for my beloved Comanche people and our leaders, I beg to differ with the idea that anyone owes Comanches an apology, or that Comanches need to offer forgiveness to anyone. Indeed, if Comanches accept apologies from anyone, then Comanches need to go and offer their apologies to the Apache, the Spanish, and the Texans.
After all, Comanches were the aggressor -–first toward other Indians, then toward the Spanish and Mexican population, in Mexico and in Texas. That the white Texans should finally out-gun and out-number the Comanche is no reason for the Texans to apologize. And Comanches certainly owe the Texans no apology. The Comanches were themselves invaders of the territory occupied by others. Then Comanches became victims of invasion.
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This must be some of the worst bullsh*t I have ever heard
And you thought NASA was about exploring outer space! Not in Obamaland."In a far-reaching restatement of goals for the nation’s space agency, NASA administrator Charles Bolden says President Obama has ordered him to pursue three new objectives: to “re-inspire children” to study science and math, to “expand our international relationships,” and to “reach out to the Muslim world.”
Of those three goals, Bolden said in a recent interview with al-Jazeera, the mission to reach out to Muslims is “perhaps foremost,” because it will help Islamic nations “feel good” about their scientific accomplishments.
In the same interview, Bolden also said the United States, which first sent men to the moon in 1969, is no longer capable of reaching beyond low earth orbit without help from other nations.
“NASA is not only a space exploration agency,” Bolden concluded, “but also an earth improvement agency.”
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8 July, 2010
Must not advocate use of Rhino horn -- even in jest
Use of Rhino horn as an aphrodisiac is superstitious nonsense but there is unfortunately a lot of superstition in the Far East and it does lead to the illicit slaughter of Rhinos for their horns.
Belief in the Holy Trinity is pretty nonsensical too so Westerners cannot afford to be too critical."Elle Macpherson says she regrets any distress she may caused by jokingly advocating the use of powdered rhino horn, a traditional Chinese medicine that is banned worldwide.There is a bit of sleight of hand above. It is true that the white (more properly "weit") Rhino is endangered but other Rhinos are not.
During a recent interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, the Australian model said that she had tasted rhino horn and that it had "done the job".
Her comments were condemned by animal rights activists, more so because Macpherson had publicly boycotted a posh London restaurant for serving bluefin tuna, an animal that is as endangered as the white rhino.
However, the model told news.com.au today that she had "never knowingly consumed or encouraged the use or consumption of any products which contain material derived from endangered species".
Source
America to emulate China in internet censorship?
We read:"Under Senator Joe Lieberman’s 197-page Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, the United States would formally mimic China’s “great firewall” of web censorship.
When Lieberman himself attempted to debunk claims that the bill provides Obama, and any following President for that matter, with a figurative ‘kill switch’ to disable certain parts of the Internet, he explained that the government was merely seeking to emulate powers over the Internet already enjoyed by the Communist Chinese.
Firstly, despite Lieberman’s spin, the text of the bill clearly gives Obama the power to shut down the Internet for at least four months without Congressional oversight.
Secondly, and even more alarmingly, Lieberman’s acknowledgement that the United States is seeking to emulate China’s policies on Internet control confirm that the entire cybersecurity agenda is primarily concerned with silencing political opposition to the state, since this factor completely dominates the Chinese model which Lieberman openly invokes as the ultimate goal of cybersecurity.
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7 July, 2010
Academe + Canada = BIG censorship
We read:"After going home for Christmas to visit with friends and family, I found myself confronting my second semester of journalism school. This semester, we were expected to participate in a blogging assignment. Two posts a week on a specific topic. I was excited that I finally had a chance to stop pretending to be objective and start writing what was really on my mind.
My first post was on the war in Gaza and the problems I had with students and pundits who claimed that Israel was using a disproportionate amount of force. "If Israel sent in missiles without aiming, would that be proportional? If Israel deliberately fired upon civilian, rather than military targets, would that be proportional? Because that is exactly how Hamas has been terrorizing the innocent people living in Southern Israel.… Of course, I would not expect information such as how Israeli hospitals are treating injured Palestinians, while Palestinian hospitals are allowing Hamas agents to shoot injured prisoners in their hospital beds, to be disseminated in a lefty institution like a Canadian university," I wrote.
Before I was able to publish the piece, I was pulled into my professor's office and told that my writing was unacceptable; that I was unqualified to write on the war in Gaza because I am not a international relations expert and I've never served with the Israeli army. He also said that the piece was too opinionated and that I would have to provide proof of everything I said, including my assertion that Hamas is a terrorist organization, even though it is listed as such by both the American and Canadian governments.
