TONGUE TIED 2 ARCHIVE
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"
|
The primary site for this blog mirror is HERE. Dissecting Leftism is HERE (and mirrored here). The Blogroll. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here. (Click "Refresh" on your browser if background colour is missing) See here or here for the archive index of this site
****************************************************************************************
31 May, 2013
Extreme hate speech from a Warmist
Hate speech against "deniers" is stock in trade for Warmists. It must be annoying to have your profitable racket exposed. But one Warmist appears to be pushing the envelope. A French Warmist scientist, Dr. Jean-Luc EGM Melice [Email: jlmelice@locean-ipsl.upmc.fr], left racist abuse on Marc Morano's site. The comment read: "Still waiting for the hate mails from Morano, the greasy, fat, mafiosi-type, Italian immigrant asshole." I think a lot of Italians would be immediately incensed by such a deliberate attempt to offend but Marc so far has simply circulated the content to those on his mailing list, which includes me.
One of the people on the mailing list said of the Warmist: "He sure acts like a climate scientist"
Dr Luc Melice appears to be an employee of a French Oceanographic laboratory. He's on their staff list here but may be working in South Africa
The EU has fairly strict laws about hate speech so I think we may hear more about this.
I imagine that he might claim that someone stole his identity in making the comment so we might have to wait and see about that.
Incidentally, Morano was born and bred in the USA, not Italy. Not that being Italian is any disgrace, Two of the months of our year are named after Italians: July and August.
UPDATE:
I sent a brief email to the address above and got a reply from his hotmail address. It's a lot of fun. I reproduce it below:
"Hi there,
I have first to know who you are...
Are you part of that asshole Morano team?
I am going to write you in french. Please remember that french is the language of every educated gentleman.
Please also remember that your country would not exist without the help of the French. Just remember La Fayette...
Je suis français et spécialiste en modélisation du climat et des océans, êtes-vous capable de comprendre ce que j'écris?
Morano is a fat, asshole mafiosi-type italian immigrant, he has no scientific degree, he knows nothing about climate dynamics.
He gets a lot money from the oil industry to say that global warming is a hoax...
To bad, you are now in the USA, in a sacry climate change situation. We know, for instance, that you wiil have an awful drought this summer.
I hope that you will be clever enough to get rid of that Morano asshole, and that you will be able to wake-up...
Hard to educate mugs!!!
Cheers,
Dr. Jean-Luc EGM Melice
jlmelice@locean-ipls.upmc.fr
ps. it is easy to check my scientific peer-reviewed papers by typing "JL Melice" in google scholar.
It is also easy to check that Morano and his friends/team, like the all climate deniers, have no scientific background....
We are still waiting for hate e-mails from asshole Morano... he is an expert in that..."
Scottish Olympic cyclist abused by Scottish nationalists
Olympic legend Sir Chris Hoy has been subjected to offensive abuse from nationalist campaigners after he raised concerns about Scottish independence.
The Scottish cycling hero was branded a ‘bigoted anti-Scot’, a ‘t*****’, a ‘creep’ and an ‘imbecile’ by the online army of so-called ‘CyberNats’.
The disgraceful remarks have sparked fury, with a UK minister calling on Alex Salmond to take action amid fears of ‘lasting damage to damage Scotland’s reputation’.
Sir Chris has won legions of fans across the globe with his passion and professionalism on the track. But Britain’s greatest ever Olympian became an enemy for the CyberNats after he warned that Scottish athletes will find it harder to challenge on the world stage if the country becomes independent.
Last night, Scotland Office Minister David Mundell said: 'The negative and personal tone of the attacks on Sir Chris is shameful and casts the referendum debate in a poor light.
'I believe it would be helpful if the First Minister and the Scottish Government were explicit in their condemnation of those trying to shout down the views of Sir Chris and others. The debate on our future must be open to all.'
Source
A lot of Scottish nationalism does seem to be anti-English hatred. Some wars of long ago have not been forgotten
30 May, 2013
Eddie McGuire makes on-air gaffe about Adam Goodes and King Kong
Because Aboriginal footballer is very tall, radio personality said he could be used to portray King Kong. Bad move!
EDDIE McGuire has apologised after he made an on-air gaffe about bringing Adam Goodes to town to promote the new King Kong musical.
The gaffe comes just five days after McGuire was the first man to apologise to Goodes after a 13-year-old fan called the star Sydney Swans AFL player an ape at Friday night's Swans and Collingwood match.
The controversial comment came while McGuire was speaking with co-host Luke Darcy on Triple M's Hot Breakfast show this morning. Darcy was talking about the new musical. "What a great promo that is, for King Kong," he said.
To which McGuire replied: "Get Adam Goodes down for it, d'you reckon?"
"No, I wouldn't have thought so," was the response from Darcy.
McGuire went on, stumbling over his words: "You can see them doing that, can't you? Goodesy. You know, the big, not the ape thing the whole thing, I'm just saying the pumping him up and mucking around and that sort of stuff."
Source
Teacher fired for using the Spanish word for "black"
A Bronx teacher has filed a lawsuit claiming she was fired for using the word 'negro' in class. 'Negro' is the Spanish word for the color black.
One of the first lessons one learns in English class is that context is everything. The same holds true in Spanish.
Take the case of Petrona Smith. She says in a lawsuit that she was fired from teaching at Bronx PS 211 in March 2012 after a seventh-grader reported that she'd used the "N" word, according to The New York Post: 'Negro.'
Smith doesn't deny using the word. But she argues that everyone uses it, when speaking Spanish. She was teaching the Spanish words for different colors, and the color "black" in Spanish is "negro." She also taught the junior high school students, in this bilingual school, that the Spanish term for black people is "moreno." And by the way, Smith, who is from the West Indies, is black.
SOURCE
29 May, 2013
Moment Aboriginal Australian footballer confronted girl, 13, who called him an 'ape' and had her escorted from the stands
Goodes does not look all that Aboriginal. He is clearly more white than black
An Australian Rules footballer has been praised for his uncompromising reaction after a 13-year-old girl shouted out a racist remark to him during a game on Friday night.
Sydney Swans forward Adam Goodes - who is an Aboriginal Australian - was called an 'ape' by the girl as he ran past her and responded by turning around and pointing out the girl to security who escorted her from the Melbourne stadium.
Goodes, 33, is the star player for the Sydney Swans but said that the racial abuse he received at the hands of the girl rendered his sides win 'meaningless' - such was his disappointment.
'To come to the boundary line and hear a 13 year old girl call me an 'ape', and it's not the first time on a footy field that I've been referred to as a 'monkey' or an 'ape', it was shattering,' he told the ABC.
Goodes and the Sydney Swans were playing Collingwood, at their home of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The 13-year-old girl was a Collingwood fan.
In the aftermath of the racial abuse that was directed his way, Goodes told the Melbourne Herald Sun that, 'Racism had a face...and it was a 13-year-old girl. - but it's not her fault,' said Goodes.
'That's what hurt me so bad...when I turned around, I just saw this young face and...it was just sad. 'That's why I had to leave the arena, it just broke my heart.'
Early on Saturday morning, Goodes took to his Twitter feed to announce that the girl had been in touch with him, apologizing for her actions.
Goodes added that the police in Melbourne had asked him if he wanted to press charges, but that he did not want to - preferring the girl instead undergoes an education program instead.
Source
The footballer was insightful in realizing that the girl would have just been repeating what she had heard in her family
Racial abuse from spectators is common in sport. Once upon a time sportsmen had to learn to ignore it.
Some people were critical that the girl was harassed over a childish remark. She said she didn't know it was racist. And she may not have known that he had some Aboriginal ancestry
Unwise and wrong to mention low average Hispanic IQ?
Ruben Navarrette (writing below) is a somewhat conservative Hispanic journalist but there are some truths he can't stand. He is almost certainly right in saying that Republicans should avoid the issue of Hispanic IQ but he then goes on to say that Richwine's research is "discredited". It is anything but. It was endorsed by three eminent experts in the field. Ruben appears to have mistaken Leftist disapproval for scientific evidence! Dumb, Ruben, dumb
Dear Heritage Foundation, you're not helping.
