| "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..." |
| "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..." |
Unthinking victimhood in Ann Arbor:
Kristoff Wennersten figured his prom proposal had to be one-of-a-kind if it would have any chance of being accepted.
But the Huron High School senior never imagined it would result in a suspension for himself and 12 of his varsity lacrosse teammates, whom he recruited to help spell out the message at a school soccer match via their derrieres.
The players displayed the question, "Will You Go To The Prom With Me? Yes or No?" on their posteriors while mooning Huron senior Carolyn Campbell at a game.
All 13 players were suspended for a undetermined number of games and ordered to complete 20 hours of community service.
Okay, so the lacrosse team mooned a girl, and got suspensions for it. Do they need strong justice in this case? Well, only because they mooned a girl, according to their athletic director:
"Inappropriate is inappropriate," Huron athletic director Dottie Davis said Monday after meeting with lacrosse varsity players and their parents. "It disrespects women, and that's the clear message we need to have the students understand - what may be fun to them isn't necessarily fun to everyone else." [emphasis added]
Except that the "woman" in question clearly wasn't offended or disrespected, as she herself indicates in the next paragraph:
Campbell, who accepted the prom invitation by patting the lower back of the player displaying the word 'Yes,' described Wennersten's method as "cute" and said she wasn't upset by the manner in which she was asked.
If the situation were turned around, and it were the girls' lacrosse team mooning a guy, I suspect Dottie Davis would still find a way to blame the male-dominance franchise for it.
Here's a comment about the Jyllands-Posten Cartoons of Blasphemy, the Dirty Dozen:
NO MATTER WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT ISLAM OR OUR RESPETFUL PROPHET MOHAMMED ,No one have the right or the freedom to publish this kind of photos and images,i never hear or saw any similar images about any messanger of god ,i hope and am sure that all of the people who was involved in this will surly burn in hill in their life and after.you western people dont know any thing about us and about our religion ,you read and serfe the net to get enough information about islam and our prophet and am sure you will condemd these kind of irrigant and shameful action against islam.
It doesn't occur to his mighty mind that I have gotten information about Islam, enough to see how hateful, misanthropic, misogynistic, lying, hypocritical, murderous, tribal, xenophobic, deluded, violent, and ultimately anti-life it is. "Radical Islam" is redundant, and "moderate Muslim" would be self-contradictory if every Muslim submitted to all the precepts of Big Mo (Propeller Beanie Upon Him).
Furthermore, the esteemed commenter is ignorant of the ancient graffito showing Issa al-Masseh (Jesus Christ) with a donkey's head. Did the first-century Christians riot? Did they threaten murder? Did they threaten beheading? Does the scholar who graces me with his words of wisdom consider al-Masseh to be a "prophet"? If four months isn't too late for a riot over a cartoon, why not 1,900 years?
The truth of Islam is becoming more apparent every day, to people who
To "abu saif": Don't think your insults and threats will get me to remove the cartoons and my support of them. If anything, your behavior only shows how much we need to expose your true nature.
ROPMA
Was this racist? Robbery Suspect Charged With Murder After Alleged Accomplices Killed by Homeowner
Well, yeah. Not on the part of the homeowner, but rather on the home invaders. Did they allow any non-blacks to join in their little invasion? Conversely, were only non-blacks the target of their hostilities?
The primary racism in this case, and the hateful racism that precipitated the deaths of two young men, is on the part of the perpetrators.
I knew there had to be a hole in this case big enough to fit my car: Airport battles some Muslim cabbies
MINNEAPOLIS - Officials at Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport are proposing stiffer penalties — including suspension of an airport taxi license — to Muslim cab drivers who refuse service to passengers toting alcohol or service dogs...
Airports Commissioner Bert McKasy said the issue raised by Muslim cab drivers who say that carrying alcohol or dogs, including those that help people with disabilities, violates religious beliefs is "unfortunate."
If mere proximity to dogs is a sin in Islam, someone needs to tell some Middle Eastern nomads about this. The PBS show Nature showed a nomad with a dog on a leash in this week's episode Dogs That Changed the World: The Rise of the Dog. The clip was about 5 seconds long, roughly 20 minutes into the program.
(Update 29-Apr: The breed in question is the saluki, a sight hound, the ancestor of the modern greyhound and whippet. Part 2 of the program, Dogs that Changed the World: Dogs by Design had an extended segment on the saluki starting about 7 minutes into the program.)