I initially gave my professor the benefit of the doubt and switched my topic. After receiving feedback on my next post, I asked for examples of best practises and was sent to a blog post written by one of my classmates. She also wrote about the war in Gaza, but she was on the opposite side of the issue, claiming that Israel was using disproportionate force and that the Canadian government was wrong not to condemn it. It quickly became apparent to me that my previous post had been censored, not for any of the reasons I was given, but because my political opinions conflicted with those of my professor.
Source
One gutsy guy
The Only Muslim Zionist in Bangladesh:"Shoaib Choudhury is not your average newspaper publisher, author, movie director, peace activist and lyricist. He’s also a Muslim Zionist who lives in Bangladesh, the world’s third largest Muslim nation.
Last week Choudhury, the editor of the Bangladeshi weekly tabloid Weekly Blitz which he describes as the “only anti-jihadist newspaper in the Muslim world,” spoke to Yishai Fleisher of Israel National Radio.
He told Fleisher about his view that “political Islam and hate speech are our biggest enemies.”
He recounted the ordeal he lived through in 2003 when he started the newspaper and was later subjected to solitary confinement for 17 months when he tried to visit Israel.
“At the time, the Hebrew Writers Association in Tel Aviv invited me to take part in a symposium,” he said. “On my way to Israel, I was stopped and arrested at the international airport in Dhaka. They labeled me a Zionist and an Israeli spy, interrogated me and tortured me for 10 days, and then imprisoned me for 17 months in solitary confinement, until 2005.”
Source
6 July, 2010
The latest TSA abomination: Now it blocks websites with “Controversial Opinions”
Will other Federal agencies follow suit?"The Transportation Security Administration will block all websites that contain “controversial opinion” from its federal computers in the latest example of how Internet censorship is expanding in both the private and public sector as the federal government prepares to push through a power grab that will empower President Obama to shut down the world wide web with an emergency decree.
“The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency’s computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a “controversial opinion,” according to an internal email obtained by CBS News.”
The new rules came into force on July 1, and prevent TSA employees from accessing such content, though what is deemed “controversial opinion” is not explained. Undoubtedly, the ban list will include websites which specialize in criticism of the government and federal agencies.
Internet censorship is expanding by stealth across numerous private and public network hubs. We routinely receive emails from visitors alarmed at the fact that their local library, university or transport center has blocked Alex Jones’ websites under the justification that they contain “hate speech”. Hate speech is being cited as an excuse to bar access to material critical of the state.
Indeed, at London’s St. Pancras station, one of the busiest international transport hubs in the world, Prison Planet.com, Infowars.com, and even mildly political websites are all censored on the facility’s free wi-fi network. In Communist China, where the state blocks most political websites, Alex Jones’ content is still accessible. In this instance, the Internet censorship policies of so-called free western nations are more draconian than those employed by the Chinese.
Source
Bible Teachings on Homosexuality Deemed "Hate Speech" by European Rights Agency
But anti-Christian hate is fine"When a European Christian pro-family group applied to join the Fundamental Rights Platform (FRP) of the EU’s Human Rights Agency, they did not expect to be denounced as promoters of “hate.”What the Romanian Christians said is actually mild compared with what Leviticus 20:13 says
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) objected to a statement by the Alliance of Romania’s Families (ARF) calling same-sex “marriage” an example of “human degeneration,” and denied their request for membership.
The ARF, a group lobbying to retain Romania’s traditional Christian social and legal underpinnings, had written on their website that, “So-called alternatives such as ‘families’ consisting of same-sex, are nothing but expressions of human degeneration.”
In a letter to the ARF’s president, Peter Costea, the agency called this “a fundamental rights perception that is incompatible with the participation in the FRP.” The agency also explained that their position was based upon the belief that ARF's views amount to "hate speech." ...
While turning down the ARF, the Fundamental Rights Agency accepted the application of the British Humanist Association (BHA), one of Britain's most outspokenly anti-Christian lobby groups that works for the removal of all signs of Christianity from public life in Britain.
The BHA features a who’s who list of Britain’s most hostile anti-Christians, including atheist Richard Dawkins and its current president, radical feminist journalist Polly Toynbee. The group is best known recently for its “atheist bus” campaigns and its political work to disestablish the Church of England, to abolish daily worship in schools and to “reform” religious education to exclude religious belief.