I assume you agree with the proposition that -- demographics being what they are -- it would be a good thing to thaw out the frosty relationship between Latinos and Republicans. Yet, your incompetence and insensitivity during the Jason Richwine debacle have brought in a new cold front.
What's the point of building bridges between Latinos and the Republican Party if one of the nation's leading conservative think tanks is going to blow them up?
Frankly, I couldn't care less if Latinos never cast another vote for a Republican candidate.
Here's what I do care about -- that Latino voters see casting such a vote as a viable option. I want Latinos to have choices and be courted by both parties. Otherwise, they will be politically irrelevant, written off by one party and taken for granted by another. Competition keeps people on their toes.
That's the collateral damage of L'Affaire Richwine. Here's the background: Jason Richwine is a former senior policy analyst at Heritage and the co-author of a roundly discredited study that said the Senate immigration reform bill would cost taxpayers roughly $6.3 trillion over the next half-century. It was recently revealed that Richwine -- in his 2009 Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government -- made the goofy argument that Hispanic immigrants and their descendants were forever destined to be less intelligent than whites. He wrote:
"Immigrants living in the U.S. today do not have the same level of cognitive ability as natives. ... No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against."
Source
The poor performance on IQ tests by blacks and Hispanics is exactly what one would predict given their substandard achievements. The test performance of blacks and Hispanics validates the tests. The test results predict that these groups will have poor educational, vocational and financial success. And they do! The tests provide correct predictions. If blacks and Hispanics did just as well in education and in the workforce as whites do, THEN the tests would be "discredited"
28 May, 2013
Cricket is racist?
Pesky that the great majority of cricket enthusiasts are brown. Cricket is sometimes said to be India's only national religion
Through all his incarnations, Doctor Who has fought selflessly to ensure the survival of all manner of life forms across the Universe. But now an international group of academics has branded the heroic Time Lord ‘thunderingly racist’.
The Doctor’s new foes claim that his dismissive attitude towards black companions, his contempt for ‘primitive’ people, and even his passion for cricket are all proof of a reactionary ‘whiteness’ pervading his adventures.
Their concerns are published in a new book, Doctor Who And Race, which says the BBC programme is based in attitudes ‘that continue to subjugate people of colour’.
One of the more bizarre theories is offered by Amit Gupta, an American professor, who argues that Peter Davison’s cricket-loving incarnation of the character in the Eighties was thinly disguised nostalgia for the British Empire. He wrote: ‘[He] portrayed the amateur English cricketer of the late 19th Century when the game was characterised by both racial and class distinctions.
‘Cricket also had a role in maintaining the status of British imperialism through the exercise of soft power as it was successfully inculcated by the colonial elites. Davison’s cricketing Doctor once again saw the BBC using Who to promote a racial and class nostalgia that had already outlived its validity.’
And the BBC said: ‘Doctor Who has a strong track record of diverse casting among both regular and guest cast. Freema Agyeman became the first black companion and Noel Clarke starred in a major role for five years [Mickey Smith].
‘Reflecting the diversity of the UK is a duty of the BBC, and casting on Doctor Who is colour-blind. It is always about the best actors for the roles.’
Source
The real racists
Race has long been a leftist obsession. Going right back, Marx and Engels were fascinated by it, with Engels being rather outspoken about "n*ggers" and Marx about Jews. See for instance Zur Judenfrage by Marx.
27 May, 2013
New law bans 'Christmas' for Asturias kids
Schoolchildren in the northern Spanish region of Asturias will no longer be able to call Christmas by its name now that a new law passed by the local education ministry prohibits the use of “religious” terms in the classroom when referring to the December and spring holidays.
Teachers and pupils in Asturias classrooms will now have to refer to Christmas as “winter holidays” and Easter as “second term holidays”.
The region’s socialist-led government has decided to introduce the new terminology in a bid to restrict religious references in the next school year.
Local religious teachers and institutions like the Catholic Confederation of Fathers (CONCAPA) have shrugged off the new law, branding it as a “stupidity” but also an “attack”.
SOURCE
"Colored" a bad word (Unless you are the NAACP)
George O’Grady, the European Tour’s chief executive, was forced to apologise here at the BMW PGA Championship on Thursday after he was accused by an anti-racism charity of making a remark on television that was “lazy and old fashioned” and with “offensive undertones”.
The Ulsterman, who has led the Tour for eight years and is one of the game’s most influential officials, appeared on Sky Sports to defend his Tour’s stance in not punishing Sergio García for directing a racist jibe at Tiger Woods. Instead, the controversy escalated several notches when O’Grady said “most of Sergio’s friends happen to be coloured athletes in the United States”.
With social media abuzz about the comment, O’Grady was obliged to emulate García and say sorry. “I deeply regret using an inappropriate word in a live interview for Sky Sports, for which I unreservedly apologise,” he said.
“Historically, the term ‘coloured’ has carried particularly negative connotations,” Kearns said. “It is certainly something we would like to see disappear – it is old-fashioned and lazy, but more importantly it has offensive undertones. Fifty or 60 years ago you could still see signs saying ‘no Irish, no coloureds, and no dogs’, and that is exactly the sort of thing we are trying to get away from.
Source
26 May, 2013
BBC goofs over the Woolwich killing
With minutes to go before the BBC News at Six I was told by a senior Whitehall source that the incident was being treated as a suspected terrorist incident and being taken very seriously indeed. This information changed the news from a crime story to something of more significance. The police had, I was told, described the attackers as being "of Muslim appearance" and shouting "Allahu Akbar". On air I directly quoted a senior Whitehall source saying that the police had used that description.
That phrase "of Muslim appearance" clearly offended some who demanded to know what it could possibly mean. Others were concerned that it was a racist generalisation.
Source
The constipated language used by police seems to be the problem here. To police a woman is a "female person". But they tripped themselves up with this as there is plainly no such thing as a Muslim appearance. There are all sorts of Muslims.
But the BBC guy should have picked it up. Why didn't he? I suspect that both the police and the BBC were trying to avoid saying the obvious: "Of African appearance". In the service of political correctness they made ninnies out of themselves.
Whitehall is the London street where most government offices are located. It is therefore a metonym for "The government".
Woolwich is an area of London with extensive military connections
More attempted censorship over the Woolwich murder
It turns out that ITV’s video of the comments made by one of the murderers in the Woolwich atrocity yesterday was censored. Not, you might imagine, to remove graphic images of bloody violence, but for a different reason.
If you watch the broadcast version of the ITV video, you can see that a voiceover has been put over the beginning of the tape. The killer is speaking, but we can’t hear what he is saying.
The censored words are, “There are many, many ayah throughout the Koran [referring to religious verses] that says we must fight them as they fight us, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
In other words, this is further evidence that the killer used the Koran to justify his actions. Why do you think that people didn’t want us to hear that?
Source
24 May, 2013
Must not suggest that blacks tend to like fried chicken
Garcia was on stage with his Ryder Cup teammates at a European Tour gala awards evening at the BMW PGA Championship when he was asked by compere Steve Sands from Golf Channel if he would invite Woods over for dinner at the US Open. "We will have him 'round every night," Garcia said prompting laughs from the room. Then he added the remark that caused intakes of breath. "We will serve fried chicken." It brought back memories of when Fuzzy Zoeller made a similar remark about Tiger after Woods won the 1997 Masters. The tour veteran lost sponsorship deals, including a contract with Kmart.
Garcia issued an apology almost immediately and Wednesday attended a hastily arranged press conference to make a public apology. He looked ash-faced and sounded distraught. He said "sorry" or "apologize" 15 times in eight minutes. So did he consider his joke racist? "Not at all. It wasn't meant that way," he said. "I was caught off guard in what seemed to be a funny question and tried to give a funny answer that came out wrong.
Source
VA: Must not joke about Mrs Obama being African
Friday, WAVY.com confronted a member of the Isle of Wight Board Of Supervisors about an email that the NAACP called racist jokes. Supervisor Byron Bailey said Friday he won't step down and he may run again in 2015, but there are more calls for him to resign .
But Bailey is only half of the story. The School Board member who sent the "racist" emails to Bailey -- Herb DeGroft -- is the other half.
The emailed jokes seen as racist: One showed bare breasted women as members of First Lady Michelle Obama's High School reunion. Another one said she was offered $50 to pose nude by National Geographic.
