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31 October, 2010
Criticize homosexuality and you will be hounded
Little Rock, Arkansas (Where have I heard of that place before?) had, until just recently, a very naughty school board member named Clint McCance:"In a Facebook posting, McCance scoffed at a campaign asking supporters to wear purple Oct. 20 to show solidarity after several gay and lesbian youths killed themselves, reportedly because of bullying.Leftists sure know how to show tolerance of different views
"Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves," McCance wrote. "The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed thereselves because of their sin."
In a follow-up response to Facebook users who criticized his comments, McCance wrote that he liked that gay people "can't procreate (and) I also enjoy the fact that they often give each other AIDS and die."
McCance told CNN he and his family had received "thousands of phone calls and hate mail" and that he had sent his family out of the state to protect them.
Source
MA: Internet censorship statute blocked
"For the children" is a classic Leftist excuse for controlling adults"A federal judge blocked yesterday a new state Internet obscenity law meant to shield children from sexually explicit material, ruling that the statute was written so broadly that it would criminalize legitimate websites and general electronic communication.
The decision was celebrated by civil rights advocates, but it frustrated prosecutors who have encountered difficulty in convicting Internet predators under outdated laws that fail to cover new technologies.
‘Due to this preliminary injunction, we are unable to enforce this much needed law,’ said Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz, whose office prosecuted the online predator case that led to yesterday’s ruling.”
Source
30 October, 2010
RI: "Plantations" is a naughty word
We read:"This state's official name — The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations — is more than just a mouthful. To many, it evokes stinging reminders of Rhode Island's prime role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Voters next Tuesday will decide whether to change the name by dropping the words "and Providence Plantations." The issue has been debated for years, but lawmakers last year authorized a ballot question for the first time following an impassioned debate over race relations, ancestry and history.
"You go anywhere and you mention plantations and what automatically comes to a person's mind is slavery," said Nick Figueroa, 41, a member of a legislative minority advisory coalition that backs changing the name.
Supporters of the referendum see the ballot question as a chance to erase the state's links to slavery and remove a word they associate with human bondage and suffering. But opponents, including Gov. Don Carcieri, note that the state name actually has nothing to do with slavery and that, in any case, changing it will do nothing to alter history.
The phrase "Providence Plantations" appeared in the royal charter granted in 1663 by King Charles II to the colony of Rhode Island. At the time, "Plantation" was a general term for settlement or colony.
Keith Stokes, who is multiracial and can trace his family's arrival to Newport back centuries, said the debate over the state name ignores Rhode Island's legacy as a colony founded on religious tolerance, where Jews, Quakers and other minorities settled in large numbers after being rejected elsewhere.
Source
Jokey beer label in trouble
We read:"Just in time for Halloween, there's trouble brewing for a California beer distributor that has gotten into hot water with the nation's wiccan community over an ale called Witch's Wit -- whose label depicts a woman being burned at the stake.
Witch's Wit is one of Port Brewing Company's Lost Abbey beers, which the distributor calls "inspired beers for saints and sinners alike." Each beer sports a label that aims to tell a story about the struggle between good and evil.
But Vicki Noble, a famed healer, astrologer and spiritual leader in the pagan community, saw only evil in Witch's Wit after a worker in a liquor store called the bottle to her attention last week.
Incensed at the image of a witch being burned at the stake, Noble sent an e-mail to her followers, asking in the subject line: "Can we stop this brewer from their hate imagery?"
Source
29 October, 2010
Amazon wins fight to keep customer records private
We read:"In a victory for the free speech and privacy rights of Amazon.com customers, a federal judge ruled today that the company would not have to turn over detailed records on nearly 50 million purchases to North Carolina tax collectors.
The state had demanded sensitive information including names and addresses of North Carolina customers — and information about exactly what they had purchased between 2003 and 2010. …
North Carolina’s legal setback comes as other states experiment with new ways to collect taxes from online retailers.”
Source
Libertarian site says it is racist to condemn illegal immigration
Many of the more extreme libertarians have an "open borders" philosophy"This is the very ugly, very racist tirade of Sharron Angle the so-called Tea Party candidate in Nevada. Any libertarian who is still defending this disgusting movement has either not been paying attention or is brain dead. The Tea Party is anti-liberty. They are bigoted against immigrants and gays and are actually worse on social liberty than your normal Republican. Surveys show that the Tea Party is mainly the most reactionary element of the Republican Party.The argumentation by the libertarian is VERY weak. It is true that the rate of illegal immigration varies but that is not to stay that it stops. Whether the "wave" is large or small, there still are such waves coming in.
Angle, who is also a staunch anti-gay bigot, of course, claims that "waves" of Mexicans are coming to America. Actually immigration flows are way down because these people came looking for jobs and when jobs dry up they go back. But in Angle's fevered, bigoted, little brain these people are not coming to America for work but for the explicit purpose of "joining violent gangs, forcing families to live in fear."
Source
As testimony to how weak his argument is, the writer erects a straw man. According to him the advertisement claims that illegals are coming for "the explicit purpose" of joining gangs. Nowhere in the advertisement does it say that. It just lists gang joining as one of the things that they do. And there are indeed many illegal immigrant gang members whom America could well do without.
And NOWHERE does the author offer any evidence of a racist motive. It is just a smear.
Some libertarians can be as fanatical and doctrinaire as any Leftist. It's sad when you have an ideology to defend. Conservatives just go with reality so don't need to lie. And reality never justifies unfettered liberty.
28 October, 2010
SC: Game lady flies the Stars & Bars in a black neighborhood
Black pride is OK but Southern pride is not?"Residents of a black neighborhood in South Carolina protested a Confederate flag flying at a home Saturday.The same flag flies outside the Statehouse so why pick on a lone woman?
About 70 people marched and sang civil rights-era anthems Saturday in the Brownsville neighborhood in front of the home of Annie Chambers Caddell, The Post and Courier of Charleston reported.
Caddell, who is white, told the newspaper after the march that she won't take down the Civil War emblem.
About 30 people brought more Confederate flags to Caddell's property Saturday and stood with her to show their support.
Source
Even Frenchmen must not "work like a n*gger"
Jean-Paul Guerlain, the perfume maker, used the N word – nègre in French - during a news bulletin. He is of an older generation and was simply using a phrase that would have been normal in his youth."The perfumer, who no longer works for the company that bears his name in an official capacity, was discussing the making of his perfume Samsara — Mr. Guerlain created Samsara for a woman.There is no doubt it is a very old-fashioned phrase. "Live on welfare like a n**r" would be a phrase more in line with modern-day realities -- but maybe I don't get the point.
“One day I told her — and I still called her Madame — ‘What would seduce you if one was to make a perfume for you?’ and she told me, ‘I love jasmine, rose and sandalwood,’” Mr. Guerlain recalled.
“And for once I started working like a [racial epithet]. I don’t know if [racial epithet] ever worked that hard,” he said.
Guerlain has apologized, saying that he ‘vividly’ regrets his unfortunate choice of words, but that pronouncement hasn’t been enough stall groups like SOS-Racisme, a French anti-racism group that plans to file a formal legal complaint against Mr. Guerlain.
Source
27 October, 2010
Free speech a lost concept in Canada -- again
We read:"Strictly Right sent out a press release earlier today to Canadian media with some rather startling news about the upcoming Mark Steyn speech in London, Ontario that we’re putting together. Mark Steyn will be speaking on November 1st in a speech entitled “Head for the Hills: Why everything in your world is doomed.” Apparently, London-area Muslims didn’t like that idea too much.
