Tongue Tied 3

Must not mention black crime (again)

We read:

"Nearly one of every 13 people living in Detroit does not have a job. Moreover, eight of every 10 is African-American - a racial group that, like it or not, is more likely than others in this country to kill or rob. It seems logical that these two realities might translate into a high crime rate that might create dangerous living conditions. But when a private research group reached that conclusion last week using FBI statistics, city mayors and the federal government called for suspending the group's publication and asked the media to ignore it....

The report in dispute is from CQ Press, a division of Congressional Quarterly Inc., which released rankings of the nation's most "dangerous" cities based on FBI figures. Detroit topped the list, followed by St. Louis, then Flint, Mich. Three California cities - Oakland, Richmond and Compton - were ranked among the 15 most dangerous cities. The rankings were based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft....

U.S. Department of Justice figures also indicate that in 2005, homicide-offense rates for blacks were more than seven times higher than for whites, while incarceration rates were 5r times higher for blacks than whites, and almost twice as high for Latinos than whites. The Justice Department estimates about 32 percent of black males will enter state or federal prison during their lifetime compared with 17 percent of Hispanic males and 5.9 percent of white males.

Source

"Brown" Incorrect

We read:

"A 9-year-old boy from a Phoenix elementary school has been suspended after the school determined he engaged in racial harassment by using the term "brown people." The boy, whom The Arizona Republic is not naming because of his age, was suspended for three days from Abraham Lincoln Traditional School after officials determined that his language constituted racial harassment, part of its hate-crime code.

In a parent-teacher conference in early November, Abraham Lincoln Principal Virginia Voinovich said she also told the boy that it is OK to have racist feelings as long as you keep them to yourself.

The mother, Sherry Neve, 35, said she is outraged and that her son did not make the remark to another student. She said the principal should face discipline for her own statements. "My son didn't say it," said Neve, whose last name is different than her son's. She has pulled the boy from the school. She said the incident raises questions about parental rights and methods of inquiry and oversight at the school.

Officials who oversee Voinovich in the Washington Elementary School District said Tuesday that they would launch an inquiry into the situation. They said they were unaware of a child being disciplined under the hate crime/racial harassment code but also cautioned that principals have the authority to enforce discipline without district intervention.

Voinovich submitted a letter of resignation effective Dec. 24, saying she is leaving for personal reasons.

Source

Housekeeping matters

Some readers have reported problems in emailing me at jonjayray@hotmail.com

Hotmail does appear to be having overload problems lately. So please send emails to BOTH my addresses. The other one is: jonjayray@gmail.com

One reader has asked me to edit typos in their comments. I did have an edit capacity on the old blog but I have not yet discovered one on Haloscan

Anti-White Bias in Denver

And people are protesting about it for once!

"The city of Denver is showing its employees a diversity training video that portrays a white man as a narrow-minded buffoon - triggering allegations of "institutional racism" against Anglos. "Right now, their diversity program is racially motivated against white males," said Dennis Supple, a heating, ventilating and air-conditioning mechanic who has worked for the city 1 1/2 years.

The video, titled "Laughing Matters - Think About It," is meant to show employees how humor at the expense of others diminishes respect in the workplace. The character who breaks all the rules is Billy, a white, blue-collar worker who's a racist, sexist goofball.

Source

You can find a link to the video in a sidebar here

Britain: That Wicked Woodpile again

We read:

"'Political correctness' forced a councillor out of his job, according to a race relations expert. County Hall Councillor Rhys Goodwin resigned from a role that overseas diversity issues after using the word "n*gger" in front of a black member of staff.

The Conservative member, who represents Toddington, used the phrase "n*gger in the woodpile" during a debate while he sat only a few feet from Basil Jackson, the black assistant director for highways and transport at Beds County Council.

Mr Goodwin, 74, immediately rephrased his comments, apologised to Mr Jackson during a break and later stepped down as chairman of the county council's community services committee which deals with community cohesion matters.

Source

The phrase is supposed to refer to the hiding of escaped African slaves in unlikely places by white people of goodwill but there is not much goodwill about it now.

The "Old Gang"

I find that I have got a few idle moments for once so I thought that for the benefit of the newer readers of this blog I might explain who "The old gang" are.

When I took over TT, there were huge amounts of "rubbish" comments being posted -- comments with little or no detectable relevance to the posts they were attached to. I felt that readers of the blog deserved better than having to wade through all that stuff so I deleted such comments whenever I had time.

Some of the deleted comments however came from a group of people -- the old gang -- who were using the blog as a sort of social networking site. They did not take kindly to me disrupting their activities and some of them remain hostile towards me to this day.

I did however in effect say to them that if they did not like the way I ran TT, then they should start their own blog. That they eventually did. Its current incarnation is here. It is quite a reasonable blog though it does amuse me that I still seem to be their demon-figure.

I don't however see why I should host on any of my own blogs comments that are abusive or threatening towards me personally so I do delete such comments. If that's "censorship", then so be it.

Some of the old gang still do comment here, however, and one of them made explicit threats to sabotage this blog -- presumably by flooding it with hostile comments. So that was when I instituted moderation. He posts under the name of "Lemmiwinks" but from a very disgruntled email that I received shortly after I instituted moderation, I gather that he is in fact Steven R. Smith (steve.smith@chartercom.com). There are so many Smiths around, however that he might as well still be anonymous.

I am always a little surprised that on all my blogs a lot of the commenters who disagree with me don't seem to have read what I actually wrote. I usually delete such comments on my other blogs but I let them stand here. Other commenters often put them right.

There are of course plenty of ways in which people might reasonably disagree with what I write as my libertarian inclinations do put me well outside the mainstream. And I do let stand many disagreeing comments of that sort. Regrettably, however, I rarely have the time to reply to such comments. Again, however, other commenters often take up the cudgels fairly effectively. My thanks to them.

Moderation

My apologies to the many reasonable commenters on this site: Because of a return of an aggressive troll I have once again decided to institute comment moderation. I will try to log on a few times a day to publish genuine comments.

There are many areas of life where a disturbed minority spoil things for the majority and I am afraid that blogs are not immune to that.

Some Lugubrious Pontifications from a "Liberation Theology" Catholic Priest

Just some of the choicer paragraphs of this Massachusetts solon:

"This week of Thanksgiving, local schoolchildren commemorate the generosity of the Wampanoag, Massasoit and other First Nations of North America toward the British Pilgrims

Nationally, the Fox fascist cable channel fosters a climate of hatred directed against Latin Americans working productively in the United States without the benefit of proper administrative immigration documents. Locally, Fairhaven fascist radio participates in this by specifically targeting the indigenous Mayans and others of Central America who live in the shadows of our triple-deckers and community....

In September, the medical examiner received Esteban's body. The report specified that this kind man, so devoted to his family and the recovery of his brother's remains, was "eviscerated" by an assailant one night on a North End street when Esteban went to the aid of a friend harassed over a ball cap....

There is a direct, linear connection between the hate speech of the Fox cable channel, Fairhaven racist radio, and other providers and a perception of "open season" immunity for street thugs who target local Guatemalan Mayans, Salvadorans, Hondurans, and other vulnerable populations.

Source

How odd that a priest seems unaware that Thanksgiving started as Thanksgiving to God!

And illegal immigration is being "without the benefit of proper administrative immigration documents": A bit like saying that black is off-white.

And it is Fox news that causes local thugs to harass people??

This strange soul also thinks that Hillary Clinton has FORCED Latinos to migrate because NAFTA has made farm products cheaper for Mexicans to buy. Don't anybody tell him that corn prices in Mexico have doubled recently.