Source
5 July, 2010
Must not defend homosexuals in the Middle East
Homosexuals are only oppressed in the Wicked West, apparently"A pro-Israel group was booted from the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit after it had scheduled a workshop for today on gay rights in the Middle East.We all know how sacred homosexuals are but Arabs are apparently more sacred
Stand With Us, which has a chapter in Detroit, had registered to run a workshop set for this afternoon that was part of a forum attracting activists to Detroit from across North America. Their workshop was called “LGBTQI Liberation in the Middle East.” It planned to look at how gays and lesbians are oppressed in the Arab world, say organizers, while Israel in contrast gives them freedom.
The workshop was initially approved and was on the program. But on Wednesday, the group was kicked out of the forum and not allowed to do the workshop. Supporters of the group said the decision is related to the fact they are pro-Israel at a conference that has a number of workshops critical of Israel and Zionism.
Stand With Us members criticized the U.S. Social Forum for their decision. “I’m pretty disgusted because it seems like free speech at the forum doesn’t exist for voices that may have something good to say about Israel,” said Brett Cohen, director of the Midwest region of Stand With Us.
Source
What they don't want to hear: "Let us remind the executive as to where gays in the Middle East are tortured and murdered for daring to express their sexual preference. The reality is that in the Middle East, Israel is to be admired for its gay rights and equality, amidst being surrounded by countries which condone violent and murderous homophobia"
Being bigoted yourself is an odd way to oppose bigotry
It's not racist if we do it
That seems to be the Leftist view. Rand Paul, the libertarian son of Ron Paul, was viciously criticized by the Left as "racist" because he said that he opposed racism but he thought that legislation barring discrimination by private businesses was a breach of private property rights. But barring people from private businesses because of their group identity is OK if Leftists do it apparently"I was visiting some friends in Portland, Oregon, and I was told about an incident at the local Red and Black Cafe, in which a police officer was asked to leave because their customers (sorry, "collective members") do not feel safe around police.(See the original for links)
Said the co-owner (which I assume, as this IWW closed shop is "worker-owned" and "collectively managed," is simply one of the baristas) said, "If there's a police officer there, I wouldn't feel safe in that situation. I would feel worried that the officer might Tase the person or potentially shoot them for having a mental health issue."
I suggest they add "wearing a law enforcement uniform non-ironically" to their list of prohibited behaviors ... as long as "fostering inane and irrational paranoia" is still protected.
Regardless, what's clear is that they agree with Rand Paul that the right of private discrimination, while often an abomination, is protected by our Constitution. And because that view is "inherently racist," well ... I regret to report that these lovely people in Portland are racists.
Source
4 July, 2010
Russian lady outwits film star
I am sure that abusive language such as Gibson's is pretty common in domestic disputes but not all the women concerned are wearing a wire at the time.
I actually suspect that Gibson was set up right from the beginning. There have been quite a few attractive Eastern European ladies who marry rich men but who split shortly after bearing the guy a child.
Once a child is involved, the divorce courts are always very "generous" and the lady is set up for life. She might even go on then to marry for love."Mel Gibson's baby mama has 30 minutes of audio tapes featuring the actor ranting and spewing hate speech directed at her, according to a new report.
A day after RadarOnline reported that Gibson's meltdown included profanity-laced phrases at ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva that included calling her a “f----ing pig in heat” and “psycho c---,” the site reported today that she has lot's more where that came from.
Gibson, 54, and Grigorieva, 40, are locked in a bitter battle over child support. Gibson's affair with the Russian musician led to the end of his 29-year marriage.
RadarOnline didn't post the actual recording but claimed to have heard Gibson's angry words.
While Gibson's rep did not deny that he made the outbursts, the actor has not commented or apologized for the remarks.
Source
Popular California Flag Mural Deemed Graffiti, Painted Over
The Leftists who run California talk big about "respect" -- but only for minorities. There's no respect for mainstream Americans at all"California residents are up in arms that a flag mural — paying homage to victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — was painted over after the state ruled it was graffiti.
State transportation workers on Thursday turned the 35-foot hillside mural on Interstate 680 in Silicon Valley back into a gray slab of concrete, KTVU-TV reported. The explanation? It simply had been put on a list for graffiti remove, one official said...
The flag muralists vow to repaint the mural in time for the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks. But the state says they will have to go through an application process for permission to create "transportation art."
Source
3 July, 2010
Update on censorship of conservative newspaper ("The Rutherford Reader") by Kroger
Previously mentioned on this blog on June 13th."A small Tennessee-based newspaper has become the center of a free speech firestorm after it was banned from a grocery store chain and a KFC for allegedly publishing "hate" speech....Looks like Kroger's censorship did the paper a favor. It would still be nice, however, if Kroger sees a fall-off in their business as conservatives shop elsewhere.
