The Original Musings

Be aware! The definition of racism is changing!

Admit it … almost had you going there, didn’t it?

… a veritable cornucopia of things to piss you off …

Serving up the latest in Zero Tolerance and Obama fare … mmm, mmm, good!

Appetizer

Five California high school students were told they could either turn their t-shirts inside out or go home on May 5th for wearing t-shirts with US flags on them.  The Vice Principal said he was afraid for the boys’ safety since they were wearing these “incendiary” shirts on the “only day” that Mexican students can express their national pride.  When the boys refused to turn the shirts inside out – pointing out, among other things that the shirts are not a violation of the school dress code, that they each have several different US flag shirts which they wear all the time without challenge, that the Mexican students wear Mexican flag shirts any time they feel like wearing them, and that they felt that turning the shirts inside out was disrespectful to the flag, to them and a violation of their first amendment rights — they were sent home.  On Tuesday, May 11, following a school board meeting in which multiple parents expressed their displeasure at the situation, Superintendent Wesley Smith said, “They have a right to wear those shirts on school campus, on all of our campuses, they shouldn’t have been asked to take them off.” The superintendent also said an investigation into how administrators handled everything on Cinco de Mayo is still underway and should be complete by June, after which they’ll decide if any disciplinary action should be taken.  [FOX News, ABC News]

Wine

Remember when Joe the Plumber asked Obama exactly what he wanted to do if elected, and Obama, speaking off the cuff, said that “it’s not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they’ve got a chance at success, too.  I think when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody.” Remember when people said that sounded an awful lot like Socialism if not full blown Communism and his supporters accused them of over-reacting and blowing things out of proportion?  Well, on April 28, Obama went off the teleprompter and tried to paraphrase while speaking in Quincy, Illinois.  Here’s part of what he said:  “We’re not, we’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or providing good service. We don’t want people to stop, ah, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow the economy.” Silly me, and here I had no idea that Obama gets to decide when we’ve “made enough money” — or whether or not my success was “fairly earned” providing a good product or a good service.  Furthermore, I must admit that I didn’t have a clue that it was my responsibility to “grow our economy,” core or otherwise.  All these years, I thought I was supposed to be growing my own economy so as to support my family.  [Google It™ or you can *watch* him say it under the fold]

Entreé

Ten-year old Leighann came home from her Texas elementary school in tears, afraid to tell her parents that (for the first time in her life) she had gotten in trouble at school.  Leighann and her friend were under orders to serve a week’s detention during lunch and recess, and they had to write an essay about what they did and why it was wrong.  What had they done? Leighann’s friend gave her a single Jolly Rancher candy.  Leighann’s parents say the punishment was extreme, but school officials insist it was not.  Jack Ellis, superintendent for the school district,  says it’s a matter of following state guidelines to limit the amount of junk food in schools. “Whether or not I agree with the guidelines, we have to follow the rules.” The state Department of Agriculture does in fact mandate that school lunch foods need to be baked rather than fried, nutritious rather than loaded with empty calories and things like that.  But a department spokesman says that there is absolutely nothing in the rules that compels a school to punish a student for bringing his own junk food to school, that their policy does not prohibit friends from sharing a Jolly Rancher candy, and that if a parent wants to pack candy in the child’s lunch, they can.   The department even sent a letter to the school reminding staff that state policy doesn’t outline such punishments but the school is not backing down.  Leighann’s parents say the school routinely goes too far in punishing students:  Students at the school are required to wear a belt.  A few months ago Leighann’s younger brother was given an in-school suspension for failing to wear one even though his father called the school secretary to explain that their new puppy chewed up the boy’s only belt that morning.  The boy was made to “sit in a room all day and stare at a wall.” Leighann’s parents say that they’re pulling their kids out of the school at the end of the school year; if necessary, they say they’ll send them to private school.  [FOX News]

On the Side

Speaking at Hampton University in Virginia, President Obama suggested that “less is more” when it comes to absorbing news content and urged graduates to take a skeptical eye toward news from blogs, cable television and radio as well as modern gadgets like iPods and PlayStations.  Obama told graduates that the class of 2010 is “coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads; and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it’s putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy. With so many voices clamoring for attention on blogs, and on cable, on talk radio, it can be difficult, at times, to sift through it all — to know what to believe, to figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s not. Let’s face it, even some of the craziest claims can quickly gain traction. I’ve had some experience in that regard.” You will no doubt recall that last September, the president used a string of major network and cable interviews to scold the media for playing up “outrageous” political comments.  Then Obama and his administration spent much of last fall criticizing Fox News in specific. It’s now starting to seem that targeting cable and blogs has become something of a hobby: In February, he urged Democratic senators to turn off their televisions. He singled out FOX, CNN, MSNBC and blogs, urging the lawmakers to get out of the “echo chamber.” In March an e-mail was sent to Senate staffers warning them not to visit The Drudge Report out of concern for a non-existent virus.  Pointing out that nobody has used the media more masterfully than Obama, Brent Bozell, president of Media Research Center, says that in order to prove his “sincerity” about media and technology gripes, Obama should delete his massive e-mail list and take his staff off TV.  “It’s just posturing on his part. He is trying to put himself in opposition to those forces to improve his status with the public.”  [FOX News]