A typical elitist, he thinks that Latino peasants should have been left to live in picturesque poverty.

There is a good takedown of the sad soul here

A Free-Speech President!

Hungarian President vetoes Leftist hate speech bill:

"President Laszlo Solyom has sent the hate speech bill to the Constitutional Court for preliminary review, as he believes it is unconstitutional in several respects, his office said Tuesday.

The planned amendment would introduce penalties for insulting anyone because of their ethnic background, world view, sexual orientation or other personality traits.

The President holds the position that members of insulted groups and certain organisations could launch "tens of thousands" of lawsuits over a single insult, so that the total compensation payable would disproportionately limit freedom of speech. He also objects that those who are not part of any ethnic minority would not receive equal protection under the law.

Source

Must not Tell the Truth about Islam

We read:

"A recent example of hate speech and ignorance occurred on Oct. 29 through the airing of a radio show on KCMO 710 AM. On the syndicated "Michael Savage Show," Savage said, "I'm not gonna put my wife in a hijab. And I'm not gonna put my daughter in a burqa. And I'm not getting on my all fours and praying to Mecca. And you could drop dead if you don't like it.. I don't wanna hear any more about Islam. I don't wanna hear one more word about Islam. "

Savage continued, "I'm sick of you. What kind of religion is this? What kind of world are you living in when you let them in here with that throwback document in their hand, which is a book of hate. Don't tell me I need re-education. They need deportation."

These words of rabid bigotry and hate reflect the same venom that Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels spewed out against the Jews in Nazi Germany.

Source

Silly me! I thought it was the oppression of "kuffars" (unbelievers) preached in the Koran which were "words of rabid bigotry and hate that reflect the same venom that Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels spewed out against the Jews in Nazi Germany."

Savage doesn't want to convert them or oppress them or attack them. He just does not want to have anything to do with them. If only Muslims had similar attitudes towards the West!

Is this antisemitic?

A Philadelphia baseball commentator (Conlin) made some rather silly comments and various bloggers criticized him for that. As part of his reply, Conlin wrote the following:

"The only positive thing I can think of about Hitler's time on earth-I'm sure he would have eliminated all bloggers. In Colonial times, bloggers were called "Pamphleteers." They hung on street corners handing them out to passersby. Now, they hang out on electronic street corners, hoping somebody mouses on to their pretentious sites. Different medium, same MO. Shakespeare accidentally summed up the genre best with these words from a MacBeth soliloquy: ". . .a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. . ."

That really lit up the switchboard and one of the criticisms was that Conlin's approving comment about Hitler was antisemitic.

I think that is absurd. He said that there is just ONE good thing about Hitler. I would say that there were SEVERAL good things about Hitler: He virtually invented freeways, he pulled Germany out of the Depression etc. Yet, as a libertarian I see Nazism as the very antithesis of all that I stand for. But simplistic black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking I will leave to Leftists.

And can anybody who has ever bought a Volkswagen beetle (I have owned three) say that Hitler did nothing good? It was Hitler who commissioned the design and who first put it into production.

As for Conlin's comments about bloggers, it is just another example of how elitist old-media types cannot handle people answering back.

There is a big summary of the Conlin affair here

New British Slang

"Pikey"?

"You rarely hear abuse like "n*gger" or "queer" shouted at Premier League [soccer] players any more, for fear of crossing the line. (At least one manager is often slandered as a paedophile, but that's another matter.) However, Arsenal fans near me had no compunction about loudly branding Wayne Rooney a "fat pikey" throughout - now a non-playful but apparently acceptable term for white working-class.

Source

Wikipedia has more details. In Australian slang, a "piker" is someone who does not keep his promises or honor his obligations.

Sometimes you can't win

We read:

"California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell sparked a storm when he said that race, not poverty, explains why some groups of students do better than others. But discussions at the "Achievement Gap Summit" in Sacramento reveal a more nuanced, hopeful picture.

O'Connell has focused on a cultural disconnect between white teachers and their black and Hispanic students. In a meeting with The Bee's editorial board, he told of a black student who attends a hand-clapping church on Sunday and then shouts and jumps at school, landing him in trouble. O'Connell seems not to realize that this ham-handed example stereotypes the black community and is condescending to students.

Source

UK abandons "offensive and inappropriate language" such as "war on terror"

We read:

"Counter-terrorism officials are rethinking their approach to tackling the radicalisation of Muslim youth, abandoning what they admit has been offensive and inappropriate language. They say the term "war on terror" will no longer be heard from ministers. Instead, they will use less emotive language, emphasising the criminal nature of the plots and conspiracies. The government in future, they add, will talk of a "struggle" against extremist ideology, rather than a "battle".

"We hadn't got the message right," said one senior official. He added: "We must talk in a language which is not offensive." Another said that the terrorist threat must not be described as a "Muslim problem".

Source

Calling a spade a spade is just not British! A spade would have to be an "excavation implement" in Britain, I guess.

Yes. I do know that "spade" has been deemed incorrect too.

A new N-word!

"Noose" is now incorrect:

"Someone asked if anybody knew how to tie a noose and Travis did admit he knew how to tie a noose," Kim Grigsby said.

Travis' mom said her son is almost an Eagle Scout, he knew how to tie it, but told his friends he wouldn't because you could get in trouble for that. Later, a black student on the drum line told the teacher he was offended.

"Travis was accused of using a racial slur for saying the word 'noose.' Then he was suspended for 10 days," Kim said...

The school did shorten the kids' school suspension to only five days, but it will affect their grades.

Source

A Simmering British Controversy

I thought I might bring readers up to speed on an acrimonious display of hypocrisy among British intellectuals that began in October but is now still simmering in late November.

Read the two statements below and ask yourself which is hate-speech and which is a policy proposal, a proposal that is perfectly consistent with most members of the group being unproblematical:

1). Someone is described as a: "racist, anti-Semitic boor, a drink-sodden, self-hating reviler of women, gays and liberals"

2). "The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order. What sort of suffering? Not let them travel. Deportation - further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan... Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children..."

It will be not be the slightest surprise to hear that the kneejerk response to the second utterance above was to label it as "hate speech" -- but it in fact says nothing at all about any characteristic of the Muslim community or any member of that community. It is simply a harsh proposal about how to deal with the aggression that emanates from some members of that community. One may disagree with the proposal as unlikely to be fruitful (etc.) but that is another matter.

The first statement above, however, could not be more derogatory and is as hateful as can be. That statement is undoubtedly the work of a hater. And you may not be surprised that the one undoubted hater out of the two mentioned above was a Marxist -- Terry Eagleton. Marx hated just about everyone and most of his followers do likewise. The man of the extreme policy proposal was Martin Amis and it is HE, not Eagleton, who has been accused of hate speech. It was, incidentally, Martin Amis's father whom Eagleton described so derogatorily.

The latest shot in the war of words is here. Hitchens defends Amis here and Amis puts it all into context here

The most important context however is that whether a thing is called "hate speech" or not depends on who said it. Leftists just CANNOT utter hate speech, by definition, apparently. Cindy Sheehan wrote in her book Peace Mom: "I fantasize about killing Bush when he was a baby." Hate speech? Of course not! Hate-filled speech need not be hate speech, in the wonderful fantasy world of the political Left. Who the REAL haters are is crystal-clear, however.

Ohio: Pun not Funny

We read:

"The use of a symbol with powerful negative overtones for African-Americans on an event flyer has caused an outcry on the Denison University campus and prompted the university to take a wider look at intolerance on campus.