Protesters gathered outside at least one Kroger store Saturday with picket signs sporting messages like "1st Amendment Trashed by Kroger and Distributech."
And a manager at the KFC that banned the Reader says the company has received dozens of complaints since the paper was taken off the shelves, including her own.
"I've made my opinion known," Smyrna KFC Manager Sandy Stahr told FoxNews.com. "I just feel it's wrong that out of all the people that enjoyed reading it when they came in to eat by themselves, and because one person complained they're going to take it out."
For Kroger's part, Ead says the supermarket received several complaints, not just Mijares'.
Doughtie says his increased circulation numbers show the Reader's supporters in this dispute far outweigh its critics. "We've had a heck of a lot more new subscribers. We have 14 new distribution points where businesses have called us and said they want our paper in their store," he said. "We've even had to increase our printing."
Source
Kroger could learn from Rupert Murdoch: Giving conservatives a voice is good for business. Lots of mainstream media companies are in financial difficulties these days but Murdoch properties (Wall St Journal, NY Post, Fox news) are all doing fine.
Black anti-racist caught out being racist in Britain
Another instance of how blacks tend to hate Chinese and Indians because of their superior achievements. In British usage, "Asian" (as below) usually means Indian.
At least the Brits took the offender to court. In America it seems that blacks can be as racist as they like without any significant comeback at all. They can say "N*gger" a thousand times a day with no problem -- but woe betide a white who uses that word."Calling someone a "coconut" might sound harmless but it has landed one woman with a criminal conviction.As a white person I am offended that it is regarded as an insult to say that someone is white in some way.
Councillor Shirley Brown [above] has been at the heart of Bristol's multi-cultural community for 15 years, but in February 2009 she found herself at the centre of an unintended controversy.
While taking part in a debate in the city council she called a female Asian councillor, Jay Jethwa, a "coconut". The word is used to describe someone who is brown on the outside, but "white" on the inside. In other words, someone who is said to have disregarded their cultural roots.
Brown used the word in a debate about the funding of black and ethnic groups in the city, and was upset that Ms Jethwa was advocating cuts.
Although she apologised a few days after the comment, and on several occasions, the matter went to a local and then a national standards hearing.
Brown was reprimanded, briefly suspended from the council and then reinstated. But months later the case escalated when she was charged under the Public Order Act with using "threatening, abusive or insulting words, with intent to cause a person harassment, alarm or distress". It's a serious charge which comes with the threat of a criminal record...
On Monday Brown was convicted, given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs.
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In the boy's yarns that I read back in the '50s, the expression, "That's very white of you" was high praise. I guess that shows what evil racists our grandparents were. The fact that those same grandparents destroyed Nazism doesn't count, of course.
2 July, 2010
Semi-backdown over pledge at Massachusetts School
We read:"Student Sean Harrington appears to have won his fight to bring the Pledge of Allegiance back into his Massachusetts high school -- except the principal's proposed solution leaves the daily honor to the nation's flag literally hanging in the hall.
Charles Skidmore, principal of Arlington High School in Arlington, Mass., has offered to allow students to recite the pledge before school begins -- but in the school's foyer and not in the classrooms, as 17-year-old Harrington had hoped.
Kathleen Bodie, Arlington superintendent of schools, told Fox News Radio that “The principal wanted to be very respectful about the pledge and be sensitive to the Supreme Court ruling that students are not forced to say the pledge. He wanted to be sensitive to the diverse group of students we have.” [But being sensitive to patriotic Americans is not on his radar, of course]
It is unclear whether Harrington, who led the fight to bring the pledge back to the school, will be satisfied with the compromise of having it recited in the foyer, and not in class.
Source
British politician apologises to dwarves following insult aimed at speaker of the house, John Bercow
It was indeed an insult to dwarves. I would have called Bercow a slimy little worm, myself. He is the British equivalent of a RINO, only worse.
He once pretended to be a far-Right conservative but the kneejerk Leftism that is characteristic of most Jews eventually came out in him and he got his present job on the basis of Labour Party votes"Simon Burns, the health minister, has apologised to dwarves after insulting John Bercow. The health minister, who called the Speaker a “stupid, sanctimonious dwarf”, has apologised – but only to short people in general.
Simon Burns, who delivered the muttered insult to John Bercow after being reprimanded in the Commons for facing the wrong way, said he was sorry if he caused offence to “any group of people”.