Dessert

Two years ago, 5-year old Ryan lost part of his left leg in a lawnmower accident.  His leg was amputated below the knee, and he wears a prosthetic limb.  Ryan is a kindergarten student, and the bus ride from his home to the school is about an hour long.  He and his 7-year old sister used to ride the bus to and from school every day, but that stopped earlier this month because the school has informed Ryan’s parents that they must transport Ryan and his sister from now on.  Why?  Kids on the school bus — older kids, some as old as 13 — have been bullying Ryan, calling him names and taunting him.  They’ve stolen Ryan’s backpack.  They’ve tried to pull off his prosthetic leg.  Ryan’s dad spoke with the parents of  the kids involved and he thought the matter was resolved, until May 4th, when Ryan was given a black eye after being punched on the bus by a 13-year old who is one of the biggest kids on the bus.  After talking to the boy’s parents and getting nowhere, Ryan’s dad asked the bus driver and the school principal to do something about it, because “He’s young, he’s five, he’s disabled. I can’t ride the bus and stand up for him, you know. He can’t defend himself, so who easier to pick on than a kid who gets punched in the eye and sits quietly in the corner.  I asked for the child to be disciplined. I asked for him to be suspended from school to teach him a lesson because there’s a zero tolerance for bullying.  Instead we were told Ryan will no longer be on the bus, that it’s not safe for him or my daughter and that we have to drive them the round trip.” When Ryan’s dad complained, the school district offered to pay for the gas to make the trip each day.  [CBC News]

You’ll find that video under the fold, as promised. Think of it as the after-dinner mint.

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You should enjoy these!

A FOX News article tells how 7,500 people sold their souls because they didn’t read the fine print.

A computer game retailer revealed that it legally owns the souls of thousands of online shoppers, thanks to a clause in the terms and conditions agreed to by online shoppers.

The retailer, British firm GameStation, added the “immortal soul clause” to the contract signed before making any online purchases earlier this month. It states that customers grant the company the right to claim their soul.

“By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions.”

GameStation’s form also points out that “we reserve the right to serve such notice in 6 (six) foot high letters of fire, however we can accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by such an act. If you a) do not believe you have an immortal soul, b) have already given it to another party, or c) do not wish to grant Us such a license, please click the link below to nullify this sub-clause and proceed with your transaction.”

The terms of service were updated on April Fool’s Day as a gag, but the retailer did so to make a very real point: No one reads the online terms and conditions of shopping, and companies are free to insert whatever language they want into the documents. [...]

The company noted that it would not be enforcing the ownership rights, and planned to e-mail customers nullifying any claim on their soul.

A surprising (at least to me) 88% of shoppers did not check the box which would have negated the soul-selling whilst keeping the transaction. That’s scary. I’m guess I’m anal or something because I actually DO read all the fine print. I almost got burned one time on eBay when I didn’t read all the terms and conditions of the sale which stated that if the winning bid was under a certain figure the postage and handling for the $10 item was $99. Since then, I go looking for crap in the fine print before I virtually sign on the dotted line.

From Hit & Run comes this notice of a challenge: the First Annual Everybody Draw Mohammed day, to be specific. Michael writes:

Via Dan Savage’s blog at The Stranger, some clever chappie (I don’t know who) has declared May 20, 2010 “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day,” in support of Matt Stone and Trey Parker and in opposition to religious thuggery.  [...]

I will be employing my tremendous skill as an illustrator, of course, and expect that my colleagues will do the same. If they refuse, they will be declared weak-kneed, namby-pamby, quisling infidels and will be shamed on this blog (Though such idle threats rarely work these days; perhaps I could threaten them with a painful death, which seems to do the trick). If readers would like to show their solidarity, please email your Mohammed masterpieces to me here: [obscured by me - go to his site to get the address, I don't want to contribute any fodder for spambots! I already admitted I'm paranoid about crap like this.] The best ones will be published on Hit & Run, which, along with the concomitant death threat, is reward enough.

I have to confess, I’m kind of surprised by Comedy Central pulling the episode. I didn’t realize they were that wimpy. You can’t honestly tell me there haven’t been dozens upon dozens of more offensive South Park episodes — why weren’t they pulled? I’ll tell you why: because Censorship = BAD. Shame on Comedy Central for caving.