Flyers advertising a Halloween concert by the Hilltoppers, a student singing group, showed a noose with a caption involving the expression "hang out with us," a university spokesperson said. The flyers, posted around campus earlier this week, prompted strong reactions from members of the Black Student Union, who associated the noose image with lynchings of blacks.

Source

The Left just HUNGER for something they can portray in a negative light and they have trained blacks to see insults everywhere.

No doubt it is an insult to say that blacks have been "trained" to do anything too. But people can be trained and Leftists make no secret of being in that business. "Sensitivity training" is one of their major industries.

Must not Depict what you are Condemning

We read:

"Two students at Waynesburg Central High School have been suspended for 10 days because of the way they depicted an activity they were trying to discourage. John DiBuono and his classmate made a public service announcement for a TV workshop. They used crushed Smarties candies. In the video, his friend pretended to snort cocaine. It was supposed to be a message against using drugs.

In a statement, the Jerome Bartley, superintendent of the Central Greene School District, said: "Although the individuals involved were not using illicit drugs, the district's policy prohibits look-a-like drugs, substances, liquids or devices." ....

In addition to the suspension, DiBuono, a 4.0 student, said he was told to attend drug counseling. "The only words said in the entire public service announcement was, 'Don't do drugs,' and now I'm being sent to rehabilitation conference," he said. "I think it's a little ridiculous."

Source

It's a BIG ridiculous, kid.

Panty Message Incorrect

California:

"Six cheerleaders are fighting suspensions after they flashed football fans a message on their underpants. Vice Principal Ken Goeken ordered the girls to serve suspensions Tuesday and Wednesday for defying their coach and going ahead with a special cheer they choreographed for the last day of the football season. At the end of the cheer, the girls bent over, lifted their skirts and showed the crowd the words "Indians No. 1" on their bloomers.

Source

I'm betting that the team appreciated the support, though!

Hooray! At last a "Hate-mail" Faker Goes to Prison

We read:

"A Case Western Reserve University statistics professor who admitted falsely reporting to the FBI that she received racially charged hate mail has been sentenced to six months in prison. Ramani Sri Pilla must also pay back $66,000 that the FBI and the university spent investigating her false claims. U.S. District Judge David Dowd imposed the sentence.

Prosecutors say Pilla told FBI investigators that she received four hate letters between August 2006 and February of this year. Pilla, who is Indian, named three co-workers as possible suspects. And she also sued the school, who she accused of not protecting her. Pilla later admitted that she wrote the letters and then sent them to herself.

Source

These things are always attributed to "racists" and conservatives and just serve to create a false impression of intolerance among ordinary Americans.

Columbia U Leftists Moan about Free speech

When they are the chief enemies of it. Projection (seeing your own faults in others) is clearly an epidemic there:

"Faculty members presented a letter to top administrators Tuesday condemning University President Lee Bollinger for creating a "crisis of confidence" and accusing the University's administration of inadequately protecting academic freedom on campus....

"We speak for a growing number of faculty members at Columbia University who believe that President Bollinger has failed to make a vigorous defense of the core principles on which the University is founded, especially academic freedom," the statement reads. "The events of the past few years have created a crisis of confidence in the central administration's willingness to defend these principles." ....

Many of the professors who signed the letter-including Hamid Dabashi, Rashid Khalidi, and George Saliba-have found themselves at the center of Columbia controversies before and have a history of harshly condemning Bollinger.....

Many said the administration's defense-or lack thereof-of academic freedom has troubled them for some years and that the discontent came to a head this semester, with some pointing particularly to the reception of Ahmadinejad, in which Bollinger referred to the Iranian president as a "petty and cruel dictator." ....

Source

Silly old Bollinger got the wrong idea of free speech altogether. He should have realized that free speech only extends to SUPPORTING Islamofascist maniacs!

I wonder how many of the above-mentioned professors condemned the silencing of the Minutemen spokesman at Columbia in October of last year?

"Get Osama" is Prohibited Speech in New York (Of All Places)



We read:

"There's a $25 million reward out for his capture, so it's no secret the United States government wants to get Osama Bin Laden. But when a Long Island man wanted to express that thought on his license plate, he got more than he bargained for. He's the most wanted man in the world, or as President Bush once put it: "He's wanted dead or alive."

Just like the president, Arno Herwerth of Hauppauge on Long Island wants to get "Osama" also, and he's making it known.... So when Arno, a retired NYPD sergeant, ordered personalized "Get Osama" license plates from the DMV, he said he thought he was being patriotic....

In a letter addressed to Herwerth, the DMV said they "prohibit the issuance of any license plate combination that is, 'in the discretion of the commissioner, obscene, lewd, lascivious, derogatory to a particular ethnic group or patently offensive.'"

Arno points out, however, there is a little something called "free speech" in the country he so adamantly believes he is supporting. He claims the president's September 2001 speech in which he announced Bin Laden was "wanted dead or alive," should not be forgotten, and if it was okay for the Commander In Chief to say, then the same words on license plates should be permitted.

Source

Cringing before Muslims again, I guess.

British Police Attack Free Speech



In biased Britain hate speech by Muslims is OK but reporting it is not:

"MPs have accused West Midlands Police of seeking to undermine freedom of speech by making a "perverse" complaint about a Channel 4 programme that exposed extremism in a British mosque.

Police claimed that the Dispatches programme Undercover Mosque misrepresented the views of Muslim preachers and clerics through misleading editing. The programme featured undercover recordings from speakers alleged to be homophobic, antiSemitic, sexist and condemnatory of nonMuslims.

West Midlands Police rejected calls to take action against the preachers for stirring up racial hatred. Instead, they pursued a complaint against the film-makers, accusing them of undermining community relations.

But Ofcom, the media watchdog, threw out the police complaints. It found that the programme had "accurately represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context".

Source

I guess the British police will now have to stick to executing innocent Brazilian electricians and prosecuting people who defend themselves against home-invaders.

Santas have last laugh

The original story about this swept the net so here is the sequel:

"Santas have had the last laugh on bosses wanting to replace the "Ho, ho, ho" greeting with "Ha, ha, ha". Recruitment firm Westaff, which supplies hundreds of Santas for events around Australia, has backed down from its ban on the traditional greeting following a backlash from employees.

The company wanted to ban "Ho, ho, ho" for fear it might scare some of the children. A Myer spokesman said store management believed the expression was an important Christmas tradition.

Source

There was some suggestion that the term was originally banned because it was seen as a reference to the black American usage of "Ho". But that usage is unknown in Australia. A prostitute is usually referred to in Australia as a "Pro". So if you want to refer to yourself as a "Professional" in Australia, don't abbreviate it!

ND: Chancellor would dump "Fighting Sioux" logo

We read:

"Bill Goetz, North Dakota's university system chancellor, said Thursday at a Board of Higher Education meeting he will support retiring University of North Dakota's 'Fighting Sioux' logo and nickname in less than three years if the school and Sioux tribes cannot agree to keep it.

The school's $104 million dollar hockey arena may be forced to remove hundreds of images of 'The Fighting Sioux,' the university's 70-year-old logo, if officials can't reach an agreement with tribal councils....

The hockey arena has hundreds of "Fighting Sioux" logos laid into its granite flooring, imprinted on seating and etched on doors and other areas. If an agreement cannot be reached, they would all have to be replaced.

Source

I wonder if makers of Kiwi shoe polish have the permission of all New Zealanders to use their national symbol as a brand-name.

Noose news in Delaware

Post below lifted whole from Joanne Jacobs. See the original for links

A noose was spotted on a University of Delaware street a few weeks ago. A stray Halloween decoration? A hate crime? The police investigated, found out nothing and closed the case. UD, recently under fire for a coercive "diversity" program in its dorms, wants to reopen the case.

