Posted on 12/03/2003 8:34:15 PM PST by Mudcat
Whatever happened to The Flummery Digest, that monthly update on politically correct goofiness? I noticed today that it hasn't been updated since June 2003.
Some of my favorite past flummeries:
March 2003: A nursery school teacher in Yorkshire, England, banned her students from singing ``Three Little Pigs'' out of a concern that it might offend Muslims. Local Muslims responded that while the Koran clearly prohibits them from eating a pig's meat, they have no problem reading or talking about them. Indeed, the Koran itself mentions pigs, and Muslims are often obliged to read and recite the Koran.
And, following criticism over its decision to serve pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, one London school district removed hot cross buns from menus this Easter season because of the characteristic white cross on top. While the change was enacted to avoid offending Muslims, among others, one Muslim group calls the decision ``very, very bizarre.'' ``I wish they would leave us alone,'' said a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain. ``We are quite capable of articulating our own concerns and if we find something offensive, we will say so. We do not need to rely on other people to do it for us.''
May 2001: In a Senate floor speech on March 1, 2001, Senator Hillary Clinton (D, NY) declared: ``No one should have to leave their hometown, their families, and their roots to find a good job in America.''
August 1998: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke before the National Bar Association, the nation's largest group of black lawyers, despite their often passionate loathing of him. Among other things, members criticized Thomas as hypocritical for opposing affirmative action even though, they said, he had benefitted from the policy in the past and had only been selected to the high court because of his race.
January 1992: A California judge ruled that bouncers at a nightclub committed civil-rights violations when they decided who would be permitted to enter the club on the basis of whether prospective patrons were properly dressed. The judge said such practices are ``blatant discriminatory behavior.''
(Excerpt) Read more at praxagora.com ...
May 1997: A New York Times news article covering a statement made by presidents of 62 universities in favor of "diversity" and defending affirmative action programs featured an unusual headline: "62 Top Colleges Endorse Bias in Admissions." But the next morning's edition featured an editor's note which called the headline "an editing error." According to the correction, " 'Bias,' as a term for affirmative action, was neither impartial nor accurate. It should not have appeared." The preferred way to describe what the university presidents endorsed would have been: "the right of colleges to use affirmative action in their admissions procedures to achieve diversity," a phrase that probably would not have fit neatly within the column.
A New York Times story reporting on a plagiarism case at Boston University---a dean was caught lifting entire passages for a speech from an article---turned out to be plagiarized, in part, from a story that had already appeared in The Boston Globe. The subject of the dean's speech, by the way, was journalistic incompetency.
FYI: I’m reintroducing the Flummery DIgest in blog form @ flum.blogspot.com
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.