Source
It looks like the critics are implying that Africans are inferior or contemptible. Why else the fuss? If they really believed that all men are equal, it wouldn't matter if you are black or white
23 May, 2013
Japan: Must not diss Koreans
An emerging Japanese nationalist political party whose co-leader outraged many with remarks about Japan's wartime and modern sexual services became embroiled in more controversy Friday when a party lawmaker accused ethnic Koreans of involvement in prostitution.
The Japan Restoration Party urged the lawmaker, Shingo Nishimura, to retract his comments suggesting many ethnic Koreans are engaged in prostitution in Japan. Nishimura withdrew his remarks, but the party forced him out anyway.
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, a founder and co-leader of the party, angered Japan's neighbors by saying this week that the Japanese military's wartime practice of forcing Asian women into prostitution was necessary to maintain discipline and provide relaxation for soldiers.
Source
The Japs don't like other Asians much and that slips out at times. Since the Japs killed large numbers of other Asians in WWII, what they say about other Asians is carefully watched. But the Japs are peaceniks these days so it is all a storm in a teacup.
MO: Humanists threaten to sue Missouri school officials over teacher-led prayer meetings
The American Humanist Association threatened to sue Missouri’s Fayette School District and several school officials on Wednesday for their alleged roles in holding morning religious ceremonies with students on school grounds every week for at least the last year.
After receiving information from a student, the AHA’s legal foundation, the Appignani Humanist Legal Center, drafted a legal explanation (PDF) of why government officials may not actively supervise any sort of religious ceremony while on the job, citing dozens of court cases to justify their demand that the district cease and desist.
“Every Friday morning one of the teachers invites students to come into her room just before first period begins… and prays with them and gives out breakfast,” William Burgess, legal coordinator for the AHA’s foundation, explained to Raw Story.”It appears that the principal makes an announcement that students should go to Mrs. Pope’s classroom for devotionals, which is how they describe the kind of prayer that’s going on there.”
Burgess added that while math teacher Gwen Pope‘s weekly devotionals at Fayette High School appear voluntary, between “both the teacher promoting this practice to students and the principal announcing it, I think it’s fair to say the school is putting this on… This is so unconstitutional that they have to know it is, but they’re doing it anyway.”
Source
Since it's a before-school activity it might get past the goons
22 May, 2013
Feminist fuss about a doll
Even feminist females worry about their dollies?
Merida doll
A 2012 cartoon movie called "Brave" has a heroine -- Merida -- in it who is a mean hand with both magic spells and a bow and arrow. Because she beats all the men in an archery contest, feminists love her.
Disney has however cashed in on the popularity of the film by releasing a doll that makes Merida look more feminine. Outrage!
Backlash against Disney's redesign of cartoon heroine Merida has re-ignited with the release of an unrecognisable doll. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to Barbie, the toy is being sold through Target in America as part of the “Ultimate Disney Princess” collection.
It seems that Disney didn’t get the message earlier this month; despite the fact that over 200,000 supporters have signed the online petition demanding the old Merida be reinstated and the latest 2D version scrapped.
The Scottish heroine's new-look doll is once again missing her trademark bow and arrow, frizzy red hair, and healthy teenage figure. Replaced with an impossibly thin waist, smooth, wavy red hair and an odd looking belt in the place of her bow and arrow.
Source
Jeremy Clarkson stirs the pot again
He is critical of crying babies on aircraft. So once again he says what many think but are afraid to say. But in typical style he exaggerates
TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has prompted a strong reaction after suggesting that children should be stashed in the luggage hold during flights.
Following a flight to Scotland earlier this month Mr Clarkson tweeted: "When will British Airways realise that babies belong in the hold?"
Justine Roberts of the website Mumsnet responded to his comments in the Mail on Sunday, saying: "There are plenty of Mumsnet users hoping British Airways will realise Jeremy Clarkson belongs in the hold."
Source
21 May, 2013
Must not criticize Islam in Belgium
In Belgium a man was convicted for ‘racist hate speech’ because he publicly tore up a Koran, before the eyes of a group of Muslims. The case illustrates the need to protect free speech against those seeking to criminalise ‘Islamophobia’.
On 8 June 2012 a man, identified as Arne S., participated in a demonstration organised by a radical right-wing political party, Vlaams Belang (‘Flemish Interest’), opposing the construction of a mosque in the Belgian coastal city of Ostend. In the aftermath of the demonstration S. tore up a Koran in the presence of a small group of Muslims, with whom he had exchanged words. The public prosecutor indicted S. for incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence on the basis of race and ethnic origin.
The defendant’s attorney called for an acquittal, arguing that no infraction on the anti-racism legislation had occurred. The criminal court in Bruges convicted the man, however, on 11 March 2013.
The court held that the facts were serious and testified to “a blatant lack of tolerance and a highly questionable attitude”.
Source
Now for a laugh: Muslim Pakistan highly tolerant?
Pakistan has been ranked as one of the least racist countries in the world, according to a report in the Washington Post.
Data tabulated from the World Values Survey, compiled by two Swedish economists, implied that Pakistanis was among the more racially tolerant countries.
The surveyors asked respondents in more than 80 different countries to identify the sorts of people they would not wish to have as neighbours. Some replied, “people of a different race.” It was concluded that this question could serve as an accurate indicator of racial tolerance in different countries.
Merely 6.5 per cent of Pakistani survey respondents objected to having a neighbour of a different race.
Source
It might have been different if the question has asked about a different religion. Muslims can't even stand other Muslims who have a different interpretation of Islam. Sunni/Shia and all that.
20 May, 2013
Australia's Leftist government says conservatives stand for hate speech
Everything that the Left disagrees with is hate speech
ATTORNEY-GENERAL Mark Dreyfus has accused the opposition of defending hate speech, not free speech, after his Coalition counterpart George Brandis's charge that the government was waging war against freedom of expression.
Yesterday The Australian previewed a speech Senator Brandis gave at the Sydney Institute last night.
"This government is engaged in a multi-front war against the traditional liberal conception of freedom of speech," he said, "sometimes by overt acts, but just as commonly by fostering a climate of opinion in which the centrality of the right to freedom of speech . . . is increasingly being questioned."
But ahead of the address Mr Dreyfus said the words were a disguise for "Tony Abbott's real plan to strip away laws in the Racial Discrimination Act that protect people from hate speech".
He described section 18C of the act -- which was used to silence columnist Andrew Bolt -- as an essential tool in stamping out vilification based on a person's race, colour or ethnic origin, saying: "When Mr Abbott and Senator Brandis claim that repealing these laws is in the interests of freedom of speech, they really mean freedom to commit virulent hate speech."
Senator Brandis dismissed the allegation. "I'm disappointed that a barrister of Mr Dreyfus's experience would make the beginner's error of commenting on a document he has not read," he said. "Nothing in my speech says what Mr Dreyfus asserts. Perhaps I am owed an apology."
Senator Brandis said last night the Australian Human Rights Commission was helping muzzle the right to freedom of expression. He cited comments by AHRC head Gillian Triggs to a Senate estimates committee about its activities during the press freedom debate.
"At a time when . . . freedom of speech . . . has been the subject of public discussion to an unprecedented degree, the response of the government's own human rights watchdog is to emphasise its limits."
SOURCE
VA: Attorney fights to move Confederate soldier statue from courthouse
"A statue honoring Confederate soldiers that has stood for more than 100 years outside a Leesburg, Va., courthouse is now at the center of a battle between an attorney and residents. The statue, which reads 'In memory of the Confederate Soldiers of Loudoun County, Va. Erected May 28, 1908,' shows a soldier standing guard with his rifle, WTOP reports.
John Flannery, an attorney who regularly hears cases inside the courthouse, said the statue intimidates clients and should be moved into a museum or graveyard."
Source
A statue intimidates people? What delicate little petals they must be!
19 May, 2013
American Apparel branded 'sexist' over 'sleazy' ads for unisex shirt with half-naked women in g-strings... but fully-clothed men
Clothing giant American Apparel has been branded 'sexist' and 'sleazy' over a series of 'degrading' adverts for a unisex shirt.