"There is no room for such actions in our community and the university will continue to enforce a zero-tolerance for hate," UD President Patrick Harker said in a statement. Harker met with more than 30 African-American students this morning to discuss reports of the noose and the students' concerns about the recent canceling of a residence life educational program.

Over at Colossus of Rhodey, Hube is suspicious.

See? In order to prevent this "epidemic" of noose hangings, UD MUST bring back its diversity program!

The story is so vague that it's not clear where the noose was seen or whether it was there when police investigated. I'd jump to no dire conclusions about a noose seen, allegedly, around Halloween.

Update: OK, it was a plastic bottle hanging by a rope from a tree. The university president says the important thing is that students feel threatened and intimidated.

Update: A toilet-paper noose has terrorized North Carolina State students.

Wow! Leftist "Hate speech" gets a Fine for Once



We read:

"Two Spanish cartoonists have been found guilty of offending the royal family and fined 3,000 euros ($4,000) each. Their cartoon, on the front page of the weekly satirical magazine El Jueves in July, depicted Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia having sex....

"Do you realise," says the crown prince in the cartoon, "if you get pregnant this will be the closest thing I've done to work in my whole life." That referred to an announcement by the government that it would pay Spanish couples for each new baby they had.

Slandering or defaming the Spanish royal family can carry a sentence of up to two years in prison.

During their short trial, the defendants said they had done nothing wrong and had depicted members of the royal family in cartoons many times before. Trade unions representing journalists have accused the Spanish judiciary of impeding freedom of speech, says the BBC's Steve Kingstone in Madrid.

Source

Leftists don't like it when their "hate speech" nonsense comes home to roost and hurts them. Leftist speech is always "free speech" in their double-standard world.

Gay Rights Groups Accuse Hillary of Hate Speech

We read:

"Reminiscent of scandals over use of the word "niggardly", Hillary Clinton is now coming under fire from gay rights activists across the country for using the word "flag" in a negative context.

After a recent press conference, several American flags toppled around the presidential candidate, causing her to say in exasperation "why don't these flags stay where they belong?" and "would somebody please put these flags back in their place?" Several homosexual rights groups claim that this is a thinly veiled attack on their lifestyle.

"There was justified outrage in the African-American community over so-called 'unintentional' slurs like 'niggardly' and 'tar baby', said National Gay and Lesbian Task Force director Matt Foreman. "If she thinks she can get away with her not-so-subtle prejudices just by tossing an extra letter into her hate-crime-speak, she's sadly mistaken."

Source

It's satire, of course. Not far from reality, though.

Naughty British judge

A British judge tried to enliven his courtroom with a bit of humor -- making references to a defendant's Arab origins. Naughty! Must not assume that Arabs are Arabs! The Arab protested and the matter went to an appeal court:

"Yesterday the Court of Appeal judges noted that Mr Justice Singer had said:

- That the sheikh could choose "to depart on his flying carpet" to escape paying costs

- That the sheikh should be available to attend hearings "at this relatively fast-free time of the year"

- That he should be in court so that "every grain of sand is sifted"

- And the sheikh's evidence was "a bit gelatinous . . . like Turkish Delight".

Source

The judge was let off with a reprimand.

Imus Back but Partially Muzzled

We read:

"Since the dark days of April, Don Imus has accomplished the beginnings of a media resurrection. Last month, he signed a 5-year deal with Citadel Broadcasting, through which he'll return to the radio on December 3rd, as the host of a morning drive time show on the company's WABC, the top-ranked AM radio station in New York City....

Still, his freedom will be curtailed: CBS kept him on only a five-second tape delay, which it rarely used, according to Martin Garbus, Imus' lawyer. But a wary WABC said they'll have him on a 21-second delay, giving them ample time to bleep out anything troublesome, reports Observer writer Felix Gillette.

Crucially, many of Imus' big-name guests from the worlds of politics and media appear ready to welcome him back with open arms, unconcerned about the inevitable charges that by returning to the scene of the crime, they're accessories to buddy-buddy bigotry....

Imus' reach will be diminished, at least to start off. At the end of his tenure at CBS, his show was syndicated on about 60 stations around the country, giving him over 2.5 million listeners a week, according to an estimate by Michael Harrison, a talk-radio expert and the publisher of Talkers magazine. But WABC execs say they have syndication deals in the works....

Source

Must NEVER Joke about Homosexuality

We read:

"Coach Phil Jackson admitted he deserved the reprimand he got from the NBA on Wednesday for making a sexual reference in a comment following the Los Angeles Lakers' loss in San Antonio.

The Spurs made 13 three-pointers in their 107-92 victory Tuesday night, and Jackson was asked if too much penetration was leading to open outside shooters.

''We call this a 'Brokeback Mountain' game, because there's so much penetration and kickouts,'' Jackson said. ''It was one of those games.''

The 2005 film, which won three Oscars, depicts two cowboys who conceal their homosexual affair.

''But in retrospect, it wasn't really funny,'' Jackson said before the Lakers played Houston on Wednesday night. ''When you take it out of context, it wasn't funny. It was a poor attempt at humor, and I deserved to be reprimanded by the NBA.''

Source

G*ogle Censoring Criticism of Islam again

We read:

"The video content site YouTube has flagged a new campaign ad by Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo, warning of its content and requiring viewers to verify they are 18 or older. The 30-second spot airing on Iowa cable stations this week links the country's illegal immigration problem to terrorism, depicting an attack on an American mall.

"There are consequences to open borders beyond the 20 million aliens who have come to take our jobs," the narrator says. "Islamic terrorists now freely roam U.S. soil. Jihadists, who froth with hate, here to do what they have in London, Spain, and Russia." ...

YouTube is trying to make sure young viewers don't have access to the ad. "This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community," says its warning. "To view this video or group, please verify you are 18 or older by logging in or signing up."

Source

Jihadi propaganda like this is OK, of course.

G*ogle is getting so political that the time must surely come soon when conservatives stop using it for searches. There are plenty of alternatives: Live.com, yahoo.com etc.

Mark Fuhrman Radio Show Axed by KGA1510

Not sure what to make of this:

"A blow against the right of a free people to be informed/educated by a free press. The Mark Fuhrman Radio Show was axed this morning by KGA1510 in Spokane, WA. Fuhrman’s Show was MIA this morning without notice.

This may be a further move by the River Park Square developers that also own and control 80% of the media in Spokane including the Spokesman-Review to cover their tracks in a complex white collar fraud. Allegedly in this fraud, millions of dollars were sucked from the pockets of the citizens of Spokane by their political and appointed government officials complicit in this fraud.

The Mark Fuhrman Show was the only local media seriously talking about the ongoing River Park Square fraud

Source

Black Activist Slams "Buckwheat" Blackout

Louisiana Liberal Given a Pass:

"After a Louisiana state representative called a noted local civil rights activist "Buckwheat," Project 21 chairman Mychal Massie is criticizing both the lawmaker for saying it and the media for once again appearing to take a pass on reporting about a liberal politician's racial foible.

Hazel Boykin, a 75-year-old civil rights activist who helped desegregate Louisiana restaurants and schools, helped Democratic State Representative Carla Blanchard Dartez get voters to the polls earlier this month. At the end of a private telephone conversation thanking Boykin for her efforts, Representative Dartez said, "Talk to you later, Buckwheat."