Due to capacity constraints at the University of Western Ontario, the original venue for the event, we had booked the London Convention Centre (LCC,) London’s premiere conference facility. On Tuesday, I received a phone call from the LCC telling us that our venue had been pulled, and that Mark Steyn would not be permitted to speak there. The reason offered by the LCC was that they had received pressure from local Islamic groups, and they didn’t want to alienate their Muslim clients. It’s interesting to note that the LCC is owned by the City of London, and is therefore a government operation.
It’s interesting that a government-run business decided that freedom of speech was no longer a concept to be upheld.
Source
Must not laugh at politically correct language
What the heck are "special needs" anyway? I sometimes have a special need for a cheeseburger. Does that count?"The BBC has apologised after Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson described a car as "speciale needs".Clarkson sure is a straight talker. He repeatedly says whatever comes into his head, regardless of whether it is "correct" or not. But his show is so popular that he gets away with it. His show is basically about cars but lots of people probably tune in for a breath of fresh air amid all the stifling British political correctness.
Britain's broadcasting watchdog, Ofcom, investigated after the joke, made by Clarkson about a Ferrari owned by co-host James May, provoked complaints.
The F430 Speciale "looked like a simpleton" and should have been called "Speciale Needs", Clarkson said on the BBC2 show.
Comparing it to a newer model, he said the car "was a bit wrong - that smiling front end - it looked like a simpleton - should have been called the 430 Speciale Needs".
Charities criticised the remark, with the National Autistic Society saying it perpetuated "the prejudice and bullying which people with disabilities have to cope with".
The regulator said: "While obviously intended as a joke and not aimed directly at an individual with learning difficulties, the comment could easily be understood as ridiculing people in society with a particular physical disability or learning difficulty."
It concluded that because the BBC had apologised, decided not to repeat the comment, and said it was not intended to make fun of those with special needs, the case was resolved.
Clarkson, 50, who is reported to be paid £2 million ($3 million) a year by the BBC, is used to provoking outrage with his remarks.
He sparked anger when he asked Richard Hammond if he was "mental" when he returned to the show following a near-fatal car crash and in 2008 his joke about lorry drivers murdering prostitutes led to complaints.
A year later, he called then prime minister Gordon Brown a "one-eyed Scottish idiot" during a press conference in Australia and, in comments made to Top Gear magazine, he accused TV bosses of being fixated with having "black Muslim lesbians" on TV to balance out the amount of white, heterosexual males.
Source
26 October, 2010
Political correctness ends 'Vice Squad' name in Britain
We read:"Scotland Yard's famous Vice Squad, which deals with prostitution and other aspects of London's underworld, has changed its title to the rather less dynamic "Serious Crime Directorate 9: Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command", or SCD9 for short.
The explanation is one that would draw a robust response from DCI Hunt, the old-school detective from BBC One's Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes.
Metropolitan Police sources said the switch had been ordered in part because the word "vice" was thought to have negative "connotations". It reflects a growing trend by law enforcement agencies to treat prostitutes as victims rather than as offenders.
Alan Moss, a police historian and former Met chief superintendent, said: "The jargon of modern policing, with all the numbers and letters, is confusing for the public and probably for people in the police as well. "I think the names of different squads should bear the name of what they do, and the crime they are trying to combat."
Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Martin, head of SCD9, said the name change was necessary was because Clubs and Vice had taken on wider responsibilities for areas such as human trafficking, which meant the old title was no longer appropriate.
Source
Court case about Canadian hate speech law begins
We read:"The government is out. The Jewish groups are in, so are the civil liberties groups. Still seeking a place in the coming battle over the hate-speech section of Canada's Human Rights Act in federal court are the African Canadians and the free speech advocates with awkward links to racist hate groups.
Nominally between three parties -- the Canadian Human Rights Commission, anti-hate crusader Richard Warman and far-right webmaster Marc Lemire, whose hate speech tribunal decided last year that Section 13 of the Act is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech -- this appeal hearing is shaping up to be a multidimensional clash of interests, with hatred balanced against censorship.
A hearing this week in federal court offered a glimpse of this battlefield dynamic, and assuming all proposed intervenors are accepted, there will be four additional parties supporting the hate law, and four more against.
One major change is the withdrawal of the federal government, which intervened at the Tribunal in support of Section 13, but has decided to sit out this judicial review. A spokeswoman said the Department of Justice would "continue to monitor the proceedings."
The Canadian Jewish Congress, the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada, and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies, all of which were intervenors at the tribunal, have already been granted permission to argue in support of Section 13, possibly with minor changes such as the removal of its punitive fines.
Source
25 October, 2010
Geert Wilders hate speech trial collapses in Netherlands
It was obvious from remarks made by the judges early on in the trial that at least one of the judges was biased against Wilders. Now there is clear proof of it: A rather spectacular turn of events"The hate speech trial of the controversial far-right Dutch leader, Geert Wilders, collapsed in disarray at the last minute today when the panel of judges in the case were deemed to be biased. A retrial was ordered.
Wilders, who is enjoying soaring support at home and propping up a new minority anti-immigration government established last week, has been in the dock since earlier this month on five charges of inciting racial and religious hatred for his robust denunciations of Islam as fascist and demanding the Qur'an be banned.
During the trial he has been lionised as a modern-day Galileo as well as branded a "little Hitler". Today was the final scheduled day of the trial, with the verdict from the panel of three judges at Amsterdam district court due next week.
But in the past 48 hours it emerged that one of the appeal court judges who ordered Wilders to stand trial had dinner in May with a potential witness, a Dutch expert on Islam, and that the judge had sought to convince the professor of Arabic studies why Wilders had to be prosecuted.
Last night, Wilders, who has remained silent throughout the trial, tweeted that Dutch justice was like the mafia.
This morning, Bram Moszkowicz, Wilders's lawyer, asked to summon the witness and was refused. He formally protested that the judges were biased against the defendant, a complaint that was upheld by another judges' panel, which ordered a retrial with a new bench.
Source
Unionists must not mention the Bush family -- even indirectly
We read:"Duane Hammet’s son has been serving in the Navy for three years. While at work recently, Hammond was sporting a sweatshirt and hat depicting his son’s ship, the USS George H. W. Bush. “Work” for Hammond is as a union stagehand, and while setting up for an Obama rally in L.A. today, his employer didn’t take too kindly to the name on his clothes.
According to Hammond, and reported by KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, the union asked him to remove his hat and turn his sweatshirt inside-out so that the name “Bush” would not be visible. When he refused, Hammond says he was fired:
Source
24 October, 2010
Illegal to post an ad seeking a Christian roommate?
We read:"The 31-year-old nursing student was looking to keep her expenses down when she decided to invite someone to share her home.
But when she posted an advertisement for a Christian roommate on her local church's bulletin board, the Grand Rapids woman landed in the middle of a civil rights debate that has her facing a complaint of alleged illegal housing discrimination.
The advertisement contained the sentence, "I am looking for a Christian roommate," said Joel Oster, senior litigation counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents the woman.
Someone saw the ad over the summer and anonymously filed a civil rights complaint with the Fair Housing Center of West Michigan. The complaint was then filed with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, and the woman was notified at the end of September.
"I think it's a clear violation on its face," said Nancy L. Haynes, executive director of the local Fair Housing Center. "It's an advertisement that clearly violates the Fair Housing Act."