The online campaign features provocative images of half-naked women sporting the unbuttoned plaid top in a series of highly sexualised poses - often wearing no underpants or just a pair of tiny g-strings - while the male models involved in the campaign are fully-clothed and sombre.
The contrasting images used to sell the plaid shirt to men and women have become an object of controversy on the internet
Twitter users have slammed the campaign as 'honkingly sexist', 'degrading' and 'sleazy', while Swedish blogger Emelie Eriksson, 24, whose irate post about the brand's cloudy definition of the word 'unisex' has been read by over 100,000 people.
American Apparel has frequently courted controversy in the past, being accused of female exploitation and sexualisation for using 'gratuitous' images of very scantily-clad young models to market their clothes.
Source
What sells, sells. Let the whiners whine.
More detail
As every reader of this blog will be well aware, this blog is about "forbidden" speech. It is no coincidence that I am the author of this blog. I am myself a frequent speaker of forbidden speech. I even utter the most forbidden statement of all at times. I have just put up on DISSECTING LEFTISM a reflection on that statement and have proposed a general rule about forbidden statements
17 May, 2013
Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries slammed over comments
Comments made by Abercrombie & Fitch's CEO Mike Jeffries seven years ago about how "uncool" kids and "fat women" shouldn’t be wearing the brand's clothes have come back to bite him, inspiring a robust protest and a viral campaign.
His comments reignited protests this week in front of a Chicago store after a writer and entrepreneur attempted to give the clothing brand a dramatic re-brand by donating Abercrombie & Fitch clothes to the homeless.
"A&F is the high school bully of the retail clothing world," Mr Karber said. "They like to exclude certain groups of people to create a false sense of exclusivity". "People deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and making money doesn't excuse hateful speech or actions."
The new backlash against Mr Jeffries reached fever pitch overnight with actors such as Kirstie Alley criticising the store and Mr Jeffries:
The backlash also escalated on Twitter, Facebook and even on YouTube where one poster started a "Fitch the Homeless" campaign asking customers to re-brand the popular retailer by giving their A&F clothes to the homeless.
Mr Jeffries also told Salon he only wanted "cool kids" to wear A&F clothes.
"In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he said. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids. "We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.
Today Mr Jeffries released a statement on the Abercrombie & Fitch Facebook page.
"I want to address some of my comments that have been circulating from a 2006 interview. While I believe this seven-year-old, resurrected quote has been taken out of context, I sincerely regret that my choice of words was interpreted in a manner that has caused offense," he wrote.
Source
I buy most of my clothes from Target -- which is so uncool, it must almost be global warming. But I don't see why A&F can't market their stuff to anybody they want. Or are we seeing an ideology that says "all men (and women) are beautiful". Horsepoop if so.
"Prostitute" a forbidden word
I guess it sounds bad. But what if it sounds bad because it is bad?
MISSY Higgins is locked in a bitter Twitter war with sex workers - because she used outdated language to describe a dream.
The popular Australian singer-songwriter posted on Twitter: "I dreamt I fell in love with a prostitute. She was young & I wanted to save her. Related to my thoughts about The Voice perhaps?"
But her seemingly innocent comment angered some in the sex industry.
A Twitter user with the handle WhoresEyeView snapped: "We don't need you to save us. Don't be so condescending. We are real people not extensions of ur ideals. Learn."
Missy replied: "It was a dream dude, chill out."
That sparked furious feedback. One tweeted: "Cram the chill pill. If you bothered to learn the issues you'd understand why we can't chill."
Another fired: "If you had any idea how we hookers get treated you'd understand why I'm defensive. Grow some empathy."
After learning the term "prostitute" was offensive, Higgins later said: "I meant absolutely no disrespect by dreaming what I did. For the record, I do not, in reality, want to save any sex workers.
"I had no idea 'prostitute' is an offensive term, 'sex worker' being the preferred term by those in the field. "Apologies to those I offended."
Source
16 May, 2013
Leftists at NC university love saying naughty words
Using a very thin excuse
It began with a bundle of fliers printed with derogatory words and scattered around Fonville Fountain. Then, the words rang out across Phi Beta Kappa Commons as students, faculty and staff at Elon University gathered for the last College Coffee of the academic year.
“COON!” the group yelled. “Your silence is acceptance!”
The line of 10 students shouted several other racially and sexually disparaging words, all followed by the mantra, “Your silence is acceptance!”
The “It’s Not Over” campaign used fliers with derogatory words, posted around Fonville Fountain in front of Alamance.
The protesters were led by senior Jasmine Whaley, who explained the meaning of the demonstration to dozens of shocked onlookers.
“The problem here is not that we just said those words, but the problem is that you’re probably more offended by the words than you are by the cultural of apathy and silence that takes place on this campus that allows that kind of hate speech to happen,” she said. “We’re here, and we’re pissed that our friends, our professors, and our neighbors are allowing this kind of sh-t to happen on our campus. It’s not over, and we’re not going to accept it.”
Source
A small victory for free speech in Spain
We can hurl any abuse at you but you must not criticize us -- that's the Muslim demand
On April 29, 2013, a Spanish court dismissed a hate speech charge filed against Imran Firasat. While this is an important victory for Freedom of Expression, Imran's case is far from over. He is still under the threat of having his refugee status revoked by the Spanish government for his critique of Islam. Should he be deported to Pakistan, Imran will face certain death for his conversion from Islam to Christianity.
European hate speech laws have become a tool for Islamists to silence discussion on any Islamic related topic deemed blasphemous or offensive against Islam or Muhammad. Typically a local Islamic community leader files a report with the police claiming that a specific action or statementwas "insulting." The police may then pass the report to the prosecutor under whose discretion criminal charges may be filed in court. Should the trial proceed, the defendant could face a fine or incarceration.
Imran's case was initiated when Helal Jamal Abboshi Khaledi, the General Security of the Union on Communities in Spain, filed his initial hate speech complaint on November 27, 2012 with the Spanish National Police. Under oath, Khaledi informed the police that "there is a person from Pakistan who is spreading propaganda against Islam and its Prophet," which could lead to "confrontation between Muslims and other religions."
Firasat faced charges over his work with "The Innocent Prophet" film, which was made with Pastor Terry Jones who supported the controversial "Innocence of Muslims" project.(Youtube)
The criminal case was dire for Imran. Under Subchapter 1 of the Spanish Criminal Code, ironically titled "On the Felonies Committed when Exercising the Fundamental Rights and Public Liberties Guaranteed by the Constitution," Article 510 states "(t)hose who provoke discrimination…shall be punished with a sentence of imprisonment from one to three years and a fine."
Judge Estaban's decision also has the potential to overturn the Spanish Interior Ministry's revocation of Imran's refugee status. Judge Estaban's decision stated that Imran is "not a national security risk" to Spain.
Source
15 May, 2013
Obama as America's chief hater
Today, the people who find frequent fault with the eminently faultable record of Barack Obama aren’t presented as dissenting patriots; they don’t get the glowing Cindy Sheehan, Move On or Occupy Wall Street treatment; rather, they’re smeared as haters, bitter white men, racists, reactionaries, menacing, potential terrorists (darn that inconvenient fact that attacks, killings, and terror keep coming from crazies, lefties, and lovers of “the religion of peace,” not from Tea Party members).
Anyone who sees what’s as plain as day, day after day, and points it out, well, they are pronounced haters and racists who just can’t get over the fact that Barack Obama, a black man, is president of the United States.
I’ve been thinking about this “criticism equals hate” formula that Lefties use to shout down dissent—which isn’t patriotic since 2008!-- and it occurs to me that maybe some petards and some goose sauce are due for some turn about
What about all the Americans who find themselves in the president’s rhetorical gun sights? Does he hate them? Does Barack Obama hate his political opponents?
When candidate Obama talked about heartlanders feeling left behind and getting bitter, clinging to their guns, their religion, and their antipathy to people that aren’t like them, did that mean he hates those Americans?
When his wife, on the occasion of his nomination said that she’s proud of her nation for the first time in her adult life, did that mean she hates her nation? Or when she said America is just a mean place, surely that was hate?
When the Obamas sat for 20 years in the pews of Jeremiah Wright while the good preacher blamed the US government for AIDS and howled for God’s damnation on America, does that mean Obama hates America?