Buckwheat was one of the black characters featured in the "Our Gang" movie shorts of the 1930s and 1940s whose stereotypical image is considered an insult today. Boykin told the Associated Press: "I've never had no one talk to me that way and I consider is a racial slur... I know the meaning of it, it's just like the n-word." Representative Dartez said, "I regret my choice of words," and cited her 93 percent voting record with the legislature's Black Caucus as proof she is not a racist.

Source

That good ol' double standard again. Things that would be headlined across the country if a conservative said it do not even get a mention in most media outlets.

The three great "truths" of Leftist America:

1). Only whites can be racist

2). Only conservatives can utter "hate speech"

3). Israel is always in the wrong.

Must not Call a Crackhead a Crackhead

If he is black, that is:

"A Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic for The Washington Post has apologized for sending an angry e-mail in which he called District of Columbia Council member Marion Barry a "crack addict."

Tim Page wrote to Barry's aide last week after receiving a press release about the former mayor's views on the financially troubled Greater Southeast Community Hospital.

"Must we hear about it every time this crack addict attempts to rehabilitate himself with some new - and typically half-witted - political grandstanding?" the e-mail said. "I'd be grateful if you would take me off your mailing list. I cannot think of anything the useless Marion Barry could do that would interest me in the slightest, up to and including overdose."

Source

Sounds like a reasonable comment to me.

Public Prayer Attacked

We read:

"As Georgia descends deeper into drought, Governor Sonny Perdue has ordered water restrictions and asked President Bush for help.

On Wednesday, the governor will call on a higher power. He'll join lawmakers and ministers on the steps of the state Capitol to pray for rain.

The Atlanta Freethought Society says about a dozen of its members will protest at the vigil

Source

More details here. Note that prayer seemed to work on a previous occasion!

Must not Describe Criminals Accurately

We all know that a missing racial description of a criminal normally means he is black. But what if he is Hispanic? Apparently, we must not be told:

"The letter took issue with the description of a man, believed responsible for five attacks on teen-aged girls since June 2006 and possibly a sixth on Thursday. He is described as Hispanic, 28 to 40, 5-feet-6, muscular, with a mustache and black hair.

Radio station 1190AM refused to use the word ``Hispanic" when it broadcast the description. ``We need to be fair when we describe the person and saying this person is Hispanic, is, I think, profiling," said Mayra Nieves, vice president of programming for New Radio Venture, which owns 1190AM. She said the man may look Hispanic, but may not be.

Nieves said Hispanics living in the Valley want the rapist caught. ``They're afraid like we all should be afraid if there is someone there harming the community, we definitely would like police to find this person," she said. But, she said, 1190 AM listeners, are ``confused and enraged because we are saying this person is Hispanic

Source

She says that even if he looks Hispanic he may not really be one. But it is precisely the LOOK that people need to help identify him. She does not want him caught very badly. I would not mourn if she were his next victim. But she might be a bit old and stringy for him ....

ADL Confusion

The ADL has just had a conference in Israel about "hate speech". They seem to have put out a very mixed message as a result. On the one hand they say:

"Dozens of experts from Israel and the United States joined Marcus for the first ADL conference on "Hate and the Internet" that was held in Israel Monday. While experts explored the various definitions of hate speech, and how it manifested itself online, the focus of the conference was what should be done to stop "cyberhate."

"We cannot just say we will shut down all these sites and they will go away, and I don't think ignoring them will help either," said Marcus. "I think the best approach could be summarized in a phrase that was said by [US Supreme Court Justice Louis] Brandeis long ago... 'Sunlight is the best disinfectant.'" ....

You can't censor your way out of hate," said Marcus. "Brandeis knew that a long time ago."

But on the other hand we read:

"Instead, said Marcus, lawmakers in individual countries should consult with Internet policing units to create legal standards. "It's not the decision of the private companies or the international bodies or the international experts to say what is and isn't good content," said Meir Brand, director of Google Israel. "It's the decision of the lawmakers, the people elected by government."

Which seems to be a recommendation that governments SHOULD censor the speech concerned. It seems rather a pity to me that they did not stick to the sensible first part of their message.

But the excerpt I like best is this one:

"The problem is that each country has its own standard of what constitutes hate," said Marcus, who recounted that during a recent conference in Europe, Russian representatives believed that Seventh-Day Adventists should be qualified as a hate group because of their views on the army and nationalism. "We clearly cannot adopt a universal standard that everyone agrees on."

Exactly.

Google Head Rejects Censor Role

Rather amazing:

"Google is not the address for stopping online hate, the Israel director of the engine whose brand name is so well known that it means searching the Internet, told a conference on Monday. Organizers of the conference from the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish group that counters anti-Semitism, brought examples of anti-Jewish hate material freely available on the Internet, and participants called for more action to stop it.

But Google Israel Director Meir Brand explained his company's free-access philosophy that puts it on the sidelines of the war against cyberhate. "At Google, we have a bias in favor of people's right to free expression," he said. "Google is not and should not become the central arbiter of what does and does and does not appear on the Web. That's for elected governments and courts to decide," Brand said.

He said Google removes results from its search index "only when required to by law," for example, when copyright infringement is an issue. In Germany and Austria, he

Source

You could have fooled me! Maybe Google Israel does not know what they do in Google California!

I think I get it, though. He is saying that Google only censors anti-Muslim speech. Jews can go jump.

Democrat War on Talk Radio Continues

We read:

"Accuracy in Media today criticized the Senate Commerce Committee for holding a Thursday hearing on "media diversity" that featured a prominent advocate of the federal Fairness Doctrine, a measure liberals hope to use to silence conservative talk radio. The witness, Alex Nogales of the liberal National Hispanic Media Coalition, used his testimony to attack "hate speech on talk radio programs" and claimed that "more diversity of ownership" in the media would somehow help solve the perceived problem. "The war on conservative talk radio has begun," stated AIM editor Cliff Kincaid.

While the Fairness Doctrine was not the official subject of the hearing, Kincaid said that "the inclusion of Nogales as an `expert' witness was a signal that the committee wants to move in the direction of using the federal government to muzzle conservative commentators." Nogales has openly declared that the Fairness Doctrine should be brought back to counter conservative "hate speech" against "undocumented Latinos" and others. Nogales suggests that "hate speech" leads to "hate crimes" and that broadcasting licenses should only be given to "responsible" parties who provide "varied points of view." He has gone so far as to label Lou Dobbs of CNN the "father of television hate speech" because of his stand against illegal immigration.

Source

Va: Just Possessing Derogatory Material now not Allowed

You don't have to SAY anything at all. A student had apparently printed a famous picture on a sheet of paper showing a white man with his arm around a sobbing black man. In a rather feeble attempt at originality, the photo had been re-captioned: "Slavery Re-instated: Catch yourself a good one." The intent was humorous, the rather crude humor one often gets from students. It was obviously not any sort of approach to reality.

"A racist poster on the campus of Mary Washington University is causing controversy tonight. The controversy prompted about 100 people to march in a unity march today in silence across campus....

It was a famous sports photo that had a racially insensitive caption put on the bottom of it. It was found inside of a freezer here in Jefferson dorm on the Mary Washington Campus. It was found by housekeeping staff on October 15th but it wasn't until a campus article appeared in early November that school officials found out about it.

Campus police were investigating, but determined the poster didn't meet the definition of a hate crime because it did not target a specific individual. The student who printed it off the internet was charged with violating university policies...and is facing a hearing from the university judicial review.

Source

Fuller details here. Considering what the Bible says about homosexuals (e.g. Leviticus 20:13), will possessing a Bible be wrong soon?

Santa Claus Banned from Saying "Ho Ho Ho"

We read:

"Santas working in shopping centres across Australia have been banned from bellowing "ho ho ho" because it might frighten children.