I doubt the Muslim Brotherhood (or their mouthpieces, the Muslim American Society) care about the obvious truth. Using taqiyya (lying to the infidel) as their justification, they will make any claim they want about their religious beliefs, saying they are "oppressed" because we don't tolerate their intolerant ways. To them, it's irrelevant that their Muslim brothers in the Middle East have no problem keeping dogs around.
Fortunately, reasonable minds have prevailed for the time being, so the nomads will be allowed to use the taxis at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
5 awards, including the Best Record, Best Album (what's the difference?), and Best Song. The Grammys either have forgotten or just don't care.
Here are two quotes from NOW's homepage, copied as I type this:
Decades from now, when this country finally catches up with the rest of the developed world with regard to women's rights, we will look back on the Bush presidency as a temporary detour from our long history of building democracy one right and one freedom at a time.
New faces, new leadership, and renewed hope for equality, fairness, peace and prosperity are on the horizon, and NOW has our "to do" list ready.
In fact, these two quotes come as excerpts from the top two links in their "current articles" list. But with regard to today's horrible news from Jordan:
AMMAN, Jordan - A Jordanian man fatally shot his 17-year-old daughter whom he suspected of having sex despite a medical exam that proved her chastity, an official said Thursday. The man surrendered to police hours after the killing, saying he had done it for family honor....
The father shot the girl four times in the head on Tuesday. On Wednesday, an autopsy was performed that again showed "she was still a virgin," the pathologist said.
Where is NOW's strongly-worded condemnation of such misogyny? Why are they taking so long? What are they afraid of?
Somehow, "all of the above" doesn't feel like the right answer here. In fact, none of them carries the right weight, because
Human rights mean nothing to them, except for the defeat of capitalism and conservatism in general, and the Representative Republic established by the Constitution in particular. NOW doesn't care about elevating women's status and rights. Their philosophical ties to Communism just means they want to make everyone equal, even if it means equal in misery.
I will place no pink ribbon, pink logo, ping slogan, or any other pink on this website, even if October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I will do no such thing until there is an equal media blitz for Lung Cancer Awareness Month.
According to the American Cancer Society's own statistics, breast cancer is expected to claim over 40,000 women's lives in 2006, while lung cancer will take over 72,000 women's lives, making it almost twice as deadly as breast cancer for women.
I'll be blunt: If the Politically Correct crowd were truly worried about women's health, they would have a much stronger sense of proportion. As it is, their fixation on women's breasts undercuts their stated mission.
"Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam."--Rosie O'Donnell, The View, 12-Sep-2006
What further proof do we need that Hollywood has fallen for a lie?
When the self-proclaimed "prophet" Pat Robertson tried to scare us with his Armageddon warnings, his already bleak credibility went down the drain. The rest of Christianity quickly put a distance between itself and such un-Biblical speculations.
In our society at large, murderers who declare their acts to be for "Christian" causes (e.g. James Kopp, Paul Hill, and Michael Griffin) are still prosecuted and punished for their crimes. They are not celebrated.
Islam celebrates its murderers. "Palestinian" children are indoctrinated from a very early age to be suicide bombers. Under shari'a law, the testimony of one man is enough to convict a woman of adultery, but at the same time, a young unmarried woman is not allowed to refuse a man's advances. This catch-22 results in the execution of many women every year, by stoning or strangulation hanging. Germany, Sweden, England, France, and Italy have all seen so-called "honor killings" of women who find their own boyfriends, rather than marry someone chosen by their fathers (usually first cousins).
Rosie herself is a perfect counter-example to her rant. In the USA, led by the "dangerous radical Christian" George W. Bush, Rosie O'Donnell has a seat on a daily TV show. In Afghanistan, under the Taliban, she would be stoned in public for sexual profligacy with a woman.
Her reckless attitude toward the truth is nothing but a dhimmi tool for Jihadists. Most people will simply change the channel. I choose to answer her lunacy, not ignore it. And it looks like I'm in good company.
"His interactions with customers seemed somewhat capricious" may describe the Soup Nazi, but it doesn't really touch the mass media's treatment of Christians and Muslims. The Muslims can expect the Politically Correct speech police to protect them from any potential offense, including factual criticism, but for the Christian George W. Bush, who was just "assassinated" in Death of a President, they have just four words:
"No empathy for you!"
It's not capricious; it's totally predictable. Thankfully, not everybody in Hollywood is saying this.