When the president rails at millionaires and billionaires who “don’t pay their fair share” despite the fact the top one percent of earners pay 37% of income taxes—is he expressing hate for the wealthy? When he points his finger at business owners, and channels Elizabeth Warren to declare “You didn’t build that! Someone else made that happen!” is he expressing contempt for small business?
When his Pentagon tries to restrict personal sharing of faith among soldiers, is he hating Christians? When he mandates employer subsidy for contraception and abortifacients, and says that religious employers who object are denying woman access to health care, is he hating people of faith? Employers with faith?
More here
A new attack on campus free speech
Speech alone can now be "harassment" and is to be heavily punished
For two decades, universities have struggled with the question of "speech codes," tempted by the left to enshrine political correctness at the expense of the First Amendment. Most campuses have resisted, but through the Obama administration, the censors have triumphed all at once and everywhere.
A letter from the Department of Education and the Department of Justice addressed to the University of Montana but explicitly intended as a "blueprint for colleges and universities throughout the country," the government has altered the legal meaning of the term "sexual harassment." The new rule directly contravenes Supreme Court decisions and previous rulings from OCR that harassment "must include something beyond the mere expression of views, words, symbols or thoughts that some person finds offensive." The Supreme Court has ruled that to meet the test of sexual harassment, behavior must be "severe, pervasive and objectively offensive." Note the word "objectively," meaning that a reasonable person similarly situated would be offended.
The reasonable person standard is now gone. The new definition of sexual harassment decreed by the Obama administration is "any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature," including "verbal conduct." The purported victim now has the power to decide whether a young man or woman (but it's nearly always a man) is branded a sexual harasser. It's entirely subjective.
Obama promised fundamental transformation. This is part of it. Freedom of speech is sacrificed, and a new army of sexual harassment "specialists" will descend on America's campuses to enforce the new dispensation.
Source
14 May, 2013
Was Ferguson right about Keynes?
In an off-the-cuff comment on the famous saying by Keynes: "In the long run we are all dead", Ferguson was reported as saying: "Keynes was a homosexual and had no intention of having children. We are not dead in the long run … our children are our progeny. It is the economic ideals of Keynes that have gotten us into the problems of today"
That produced the usual outcry from the homophilic crowd and Ferguson predictably apologized.
Jerry Bowyer argues in the excerpt below that Ferguson was right in principle and I agree with him. I think children make a huge difference to your world-view.
But was Ferguson right about Keynes? I think not. Keynes was bisexual and did eventually marry a woman. He even wrote in the 1930s a tract titled: "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren". So Keynes WAS clearly concerned about even the distant future
And people who criticize Keynesian theory rarely seem to have actually read "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money". What Keynes sets out there is very different from what politicians do today in his name. Politicians have grabbed the one bit that suits them -- money printing -- and ignored the rest
If you pay attention to economic debates you know by now that a celebrity historian named Niall Ferguson made some off-hand comments at a financial conference in which he linked John Maynard Keynes’ homosexuality to some flaws in his economics. The story was picked up by Financial Advisor Magazine in an article which took a strong stance against Ferguson’s remarks. The story was picked up by the mainstream press, ran like wildfire burning with angry denunciations, and Ferguson predictably confessed and recanted.
The signals have been sent: the Keynes/homosexuality/theoretical distortion theory is not only wrong, it is blasphemy, punishable by instant anathematization and career immolation, at least as far as academic and corporate life are concerned.
But only among the chattering classes would it appear to be perfectly clear that having children has no effect whatsoever on one’s long-term view. Speaking for myself, I really grew up at age 23 when I first became a father. We’ve had long discussions in the library, on the porch and on the patio with other couples who all say the same thing: having children changes everything, and it starts with your view of the future. Of course people can become connected to the future by other means, and unmarried or childless people are not predestined to inevitable generational solipsism, but it’s just plain ideological blindness to think that this comes as easily or as often without family formation and children.
Source
Australian singer/actress falls foul of the blackface taboo
Delta Goodrem is a really nice lady and when some fans dressed up as the people in one of her shows, she tweeted a picture of them. Disaster! One of the people in the show is African and one of the fans wore blackface to portray that. Goodrem then got targeted with the most vicious slurs over the matter
DELTA Goodrem has distanced herself from a blackface photo scandal on Twitter. Yesterday the TV star re-tweeted a photograph of fans dressed as The Voice’s judges at a costume party.
As well as a man in a blonde wig portraying Delta, one man is dressed in blackface to represent Seal complete with black paint over his face and arms and fake scars on his cheeks.
"That is hilarious!! Hope u had fun! Ha!!," Goodrem wrote on Twitter before retweeting the photo.
Goodrem’s tweet was soon deleted after comedians started branding Goodrem "racist".
"Nah, blackface isn't hilarious, Delta. It's racist," Fear of a Brown Planet’s Nazeem Hussain tweeted to Goodrem.
Goodrem today was horrified to be viewed as racist. "In reference to a parody of the four coaches that was on Twitter, my retweeting was not intended to cause offence in any way," the singer told News Limited.
Hussain’s comedy partner Aamer Rahman tweeted the show and Goodrem’s fellow judges stating: "Gosh it must be horrible to work with someone as stupid and racist as @DeltaGoodrem."
Source
Her critics show who the haters are. Goodrem's only fault was not being up to date with all the taboos that the Left impose these days. Australia has never had a tradition of blackface acting (or a history of slavery for that matter) so the issue would be off the radar for most Australians.
13 May, 2013
Coptic Christian jailed for blasphemy — in America
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula deserves a place in American history. He is the first person in this country jailed for violating Islamic anti-blasphemy laws.
You won’t find that anywhere in the charges against him, of course. As a practical matter, though, everyone knows that Nakoula wouldn’t be in jail if he hadn’t produced a video crudely lampooning the prophet Muhammad.
After the attack on US facilities in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, the Obama administration claimed the terrorist assault had been the outgrowth of a demonstration against the video. In a speech at the United Nations, the president declared — no doubt with Nakoula in mind — “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”
Charles Woods, the father of a Navy SEAL killed in Benghazi, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told him when his son’s body returned to Andrews Air Force Base: “We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.”
Lo and behold, Nakoula was brought in for questioning by five Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies at midnight, eventually arrested and held without bond, and finally thrown into jail for a year. He sits in La Tuna Federal Correctional Institution in Texas, even as the deceptive spin that blamed his video for the Benghazi attack looks more egregious by the day.
A violation of probation, though, usually produces a court summons and doesn’t typically lead to more jail time unless it involves an offense that would be worth prosecuting in its own right under federal standards. Not for Nakoula.
This wasn’t a case of nailing Al Capone on tax evasion. As Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute points out, Al Capone’s underlying offense was racketeering and gangland killings. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula’s underlying offense wasn’t an underlying offense. He exercised his First Amendment rights.
Very few people have been willing to stick up for Nakoula. His character is sketchy, and his work is execrable. Yet the First Amendment applies to him regardless, even if he might have reason to doubt it as he serves out a sentence that never would have come about if he hadn’t offended the wrong people.
Source
The video is rather nasty but you too would be scathing about Islam if you were an Egyptian Christian. The Muslims majority of Egypt are constantly abusing, killing, and threatening them.
German opera cancelled after featuring performers in Nazi uniform and Jewish family being massacred
Personally, I loathe opera performances where some lameheaded director sets the opera in some modern context instead of the context the composer originally intended -- and this does seem to be about as bad as such "innovative" staging gets. Had I been in charge of the Opera House, I would have given it the boot too -- on grounds of bad taste. Works of art are about taste
A German opera has been cancelled amid a storm of criticism after it featured performers dressed in Nazi uniform, a Jewish family being massacred and a brutal rape scene.
Members of the audience began walking out of Burkhard C. Kosminski's interpretation of Wagner's classic 'Tannhaeuser' after only 30 minutes and some required medical attention for 'psychological trauma'.
The Rhine Opera House in Duesseldorf said although it knew the concert would be 'controversial' it had not expected such an extreme reaction.
Kosminksi said he had wanted to 'address' the anti-Semitic attitude of composers like Wagner, who was known to be one of Adolf Hitler's favourites.