Recruitment firm Westaff, which supplies hundreds of Santas around the country, yesterday confirmed the edict. Westaff national operations manager Glen Jansz said the company's Santas had been urged to tone down their use of the "ho, ho, ho" phrase.

"The reason behind that is we find that in some cases the little kids can get a little bit scared of the deep 'ho, ho, hos' and we ask them to be mindful of keeping their voices to a lower level," he said.

Source

Another attempt to shield kids from life.

Those Racist Minnesotans!

News from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul:

"Three African American students living in the same dormitory room found a total of four notes since Monday containing racial slurs. The most recent was late Wednesday night.

Three of the messages were on or under their door. Another was slipped under the door of a computer lab, where one of the students was working. Some of the notes contained threats. The university assigned guards to escort the women to class, and St. Paul police launched a criminal investigation.

Source

The Leftists who planted the notes (I'm guessing but it's a guess founded on much precedent) must have been greatly gratified at the big rallies and other reactions they provoked. How nice to feel righteous!

Naughty Realism again

We read:

"The BBC presenter Sarah Kennedy denied she had caused offence to her listeners when she claimed on air that it was hard to see black people in the dark. She said it was "absolute tripe" to suggest her remarks had been racist and said she wished to draw a line under the matter.

She provoked fury when she interrupted a discussion on road safety on her Radio 2 programme to say she had almost run over a black pedestrian because his dark clothes made him "invisible". "It's lucky he opened his mouth to yawn or do something and I saw him," she said.

Source

I guess I shouldn't be laughing!

Self-righteous Huffing and Puffing at Yale

The "slurs" were almost certainly hoaxes put there by Leftists -- as they usually are these days:

"Following outrage from the University community in response to racist graffiti found outside Pierson College on Tuesday, College deans have said they have begun laying out specific plans to prevent similar incidents in the future - including the possible creation of a new multicultural office.

Dining hall staff discovered graffiti early Tuesday reading "N*gger School" spray-painted on a wall outside the York Street gate to Pierson College. The incident came on the heels of several reports of racist and homophobic incidents on campus, including students wearing blackface costumes on Halloween and homophobic slurs painted on other college property.

In e-mails to Yale undergraduates Thursday morning and early Friday morning, Yale College Dean Peter Salovey and Afro-American Cultural Center Director Pamela George, respectively, outlined the steps they plan to take in response to the incidents, including the development of an administrative office to address multicultural issues.

Source

Just an excuse for more futile but self-congratulatory bureaucracy. Jobs for poseurs! There's an immense amount of hot air about it at the link above.

Black Support for Imus

We read:

"Actor Damon Wayans has defended disgraced U.S. radio DJ Don Imus for referring to a mostly-black women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos", insisting his views should be protected by freedom of speech laws...

In an interview on U.S. TV show The View on Wednesday (07Nov07), Wayans said, "Freedom of speech, what happened to that? What happened to expressing yourself? At least I know where he stands. "And you know what? When he called them nappy-headed ho's, I went, 'Wow, he's right!' ...

Single Wayans then went on to explain how he's searching for a woman who can cook, much to the outrage of the show's four female hosts and mainly female audience.

Source

Hey! It's OK to Stomp other Flags

Not just the U.S. flag:

"The 417,000 students at California State University's 28 campuses are expected to be civil to one another, the university says in its policy manual. It sounds innocuous - but a federal magistrate says it's an unconstitutional restriction on speech when the policy is used to investigate or discipline students, such as the College Republicans whose members stomped on two flags bearing the name of Allah during an anti-terrorism rally at San Francisco State last year.

"It might be fine for the university to say, 'Hey, we hope you folks are civil to one another,' " U.S. Magistrate Wayne Brazil said last week at a hearing in his Oakland courtroom. "But it's not fine for the university to say, 'If you're not civil, whatever that means, we're going to punish you.' "

Brazil said he would issue a preliminary injunction barring the university from enforcing the civility standard in any disciplinary proceeding. He said the university can continue to enforce another rule disputed by the College Republicans - prohibiting intimidation or harassment - but can use the rule to punish students only for threatening someone's health or safety, and not merely for offensive statements or conduct.....

"Universities routinely use policies like (the California State University policy) to suppress Christian and conservative speech," said attorney David Hacker of the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian nonprofit law firm that represents the San Francisco State College Republicans. As a result of Brazil's ruling, he said, "all students are more free to express their ideas."

Source

Fake Suntan now Incorrect

This could cause a lot of trouble in California!

A guy turned up at a Halloween party dressed up in a striped prison suit, wearing dreadlocks and with "bronzing" makeup on. Everybody thought his outfit was cool until they realized that his suntan was fake. Then they saw his outfit as a slur against blacks and there was hell to pay.

You must not suggest that the prisons are full of blacks. No Siree! The fact that one third of black males spend some time in prison during their lifetimes must not be referred to in any way! Realism is OUT!

Details here

Sweden: Christian Website Editor Cleared of Hate Speech

But it had to go all the way to the Supreme Court:

"Sweden's Supreme Court has cleared website editor Leif Liljestroem of charges of acting as an accessory to incitement to hatred of homosexuals. Liljestroem, who runs the Christian website Bibeltemplet, was previously sentenced to one month in prison by the Court of Appeal for allowing the publication of hateful comments about homosexuality. He was originally sentenced to two months in jail for incitement to hatred by Stenungsund District Court.

The court ruled that Liljestroem may not have been fully aware that the comments posted by visitors to the website constituted incitement to hatred. He told the court that he had thought long and hard about removing the offending posts before eventually allowing them to remain on the site where they could serve to generate further discussion, Dagens Nyheter reports.

One of the more extreme comments posted by a visitor to a discussion forum thread entitled 'Sodomy' asserted that "men who cannot summon up the energy to abstain from intercourse with other men should be sentenced to death and hanged from posts in the town square." Although he did not remove it, Leifstroem did in fact criticize this statement and several others on the site's discussion forum.

The Supreme Court ruling was not unanimous, with two judges calling for a conviction. The judges, Per Virdesten and Ella Nystroem, argued that "the statements [posted to the website] went far beyond the bounds of reasoned debate and can be considered deeply insulting to homosexuals as a group".

Source

Imus has Served his Sentence

We read:

"Don Imus will return to the airwaves Dec. 3 on WABC Radio in New York, Citadel Broadcasting says. Imus lost his job nine months ago after making racist and sexist remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team.

Earlier, the New York Post said Imus would host a morning talk-show, unseating the highly rated "Curtis and Kuby" show. Citing a source, the paper said Imus signed a 5-year deal that will pay him between $5 million and $8 million annually.

Source

Imus would have been PERMANENTLY out if he had been a conservative.

The ACLU will go Bananas over this!

We read:

"Trustees of the largest high school district in the country voted 4-1 Monday night to mandate displays bearing the nation's motto - "In God We Trust" - and other historical documents in over 2,300 district classrooms and offices.

The display of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights will be included in the posters approved by district trustees in Bakersfield, Calif. Monday night.

Kern County High School District trustee Chad Vegas initially proposed the measure as a way of promoting patriotism. But the idea sparked a contentious debate. "I'm extremely pleased the measure passed and was in fact expanded beyond what I had originally proposed," said Vegas.

In addition to placing the displays in over 2,300 classrooms, the posters will also be hung in district boardrooms, libraries, administrative offices and other rooms.

Source

Proposed Anti-Gang Law is "Racist"

We read:

"An anti-crime initiative about to hit the streets is "racially loaded," says the California Legislative Black Caucus' incoming chairman, who plans to lead opposition to the measure if it qualifies for the ballot....