Although the woman might choose a roommate based on religion, say, after interviewing the person over coffee, she cannot publish an ad with that intent, Haynes said.
The Alliance Defense Fund is a Christian legal group. In a statement released Thursday, Oster added, "Christians shouldn't live in fear of being punished by the government for being Christians. It is completely absurd to try to penalize a single Christian woman for privately seeking a Christian roommate at church -- an obviously legal and constitutionally protected activity.
Source
Pa. prof's anti-Israel remarks concern lawmakers
How would it go if someone called for the destruction of the Palestinians or the bombing of Mecca?"Two Pennsylvania lawmakers are questioning officials at a state-supported university after a professor publicly called for the destruction of Israel.Advocacy of violence is not normally regarded as protected free speech but don't hold your breath waiting for action on this incident.
In a letter Wednesday to the president of Lincoln University, state Sens. Daylin Leach and Anthony Williams ask if the professor is expressing anti-Semitic views on campus. Video of a Sept. 3 rally in Washington, D.C., shows tenured literature professor Kaukab Siddique saying Israel must be destroyed, "if possible by peaceful means."
A statement from Lincoln says officials are unaware of Siddique's "offensive views" being expressed on campus. Lincoln is a historically black university of about 2,000 students about 45 miles outside Philadelphia.
Source
23 October, 2010
Must not fear Muslims
We read:"Fox News has re-signed Juan Williams to an expanded role with the network in a multi-year deal, Roger Ailes, chairman and chief executive officer of Fox News, announced Thursday after National Public Radio fired Williams for his comments on the O'Reilly Factor Monday night, when he said it makes him nervous to fly on airplanes with devout Muslims.There has been a big backlash over this hyper-correctness, with lots of calls for NPR to lose its government funding -- e.g. here. That won't happen anytime soon but it has definitely set the dogs on them. As public broadcasters, they should be open to all reasoned views -- not apologists for Islam.
NPR terminated Williams in the wake of a discussion he had with O'Reilly concerning the dilemma between fighting jihadists and fears about average Muslims.
"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country," Williams said Monday.
"But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they're identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."
Williams also commented on remarks by Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad warning Americans that the fight is coming to the U.S.
"He said the war with Muslims, America's war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don't think there's any way to get away from these facts," Williams said.
NPR issued a statement Wednesday night saying that it was "terminating" Williams' contract over the remarks.
Source
Vets stand guard over Christian flag in NC town
We read:"The Christian flag is everywhere in the small city of King: flying in front of barbecue joints and hair salons, stuck to the bumpers of trucks, hanging in windows and emblazoned on T-shirts.
The relatively obscure emblem has become omnipresent because of one place it can't appear: flying above a war memorial in a public park.
The city council decided last month to remove the flag from above the monument in Central Park after a resident complained, and after city leaders got letters from the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State urging them to remove it.
That decision incensed veterans groups, churches and others in King, a city of about 6,000 people 15 miles north of Winston-Salem. Ray Martini, 63, an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam, launched a round-the-clock vigil to guard a replica Christian flag hanging on a wooden pole in front of the war memorial.
Source
22 October, 2010
MA: Groups challenge obscenity law scope
Another attempt by the power freaks to get their hands on the internet"A coalition of Internet content providers and free-speech advocates told a federal judge yesterday that a new Massachusetts law aimed at protecting children from online sexual predators effectively bans anything that may be considered ‘harmful to minors,’ including material that adults have the right to view."It's for the children": An old excuse for all kinds of Fascism -- but, as usual, it has the effect of controlling what adults can do, see and hear too
Supporters say the new law closes a loophole that led the state’s highest court to overturn the conviction of a man accused of sending sexually explicit instant messages to someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl. The Supreme Judicial Court found that the old state law that imposes criminal penalties for disseminating material harmful to minors did not cover electronic communications.”
Source
Attack on political free speech has a win so far
We read:"A national anti-abortion group, the Susan B. Anthony List, has filed a lawsuit over a state election law that prohibited the group from putting up a billboard against a Democratic congressman, according to the Associated Press.He voted for Obamacare and is now trying to hide that.
The group claims Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-OH), a first-term anti-abortion Democrat, ‘voted for taxpayer funding of abortion,’ because he voted for the new healthcare laws. The planned billboard would have read, ‘Shame on Steve Driehaus! Driehaus voted FOR taxpayer-funded abortion.’
Driehaus denied the claim and filed a complaint with the Ohio Election Commission. The commission ruled in Dreihaus’ favor, saying that there was probable cause that the planned billboard included false statements.”
Source
21 October, 2010
The defence case for Wilders has now been put
We read:"Lawyers for a Dutch politician who has harshly criticized Islam argued at his trial Tuesday that he has the right to issue warnings about the religion's spread in Europe and should be acquitted of inciting hatred and discrimination.
Geert Wilders, one of the Netherlands' most popular politicians, is charged with violating hate speech laws by equating Islam to Nazism, calling for a tax on "head rags" and advocating a ban on the Quran. His film "Fitna" argued that Islam is a violent and intolerant religion — drawing protests from Muslims around the world.
Lawyer Bram Moszkowicz said Wilders is exercising his right to freedom of speech and compared him to historical figures who were willing to voice unpopular opinions, including Winston Churchill and Galileo. "Wilders makes the hate of others known, and warns about it vigorously," Moszkowicz said. "Don't shoot the messenger."
A verdict is expected Nov. 5. If convicted Wilders could face up to a year of prison, though a small fine is more likely.
Source
Hate speech to say that homosexuality is changeable
Or so a prominent Mormon has found out. Boyd Packer is President of LDS Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He recently said that homosexuality is not inborn -- arousing a storm of protest. So the Mormon church is distancing itself from his words."The Mormon Church is trying to perform some sleight of hand, and hoping no one notices. On their online version of Boyd K. Packer’s hate-speech, they’ve changed some of the most critical words -– possibly in response to the national outrage against them.If you say that IQ, laziness, tendency to crime or a whole host of other things is genetically inherited, Leftists will always furiously deny it. Homosexuality is the the lone exception. How convenient! How odd!
Last Sunday during Packer’s sermon, he made the preposterous claim that homosexuality was not born of inbred “tendencies.”
But ‘Lo and behold,’ in the Church’s online text version of the same speech, the word “tendencies” was changed to “temptations.”
The initial words spoken by Packer said, “Some suppose that they were pre-set and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural. Not so! Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember he is our father.”
The new text reads: “Some suppose that they were preset and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn temptations toward the impure and unnatural. Not so! Remember, God is our Heavenly Father.”
Source
20 October, 2010
Must not encourage patriotism in a Florida Mall
We read:"A Navy veteran who drives a truck calling for voters to elect "American Patriots" was booted from the Mall at Millenia in Orlando allegedly for carrying a solicitation"Soliciting" normally means trying to get somebody to buy or donate something. I can't see that he was doing that.
For two years, Charlie Klein's truck has carried a sign that says,"God gave we the people America. Our corrupt elected are destroying it. Faith and prayer in God we trust. To save the USA Vote for American Patriots. To uphold our constitution."
The bolted-down sign, significantly larger than a bumper sticker, only became a problem for him, when Klein went to the mall on Friday, he told MyFoxOrlando. Mall administrators said solicitation is prohibited on mall property, whether it's a political appeal or otherwise.
"I wasn't soliciting I was driving my car, my pickup truck. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of political speech out the door at the Mall of Millenia," Klein added.