In one scene, naked performers came onto the stage in smoke-filled gas chambers to kill the character Venus, dressed as an S.S. officer, and a Jewish family in a parody of a WW2 massacre.
In another, a character called Elisabeth was brutally raped by Tannhauser’s rival Wolfram and left bloodied and crying on stage.
And finally, a mother, father and daughter were led up by members of the Wehrmacht - their clothes were removed, they were shaved and shot.
Source
It should be noted that Wagner was NOT a Nazi. He had many Jewish friends whom he helped and supported.
I avoid anything described as "innovative". In my experience it is generally just a jerk-off. Things that have stood the test of time are a much better bet.
12 May, 2013
Jewish groups furious after Glenn Beck depicts Bloomberg doing Nazi salute
With his wish to regulate the minutiae of other people's lives, it seems to me that Bloomberg is as Nazi as he can get away with -- so I see no problem in pointing that out. It's a serious, not a casual use of Nazi imagery
Right-wing pundit Glenn Beck sparked outrage among the Jewish community this weekend by comparing Michael Bloomberg to Adolf Hitler.
During his keynote address at the National Rifle Association's annual convention in Texas, Mr Beck targeted the New York mayor for robbing US citizens of 'responsibility' and subjecting them to a dictator-like regime.
Highlighting Mr Bloomberg's attempts to ban soda, reduce the size of tobacco displays and heighten gun control, Mr Beck revealed what he called his own 'new advertisement for New York' in which the Jewish mayor, sporting an arm band, appeared to be making a Nazi salute.
'We all know "I heart New York,"' he boasted to an enthusiastic crowd. 'I'd like to show you my new advertisement for it, new slogan... "You will love New York!"'
Both the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish organisation, B'nai B'rith, were upset by Mr Beck's comments and called for an apology. A spokesman for B'nai B'rith told ABC News: 'Glenn Beck, the keynote speaker at the NRA's annual convention, trivializes the Holocaust when he compares New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Adolf Hitler.
'The casual use of Nazi imagery or words serves to undermine the atrocities of the Holocaust. Glenn Beck should apologize.'
Source
The Washington Redskins will NEVER change their name, insists owner as he breaks silence on 'racist' term
About time someone stood up to the dictators of the Left
The owner of the Washington Redskins has insisted that the name of the team will never change despite growing controversy over its origins as a derogatory term for Native Americans.
Daniel Snyder told USA Today : ‘We’ll never change the name. It’s simple. NEVER’.
The team has been under fire from some critics who say the term is a racial slur because of its origins in bounties placed on the scalps of Native Americans by British settlers.
The director of the National Museum of the American Indians has said the word ‘redskin’ is equivalent to the ‘n-word’.
But Mr Snyder, who rarely speaks to the media, broke his silence on the name which has been with the team since 1937.
He told the paper: ‘We will never change the name of the team. As a lifelong Redskins fan, and I think that the Redskins fans understand the great tradition and what it’s all about and what it means, so we feel pretty fortunate to be just working on next season. ‘We’ll never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.’
Source
10 May, 2013
Naive British lawyer puts her feet into the fire
If you don't like Jews you should be free to say so -- but there is no free speech in Britain. So a woman who assumed there was got into big trouble.
If you disguise your prejudice as anti-Zionism or hatred of Israel that is OK though. Such really dangerous and organized prejudice --- mainly emanating from the Left -- is permitted. But the careless overgeneralizations of an irritated individual are cracked down on
A female lawyer who blurted out: 'I cannot stand Jewish people' during an office rant has been left with a huge legal bill after a discrimination case was brought against her by a former colleague.
Danielle Morris, 34, was subject of a three-and-a-half year investigation in front of two legal tribunals and almost lost her career after she made the remark during an office conversation.
The mother-of-two complained a Jewish man had jumped the queue at a medical centre while she was waiting to take one of her children to see a doctor.
Later she relayed the incident in the presence of a Jewish cashier at her law practice in Rossendale, Lancashire.
After making her comment, the unnamed cashier said: 'Please do not say that' but Mrs Morris added: 'I don’t care, I cannot stand them.'
Three months after the incident in December 2009, the cashier left the law firm - then brought a racial and religious claim against Mrs Morris and the practice and won an undisclosed sum in damages.
Mrs Morris herself was then hauled before the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority after a further complaint of discrimination by the cashier.
It emerged the matter 'snowballed' despite the lawyer trying to apologise on three occasions - but the cashier refused to meet with her.
Yesterday, in a ruling made public for the first time, it emerged Mrs Morris who now works two days a week at another law firm has been fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £5,250 in costs following a hearing in London.
Her own legal costs are thought to be £1,000 and the incident is believed to have cost in total tens of thousands of pounds in further solicitors' costs and compensation.
Trouble began after she attended the Bardoc medical centre in Bury with her baby. The hearing was told a man dressed in Orthodox Jewish attire 'caused a scene' at the surgery and as a result was seen first by a doctor.
Back at the law firm Mrs Morris relayed the incident to a receptionist she shared her office with and said: 'I cannot stand Jewish people.'
The cashier who also shared the office having joined the firm just three months earlier overheard the rant and said: 'Please do not say that.'
But Mrs Morris went on: 'I don’t care, I cannot stand them ever since an incident at Bardoc.'
Source
Australia: Must not joke about blacks
Aboriginals do tend to use English in a distinctive way but joking about that during a football broadcast was a big no-no, apparently
VETERAN rugby league caller David Morrow has been suspended indefinitely after a joke referencing Darwin Aboriginals was aired live before Monday night football.
A league institution for 30 years, Morrow was last night stood down by station management pending an investigation into his racist gag that was inadvertently broadcast live into the Wollongong region.
Unaware he was on air, Morrow first joked with sideline commentator Shannon Byrne, who hails from Darwin, about electricity not yet being available in the Northern Territory capital.
Moments later, the Grandstand broadcaster then adopted a satirical indigenous tone and continued: "Dat's da only way you can tell when there's anyone, er, awake is when dey smile."
The incident last night drew a stinging response from NRL CEO David Smith who said: "The comments are totally unacceptable and we've made that position clear to the ABC.
Source
9 May, 2013
Woman fined for 'racist' English insult
A Welsh woman has been made to pay compensation for using a racist slur against an English woman after calling her "an English cow".
Elen Humphreys, 25, of Garndolbenmaen, near Porthmadog, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated harassment, after she branded Angela Payne, who had an affair with her father, an “English cow.”
The court in Prestatyn in North Wales heard that Humphreys levelled the insult at Ms Payne when she went to her house in Rhyl to collect some of her father's property and told her : "Leave well alone, you English cow".
For Angela Payne it was the final straw, said prosecutor James Neary, as Humphreys's mother had previously been warned by the police about her conduct. The court heard Humphreys had also called the victim other names previously.
Humphreys was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay Angela Payne £50 in compensation.
Source
What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, I guess.
Australian politician seeks apology over 'sexist juvenile taunts'
Palaszczuk
OPPOSITION Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk will today seek a full apology from the Newman Government after being subjected to "sexist juvenile taunts" during Question Time yesterday.
The trouble began when Treasurer Tim Nicholls said it was his “first time with the Leader of the Opposition and I am excited by it" after she directed a question to him in Parliament.
He then followed up with "the first answer was so good she came back with a second one" when Ms Palaszczuk asked another question.
"I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition for the opportunity to do it again," Mr Nicholls said.
Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek then jumped in with "it won't be a “one-night stand” which he withdrew at Ms Palaszczuk's request.
But later Ms Palaszczuk said she would write to Speaker Fiona Simpson seeking a full apology because it was “not isolated behaviour from one minister”.
“This was the Treasurer and the Education Minister – two of this government’s most senior ministers – working in tandem, using comments that should never have been said,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
Source
Just a joke. If politicians can't take it, who can?
8 May, 2013
Ferry company under fire over 'Nazi' logo
Since when is a Viking a Nazi? Hitler liked dogs too. Should we ban pictures of dogs?
A Scottish ferry company has come under fire over its logo, which critics have described as "Nazi symbolism".