Finally, you’ll get a kick out of this one … From the BBC News, an interesting little typo occurred on one page of a cookbook. Seems that although almost every recipe in the cookbook called for “salt and freshly ground black pepper,” one recipe had a tiny faux pas …

An Australian publisher has had to pulp and reprint a cookbook after one recipe listed “salt and freshly ground black people” instead of black pepper.

Penguin Group Australia had to reprint 7,000 copies of Pasta Bible last week, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported.

The reprint cost A$20,000 ($18,000; £12,000), but stock in bookshops will not be recalled as it is “extremely hard” to do so, Penguin said. [...]

The publisher professed amazement as to why anybody would be offended by the “silly mistake” but has assured that anyone who complains will be offered a replacement of the corrected edition. Has this dude read a newspaper lately?  Does he not realize how tight people’s knickers are wadded these days?  Personally, mind you, I’d like to get hold of one of the misprints!

This must be making the rounds

This was sent to me by four people yesterday and two more today.  Each version is just a tiny bit different.  Here’s the one I liked the best.

HIGH SCHOOL – 1959 vs. 2009

Scenario 1:

Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck’s gun rack.

1959 – Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.

2009 – School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario 2:

Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.

1959 – Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.

2009 – Police called and SWAT team arrives – they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario 3:

Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students.

1959 – Jeffrey sent to the Principal’s office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.

2009 – Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The school gets extra money from the state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario 4:

Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.

1959 – Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman.

2009 – Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has an affair with the psychologist.

Scenario 5:

Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.

1959 – Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock.

2009 – The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario 6:

Pedro fails high school English.

1959 – Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.

2009 – Pedro’s cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro’s English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario 7:

Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.

1959 – Ants die.

2009 – ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents – and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny’s dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario 8:

Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.

1959 – In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.

2009 – Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

An over-reactive jerk

Reason #12384 to Home School:

A 12-year-old Queens girl was hauled out of school in handcuffs for an artless offense – doodling her name on her desk in erasable marker, the Daily News has learned.

Alexa Gonzalez was scribbling a few words on her desk Monday while waiting for her Spanish teacher to pass out homework at Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills, she said.

“I love my friends Abby and Faith,” the girl wrote, adding the phrases “Lex was here. 2/1/10″ and a smiley face.

But instead of simply cleaning off the doodles after class, Alexa landed in some adult-sized trouble for using her lime-green magic marker.

She was led out of school in cuffs and walked to the precinct across the street, where she was detained for several hours.

In addition to her arrest, Alexa (who had a stellar attendance record) has been suspended, she and her mom went to family court on Tuesday, where Alexa was assigned eight hours of community service, a book report and an essay on what she learned from the experience.

Says Alexa: “I definitely learned not to ever draw on a desk. They told me even with a pencil this could still happen.”

City Education Department spokesman David Cantor acknowledged Alexa’s arrest was a mistake: “We’re looking at the facts. Based on what we’ve seen so far, this shouldn’t have happened.”

The Police acknowledge that it shouldn’t have happened: “Even when we’re asked to make an arrest, common sense should prevail, and discretion used in deciding whether an arrest or handcuffs are really necessary.”

Alexa is the latest in a string of city students who have been cuffed for minor infractions. In 2007, 13-year-old Chelsea Fraser was placed under arrest for writing “okay” on her desk at Intermediate School 201. And in 2008, 5-year-old Dennis Rivera was cuffed and sent to a psych ward after throwing a fit in his kindergarten.

A class action lawsuit was filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union last month against the city for using “excessive force” in middle school and high schools. A 12-year-old sixth-grader, identified in the lawsuit as M.M., was arrested in March 2009 for doodling on her desk at the Hunts Point School.

Even under “zero tolerance” standards this is lunacy.

NY Daily News, FOX News

Sent along by Knight Owl & Loretta

I had already seen this and figured to blog it when I got a chance — looks like we’re all using the same brain pan!

When you see this photo, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind?

Okay, the first thing besides “what a couple of idiots!”

Two of Russia’s champion ice skaters have caused outrage after dressing as Aborigines for a competition.

The couple, who are favored to win gold at next month’s winter Olympics, wear skin-toned suits with red loin cloths, white body paint and eucalyptus leaves.

But experts in Australia say Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin’s movements and body decorations bear no resemblance to that of the Aborigines’ 60,000 year old culture.

“They have got the whole thing wrong,” said Stephen Page, artistic director of the respected indigenous group, the Bangarra Dance Company.

Page said the two and half minute routine’s didgeridoo music sounded more like it came from India or Africa.

He added that the body paint looked like “a 3-year-old child had drawn it on”.

Indigenous leader Bev Manton, of the New South Wales Land Council, said Aboriginal people were rightly sensitive about the appropriation of their cultural heritage.