Source
University Won’t Fire Tenured Prof. Calling for Destruction of Israel
There's unlimited free speech for Leftists and Muslims. Incitement to violence is only wrong if a conservative does it"Kaukab Siddique believes strongly that the Holocaust was a hoax and that Muslms must “rise up against this hydra-headed monster which calls itself Zionism.” While his rhetoric is concerning, even more worrisome is that Siddique is an associate professor of English at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. And while the university acknowledges his comments are troubling, it says it can’t take action partly because Siddique is tenured.
Over Labor Day weekend, reports CBN’s Erick Stakelbeck, Siddique addressed radicals at an anti-Israel rally in Washington, D.C. There, his anti-Semitism was on full display.
“We must stand united to defeat, to destroy, to dismantle Israel — if possible by peaceful means,” Kaukab Siddique said. “Perhaps, like Saladin, we will give them enough food and water to travel back to the lands from where they came to occupy other people.”
“For the Jews, I would say see what could happen to you if the Muslims wake up,” Siddique warned. “And I say to the Muslims, dear brothers and sisters, unite and rise up against this hydra-headed monster which calls itself Zionism.”
Source
19 October, 2010
Must not video homosexuals
That seems to be the main gripe below, leading to calls for the guy's resignation. It's really cool for homosexual, Leftist and Islamic students to disrupt violently conservative speakers who come to address campus audiences but just videoing anything adverse to campus homosexuals is not on, apparently"Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell recently took a leave of absence after drawing national attention to his blog, Chris Armstrong Watch. The blog, which is now only available to "invited readers," monitored University of Michigan student body president Chris Armstrong, who is gay.
In one blog post, Shirvell posted a video of the police breaking up a party hosted by Armstrong. He'd recorded it at 1:30 a.m., while camping in front of Armstrong's house. Called, "Ann Arbor Police Raid Chris Armstrong's ‘Gay Rush' Welcome Week Party, 9-5-10," the YouTube video was just one demonstration of Shirvell's obsession. In another post, he drew a swastika on a photo of Armstrong and accused him repeatedly of being a "racist elitist" promoting a "radical homosexual agenda."
Source
NOW backs down over the "whore" word -- because a Democrat used it
An aide for California's Leftist Jerry Brown -- who is running for governor -- called a conservative opponent of Brown (Meg Whitman) a "whore" -- typical Leftist abuse, of course.
NOW initially objected to that word usage but now says that it is OK really. If a Republican had used it about a Democrat, however, you can imagine the sparks flying"Minutes after we posted our riff on the National Organization for Women prez calling out the Jerry Brown campaign for its use of the word "whore" we received an, ahem, "clarification" from national NOW prez Terry O'Neill on what she said she "should have said" on the matter.
"We are not saying anyone on the Brown campaign be fired," O'Neill said. "What I should have made clear was that anyone who says the 'W' word from here on should be fired. What happened last week was a teachable moment for all of us. We can all agree that the word is offensive and should be retired."
Source
18 October, 2010
Political has-been brands conservative straight-talk as hate speech
We read:"We're gonna guess that Joe Scarborough is off Newt Gingrich's Christmas card list. The MSNBC host—and former Republican Revolutionary—absolutely savages Gingrich in a column for Politico today, calling him a “cartoonish cable news fixture” who “smears” anyone he disagrees with. “The same politician who once saw himself as a latter-day Winston Churchill—sent by God to save Western civilization—now gets rich off political hate speech.”It sounds like Scarborough is the hater. He is clearly drifting Leftward -- maybe that's a requirement of his TV job with MSNBC
What else can you call it when a man accuses Kathleen Sebelius of acting “in the spirit of Soviet tyranny,” or calls Barack Obama “as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.” And then there are his attacks on Islam—which might actually put our troops in danger. It’s sad, because “unlike the ideological tools who pollute prime-time cable shows ... Newt Gingrich knows better.” He’s chosen to deal in “childish political insults” purely because “rage is good for business.” If he doesn't rein it in, his party could once again pay the political price.
Source
Dutch PROSECUTORS ask for acquittal on all hate speech charges against anti-Islam politician
We read:"Dutch prosecutors asked judges Friday to acquit anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders on all charges of inciting hate and discrimination against Muslims, in a case seen as testing the limits of free speech versus religious freedom.
The move by prosecutors signalled their belief the case against Wilders was weak, although judges could still disagree and convict him. The defence begins its case next week and a verdict is scheduled for next month.
The case is being closely watched in many European countries, where immigration has created a backlash of anti-Muslim sentiment and boosted nationalist parties that are outspokenly negative toward Islam and Muslims.
Muslims complained to Dutch authorities that Wilders crossed the line when, among many slurs, he compared Islam to Naziism and the Qur’an to Hitler's manifesto, Mein Kampf.
Prosecutors told the court that Wilders' statements may be "hurtful" or "insulting" to Muslims, but there was insufficient proof to convict him of trying to polarize Dutch society into antagonistic groups. He has never called for violence.
Wilders, who had frowned throughout Friday's hearing, broke into a wide smile as the prosecutors concluded by running through the charges against him and asking for acquittal on each.
Source
17 October, 2010
WaPo censors Mohammed cartoon
We read:"Last week, when Wiley Miller’s popular comic Non Sequitur featured a cartoon called “Where’s Muhammad?” — a cartoon that didn’t even depict Muhammad — the Washington Post, among other newspapers, never ran it in the print editions. Why didn’t they run it? Because, writes Andrew Alexander, the Washington Post’s ombudsman, editors “were concerned it might offend and provoke some Post readers, especially Muslims.”WaPo explains here
Of course the first of the two reasons the ombudsman gives — the terrifying “offend” — is probably not the one Marcus Brauchli, the newspaper’s executive editor with a history of bad decisions during his brief reign, most feared. What Brauchli undoubtedly dreaded was the possibility he might provoke, as in “provoke especially Muslims [to violence]".
Source
Democrat pol. tries to keep his pro-abortion votes from being publicized
We read:"Self-described, pro-life Democratic congressman from Ohio has won an initial battle to keep an anti-abortion group from posting billboards that accuse him of voting for tax-funded abortions.
U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus says that the pro-life group the Susan B. Anthony List is lying about his record when it claims that by voting for Obamacare he voted for tax-funded abortions.
Driehaus filed a complaint with the state elections commission to prevent the ad campaign, and on Thursday a three-member panel voted to allow the case to go to a full hearing in front of the Ohio Elections Commission.
Driehaus, who is facing Republican Steve Chabot, is basing his complaint on a criminal statute that makes it illegal to make “a false statement concerning the voting record of a candidate or public official.” Chabot previously held the seat but lost to Driehaus in 2008.
“In an act of desperation and fear, Rep. Steve Driehaus is attempting to use a criminal statute to silence his critics,” Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser responded to LifeNews.com. “It is a fact that Steve Driehaus has voted for a bill that includes taxpayer funding of abortion.”
For now, the billboards remain unpublished pending the Commission’s findings.
Source
16 October, 2010
Maybe it was Presbyterians who attacked the twin towers on 9/11/2001
We read:"On her HLN show Thursday, Joy Behar explained to viewers why she walked off "The View" during a heated conversation with Bill O'Reilly earlier in the day.Leftists can't stand the truth. My most recent post (15th. Oct.) on GREENIE WATCH will give you an idea of why they love Muslims so much.