The initiative, called the Safe Neighborhoods Act, is being championed by state Sen. George Runner and his wife, Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, Republicans from Lancaster, a Los Angeles County desert suburb.....

The measure would stiffen sentences in specific gang-related statutes and bolster civil injunctions against street gangs to the point where violations could carry prison time. More generally, it would create a new 10-year prison term for some ex-felons caught carrying guns and ratchet up penalties on crimes like home-invasion robberies to life in prison.

It would restrict federal court- ordered due process rights for parolees, including the right to a lawyer. It would allow hearsay testimony against defendants accused of dissuading witnesses from testifying.

Source

Crime committed by "minorities" should just be overlooked, I guess.

Another "Hate-crime" Hoax

This has been going on for years now. There is so little real "hate crime" in America that Leftists have to keep inventing such crimes in order to make themselves feel virtuous and important:

"A George Washington University student who told school officials that someone had drawn swastikas on her dormitory room door was actually responsible for the incidents, a university spokesman said today.

The student, who was not identified, had complained that swastikas appeared on her door over a period of several days last month. A hidden camera positioned in response to the postings in Mitchell Hall, one of the school dormitories, led police to interview the student, who admitted responsibility, according to spokesman Tracy Schario.

Source

Reporting hoax crimes to the police is normally a prosecutable offence. It will be interesting to hear what happens in this case. Crystal Gail Mangum was not prosecuted for the vast harm she did by her lies so I think I can predict what will happen.

Mild Insults against Hispanics are very Wicked: Unless you also Hate Jews, of Course

Where? At an American university, natch. In this case Rider University in NJ. Its association with Islam seems to be making antisemitism respectable in universities. Antisemites now seem to get the sort of easier treatment that Leftists have always been given:

"We were alerted to a racism incident at Rider University in an article published in The Times of Trenton on Friday, October 26, 2007 about a message board posting on Face Book submitted by Emily P. Howell, a 20-year-old junior from Virginia....

Howell told 19-year-old sophomore Amy Lapaix in a message board posting on Tuesday to "go to another country" after Lapaix posted a flier for the Latin American Student Organization on Howell's Facebook profile. Howell also told Lapaix, "Maybe you could go pick some vegetables or make some salsa for your event." For this, she faces a possible fine, suspension, and charges against her filed with the Lawrence Township Police by Lapaix. Rider President Mordechai Rozanski was outraged at these comments and said, "This posting is disrespectful, repulsive and totally unacceptable. It is contrary to everything we stand for as a community."

According to a Rider alumnus, a different student commonly made even stronger racial comments, as well as anti-semitic remarks. Matthew Volker, who graduated in May, 2007, repeatedly made statements about Blacks, calling them the "N" word, among others, such as "porch monkey," "shinebox," "reggins," and, "mau maus." He also made comments against Jews, calling them "Kikes." He stated that "Hitler was a great man," "The Jews were taking everyone's money and ruining the economy," and, "The collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11 was because of the Jews." He also stated, "The Holocaust was a good thing, and that we need a final solution." Volker is a self proclaimed Nazi, and an admirer of Adolph Hitler....

Despite the fact that these comments were quite graphic and disheartening to Lefkowitz, no mention of this was made to the press by then Public Relations Director, Earle Rommel, nor was any public statement released by President Rozanski.

Source

British Less Hysterical about Slang Term for Homosexuals

"Poof" is the British and Australian word that is roughly equivalent to the American "F*ggot". Ofcom is the regulator of the communication industries in Britain:

""Poof" may no longer be a derogatory word when used on television, Ofcom has said, after rejecting 200 complaints over Big Brother.

A contestant twice used the term on the Channel 4 show - but the first comment went unchallenged and the second earned her only a reprimand in the programme's "Diary Room". A number of viewers complained that the word "poof" is just as offensive to homosexuals as "n*gger" is to black people.

But Ofcom cleared the programme of discrimination and double standards, adding that the word presented some difficulties for regulators.

Source

California Dems don't like 'job killer' label

The Democrat-controlled California legislature is like a sausage machine always churning out new laws. So the California Chamber of Commerce does something that the Democrat legislators glide over: It looks at the impact of each bill on employment in the state. It labels as "job killers" any bill with a clearly adverse impact. That has spelled doom for most bills so labelled. So what is the Democrat reaction? Exactly what Leftists have always done: Focus on the label rather than the reality. Drawing up employment-friendly bills is not remotely one of their priorities. Telling other people what do is all that matters to them:

"Today, calling a bill a "job killer" is the kiss of death for legislation the chamber deems unfriendly. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed all but three of the chamber's 41 job-killer bills on his watch.

The chamber's job-killer list, a compendium of a dozen or so Democratic bills that would rein in businesses, has become the unofficial score card that industry and trade groups use to measure their success in beating back unfriendly legislation....

But critics charge the chamber simplistically tags as job killers all legislation that would improve environmental protections and consumer protection, including tort reform, insurance reform and landlord/tenant law.

"I think it's part of the whole movement by the free marketeers, extreme right-wing of the (Republican) party that has identified this as an effective phrase," said former Democratic Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson. "Unfortunately, it resonates with people in way that takes the focus off the real legislation."

Source

Indiana Prayer Decision Upholds Religious Freedom

We read:

"Both sides do agree that a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the 189-year-old tradition of allowing clergy to pray at the opening of each legislative session of the Indiana General Assembly.

They also agree that the judges, in a 2-1 split, overturned a lower-court decision earlier this year requiring the speaker of the Indiana House to review prayers and remove any "sectarian" language before the prayers could be uttered from the floor.

Source

Whether the decision will have much in the way of a flow-on to other cases about public prayer remains to be seen but it clearly should.

Another Noose Scare

Given the big reaction to recent episodes, some people have obviously decided that nooses are rather fun:

"A black mannequin found with a noose around its neck in a county landfill building has triggered a joint hate crime investigation between the FBI and the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department....

The mannequin was found in a machine shop at the county's Kiefer Boulevard landfill. The out-of-the-way building, where tractors that plow under garbage are repaired, is accessible only to employees, said site supervisor Chris Perini.

The county has released few details about the incident. Union officials and the head of the local NAACP said Friday they believed three employees and a supervisor, all of whom are white, work in the machine shop. Still unclear is whether the mannequin was being used as an overt threat, said Betty Williams, president of the local NAACP chapter.

Source

An Even Crazier Leftist Cry of "Censorship" than Usual

It's even worse than censorship according to this sad soul. It's "silencing":

"If you follow foreign news, you'll remember that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to her native Pakistan two weeks ago and only narrowly avoided being blown to bits.

I was thinking of this when I saw the reviews of Susan Faludi's new book, "The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America," in which the dyspeptic feminist decries the "silencing" of women after the attacks. Evidently someone in Pakistan wants to "silence" Bhutto permanently, but that's not what Faludi has in mind.

Faludi's idea of "silencing" - and forgive me, but here it's such a preposterous, super-fatted term that I can't help giving it quotation marks - is not a bullet in the head or the detonation of explosives to shut up forever some meddlesome woman. Faludi is distressed that male writers outnumber females on the op-ed pages of American newspapers.

Source

Women who really are silenced -- many Muslim women worldwide -- are of course no concern of this shrill egotist.

TV Star Ousted over THAT Word

We read:

"Bounty Hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman's television series has been suspended after tapes of him repeatedly using a racist word was published online. The star of Dog the Bounty Hunter has apologised for using the slur, but said the recording of a phone conversation with his son about a new girlfriend was a racist rant, Associated Press reported.

