Free Republic

So, is there anyone left who still doesn’t recognize the absurd upside-down priorities of government driven by political correctness and environmental extremism? If so, get a gander at this news out of San Franciso (where else?): (CNSNews.com) – The government spent at least $205,075 in 2010 to ‘translocate’ a single bush in San Francisco that stood in the path of a$1.045-billion highway-renovation project that was partially funded by the economic stimulus legislation President Barack Obama signed in 2009. Yeah, a couple hundred grand of your tax money to move a bush. “Why?” you might ask. . .

Recently, the New York City public school system put out guidelines to providers of test materials to the district. The guidelines included a list of naughty words that should not be included in the materials, so as not to stress out, offend, or cause boo-boos to the children of the city, who are mainly made of glass it would seem. Among the no good, very bad words were “birthday”, “dinosaur”, “Halloween”, and references to junk food, swimming pools, and computers. This, dear friends, is unarguably a good thing. Take, for example, birthdays. Did you know that some people don’t celebrate...

A male reported being robbed on the 1100 block of John Street at about 1:35 a.m. Saturday. The victim reported encountering four or five unidentified males as he rounded the corner of a building. The suspects accosted the victim and struck him before fleeing with his wallet in an unknown direction. No further descriptions of the suspects are available, and University Police could not be reached for comment.

FULLERTON, Calif. (KTLA) -- Fullerton's city council has voted to hire a police watchdog to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of mentally-ill homeless man, Kelly Thomas, after a violent confrontation with six officers. Council members voted 4-1 Tuesday night to hire Michael Gennaco, chief attorney for the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review, at upwards of $230 an hour. Gennaco said he would immediately begin his investigation into the entire department -- not just Thomas' death -- to see if there's any corruption. The decision came after a heated meeting involving enraged community members who booed, heckled and...

This week the Chicago Tribune published several news stories and related columns about assaults by groups of youths in the Streeterville area of downtown Chicago. More coverage appears Sunday. A number of readers have asked why we have not included racial descriptions of the assailants and the victims in these incidents.

In the early 1970’s the Congress passed Title IX an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which was supposed to eliminate discrimination against women at colleges and universities receiving federal money. Who could be against such a law? Nevertheless, as so many other efforts to help specific groups, Title IX’s “help” has morphed into a grotesque perversion of its intended purpose. The law of unintended consequences has joined forces with extreme political correctness to produce a monster which is devouring men’s sports teams at colleges across the country.

First of all Ron Walker is more than an acquaintance, he is my neighbor. He went to New Orleans after hurricane Katrina, as a construction worker, to help rebuild. That part is not in the book and perhaps that will be a different chapter if he decides to discuss it in a new book. I hope he does. He is what you would call an average guy demographically. Yet, he is a hero like "Joe the Plumber", a single voice that states the obvious. That is the strength of the book. Without Firing a Shot is simplistically stark: America is...

Once upon a time, superheroes were a source of comfort and escape from the difficulties and ugliness of real life. While real-life recession and terrorism aren’t likely to meet any tidy resolutions soon, we can always count on Batman to solve the Riddler’s latest puzzle just in time, or Spider-Man to save the damsel in distress (well, usually). Somewhere along the line, though, it was decided that our heroes had to grapple with real-world issues. When done sparingly and handled well, this can elevate the genre, such as Harry Osborn's battle with drugs or 2008’s brilliant The Dark Knight. But...

Just when you think the world can’t get any more crazy, it pulls over to a siding and hooks another car on the Crazy Train. This past Sunday, police in Britain actually arrested a keytarist named Simon Ledger for singing Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting�.Now, I know what you may be thinking. If you put together a list of songs that, in a perfect world, could get a person arrested, that one would be right up there, along with Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)�. Surely in such a beautiful utopia, the use of a keytar in performance of...

The 1980s song Money for Nothing by the British rock band Dire Straits has been deemed unacceptable for play on Canadian radio. In a ruling released Wednesday, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council says the song contravenes the human rights clauses of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code. A listener to radio station CHOZ-FM in St. John's complained last year that the song includes the word “faggot” in its lyrics and is discriminatory to gays.