"Today on 'The View,' Bill O'Reilly had a real pinhead moment," she said. "First he said a mosque should not be be built close to Ground Zero here in New York, and then he said this."
A clip rolled of O'Reilly from that afternoon: "Muslims killed us on 9/11."
"Well I was really angry," Behar said explaining her walk-off. "I thought he was saying something that I construe as hate speech, frankly."
Source
Obama and friends have the Internet in their sights
We read:"The Obama administration is seeking domestic and worldwide control of the Internet. After the July Wikileaks disclosure of 77,000 classified Afghan war documents and its planned release of 15,000 more, the U.S. wants that control bad –and fast.
The danger from the proposed regulation is not merely to your privacy, security, and civil liberties. Two specific measures would restructure how the Internet works in an attempt to place centralized and almost unlimited control in the hands of the U.S. government. First, in the name of preventing copyright infringement, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (pdf; also known as the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA, Act) would give the government absolute control of the root authority, or top-level worldwide domain registrar. The Act is currently before Congress.
Second, in the name of preventing terrorism, an “e-wiretap” bill aims at establishing government-mandated “back doors” in all communications systems. That bill is currently being drafted.
These controls would be in addition to the so-called 90-day “kill switch,” one of a slew of other Internet proposals coming from the Obama administration. In times of national emergency a president could block Internet traffic and shut down industries that don’t follow government orders.
Source
15 October, 2010
A new method of cracking down on free speech
Apple can stop sexting on the iPhone through a PATENT!"IPhone maker Apple can stop people from sending and receiving "objectionable" messages better know as sexting.This will be good for rival products, I guess. Steve Jobs may have jumped the shark.
A patent, which was first submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2008, is aimed at stamping out sexting on Apple's iPhone, The Daily Telegraph said. However, the patent will also enable Apple to view every iPhone user's texts.
According to tech blog TechCrunch, the background info for the patent states in part that currently there is "no way to monitor and control text communications to make them user appropriate.
The push to monitor texts is another example of Apple boss Steve Jobs protecting the "family friendly" brand.
However, the push for further smartphone monitoring has worried privacy groups and many users as phone makers such as Apple collect a variety of data, from geolocation data through to call times and credit card details to pitch ads and other information at phone users.
Source
Must not criticize an airline?
Ryanair is a British budget carrier:"A website set up to criticise Ryanair has been shut down by an internet watchdog – because it proved so popular it earned its owner money. The founder of IHateRyanair.co.uk – whose strapline was ‘The World’s Most Hated Airline’ – was forced to surrender the web address after the budget carrier complained to the domain name dispute resolution service.Weird: Criticism is not allowed if you make money out of it! A lot of blogs do a lot of criticizing and also have advertising on them. Are they in trouble? Thus is just a weak excuse to shut down criticism of a very arrogant business.
Yesterday the watchdog, called Nominet, ruled that the stinging criticism and passenger ‘horror stories’ published on the site were not sufficient grounds for it to be scrapped. However it ruled that a small profit made by Robert Tyler from sponsored links on the site meant he abused domain name rules.
Disgruntled passengers’ comments have filled the pages of the website since it was set up three years ago by Mr Tyler, of Walthamstow, East London.
Source
14 October, 2010
Will posting comments on conservative internet sites put YOU on the government’s watch list?
We read:"Several developments have occurred in recent days that indicate something as innocuous as visiting pro-gun rights websites that are critical of government Constitutional compliance, and especially participating in comments and forums, can results in heightened law enforcement scrutiny and even as a supporting criteria for "legal" intervention.
On Friday, I told WarOnGuns readers I was aware of a child welfare case in New Hampshire where one of the criterion for removing a child from its parents was an ostensible membership of the father in what protective services was characterizing as "a militia known as the Oath Keepers."
Long-time readers know we've discussed Oath Keepers--specifically not a militia group--many times, including attempts by the Department of Homeland Security, the Southern Poverty Law Center, opportunistic politicians, and certain media outlets to conflate them with violent haters.... It appears the father in question's tie to OathKeepers was that he commented on their forums.
Talk about chilling speech! If this is allowed to continue, it will chill the speech of not just Mr. Irish, but all Oath Keepers and it will serve as the camel under the tent for other associations being considered too risky for parents to dare. Thus, it serves to chill the speech of all of us, in any group we belong to that “officials” may not approve of.
Source
The BBC’s new editorial guidelines
"Must not criticize Muslims" is what it is really all about:"Another new guideline, about religious coverage, says that “Any content dealing with matters of religion and likely to cause offence to those with religious views and beliefs must be editorially justified as judged against generally accepted standards and must be referred to a senior editorial figure.”
However Terry Sanderson, the president of the National Secular Society, said: “This is an entirely retrograde step that will put severe restrictions on comedians, documentary makers, satirists and commentators who want to be critical of religion. Almost anything that isn’t wholly reverential towards religious beliefs can be perceived as offensive by some believers.”
Source
13 October, 2010
More local petty dictators who think that they can over-ride the constitution
We read:"A South Carolina man says his constitutional rights have been violated after he was told by his local government to remove the Bible-themed signs he had posted on his property.
Oscar Moultrie says a Berkeley County, S.C., ordinance that requires residents to obtain government permission before putting up signs on their private property -- other than "for sale," "for rent," political signs, and a few other exceptions -- violates his First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
Moultrie says he received no complaints about his signs before the county ordered him in March to remove them or pay $25 to get a permit to post them.
In his lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Charleston, S.C., he is asking the court to issue an immediate injunction that bars enforcement of the ordinance and declares it unconstitutional.
Source
The false Leftist narrative about Christopher Columbus
We read:"Today is Columbus Day, though you wouldn’t know it here in the United States. Christopher Columbus, or Christoffa Corombo in his native Genoese (now part of modern-day Italy), is probably one of the most important figures of the last millennium and his accomplishments deserve recognition.
Unfortunately, Americans have been bullied by the left into believing that Columbus was an evil man who does not deserve to be recognized....
However, if we are going to celebrate a day named after someone, I can think of no better candidate than Christoffa Corombo. After all, his discovery set off a chain of events that led to the American Revolution and the putting into action the idea that people, not kings, are the real sovereigns".
Source
12 October, 2010
KY: “In God We Trust” license plate backers bring lawsuit
We read:"A Kentucky group has filed a lawsuit after being denied a request to create a specialty license plate bearing the motto, ‘In God We Trust.’Going by the Vermont case mentioned yesterday, they should have a win
Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana (ROCK) says it first applied for [the] specialty license plate in 2007. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet creates specialty plates to spotlight various non-profit organizations. Motorists can purchase the plates in the process and may choose to make an additional donation to the non-profit in question.”
Source
British city bans smiling
We read:"A council has asked staff not to smile when dealing with parking complaints - as it may make drivers angrier.
Staff on induction training for the parking complaints team at Brighton and Hove Council were told a smile could make a row worse.
A spokeswoman at the Tory authority said: "The training is designed to help staff use body language that would not inflame the situation."
But Mark Turner, of the GMB union, scoffed: "I find this astounding. They should focus on useful training that employees really need."
Source
11 October, 2010
Vt. man wins religious vanity plates case appeal
"Free exercise of religion" upheld:""THE REV" and "PSALM48" can join "ARMYMOM" and "DARE2BU" on the license plates of cars in Vermont after a federal appeals court ruled Friday that the First Amendment leaves room for religion on vanity plates.