Bill Clinton still thinks he's the President, John Edwards won't admit he lost, and the Ohio socialists are happy to support these two men in their delusions.
Here are my random thoughts on the matter.
"A living wage," "economic justice," "a just economy," or any number of names, all boil down to one short-sighted purpose: forcible confiscation of the fruits of one person's hard work, in order to give it, unearned, to someone else.
Raising the minimum wage explicitly devalues the dollar. Therefore, Clinton, Edwards, and the AFL-CIO have no faith in US currency, but they are trying to dictate fiscal policy to the Ohio legislature.
One of the captions says, "John Edwards, former 2004 vice presidential candidate". It should say, "John Edwards, the losing 2004 vice presidential candidate." It isn't like he withdrew from the race.
When almost everyone makes $20/hr, then those making $19/hr won't be able to afford gasoline.
Governor Taft is such a left-leaning Republican, he probably won't have the balls to tell Clinton and Edwards where to stick it. Never mind that neither Clinton nor Edwards hold any elected or appointed position in Ohio's jurisdiction.
Did any of the ACORN whiners tip the workers at the Wexner Center? If ACORN is so worried about people's income, what is stopping them from having an immediate and measurable effect? I bet "let it begin with me" never crossed their minds.
How many full-time, non-tipped employees in Ohio actually make minimum wage? On a percentage basis, how does that compare to those making minimum wage in 1990, when the current $4.25/hr was instituted?
"When you find yourself in one, stop digging." The Dixie Chicks, and especially Natalie Maines, haven't yet figured that out.
They dine in fine international establishments. They question "the necessity for patriotism." They accuse people of trying to squelch their free speech. In other words, they are disconnected from their target audience, country/western music fans.
In fact, they've had to cancel several concerts. To make up the loss, they're taking their act to Canada, where US-bashing and Bush-bashing are "socially acceptable." (Never mind that it flies in the face of Canadian "hate speech" laws.)
Then there's this tidbit of whining:
"The reaction was as if Natalie had said 'Death to the President' or something," says violinist and vocalist [Martie] Maguire.
What stupid moral equivalence. If Natalie Maines had said "Death to the President," she'd be arrested by the Secret Service and charged with sedition and threatening the life of the President. But she did not say that. In fact, President Bush affirmed her right to Free Speech, just days after her rant!
If this was a "scrap" between the Dixie Chicks and George W. Bush, it was very one-sided. The Dixie Chicks earn their "Professional Victims" tag here, by trying to play the victims when there was no "oppression."
The timing couldn't have been better. A suicide attempt prison riot at Gitmo, on the same day the United Nations chided the U.S. for their "maltreatment" of the prisoners.
I'll say it again: The next time some arrogant "human rights" asses (especially from the U.N. or Amnesty International) shows up at Gitmo, arrest them for espionage. Let them get a first-hand experience of life with Taliban supporters. Then, six months later, if they're found "not guilty" in a military tribunal, put them on a plane to Denmark. Before they leave the runway, make sure they understand that there won't be a trial the next time they show up at Gitmo.
(H/T: Michelle Malkin.)
Making English the national language isn't racist, except to those for whom everything is racist.
Poor Oliver Stone. He hates it when someone takes him to task for daring to speak out. Don't they know who he is?!?
The article title OLIVER STONE: 'MEDIA SLANDERS POLITICALLY-MINDED STARS' isn't exactly fair. If he said that, it appears nowhere in the article. Contactmusic.com didn't provide a source reference for the comments. That said, the quotes are just perfect for a mini-Fisking!
"We're Hollywood wackos and all that stuff, left-wing... (It's) an easy and facile dismissal."
(I'd say JFK and Nixon make such a dismissal easier and more facile than usual.)
"I'm still a citizen,"
(True.)
"I've served my country as a veteran,"
(And I am grateful that you defended my right to agree with you or criticize you. Oh, hey, you defended every citizen's right to do that!)
"I've had many jobs before the film business."
(And you grew up as a child of privilege. You still don't seem to understand the effects of current events on ordinary people's lives.)
"I know something of life, having lived to this age."
(You're older, therefore your opinion is more worthy of consideration than that of my parents? Somehow, the "logic" there escapes me.)
"We have a right to speak and every time we speak: 'You're an actor, a showbusiness director,' we're making it up!"