Some ideas are so astoundingly bad that it is not only hard to take them seriously, but also to understand how they could be seriously made. Which brings us to Nicholas Kristof's recent column entitled "Primero Hay Que Aprender Espanol, Ranhou Zai Xue Zhongwen," which translates to "First, one must learn Spanish. Then Learn Chinese." ...

Political correctness - The political view that whoever is offended is always right. This of course does not apply to whites, Christians, or conservatives.

President Obama’s personal approval rating is much higher than the approval of his policies. No word from the pollsters yet how much the political correctness distorts the results. Michelle Obama (who is trying to make us stop eating cup-cakes and reduce our carbon footprint while she is burning fuel vacationing in Spain) has personal approval over 50%. Really? Do you know anybody who tells you all the time: ‘you are too fat and drive too much’? Most likely, by the time they say: ‘you are too fat’ their approval rating is down to 10%. Barack Obama will be a...

Discrimination Lawsuit Results To Shake Up Tulsa Police Special Units Posted: May 20, 2010 6:18 PM CDT Updated: May 21, 2010 By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6 TULSA, OK -- A 16-year legal battle between the Tulsa Police Department and the Black Officers Coalition ended Wednesday with some stipulations that will shake up the police department. One of those stipulations is term limits – meaning any police officer who has been in a specialty unit or a combination of units for 15 years, must leave and go back to patrol. The department doesn't know yet how many officers are...

The Obama administration, on a roll, will now ban the words Islam and jihad – words that appeared hundreds of times in the 9/11 Commission report click here for video

After a local government council voted unanimously to DISAPPROVE a zoning change request for a mosque to be located in suburban Atlanta, one of the locals was harassed and scared by a group of "Middle Eastern" men. "A Lilburn woman said her family was threatened and harassed as they traveled home from a City Council meeting about a controversial mosque. Janie Hood, whose family once farmed the area where the mosque was proposed, said “Middle Eastern” men who seemed to be associated with the congregation “boxed” her daughter’s car in as they traveled down U.S. Highway 29 on Wednesday night."

Paul Schupska knows his history. Over the years, his vast collections of baseball, World War I and II and antique toys have been displayed at community public libraries throughout the area. Whether it is a vintage GI Joe or an authentic World War II map used by Allied forces in a European bunker, Schupska prides himself on the completeness of his displays, on telling as much of a complete history as possible. When he recently showcased his World War II collection at the Pasadena Public Library on Fairmont, the Nazi insignias were part of that story. He has shown several...

One would hope that common sense would prevail in perilous times, but that's not the case since political correctness reared its ugly head. It's my belief that P.C. advocates are basically cowards who fear that those offended will resort to lawsuits or violence. What other explanation can explain how Major Nidal Malik Hasan didn't raise the "potential terrorist" antennae of the authorities at Fort Hood, the most populous U.S. military base in the world? According to statements by his colleagues, Maj. Hasan, a 39-year-old U.S. Army psychiatrist, was very vocal about his opposition to the war and his feeling that...

For many months now, many of my posts have been, admittedly, overly lamenting the on “loss” of American culture. As a member of Generation X, perhaps I have often been very overly vitriolic in my opinion that life is just not as it once was in America. I recently watched my first few episodes of the series “Mad Men” on DVD. And the experience has been enlightening on my own view of American culture and cathartic of my own personal history. I must say, I am coming to grips with my own political views. And my watching a TV show...

Halloween trends are telling. Just ask Robert Thompson, a pop-culture expert and the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. Here's an interesting trend: Halloween has fast become the second-most-decorated holiday. Jack-o-lanterns and goblins and lighted trees are all over the place now. Halloween spending has risen to nearly $5 billion annually -- not bad for a non-gift-giving, non-government-sanctioned holiday. And more adults than ever are dressing up. "The post-World War II years were the golden age of Halloween for kids," says Thompson, "a trend that continued into the 1980s. But in the...

This is the MUST SEE Video Of The Week. It explains and documents the Marxist origins of political correctness. Political correctness is used by the American left as an instrument to suppress free speech, intimidate political adversaries, brainwash the young generation and promote communism. Video at the link.