Serco NorthLink launched a marketing campaign earlier this year centred around the fictional character Magnus the Viking, who it says represents "dynamism, power and pride", it was reported on Deadlinenews.co.uk.
Its new logo shows Magnus in a windy setting, wearing traditional Viking attire and pointing towards the horizon.
But Britain Travel, a Hamburg-based tour operator, urged the firm to rethink the design, and compared it to the imagery used by Hitler and the Nazis.
Advertisement
Peter Storm, managing director of Britain Travel, told Deadlinenews.co.uk: "We saw the logo for the first time and we immediately thought of the imagery used at the time Hitler was in power in Germany.
"It is not even the arm pointing in the air but the whole figure is associated with Viking propaganda symbols from that period.
"They need to move away from the Nazi symbolism. NorthLink is not on a crusade or looting expedition and this Viking symbol could upset Germans."
Source
Must not joke about sex scandals
He's well known as a bit of a motormouth, but Jeremy Clarkson came under scrutiny this week after he made a tasteless joke about the Stuart Hall sex scandal.
The Top Gear host took to his official Twitter page to make the comments. He wrote: 'Can I just say that I've worked at the BBC for 24 years and in all that time no-one has ever tried to put his finger in my bottom.'
Ex-BBC football commentator Stuart Hall admitted 12 indecent assaults on girls aged nine to 17 over 18 years last week and was labelled an 'opportunistic predator.'
Talking to the Daily Star, Peter Saunders, of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: 'Jeremy Clarkson is well known for coming out with real nonsense like this.
'I don't think he realises the seriousness of the issue he is making fun of.
Source
7 May, 2013
SC Democrat Suggests Indian-American Nikki Haley Go ‘Back To Wherever The Hell She Came From’
Whoops! Every now and again a Leftist lets the cat out of the bag about what he really thinks about race
South Carolina Democratic Chairman Dick Harpootlian is getting some heat today for a comment he made about that state’s Republican governor at Friday night’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner, shortly before Vice President Joe Biden took the stage. Harpootlian’s comment came during his introduction of South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen. “In about 18 months from now,” he said, “hopefully he’ll have sent Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from.”
The comment drew cheers and laughs from the audience in attendance, but Harpootlian is now facing harsh criticism, given Governor Nikki Haley‘s Indian heritage. “Unfortunately, this seems to be a trend coming from the South Carolina Democratic Party,” Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey said in a statement. “Fortunately, the people of South Carolina are better than Harpootlian and his ilk, and we have faith that they will see right through their consistent attempts to play to the lowest common denominator.”
POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin was able to get a short explanation from Harpootlian as to where exactly he was referring to when he said “wherever the hell she came from.” He reportedly replied: “Lexington County.”
Source
Police State Canada
Want to see police censorship of political speeches? No need to travel back in time to Hitler's Germany. Come to Canada in 2013
Pamela Geller is an enormously popular speaker — partly because she’s an energetic doer, too. Which is why she was invited to speak in north Toronto next weekend, at a Jewish synagogue.
But then Insp. Ricky Veerappan of the York Regional Police got wind of Geller’s speech. Veerappan is with something called the diversity, equity and inclusion bureau of that police force.
He contacted the rabbi at the synagogue, and told him to cancel Geller’s speech — and that if he didn’t, the rabbi would lose his position as a police chaplain. The rabbi caved.
What crime did Geller commit?
Veerappan was happy to tell QMI Agency: “Some of the stuff that Ms. Geller speaks about runs contrary to the values of York Regional Police and the work we do in engaging our communities.”
But even if her values were “wrong,” what business is that of a cop? Do guest speakers at synagogues now have to register their opinions in advance with the police?
That’s Canadian “diversity, equity and inclusion.” Our police will bully a Jewish rabbi into cancelling a speech from a Jewish New Yorker
Source
6 May, 2013
CO: Some Native Americans “offended” by gun rights billboards
Two billboards in which images of Native Americans are used to make a gun rights argument are causing a stir with some Colorado residents who say the image is offensive and insensitive.
The billboards in this northern Colorado city show three men dressed in traditional Native American attire and the words "Turn in your arms. The government will take care of you."
"I think it's a little bit extreme, of course, but I think people are really worried about their gun rights and what liberties are going to be taken away," Wells told the Greeley Tribune.
Greeley resident Kerri Salazar, who is of Native American descent, said she was livid when she learned about it. She said she doesn't have a problem with the gun rights message, but she's offended the Native American people were singled out, apparently without their consent.
Source
Leftist hater fakes hate crime
Yet another one
A well-known female liberal blogger and radio host at the University of Wyoming (UW) is being accused by police of fabricating a rape threat against herself to appear as if it came from a conservative.
The obscene message directed at activist Meg Lanker-Simons was posted on a college “crush” Facebook page earlier this week and immediately ignited outrage from the college community.
“I want to hate f**k Meg Lanker-Simons so hard. That chick that runs her liberal mouth all the time and doesn’t care who knows it,” it read. “I think its hot and it makes me angry. One night with me and shes gonna be a good Republican bitch,” the post reads, according to a screenshot.
Before the post was removed, Lanker-Simons commented on it and on her own blog, calling it “disgusting, misogynistic, and apparently something the admins of this page think is a perfectly acceptable sentiment.”
She also encouraged the poster to seek help at the UW Counseling service and ends with the advice: “Instead of focusing on how angry and turned on me ‘running my mouth’ makes you, perhaps you should listen instead. You might learn something.”
But on Monday, The University of Wyoming Police Department issued a citation to Lanker-Simons for “interference” for “false statements she made to the UW Police Department,” according to a UW statement referred to by Laramie Boomerang Online.
Source
5 May, 2013
White men must not wear turbans?
A [British] headmaster is facing calls to resign after he posted a picture on Facebook of himself wearing a turban with the caption: ‘Nearly gone native in Leicester.’
Dr Tim Luckcock, 49, is head of Uplands junior school in Highfields, Leicester – a city where fewer than half of the population consider themselves white British.
He is thought to have posted the picture as a joke, but it has been seized on by members of his staff who say it is ‘inappropriate’ in a ‘multi-faith school’.
A spokesman for the Leicester Sikh Alliance said: ‘We applaud anybody who is seeking a different religious experience in the genuine quest for understanding and appreciation.
‘But it is incumbent that such an exercise should be performed with respect and not in satire.’
Dr Luckcock, a father of two, said last night: ‘The picture was taken at a school Divali celebration more than a year ago. ‘Most members of staff were wearing similar headgear or Indian clothes.
Source
Outrage as Arizona high school holds 'Redneck Day'
One minority you are allowed to insult and exclude
An Arizona high school has sparked outrage from civil rights leaders after it held a 'Redneck Day' for students.
Yesterday's school-wide event at Queen Creek High School was designed to satirize a reality TV show called 'Duck Dynasty,' school officials said.
But the day's questionable title has offended some students, parents and local African-American and civil rights leaders who claim it serves as grim reminders of slavery and segregation.
According to the Arizona Republic, one student wore a large Confederate flag to school, which particularly upset critics.
'We all know the connotation of "redneck," Rev. Ozetta Kirby, pastor of Holy Trinity Community AME Church in nearby Mesa told the newspaper.
Steve Montoya, a prominent civil-rights attorney in Phoenix, said the Confederate flag was the most offensive part.
Tom Lindsey, the superintendent of the Queen Creek Unified School District, said the only intent of 'Redneck Day' was to spoof the characters on the reality show, which follows a family of duck hunters in Louisiana.
He said the student wearing the Confederate flag wasn't from Arizona and didn't appreciate the reaction the flag would receive.
Source
3 May, 2013
Goats must not speak Ebonics (black talk)
PepsiCo has pulled an offensive Mountain Dew ad after it was dubbed 'the most racist commercial in history.'
The ad, which has also been criticized for promoting violence against women, shows a white female assault victim, battered and on crutches, at a police station, as she is asked to identify her attacker out of a line up of five black men and a goat.
The culprit, the goat, named Felicia, threateningly dissuades the victim from pointing him out to police as a white detective tells her to 'nail this little sucker.'
'Ya better not snitch on a playa,' the goat says to the frightened woman in a male's voice. 'Snitches get stitches fool.... Keep ya mouth shut. Keep ya mouth shut.'