The three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York reversed a lower-court ruling in the state's favor in a case brought by Shawn Byrne of West Rutland, Vt., whose proposed vanity plate reference to a Bible passage had been rejected by the state in 2004.
Byrne appealed a September 2007 decision by a federal judge in Burlington, Vt., that rejected his 2005 claim that the state discriminated against him when it rejected his application for a license plate that would read: "JN36TN," a reference to the often-quoted Bible verse John 3:16.
"The state rejected Byrne's message only because it addressed ... areas of otherwise permissible expression from a religious perspective," the appeals court wrote. "This the state cannot do."
Source
Heavy metal fan charged over T-shirt
This happened in my home State of Queensland, where speech laws are rarely enforced. But I suppose there are limits even in Queensland. Note that it was a more general law than a speech law under which he was prosecuted. I do think the guy brought it on himself. He clearly intended to offend and that will always risk retribution"A heavy metal music fan could face six months in jail over an allegedly offensive T-shirt. Alexsei Vladmir Nikola, 34, was due to appear in court this morning on public nuisance charges after Brisbane police officers allegedly saw him wearing the shirt on George Street on May 6.What he did certainly seems to be covered by what he was charged with.
The shirt allegedly featured the words "Jesus is a c---" in large letters and shows a picture of a semi-naked, masturbating nun.
The offence of public nuisance is characterised by behaviour that interferes, or is likely to interfere with the peaceful passage through, or enjoyment of, a public place by a member of the public. The charge carries a maximum fine of $1000 or six months' jail.
SOURCE
Australia has no first amendment but the High Court of Australia does recognize a fairly broad right to free speech. I think even in America this guy would successfully be prosecuted under obscenity laws.
10 October, 2010
Mustn't call Gypsies Gypsies in Britain
We read:"Judges have been told not to use the word ‘gipsy’ for fear of causing offence. But the ban has been condemned as ‘confusing’ – by a leading gipsy group.
The edict is among a string of terms banned in a new set of guidelines for judges to make sure they comply with equality rules. They are told the word ‘gipsy’ is disparaging and should be replaced by ‘member of a travelling community’.
Last night, however, Joseph Jones, secretary of the Gipsy Council, said: ‘People in the UK are proud to be called gipsies. They don’t mind being called gipsies.
‘It’s not a name that came from the Romany community and some people don’t like it for that reason. But Romany Gipsy is not a term that’s seen as a negative thing. A lot of British people from the Romany Gipsy community are proud to be gipsies – like anyone from any ethnic community would be proud to be.’
Mr Jones said describing gipsies as ‘members of the travelling community’ was ‘too simplistic’.The problem with that is it confuses the issue by mixing people who are in an ethnic group with people who are not,’ he said.
The edict comes in a summary of the Equal Treatment Bench Book, published by the judges’ training body, the Judicial Studies Board.
The manual also warns about using the word ‘British’. It states: ‘Use of the term as a synonym for White, English or Christian is incorrect and unacceptable.’
Other words banned are ‘invalid’, ‘mental handicap’ and ‘wheelchair-bound’. Instead judges should use ‘disabled person’, ‘learning difficulties’ and ‘a wheelchair-user’.
Source
Must not joke about homosexuals
We read:"A top Hollywood studio agreed to recut a movie trailer overnight after a string of gay celebrities complained that it featured a joke that was insulting to homosexuals.I neither get the joke nor see what is wrong with it so I guess that shows how "hip" I am not. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
The trailer for The Dilemma opened with star Vince Vaughn making a joke to a group of businessmen. “Ladies and gentlemen, electric cars are gay,” Vaughn said. “I mean, not homosexual gay, but my-parents-are-chaperoning-the-dance gay.”
The incident attracted the attention of gay US celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and CNN host Anderson Cooper, who said earlier this week that the trailer reminded him of school bullying. “We’ve got to do something to make those words unacceptable,” Cooper said.
Although executives at Universal Studios claimed to be bewildered by the controversy - alleging that they showed it to gay rights groups in advance – they agreed to alter the trailer, the report said.
Source
9 October, 2010
Wisconsin law bans "race based" names for sporting teams
America's Left-enforced racial neurosis continues"The homecoming pep rally Friday at Kewaunee High School will have extra drama this year: Everyone in town will learn whether they'll be rooting for the River Bandits or the Storm to beat the Valders Vikings in the big football game.
The selection of a new nickname is the culmination of a sometimes painful few months in this town of 2,745. Under a new state law meant to eliminate race-based nicknames, logos and mascots, a complaint prompted the Kewaunee School District to drop the "Indians" name that had been in use here since 1936.
"This has been a tough time," says Sandi Christman, who chaired a committee that got the whole community involved in the selection of a new name and mascot. "It's like losing a friend."
Source
"Inappropriately-directed laughter" again
We read:"A New Zealand television station has come in for fresh criticism over its handling of breakfast host Paul Henry's Indian slurs after it continued prominently to feature a clip on its website in which he ridicules the name of Commonwealth Games troubleshooter Sheila Dikshit.
TVNZ has received at least four complaints about the clip, in which Henry deliberately mispronounces Dikshit, despite being told it is said "Dixit". He also says the name "Dick Shit" is "so appropriate" because she is Indian.
The Dikshit clip - which now appears to have been removed - was promoted on the Video Extras section of TVNZ's website under the heading "Paul Henry laughs about the name Dikshit". "The dip shit woman. God, what's her name? Dick Shit. Is it Dick Shit ... it looks like 'Dick Shit'," Henry says through bouts of laughter.
Source
8 October, 2010
Conservative views must not be expressed in front of blacks
Or so claims black businessman below who attended a presentation at the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce at which Frank Luntz spoke."Frank Luntz polarized his audience in the first 10 minutes of speaking. He ragged on (Shreveport) Mayor (Cedric) Glover, who was present; he ragged on President Obama; he ragged on Jessie Jackson; and he ragged on Nancy Pelosi. He even ragged on Democrats in the audience.He obviously has no conception of how routine it is for conservatives to be confronted with bigoted Leftist speech. But I guess that tolerance is not expected of blacks
It was clear right away that everyone in the room knew his political position. I am of the opinion that he was not in the right place to say many of the things he said.
A local pastor stood up and expressed his concern, but Mr. Luntz continued his same platform. I might as well have been at a tea party or a Republican convention. Several people, including myself, got up and walked out.
The Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce owes the African-American community an apology.
Source
MS: Judge jails attorney for not reciting government loyalty oath
Compelled speech is not free speech, compelled loyalty is no loyalty and compelled respect is no respect"A Mississippi judge ordered an attorney to spend several hours in jail Wednesday after the attorney chose not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in court.
The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported that Chancery Judge Talmadge Littlejohn told a court audience to rise and say the pledge. People in the courtroom said Danny Lampley of Oxford stood but did not say the words.”
Source
7 October, 2010
Wiretapping the Internet
We read:"Taking a cue from the authoritarian regimes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, American law-enforcement and intelligence agencies are seeking to re-engineer the Internet and other digital communications networks to make them easier to spy on.
In the week since the plan became public, it has been roundly condemned by civil liberties groups and security experts — and rightly so.”
Source
Crooked Italian/Australian politician says "Syracuse" is racist
We read:"An ICAC [corruption] inquiry heard state Labor MP D'Amore took "deep offence" at the investigation title Operation Syracuse because she felt the name was a slight on her Sicilian heritage, given it was an Italian city.She comes from Sicily and they name the probe into her doings after a Sicilian city. Seems to me that SHE is the once who has dishonoured Sicily. Anyway, the city is called "Siracusa" in Italian so the allusion is in fact to an English word.