Lot’s have been said about how divided and “angry” America is these days. But has anyone really asked: why? The answer is rather simple: years of pure political cowardice in actually governing reality. There is a truth in saying that the division that now roils the nation is the by-product of that freakish time known as the 1960s. Arguably, it was during this time that the great division between competing American visions was sewn. But it is also a convenient argument to make this snapshot of history the political and cultural scapegoat for what came after. There is no need...

This is the text of an e-mail I received from a friend....I thought some of you may enjoy the thought:Sometimes you are encouraged about our country's future when you see something like this. Specifically, there is an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term. This year's term was "Political Correctness". The winner wrote: "Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end"...

An Auburn city councilman has apologized for removing miniature confederate battle flags from the graves of confederate soldiers.

King Obama I thought America elected a new president. But it is becoming increasing clear that in the minds of some, we have elected a king. Any criticism or disagreement with his policies are met with cries of “Off with their heads”. A professor friend of mine perceives President Obama as almost 'god like'; one who has come to save the world. His scariest comment to date is “God will deal with the Fox News channel for their treatment of Obama”. Is my friend a lone nut case or do many view Obama as divinity? For years political correctness has...

The website of a New York TV network whose aim is to improve American perceptions of Islam was shut down this morning, two days after its founder admitted to the beheading of his wife. And while that irony might bring a momentary smile, another attempt to conceal the facts behind an honor killing right here in America should stir nothing short of outrage. Muzzammil Hassan, CEO of Bridges TV, whose motto is "connecting people through understanding," apparently didn't think Thursday's honor killing -- and make no mistake about what this was -- at the station might somehow blur that message....

Words matter according to President Obama. Especially when they might offend the sensitive terrorists of the world. “Words matter in this situation,” Obama told Anderson Cooper, “because one of the ways we’re going to win this struggle is through the battle of hearts and minds.” Obama thinks we can cozy up to moderate Muslims if we choose our words carefully. So “The War on Terror” is out. Instead, Obama uses inoffensive but meaningless platitudes like “the enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism.” ...

<p>A Canadian stand-up comedian will face a human rights tribunal hearing after a woman complained she and her friends faced a "tirade of homophobic and sexist comments" while attending one of his shows.</p> <p>In a decision released this week, the B. C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled there is enough evidence to hear the case of Vancouver woman Lorna Pardy against Toronto comedian Guy Earle. Zesty's Restaurant in Vancouver, where the May 22, 2007, show took place, has also been named in the complaint.</p>

I was asked recently - by a child porn advocate, no less - why I write books with chapter titles that are so “offensive.” Citing two such chapter titles – “Fag Hags and Rainbow Flags” and “The Liar, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” – the child porn advocate asked what some of my fellow UNC professors had done to make me sound so “nasty.” I think the question is worth answering. Put simply, I use provocative language in chapters (more often in columns) criticizing a small minority of my fellow professors for two reasons: 1) because they are proponents of...

Where does all this stuff that you�ve heard about this morning � the victim feminism, the gay rights movement, the invented statistics, the rewritten history, the lies, the demands, all the rest of it � where does it come from? For the first time in our history, Americans have to be fearful of what they say, of what they write, and of what they think. They have to be afraid of using the wrong word, a word denounced as offensive or insensitive, or racist, sexist, or homophobic. We have seen other countries, particularly in this century, where this has been...

PD James: Political correctness ruining society Last Updated: 2:57AM BST 02/05/2008Police hampered by a 'culture of blame' says PD james Modern life is bedevilled by political correctness, PD James, the crime author, said last night. There was a growing risk that Britons would live in "ghettos" and experience little contact with other people, she said in a speech on policing in the 21st century. Baroness James of Holland Park, who is best known for creating the detective Adam Dalgliesh, told an audience in the Palace of Westminster: "Our society is now more fractured than I, in my long life, have...

Folks, it is time that we every day Americans say, “enough” to the trashing of everything we hold dear. America needs an American Tea Party, a rally in Washington DC protesting political correctness and the far left movement of our country. Most of us want to say, “Merry Christmas!” Most of us know speaking English is best for all Americans. Most of us are not offended by public prayer. Most of us know partial birth abortion is murder. While I have dear homosexual friends, most of us believe marriage should remain between a man and a woman. Most of us...