The recording, which was published online by the National Enquirer, reportedly includes Chapman telling his son to break up with his girlfriend. "I'm not taking a chance...not because she's black but because we use the word n... sometimes here," Chapman was reportedly heard telling his son. "I'm not going to take any chance ever in life of losing everything I've worked for 30 years because some drunken n... heard us say n... and turned us into the Enquirer magazine."

Source

Is there any such thing as a private conversation these days? Where are all the privacy protections that Leftists are so keen on?

Leftist Australian University Pays up but Free Speech Loses

We read:

"A bitter battle between Queensland University of Technology and two senior academics is believed to have cost QUT almost $1 million. The university has now reached an out-of-court settlement with controversial QUT Creative Industries academics Gary MacLennan and John Hookham.

In a memo to staff on Monday, Creative Industries faculty Executive Dean Professor Susan Street said QUT had reached a settlement with the senior lecturers, who were suspended without pay for six months in June for their outspoken criticisms of a PhD film project formerly entitled Laughing at the Disabled. Their pay was later reinstated.

University sources suggested yesterday the fiasco had cost QUT close to $1 million, with legal fees, legal costs for the academics and payouts to the two believed to be close to $200,000 each. In addition, QUT has been paying the pair full salaries since June.

Dr Hookham and Dr MacLennan would not be returning to the faculty, Professor Street's memo said.

Source

Only a return to their jobs would have cancelled out the harm to free speech done by their firing. They were fired for publicly criticizing an offensive far-Left media project.

A Columbia Coverup

We heard recently vague details about antisemitic incidents at Columbia U that almost all of the media seemed to be ignoring. Some details have however now at last come out.

It seems that an elderly Jewish professor who specializes in Holocaust studies and who lost family to Hitler has received abusive email messages and has now had a large Swastika painted on her office door.

Why would anyone suddenly do such a bizarre thing? Because Prof. Midlarsky vocally opposed the visit to Columbia by Iran's fanatical President Ahmadinejad.

And guess what neither Columbia or the New York Times are being careful NOT to mention? Any connection to the Ahmadinejad visit. So whether the absurd swastika was done by Muslims or by their Leftist supporters, it is Islamic hate speech that is in question and the Left are as usual covering up for their fellow-haters in the Middle-East.

Trochilus has the details.

"Homophobia" in Cobb County, Georgia

An article published last month in "Inkwell" -- Kell High School's student magazine -- was headlined "Homosexuality: Beyond the Bible" and written by football player Thomas Benjamin. It referred to homosexuals as "diseased" and a "mistake of evolution."

The editors of the publication were subjected to all sorts of abuse over it, of course but, rather surprisingly, school officials have defended the article on free speech grounds and no disciplinary measures against anyone have been heard of yet. Instead, there seems to have been a lively debate on the matter among the students. It sounds like there is one High School that is more mature than some Ivy League universities.

Details here.

G*ogle Censoring Criticism of Islam again

Robert Spencer of "Jihad Watch" comments:

"The indefatigable Harrison Sonntag of Dartmouth notifies me that G*ogle has removed the video of my talk at Dartmouth, with this explanation: "As set forth in the Terms & Conditions, G*ogle Video is not required to host or display uploaded content. G*ogle Video may refuse to host content that violates its policies"

G*ogle then lists the things that violate its policies, none of which apply to the video concerned -- which was a factual exposition of Muslim teachings drawn from the Koran and other Islamic sources.

See Spencer's full post here -- including a non-G*ogle link to the speech.

Bias Case at Columbia Goes Largely Ignored

A good comment:

"For an incident that occured last Thursday, you think there would have been a bit more attention. Considering the amount of coverage the purported noose hanging incident received at Columbia, it's curious why there's a virtual media blackout with this latest reported case.

"Police are looking into a new bias incident at Columbia University. The provost of Teachers College told students Friday that two faculty members received an anti-Semitic cartoon and anti-Zionist letters. School officials have not released the names of the two professors. Police say the hate crimes unit is aware of the incident.

Source

That both Columbia and the media are very Leftist and that the Left is very antisemitic these days does of course explain the indifference. They probably think that the letters were a good thing.

And both the ACLU and the ADL seem to be missing in action. But self-hating Jews are nothing new -- from Karl Marx onwards.

Australian jury to decide on meaning of "pimp"

We read:

"Right wing Liberal powerbroker David Clarke is suing a publishing house for defamation following the release of a book in which he claims he is portrayed as a "Nazi" and a "pimp" who would be willing to prostitute his own daughters to further his political career. The daughters of the NSW MP, Ann-Marie and Caroline, are also suing Melbourne University Press over the book, The Education of a Young Liberal, written by John Hyde Page. They claim the book makes them out to be prostitutes of such low moral character that their father solicits for them.

Two recently published judgments in the NSW District Court detail the claims made by the Clarkes and the arguments used by MUP in its defence. Using the online encyclopedia Wikipedia to bolster its arguments, MUP says the word "pimp" has become a colloquial term that now means "cool" or "socially desirable".

Judge Gibson said it was ultimately up to a jury to decide whether the imputations claimed by the Clarke daughters had been made out.... The chapter in which the author describes a meeting with Mr Clarke is headed "Meeting with Nazis". Judge Gibson recounted the passage in the book where Mr Hyde Page goes to the meeting to gain "right-wing support for his presidency" of the Young Liberals and that at the end of the talks Mr Clarke spoke "warmly of his daughters".

The offending line "And did you get a load of Clarke trying to pimp off his daughters? Oi, oi, oi!" is attributed to former Liberal Party member Kyle Kutasi, who was at the meeting with Mr Hyde Page.... The book, published last year, was withdrawn from sale in March.

Source

The Annual Halloween fight

Excerpt from a good summary:

"Say a prayer, a spell, or a demonic incantation for Halloween. This October, as in past Octobers, many schools are refusing to celebrate the holiday. Others have recast it as "Fall-o-Ween" or "Orange and Black Day" or, in words carefully calibrated to be as generic as possible, the "Fall Festival." In Anne Arundel County, Maryland, one councilman-nominally a Republican, but spiritually a member of the Everything Not Prohibited Is Compulsory Party-has reacted with a resolution to require his county's schools to hold Halloween parties. I don't approve of his solution, but I understand his aggravation....

But the alliance's most important members are driven by fear, not faith. They're the key to the coalition: the risk-averse bureaucrats. Where the fundamentalists would like to see Halloween eliminated entirely and the Wiccans would replace it with a two-day teach-in about the Burning Times, the bureaucrats merely want to drain all the blood from it, eliminating anything that might offend somebody or give a parent something to worry about. Many would be happy to keep Halloween around as long as the witches wear bicycle helmets instead of dangerously pointy hats. Barring that, they'll sadly sacrifice a school's celebrations altogether, suggesting softly as they wield the knife that it's all for the best, really; all those costumes and candies were distracting the kids from their lessons.

Source

Cartoon ban in Australia?



We read:

" The [Leftist] Federal Opposition is considering banning the use of cartoon characters in the advertising of food and drinks aimed at young children if it wins power. Characters such as animated film ogre Shrek are widely used in advertisements for fast food and breakfast cereals aimed at children.

Labor's health spokeswoman Nicola Roxon says many parents are concerned about their use as marketing tools. She says Labor thinks the use of cartoon characters in promotions is a way of getting around industry codes. "Labor is certainly considering closely whether we could ban the use of toys and kids' giveaways and licensed characters in the advertising and marketing of food and drinks," she said.

Source