A former staffer for D'Amore yesterday admitted to rorting [falsifying] parliament expense claims but claimed she was simply acting on instructions from her boss.
Drummoyne MP Ms D'Amore is being investigated by ICAC over allegations she signed eight false expense claims for the financial benefit of her staff between August 2006 and June 2007.
Ms D'Amore, who will give evidence this week, has denied deliberate wrongdoing.
Source
6 October, 2010
Ed Schultz: Hate Speech to Call Me Fat, but OK to call NJ governor a racist
We read:"Liberal radio host and aspiring MSNBC flamethrower Ed Schultz remains unrivalled as a bottomless pit of buffoonery.SCHULTZ: By the way, I do want to mention the fact that I've gotten a lot of emails from Beck's fans, I guess, and they always like to say I'm fat, hey you fat. I just want you to know that I was fat right after college, I've been fat for a long time, I was fat yesterday, I'm fat today, I'm going to be fat tomorrow. Why? Because I like to eat stuff. I'm kind of a normal American and I get passionate about issues when I see jobs that are being shipped out overseas. You Beck supporters that have been leaving me hate voicemails and hate emails, bring it on baby, just bring it on.As Schultz continued talking about Christie yesterday, it became clear the hinges were loosening:Equal opportunity is a commitment that this country made decades and centuries ago. Equal opportunity, hell, under Chris Christie, women probably wouldn't even be voting if he had his way! Under Chris Christie, we'd probably have people still in the back of the bus.Source
Dutch politician's hate speech trial suspended after he attacks biased judge
We read:"Geert Wilders, the anti-Islam politician, told a Dutch court that he stood by his opinions that the Koran is a "fascist book" and Islam is as dangerous as Nazism, as he went on trial for inciting racial hatred.
Last year, the Dutch Court of Appeal ruled that, despite the case being dropped by prosecutors, that it considered "criminal prosecution obvious for the insult of Islamic worshippers" being compared to Nazis.
However, proceedings were suspended for 24 hours, after Mr Wilders demanded that the court's presiding judge be replaced.
After an opening statement by Mr Wilders, Bram Moszkowicz, his lawyer told the court that the defendant would exercise his right to silence and would not answer questions during the trial.
Jan Moors, the presiding judge then noted that Mr Wilders has been accused of being "good in taking a stand and then avoiding a discussion" of the issue. "By remaining silent, it seems you're doing that today as well," he said.
Attacking "scandalous" remarks, Mr Wilders and his lawyers asked for the court to be dissolved. "With this presiding judge and such a panel of judges, a fair trial isn't possible anymore," he said.
If the court rules in favour of the objections, new judges will need to be appointed, delaying proceedings.
"I am on trial, but on trial with me is the freedom of expression of many Dutch citizens," he said.
Source
5 October, 2010
Must not mention that Jews dominate the entertainment industry?
Bob Parks below can see no problem mentioning it and nor can I. CNN talking head Rick Sanchez said that Jews dominate the industry -- and got fired for it"Let me preface this by saying no tears are being shed here for Rick Sanchez. If CNN canned him for bigoted remarks, if anything they were years late on this one.
But let Rick Sanchez speak ill of a Northeast liberal elite or imply that Jews run CNN (or the entertainment business in general) and that’s an instantly terminable offense.
And I’ve always wondered why people get so bent out of shape over the possibility that Jews run Hollywood; a notion that numbers seem to support.
Unless Jews are hired into the business based primarily on their ethnicity and not relevant prior experience (and there’s no proof of this), I don’t see why people are canned for making an observation that any other group would be proud of?
Source
Silvio is having "incorrect" fun again
We read:"Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi provoked outrage after an ill-judged joke about Jews and the Holocaust, drawing criticism from the Vatican.Getting Italians to be politically correct is an uphill battle -- much to their credit in my opinion.
Mr Berlusconi, 74, who is known for his slapstick sense of humour told the blasphemous joke while speaking to emergency workers dealing with the aftermath of last year's earthquake in central Italy.
He made the joke hours after winning last week's crucial vote of confidence. The Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano described the jokes as "deplorable" adding they "offended the sentiment of believers and the sacred memory of six million Holocaust victims".
Mr Berlusconi had told supporters outside his home: "A Jew hides a fellow Jew in his basement at the time of the concentration camps and charges him 3,000 euro a day". He went on: "The Jew paid up because he had the money but do you think he should tell him that Hitler has died and the war is over?"
Mr Berlusconi was unrepentant yesterday and said the jokes were "just a laugh" that were "made in private, not offensive and not a sin."
Source
4 October, 2010
Britain's so-called conservatives to enact PC equality law which means ANYONE can sue for ANYTHING that offends them
Thank goodness I don't live in Britain. With my Australian bluntness, I would be in trouble in no time"Ministers yesterday announced that the vast bulk of Labour’s controversial Equality Act would be implemented immediately, despite concerns about its impact on business and office life.
The legislation, championed by Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman, introduces a bewildering range of rights which allow staff to sue for almost any perceived offence they receive in the workplace.
It creates the controversial legal concept of ‘third party harassment’, under which workers will be able to sue over jokes and banter they find offensive – even if the comments are aimed at someone else and they weren’t there at the time the comments were made.
They can sue if they feel the comments ‘violate their dignity’ or create an ‘intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment’.
A one-off incident is enough to sue – there is no need for the ‘victim’ to have warned the perpetrator that their comments are unwelcome. They could even have a case against their employer if a customer or contractor says something they find offensive.
Source
No sausage jokes!
Britain:"Strictly Come Dancing was hit by a string of viewers’ complaints following a quip directed at judge Craig Revel Horwood by contestant Paul Daniels.
Dozens of viewers contacted the BBC to protest after Daniels, 72, told Revel Horwood not to give up ‘his day job tasting sausages’ on the first show of the new series.
The Australian-born judge, 45, has openly talked about his homosexuality in the past and his life with partner Grant MacPherson.
Many viewers assumed Daniels was taunting him about his sexuality and vented their fury on a BBC website and on Twitter.
But it appeared last night that Daniels was actually referring to Revel Horwood’s upcoming role promoting British Sausage Week, which is launched on November 1.
Daniels, himself a former frontman of Sausage Week, wrote: ‘Media this morn trying to make me homophobic. Crazy. Why do journos and editors want to live in a nasty world of their own creation.’
Source
3 October, 2010
Pregame Prayers at Pee Wee Football Games Are Out of Bounds, Florida father Says
We read:"Football and prayer don't belong in the same backfield, says a Florida dad who wants his hometown to stop a Pee Wee football league from having kids perform voluntary pregame prayers.The league could well decide that it doesn't want his kid -- and then there would be no-one to be offended by the prayers. The father is just using his kid as a tool, which is pretty low.
Louie Fromm, an assistant coach for the Holmes County Pee Wee Football Association, formally requested on Monday that the Vernon, Fla., City Council end the league's traditional 50-yard-line pregame prayer ritual, alleging that his and his son's First Amendment rights are being violated.
League officials say they are a private organization that takes no government money, and the city has no right to prevent them from saying prayers on the field before games. But Fromm says the league may be private, but the field on which it plays its games isn't. It's public property, Fromm says, and the city must order the pregame prayers to stop.