My bias in this blog is a whole hearted belief in the genius of the First Amendment to the Constitution which, for those of you who missed Government Class, deals with the inability of the Congress to dictate what we can believe in the form of establishing a state religion and in the sanctity of individual speech no matter how unpleasant it might be. The reason the drafters of the Constitution protected speech, press, and religious choice in the first amendment is that when those are gone the others don't really matter. Political correctness is a way of dividing and...

Keith John Sampson never thought he could get in trouble for reading a book, especially not on a college campus. But that’s what happened. Sampson is a man in his early 50s. He does janitorial work for the campus facility services at IUPUI, where he’s been gradually accumulating credits for a degree in communications studies. He has 10 credit hours to go. .... The book is about how for two days in May 1924, a group of Notre Dame students got into a street fight with members of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was meeting in South Bend for...

A Detroit-based group is calling for a national protest early next month after a meeting with Isabella County Prosecutor Larry Burdick regarding nooses found in a Central Michigan University classroom. The Rev. Charles Williams II, leader of the National Council for Community Empowerment, also demanded Monday that Burdick take legal action immediately against the student who said he hung the nooses on Central Michigan University's campus. Williams said in a press release that his organization requested a meeting with Burdick and that the group “has yet to receive return correspondence.” Williams staged a press conference in front of the Isabella...

Intro by ML/NJ: You have to know that it is traditional to sing the "Good Old Song" after the Virginia football team scores (and other times too). Huge sections of the stadium link arms and sing to the tune of Auld Lang Syne The song includes the following couplet: We come from old Vir-gin-i-a Where all is bright and gay For a decade or more it has been common for many to insert the words "Not Gay!" following this couplet. This has had the enforcers of Political Correctness beside themselves. There are regular campaigns to humiliate the not-gayers, and so...

...In 2005, Emily Brooker, a social-work student at Missouri State University, was enrolled in a class taught by a professor who advertised himself as a liberal and insisted that social work is a liberal profession. At first, a mandatory assignment for his class was to advocate homosexual foster homes and adoption, with all students required to sign an advocacy letter, on university stationery, to the state legislature. When Brooker objected on religious grounds, the project was made optional. But shortly before the final exam she was charged with a "Level 3," the most serious, violation of professional standards. In a...

You won't be hearing these notes played at Henry M. Jackson High School in Everett, Washington. According to Federal Court Judge Robert Lasnik, Chief Judge of the Western District of Washington, students setting their fingers to keyboard while following these notes are breaking the law, and he has ordered them to stop. Judge Lasnik, appointed to the bench by President Clinton in 1998, found these particular notes—without any lyrics—are so offensive that he upheld the order by the school district's associate superintendent that the school's wind ensemble not be allowed to perform the music. *** "(A)ll of us just picked...

Diana West brings to our attention a dismaying story from Brussels -- the brutalizing by Belgian police of peaceful demonstrators from a group called Stop the Islamization of Europe, including a member of the European parliament. It seems that European states not only increasingly accommodate Shariah (Islamic law), but are taking sides against those who exercise what (outside of Islamic law) is their right to protest this development. JOHN adds: Here's the video. The The distinguished-looking guy who gets roughed up by the police first is Luk Van Nieuwenhuysen, the Vice-President of the Flemish Parliament..... (Go to Powerline to see...

OKLAHOMA TOURISM CENTER, 2007 (honoring the murderer, outraging the memory of the victims) : "From Clinton, continue on to Cheyenne, Oklahoma in the heart of Cheyenne country. Here you’ll find the Black Kettle Museum (580-497-3929) displaying and interpreting the HISTORY OF THE CHEYENNE TRIBE in Oklahoma. (...) Also in Cheyenne, on the road between the BLACK KETTLE MUSEUM and the Historic Site, visit the Clara Blinn House, a tea room, antique store and Native American art gallery Also in Cheyenne, on the road between the Black Kettle Museum and the Historic Site, visit the CLARA BLINN HOUSE, a TEA ROOM,...