(Because people in "fly-over country" have a perception of you as someone with no respect for, or even understanding of, the choices they make. Face it, your customers don't think highly of your ivory-tower advice.)
"This is not a way of dealing with people. This is slander."
WHOA! Stop the Fisking right there! This deserves a close examination.
Slander is an accusation, usually false, designed to cast aspersions on someone's character. The accusation may be of a crime, or may be simply of low morals or sleazy conduct. With this statement, Stone does two things:
I hereby nominate Oliver Stone for a Chef Award. He obviously can't take the heat he dishes out.
(H/T: Drudge.)
"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; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
How often is this quoted as the basis of the "separation of Church and State"? This "separation" is bogus, as it merely prohibits the government from favoring one religion over another. A de jure "separation" would nullify the Declaration of Independence and all fifty state constitutions. Liberals and Communist sympathizers don't mind using it to browbeat everyone from George W. Bush to the volunteers at the 7th Street Mission.
The Left's insistence that government have nothing to do with religion simply magnifies the stunning hypocrisy of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors:
More than 25,000 evangelical Christian youth landed Friday in San Francisco for a two-day rally at AT&T Park against "the virtue terrorism" of popular culture, and they were greeted by an official city condemnation and a clutch of protesters who said their event amounted to a "fascist mega-pep rally."
Gotta remember that Hitler comparison!
It gets even stupider:
Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco ... told counterprotesters at City Hall on Friday that while such fundamentalists may be small in number, "they're loud, they're obnoxious, they're disgusting, and they should get out of San Francisco."
What is Mark Leno opposing? Wise choices? Self-respect? How about the First Amendment's guarantees about religion, speech, and assembly? It appears he wants these freedoms only for those dour (!) types who agree with him.
He wants to shut down everyone else, especially joyful Christians like this:
"I'm not here to hate anybody," Scott Thompson said. "This isn't about Bush or gays or anything other than being here to worship together."
That's not how some liberal leaders saw it.
Doesn't that say it all? These self-proclaimed "liberals" aren't liberal. They talk about "Liberty!" while they violate the First Amendment with their illegal "condemnation" of a Christian assembly.
At least they aren't cracking skulls open. Yet.
(H/T: Drudge!)
Coalition forces RESCUED three surviving hostages in Iraq today. It was an act undertaken by soldiers.
The hostages weren't "released." That would have been the choice of the captors, a choice they obviously never made. Shame on the Christian Peacemaker Teams for giving the kidnappers the credit properly due the Coalition soldiers.
Some UN hotshot named Doudou Diéne thinks we're fools. Why else would he make the claim that Danes are Islamophobic racists, and expect us to believe him?
Memo to Doudou: Islam is not a race or any kind of ethnicity. Those who oppose it are not racists. Islam prides itself on including all ethnic backgrounds. You are a fool and a tool to assert racial protections for Islam, especially when the "respect" demanded is not reciprocated.
(H/T: Agora, via Pajamas Media.)
Update 1:27am EST: The cartoons that the UN and the Fool Doudou want to censor.
A blatantly biased AP headline: Mo. Drama Teacher Resigns in Play Flap. The "flap" resulted when teacher Wendy DeVore decided to say "screw you" to the people providing her paycheck: the parents of her students. It's time for a Fisking! (Typical disclaimers apply.)
A central Missouri high school drama teacher whose spring play was canceled after complaints about tawdry content in one of her previous productions will resign rather than face a possible firing. (Like Frank Sinatra, she did it her way.)
"It became too much to not be able to speak my mind or defend my students without fear or retribution," said Fulton High School teacher Wendy DeVore.
(Stop right there. "Defend my students"? That's their parents' job; DeVore's job is to teach them.)
DeVore's students were to perform Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," a drama set during the 17th Century Salem witch trials.
(I hear the irony dripping onto the keyboard. A play about the evils of religious fundamentalism, thwarted by religious fundamentalism. Why should the AP and Alan Scher Zagier care how shaky the "historical" basis is? It would only weaken their disparaging agenda about Christians.)
But after a handful (a vague, unverifiable quantity) of Callaway Christian Church members complained about scenes in the fall musical "Grease" that showed teens smoking, drinking and kissing, Superintendent Mark Enderle told DeVore to find a more family-friendly substitute.
DeVore chose Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," a classic romantic comedy with its own dicey subject matter, including suicide, rape and losing one's virginity.
