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TONGUE TIED 2 ARCHIVE
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"
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21 November, 2007
"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."Cringing before Muslims again, I guess.
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
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.I guess the British police will now have to stick to executing innocent Brazilian electricians and prosecuting people who defend themselves against home-invaders.
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
20 November, 2007
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.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!
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
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.I wonder if makers of Kiwi shoe polish have the permission of all New Zealanders to use their national symbol as a brand-name.
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
19 November, 2007
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....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.
"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
18 November, 2007
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.It's satire, of course. Not far from reality, though.
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
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:The judge was let off with a reprimand.
- 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
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
17 November, 2007
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.Jihadi propaganda like this is OK, of course.
"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
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
16 November, 2007
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.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.
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
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."Sounds like a reasonable comment to me.
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
15 November, 2007
Public Prayer Attacked
We read:
"As Georgia descends deeper into drought, Governor Sonny Perdue has ordered water restrictions and asked President Bush for help.More details here. Note that prayer seemed to work on a previous occasion!
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
Colorado: 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.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 ....
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
14 November, 2007
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."But on the other hand we read:
"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.""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.You could have fooled me! Maybe Google Israel does not know what they do in Google California!
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
I think I get it, though. He is saying that Google only censors anti-Muslim speech. Jews can go jump.
13 November, 2007
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....Fuller details here. Considering what the Bible says about homosexuals (e.g. Leviticus 20:13), will possessing a Bible be wrong soon?
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
12 November, 2007
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.Another attempt to shield kids from life.
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
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.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!
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
11 November, 2007
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.I guess I shouldn't be laughing!
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
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.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.
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
10 November, 2007
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
9 November, 2007
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.Imus would have been PERMANENTLY out if he had been a conservative.
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
8 November, 2007
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....Crime committed by "minorities" should just be overlooked, I guess.
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
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.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.
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
7 November, 2007
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
6 November, 2007
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.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.
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
5 November, 2007
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.Women who really are silenced -- many Muslim women worldwide -- are of course no concern of this shrill egotist.
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
4 November, 2007
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.Is there any such thing as a private conversation these days? Where are all the privacy protections that Leftists are so keen on?
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
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.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.
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
3 November, 2007
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.
2 November, 2007
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.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."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
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
1 November, 2007
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