He issued the statement after a group that represents people with rare types of Primordial Dwarfism called his comments “derogatory and deeply offensive”.
His comment was not heard by Mr Bercow himself but another MP complained about the minister’s “disrespectful” conduct and the Speaker declared that all sides must “respect” the Chairman of Commons debates.
Source
1 July, 2010
School Officials in Mass. Town Won't Let Students Recite Pledge of Allegiance
How Leftists hate America!"When Sean Harrington entered his freshman year at Arlington High School, he noticed something peculiar: There were no American flags in the classrooms, and no one recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
So Harrington enlisted the aid of his fellow students, and now, three years later, they have succeeded in getting flags installed in the classrooms. But the pledge still will not be recited.
The Arlington, Mass., school committee has rejected the 17-year-old's request to allow students to voluntarily recite the Pledge of Allegiance, because some educators are concerned that it would be hard to find teachers willing to recite it, according to a report in the Arlington Patch.
Harrington said the recitation would have been strictly voluntary. "If we can't find one teacher who is willing to say the pledge, then the system we have is cracked," he told FOX News Radio, noting that a number of teachers signed his petition.
Source
Must not advertise apartments to let?
That seems to be the plan in corrupt NYC. The New York state legislature has apparently been "got at" by big hotel owners who don't like competition and appears set to ban short-term subletting of their apartments by private owners in NYC. Details here.
I doubt that the ban would stand a 1st Amendment challenge but the corrupt Albany politicians will feel quite free to flout the constitution in the knowledge that no little guy could afford to take the matter to court.
Posts from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).
"HATE SPEECH" is free speech: The U.S. Supreme Court stated the general rule regarding protected speech in Texas v. Johnson (109 S.Ct. at 2544), when it held: "The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." Federal courts have consistently followed this. Said Virginia federal district judge Claude Hilton: "The First Amendment does not recognize exceptions for bigotry, racism, and religious intolerance or ideas or matters some may deem trivial, vulgar or profane."
Even some advocacy of violence is protected by the 1st Amendment. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that speech advocating violent illegal actions to bring about social change is protected by the First Amendment "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."
The traditional advice about derogatory speech: "Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you". Apparently people today are not as emotionally robust as their ancestors were.
A phobia is an irrational fear, so the terms "Islamophobic" and "homophobic" embody a claim that the people so described are mentally ill. There is no evidence for either claim. Both terms are simply abuse masquerading as diagnoses and suggest that the person using them is engaged in propaganda rather than in any form of rational or objective discourse.
Leftists often pretend that any mention of race is "racist" -- unless they mention it, of course. But leaving such irrational propaganda aside, which statements really are racist? Can statements of fact about race be "racist"? Such statements are simply either true or false. The most sweeping possible definition of racism is that a racist statement is a statement that includes a negative value judgment of some race. Absent that, a statement is not racist, for all that Leftists might howl that it is. Facts cannot be racist so nor is the simple statement of them racist. Here is a statement that cannot therefore be racist by itself, though it could be false: "Blacks are on average much less intelligent than whites". If it is false and someone utters it, he could simply be mistaken or misinformed.
Whatever your definition of racism, however, a statement that simply mentions race is not thereby racist -- though one would think otherwise from American Presidential election campaigns. Is a statement that mentions dogs, "doggist" or a statement that mentions cats, "cattist"?
Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? "You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated." -- Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862
The spirit of liberty is "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." and "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." -- Judge Learned Hand
Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)
First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean
It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.
It seems a pity that the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus is now little known. Remember, wrote the Stoic thinker, "that foul words or blows in themselves are no outrage, but your judgment that they are so. So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you. Wherefore make it your endeavour not to let your impressions carry you away."
"Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason?" -- English poet John Milton (1608-1674) in Areopagitica
Hate speech is verbal communication that induces anger due to the listener's inability to offer an intelligent response
Leftists can try to get you fired from your job over something that you said and that's not an attack on free speech. But if you just criticize something that they say, then that IS an attack on free speech
"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper
Why are Leftists always talking about hate? Because it fills their own hearts
Leftists don't have principles. How can they when "there is no such thing as right and wrong"? All they have is postures, pretend-principles that can be changed as easily as one changes one's shirt
When you have an argument with a Leftist, you are not really discussing the facts. You are threatening his self esteem. Which is why the normal Leftist response to challenge is mere abuse.
The naive scholar who searches for a consistent Leftist program will not find it. What there is consists only in the negation of the present.
The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) could have been speaking of much that goes on today when he said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."