(This seems to be an intentional abiguation of "romantic." A Midsummer Night's Dream isn't so much a comedy about love, as a comedy about a bad dream. Besides, if it's such a "romantic comedy," why haven't Billy Crystal and/or Meg Ryan done it yet?)
DeVore, 31, a six-year veteran teacher, said administrators told her that her annual contract might not be renewed. (The annual contract indicates that she doesn't have tenure, which isn't surprising for someone six years in the business. Now she has to start from scratch somewhere else. Still, she did it her way!)
"Maybe I need to find a school that's a better match," she said. (I hear California is looking for some "enlightened" teachers.)
Both Enderle and the high school principal declined to discuss DeVore's resignation, citing privacy concerns. The resignation must still be approved by the school board.
Publicity over the drama debate, including a front-page story in The New York Times, has cast an unflattering light on Fulton as an intolerant small town, several of DeVore's colleagues said.
(Welcome to the club, Fulton! Don't worry about it; the rest of us with brains see the truth: You are guarding your children against a rogue adult who wants to undermine your authority.)
"We have become a laughingstock," teacher Paula Fessler told The Fulton Sun.
(Oh, boo hoo, you arrogant twit! With that attitude, it's no wonder you aren't working in the private sector. No supervisor worth her paycheck would keep you around.)
When Pat Robertson said Hurricane Katrina was a punishment from God, the civilized world told him to "shut up." But when Ray Nagin says the same thing:
Mayor Ray Nagin suggested Monday that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that "God is mad at America" and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting.
"Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country," Nagin, who is black, said as he and other city leaders marked Martin Luther King Day.
Why is the ACLU so deafeningly silent? They are usually the first on the scene when a politician starts talking about God. Could it be? Of course.
Ray Nagin is black.
Oh, but Nagin still has his foot in his mouth:
"It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans—the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," the mayor said. "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."
Such bigoted comments from a white guy, especially one in political office, would immediately draw the ire of the NAACP, and Ray Nagin would be the first to make an asinine comment about "herding all the blacks into the ghettos, just like the Jews under Hitler." But when Ray Nagin himself declares skin color to be a criterion for living in New Orleans, where is the NAACP?
As of this writing, they haven't said a word .
How shameful, on today of all days, when we remember a man who had a dream of a nation where character was more important than skin color. President Bush is right, there's still a long way to go to realize that dream. The tacit approval of the ACLU and the NAACP is doing nothing to help.
Nathan Newman (via Pajamas Media) equates anti-unionism with "date rape." It sounds like he takes a page from the Michael Moore School of One-sided Rhetoric.
Newman links to a report which claims "49% of employers threaten to close a worksite when workers try to form a union." Well, frankly, I don't know why they shouldn't just cut to the chase. If the shop owners don't, the union will try. They might even succeed.
Another claim: "51% of employers coerce workers into opposing unions with selective bribery or favoritism." Come again? How is favoritism coercion? Bribery? It isn't coercion until your life and health are threatened. Note: I am not saying that such threats don't happen, only that it's a straw-man argument to equate "coercion" with "bribery and favoritism."
Finally, as a really obvious example: The California Teachers' Association has made sure that California has the highest-paid public teachers, while simultaneously driving proficiency scores down, down, down. Gee, who got screwed on that one?
The date rapists are the unions: they talk you up with all kinds of false promises, then when you've lost touch with reality, they rob you of your hard-earned money to use for their selfish purposes, including hiring the lawyers to screw you again in court if you try to challenge them.
Congratulations, Mr. Newman. You're the inaugural member of the Professional Victims' Club.
Hmmm, maybe it's time for a "Professional Victims" category?
Meet Derrick Wallace. He's Black, a business owner, and the local head of the Orange County (Florida) NAACP. He also announced Tuesday that he's a Republican:
"I've thought about this for two years," Wallace said Tuesday afternoon, just a few hours after returning from the elections office. "This is not a decision I made yesterday."
It is, however, a decision that rang out like a shot among political circles.
Republican Party leader Lew Oliver described himself as "extraordinarily pleased," while Democratic leader Tim Shea said he was disappointed.
How did local Democrats react? With their usual race-baiting:
Shea responded: "I'm a little confused. Are we talking about the National Association for the Advancement of Construction Professionals -- or Colored People?"
I guess in Shea's eyes, a person's skin color is supposed to determine behavior. In that case, I will guess that Shea is Caucasian, since he wants to keep Wallace on the Democrat "plantation."
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