‘How a simple word order can divide people and create countries within a country.’Comment from Tezza: I don’t know what has been happening to me recently, but I have been getting these reoccurring nightmares; I keep dreaming I am a left-wing liberal. I keep on drifting into the liberal mind; the landscape of the liberal brain if you will. Traversing this landscape, one can see it is a very depressing, desolate place; it is very bleak and barren indeed. The only color is found in the murky waters of Lake Communism, which leads to a river that filters down through...

Don Imus, Bernard McGuirk, Trent Lott, Larry Summers, the Duke lacrosse team, Jimmy the Greek, the kid who yelled "water buffalo" at Penn, Howard Cosell, Jon Stewart, Chief Illiniwek, Jackie Mason and "South Park" all have in common only one thing: They have not been Politically Correct. ...Despite the ironic mockery, political correctness still packs a punch. Say the wrong thing today and you can be gone tomorrow, your status as a top broadcaster, university president or politician obliterated. It happens in the small space of a sentence -- defrocked, banished, gonzo. Outside a courtroom, I'm not aware of many...

To continue on the serie "learn the US history without political correctness", here is part one of a documentary on an American soldier tarnished by political correctness. Please spend a little time to learn what this soldier did and why it is so important that the American people know their history without the rewriting of the left. They fought for the flag, the flag must not forget them. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1qzg2_general-custer-part-1 See the other video of this serie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4534E1cCLyQ

It?s tough being a high ranking official today. It?s not enough to be honest; you have to be politically correct to survive. That means carefully screening your planned remarks to be certain they offend no recognized minority. This comes easy to silver-tongued politicians. It?s harder for career military officers who are socialized to speak with candor. General Peter Pace, the first Marine to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently expressed his support for the military?s ?don?t ask?don?t tell? policy. In response to a question, he added his personal belief that homosexual acts were immoral and that...

'Political correctness is killing our freedoms' By Bruno Waterfield Last Updated: 1:21am GMT 22/03/2007 Europe's citizens must be on their guard against political correctness and moralising politicians, says the European Commission President José Manuel Barroso in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. The former Portuguese premier and centre-Right politician is concerned that freedom can be the loser in European culture wars over climate change, cheap air travel, Islam and free speech. "We should be aware of people who, sometimes for good reasons, try to establish what I call private moral codes, for this or that, be it climate change, religious...

Political Correctness "Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

I admit to facetiousness. I also allow that facetiousness is the rhetoric of despair - in this case, despair over the dreadful pickle into which the academic community in the US - and I suppose elsewhere - has gotten itself over the last two decades or so. STS - at least in the most flamboyant and - to use a dreadful phrase - pathbreaking versions - is to me both example and symbol of the university’s growing inability to carry through one of its major intellectual functions, to wit, the filtering of new ideas and the winnowing out of those...

WATERBURY, Conn. — A criminal defense attorney has been arrested on a disorderly conduct charge involving kissing as a crime. Ralph Crozier, 55, of Southbury was arrested Thursday for kissing a female judicial marshal at Waterbury Superior Court on Dec. 22. Crozier said state police investigators told him the marshal did not invite him to kiss her, which was why criminal charges were filed. "This is the biggest baloney I've ever seen in my life," Crozier said Thursday. "How many tens of thousands of people in Connecticut wished their co-workers and friends 'Merry Christmas' the day before Christmas?" The incident...

A district judge has granted a preliminary injunction to stop the NCAA from banning the University of North Dakota from hosting a postseason game because of its "Fighting Sioux" nickname, state Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said. Stenehjem said judge Lawrence Jahnke alerted him to the decision Saturday night. Stenehjem did not know the details. UND is among a handful of schools with American Indian nicknames and logos that the NCAA considers hostile and abusive. Those schools are barred from holding postseason tournaments, or from using their nicknames during road playoff games. Stenehjem, in asking for the injunction, said the ban...

Where’s Newt When You Need Him Another interesting poll was released today and as expected is not getting much play in the mainstream media. According to a CNN poll released this weekend 54% of Americans believe that the government is doing too many things that should be left to individuals and private sector enterprises. This comes on the heels of another poll, also buried from the general public, that was indicative of the majority of Americans believing that if Democrats regain power they will raise our taxes. This puts the Republican leadership in quite a quandary, for these two polls...