Source
Anti-Semitic Imagery Used in musician's Tour
For once I think I agree with Foxy: The guy is a contemptible Leftist bigot but he is entitled to express his opinion"The Anti-Defamation League is criticizing what it says is the dark side of Pink Floyd legend Roger Waters, claiming imagery the British rock icon used in his latest tour is anti-Semitic.
Waters, a longtime vocal critic of Israel, takes aim at the Jewish nation's West Bank security fence during a segment of his 2010-2011 "The Wall Live" tour by using imagery associated with stereotypes about Jews and money, ADL officials say.
During Waters' recent performances of "Goodbye Blue Sky," an animated scene has projected images of planes dropping bombs in the shape of Jewish stars of David, followed by dollar signs -- an "outrageous" juxtaposition, according to Abraham Foxman, ADL's national director.
"While he insists that his intent was to criticize Israel's West Bank security fence, the use of such imagery in a concert setting seems to leave the message open to interpretation, and the meaning could easily be misunderstood as a comment about Jews and money," Foxman said in a statement.
"Of course Waters has every right to express his political views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through his music and stagecraft," Foxman's statement continued. "However, the images he has chosen, when put together in the same sequence, cross a line into anti-Semitism."
Source
2 October, 2010
Democrat Senator wants to use IRS to shut down speech
Although U.S. tax law discriminates against various groups (such as churches) by limiting what they can say, that would seem to run counter to the 1st Amendment. So the Democrats might get a nasty surprise if they push the matter so hard that it ends up in SCOTUS"Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus sent a serious shot across the bows of the growing ranks of groups, most of them on the right, playing aggressively in elections under non-profit 501(c)4 and (c)6 status, with a letter asking that the IRS commissioner examine them for violations of tax law.The Left NEED censorship and control of information. Reality is too pesky for them.
A central, and endlessly complicated, legal question is whether an organization's "primary purpose" is politics, and many find ways to spend 51% of their money, for instance, on policy campaigns. Different lawyers have offered different advice to groups on where, exactly, the line is -- but many, like Crossroads GPS and Americans for Job Security, are operating under different versions of the non-profit status to both advertise in elections and keep their donors secret.
The IRS should examine whether the groups' "political activities reach a primary purpose level" and "whether they are acting as conduits for major donors advancing their own private interests regarding legislation or political campaigns, or are providing major donors with excess benefits."
Source
Hollywood wants to censor the Internet, and Congress is on board
The following is from the Left-leaning "Salon" but it seems to have some substance to it"A key U.S. Senate committee will almost certainly vote this week to censor the Internet. A fast-track bill designed to whack copyright infringement is vastly more than that, and if it’s passed and signed into law it will put America into a league with China and Saudi Arabia, among others, as a nation that makes sure most of its citizens won’t find information that a tiny, elite group deems improper for their eyes. Who’s behind it? I hardly have to tell you that Hollywood and the rest of the copyright cartel have persuaded their acolytes in Congress that it’s time to clamp down, and hard.”
Source
1 October, 2010
Italian tourism minister doesn't get the joke
We read:"Italy's tourism minister has demanded that Apple remove the "offensive" What Country app from its online store after the travel guide described the Italy as the home of "pizza, the Mafia and scooters".
The application, which can be downloaded to iPhones, iPads and iPods, characterises each nation with words and images; Italy is summed up with a road sign which reads "Mafia parking only".
The tourism minister, Michela Vittoria Brambilla, condemned the app as an affront to Italians' dignity, describing it as "offensive and unacceptable". She instructed government lawyers to take legal action against Apple and demanded that the application be removed from its iTunes online store.
"Italy is a beacon in the world for its history, culture and style. I cannot allow our country to be discredited by having it represented by a criminal organisation," the minister said.
Source
Another incorrect sportsman
An Australian footballer this time:"The NRL has reopened its racial vilification case against St George Illawarra's Dean Young.Sportspeople live their sport -- with little time for politics and social sensitivities
The Daily Telegraph can reveal that the NRL wrote to St George Illawarra and Wests Tigers yesterday seeking additional information about Young allegedly calling Robbie Farah a "f ... ing wog" during their preliminary final clash last weekend.
The NRL match review committee could not obtain sufficient evidence to charge Young but NRL management yesterday moved to further investigate the claim.
If the NRL finds evidence of vilification, it is likely Young would be fined, not suspended.
"The first port of call for on-field matters is the match review committee however in incidents of this nature, there is also the potential for code of conduct implications," NRL chief operating officer Graham Annesley said.
"We have written to both clubs requesting their version of events before we decide whether any action is required."
Farah has said he would not pursue the matter.
Source
Posts from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).
"HATE SPEECH" is free speech: The U.S. Supreme Court stated the general rule regarding protected speech in Texas v. Johnson (109 S.Ct. at 2544), when it held: "The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." Federal courts have consistently followed this. Said Virginia federal district judge Claude Hilton: "The First Amendment does not recognize exceptions for bigotry, racism, and religious intolerance or ideas or matters some may deem trivial, vulgar or profane."
Even some advocacy of violence is protected by the 1st Amendment. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that speech advocating violent illegal actions to bring about social change is protected by the First Amendment "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."
The traditional advice about derogatory speech: "Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you". Apparently people today are not as emotionally robust as their ancestors were.
A phobia is an irrational fear, so the terms "Islamophobic" and "homophobic" embody a claim that the people so described are mentally ill. There is no evidence for either claim. Both terms are simply abuse masquerading as diagnoses and suggest that the person using them is engaged in propaganda rather than in any form of rational or objective discourse.
Leftists often pretend that any mention of race is "racist" -- unless they mention it, of course. But leaving such irrational propaganda aside, which statements really are racist? Can statements of fact about race be "racist"? Such statements are simply either true or false. The most sweeping possible definition of racism is that a racist statement is a statement that includes a negative value judgment of some race. Absent that, a statement is not racist, for all that Leftists might howl that it is. Facts cannot be racist so nor is the simple statement of them racist. Here is a statement that cannot therefore be racist by itself, though it could be false: "Blacks are on average much less intelligent than whites". If it is false and someone utters it, he could simply be mistaken or misinformed.
Whatever your definition of racism, however, a statement that simply mentions race is not thereby racist -- though one would think otherwise from American Presidential election campaigns. Is a statement that mentions dogs, "doggist" or a statement that mentions cats, "cattist"?
Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? "You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated." -- Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862
The spirit of liberty is "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." and "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." -- Judge Learned Hand
Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)
First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean
It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.
It seems a pity that the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus is now little known. Remember, wrote the Stoic thinker, "that foul words or blows in themselves are no outrage, but your judgment that they are so. So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you. Wherefore make it your endeavour not to let your impressions carry you away."
"Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason?" -- English poet John Milton (1608-1674) in Areopagitica
Hate speech is verbal communication that induces anger due to the listener's inability to offer an intelligent response
Leftists can try to get you fired from your job over something that you said and that's not an attack on free speech. But if you just criticize something that they say, then that IS an attack on free speech
"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper
Why are Leftists always talking about hate? Because it fills their own hearts
Leftists don't have principles. How can they when "there is no such thing as right and wrong"? All they have is postures, pretend-principles that can be changed as easily as one changes one's shirt
When you have an argument with a Leftist, you are not really discussing the facts. You are threatening his self esteem. Which is why the normal Leftist response to challenge is mere abuse.
The naive scholar who searches for a consistent Leftist program will not find it. What there is consists only in the negation of the present.
The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) could have been speaking of much that goes on today when he said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."