Getting increasingly nervous, the victim finally tells the detective, who is holding a bottle of Mountain Dew, that she can't identify her assailant and hobbles off on her crutches screaming 'no, no, no.'
The officer then takes a gulp of soda and exclaims 'she's just gotta do it' before the tagline 'Dew it' is displayed on the screen with the goat's face.
The ad was part of a series developed by African-American rapper Tyler, The Creator.
Source
Sounds like blacks must not refer to their own culture
Must not use an impressionistic version of Chinese singing
Peking Opera sound strange to us, far too difficult to reproduce, so the best we can usually do is an impression of it
Car giant General Motors have been forced to pull an advert after its jingle - which claimed that Chinese people sing 'ching-ching, chop suey' - was accused of being racist.
In a humiliating u-turn, the company has removed the advert from worldwide markets after it referred to China as 'the land of Fu Manchu'.
The advert was promoting the Chevrolet Trax SUV, and had been aired in Canada since the beginning of April.
It had been posted to Chevrolet’s European website too - but has now disappeared from Canadian TV screens and replaced with an edited version without the offensive lyrics.
A spokesman told the South China Morning Post: 'Once the issue was called to our attention, GM immediately removed the offensive content from the commercial'
The TV advert, called 'After Midnight', features the song Booty Swing by Austrian musician Parov Stelar.
The lyrics on the offending advertisement say: 'Now, in the land of Fu Manchu, The girls all now do the Suzie-Q, Clap their hands in the centre of the floor, Saying "ching-ching, chop suey, swing some more".'
China is the world's largest car consumer, and GM is keen to begin capitalising on the country's luxury auto market.
Source
2 May, 2013
Insults against disabled people must be eradicated
One can reasonably advocate better treatment of disabled people but the heading above from the USC college newspaper has the flames of hell emanating from it. Socialist tyrants such as Hitler and Stalin wanted things "eradicated". A less Fascistic writer might have used the word "discouraged" or some such
In 2004, when 17-year-old Adam Holland cheerfully smiled for a photograph in his art class, he had no idea that the image would later re-surface as a popular meme.
Perhaps you’ve even seen it. No, it’s not the iconic Bad Luck Brian or Scumbag Steve images that provide some giggles at the expense of another individual’s dignity.
It’s actually worse. And sickeningly offensive.
With one look at this recent meme, it’s clear that Holland’s physical features and cognitive ability are distinct from others. That’s because Adam Holland has Down syndrome.
According to ABC News, a radio station in Florida re-purposed the original photograph of Holland at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center into one in which he clutches a sign reading “Retarded News.” This photo was used as promotion for its “Retarded News” segment, where talk jockies would discuss odd news.
After learning of the photo’s usage, Holland’s family filed a lawsuit earlier this week against Cox Media, the owner of the Tampa, Fla., radio station WHPT-FM.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time a mentally disabled person has been mocked on the Internet. A quick Google search reveals that the Internet hosts a plethora of other tasteless graphics. This demonstrates a terrible epidemic in our nation — an epidemic of insensitivity toward the entire disabled community.
Source
British veteran ordered to take down Union Jack flag after neighbours complained it was 'too noisy'
An ex-serviceman was forced to remove a flagpole flying a Union Jack from his garden after neighbours complained it was ‘too noisy’.
Brian Fairfield, from Hull, East Yorkshire, raised the flag for the first time last week but within days was asked to take it down.
The 80-year-old said his landlord Sanctuary Housing had received five complaints from local residents, complaining it was an eyesore and that it made too much noise.
Mr Fairfield said: 'It’s the first time I have heard our national flag being described as offensive to look at.
'I had only managed to raise the flag five or six times before the phone rang to say it had to come down.
'We all have rights but surely mine count as much as theirs. The least my landlord could have done was to come and see me and the flag for themselves. 'It’s not causing anybody any harm.'
'I’m proud to be an Englishman and proud to have been in the forces, so I want to fly my flag, it’s as simple as that.'
Mr Fairfield says he even checked whether he needed planning permission for the flagpole, which is 18ft tall, and hangs his 5ft by 3ft Union Jack flag.
John Hanson, local head of housing operations for Sanctuary Housing, said: 'Mr and Mrs Fairfield are a lovely couple to work with, and we understand that they have the best of intentions.
'Objections were about the size of the flag and the noise it created, not the principle of flying one, and we are more than happy to help the Fairfields come to a suitable agreement with their neighbours.'
SOURCE
Publicity does wonders
1 May, 2013
"Chunky" is a bad word
A FEMALE sports blogger has come under fire for questioning whether an NBA cheerleader was "too chunky" to perform.
Writing under the pseudonym 'Claire Crawford,' CBS blogger Anna-Megan Raley made the comments alongside a picture of Oklahoma City Thunder cheerleader, Kelsey Williams.
Ms Raley wrote: "The Rockets looked terrible in Game 1, but some say they weren’t the only bad-looking people on the court."
In the blog post she went on to write: "We’re not trying to be ugly. We are just discussing what men like in women, specifically NBA cheerleaders."
According to US ABC, the post attracted widespread condemnation with some commentators calling for Ms Raley to resign.
Ashton Foster, a graduate of New York Film Academy, posted a reply in the comments section calling Ms Raley's article a "vapid, poorly written, goosip girl blog entry."
Source
Appearance is important in cheerleaders so why can someone not have an opinion about it?
Black "comedian's" appearance at an awards night was a "huge mistake" says British football boss
Professional Footballers' Association chairman Clarke Carlisle believes his organisation made "a huge mistake" in hiring Reginald D Hunter to perform at Sunday night's awards dinner in London.
Hunter, a black comedian from Georgia in the United States, repeatedly used the word 'n*****' during his performance, which was not well received by members of the audience in the ballroom of the Grosvenor House hotel in Mayfair.
Carlisle has campaigned to eradicate racism in football, and although he refused to criticise Hunter's act, he admits it was a big error to hire the American for the event.
"I thought we made a huge mistake," said the Northampton defender, who took over as PFA chairman in 2010. "I thought with everything that we have gone through over the last few years, using a comedian of his type was a bad error in judgement.
"I was embarrassed sat up there throughout and I want to apologise unreservedly to the footballing community that was present."
Source
Sounds like the English were not familiar with black speech. They are entitled not to like it though.
Mohammad
"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 double standard: Atheists can put up signs and billboards saying that Christianity is wrong and that is hunky dory. But if a Christian says that homosexuality is wrong, that is attacked as "hate speech"
A prophetic comment on Norwegian hate speech laws: As Justice Brandeis once noted, repressive censorship “breeds hate” and “that hate menaces stable government,” rather than promoting safety; “the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies.”
Voltaire's most famous saying was actually a summary of Voltaire's thinking by one of his biographers rather than something Voltaire said himself. Nonetheless it is a wholly admirable sentiment: "I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it". I am of a similar mind.
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.
The KKK were members of the DEMOCRATIC party. Google "Klanbake" if you doubt it
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.
Categorization is a basic human survival skill so racism as the Left define it (i.e. any awareness of race) is in fact neither right nor wrong. It is simply human
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
Gimlet-eyed Leftist haters sometimes pounce on the word "white" as racist. Will the time come when we have to refer to the White House as the "Full spectrum of light" House?
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
Mostly, a gaffe is just truth slipping out
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
"Negro" is a forbidden word -- unless a Democrat uses it
"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."
I despair of the ADL. Jews have enough problems already and yet in the ADL one has a prominent Jewish organization that does its best to make itself offensive to Christians. Their Leftism is more important to them than the welfare of Jewry -- which is the exact opposite of what they ostensibly stand for! Jewish cleverness seems to vanish when politics are involved. Fortunately, Christians are true to their saviour and have loving hearts. Jewish dissatisfaction with the myopia of the ADL is outlined here. Note that Foxy was too grand to reply to it.
DETAILS OF REGULARLY UPDATED BLOGS BY JOHN RAY:
"Tongue Tied"
"Dissecting Leftism" (Backup here)
"Australian Politics"
"Education Watch International"
"Political Correctness Watch"
"Greenie Watch"
"Food & Health Skeptic"
"Immigration Watch International" blog.