She told the Sydney Morning Herald: “I am offended by the performance and so are our other counselors.”

Okay, if the look is wrong, the music is wrong and the dance is wrong … how the hell can you accuse them of appropriation of the Aboriginal cultural heritage? The couple themselves say that it “wasn’t our purpose that it be especially Australian, just a dance from many thousands of years ago.”

Why not save your righteous indignation and moral outrage for something legitimate for a change? Everyone’s got their knickers in such a knot these days you can’t hardly blink without pissing someone off.

Incidentally, Knight Owl found that line about the 3-year old so offensive, he sent along a sample of actual Aboriginal art to demonstrate the incredible sophistication of true Aboriginal art. You’ll find it under the fold.

FOX News

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You see, I never thought of McDonald’s as being divisive …

… and if they aren’t divisive, they don’t need to set up a special web site for just their black customers, do they? We white folk don’t get a special McDonald’s site devoted solely to us, so why did McDonald’s find it necessary to create one just for blacks? There’s no exclusion of anyone on the main site, so I’m really confused by 365Black.

According to the site information:

At McDonald’s®, we believe that African-American culture and achievement should be celebrated 365 days a year — not just during Black History Month. That’s the idea behind 365Black.com. It’s a place where you can learn more about education, employment, career advancement and entrepreneurship opportunities, and meet real people whose lives have been touched by McDonald’s. Plus, you can also have a chance to win exciting once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. So make sure you visit often — you just might get inspired.

What bullshit. So … where’s a special site just for Hispanic customers? What about Asian customers? What about gay customers? If McDonald’s isn’t for everyone, then fix it so it is. There’s no need for a special site for any group of people. 365Black is, in and of itself, divisive in its implications.

No one’s sure what’s PC these days …

The White House Christmas tree (which is no doubt called a “Holiday Tree” to avoid offense) is touted as being “environmentally friendly” this year — using low energy LED lights and recycled ornaments. Michelle Obama explains: “Our starting point was a very simple idea. That we include people in as many places, in as many ways as we can. We took about 800 ornaments left over from the previous administrations. We sent them to 60 local community groups throughout the country and asked them to decorate them, paying tribute to a favorite local landmark, and then send them back to us for display here at the White House.”

The redecorated ornaments came back with such “local landmarks” as Obama’s head inserted onto Mt. Rushmore (there’s class for you), drag-queen Hedda Lettuce (who says he’s tickled pink that one of his balls is hanging in the White House), and even Mao Zedong. (He used to be called Mao Tse Tung just like Beijing was formerly known as Peking. Why have so many Chinese names been changed? I can’t keep up with this crap.)

I’ve put the official White House Christmas Tree photo under the fold if you’re interested in having a look. Personally I wish the photographer had just focused on getting the entire 18-foot tall tree into the shot and left off The One and The Missus.

This seemed more appropriate for the front page:

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I would vote for him

If the birthers are right, you no longer need to be born in the USA to be the POTUS. Therefore, we can elect Vaclav Klaus (the current Czech President) as our next president, and maybe we’ll have a capable leader with some intelligence.

Agree or disagree on whether global warming is real — and if so, whether humans are causing it — you still have to see the common sense behind his warning that allowing the government to control how it’s addressed is a Bad Thing. This is a road we do not want to travel.

As the Copenhagen climate conference drew to a close Friday, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, long a global warming skeptic, had a message for the world: do not dictate to humanity how to live based on an “irrational ideology,” which he sees as the product of political correctness.

Global warming is a “new religion,” not a science, he said in an interview with FoxNews.com.

“I’m convinced that after years of studying the phenomenon, global warming is not the real issue of temperature,” said Klaus, an economist by training. “That is the issue of a new ideology or a new religion. A religion of climate change or a religion of global warming. This is a religion which tells us that the people are responsible for the current, very small increase in temperatures. And they should be punished.”

Klaus, the second president of the Czech Republic since the fall of communism, is often called the Margaret Thatcher of Central Europe. In the interview, he sounded more like Winston Churchill, vowing to defend liberty and freedom from those who would restrain global economic growth.

“I’m absolutely convinced that the very small global warming we are experiencing is the result of natural causes,” Klaus told FoxNews.com. “It’s a cyclical phenomenon in the history of the Earth. The role of man is very small, almost negligible.”

Klaus believes man’s natural ingenuity can create new technologies that will lessen any impact that mankind has had on the planet’s environment. “I don’t think the radical measures just now suggested in Copenhagen are necessary,” said Klaus.

“Politicians and their fellow travelers, the media and the business community, simply understood that this is a very good topic to take on. It’s an excellent idea to escape from the current reality. Not to solve the crisis, but to talk about the world in 2050, 2080, 2200. This is for them an excellent job. They will not be punished by the voters for making a totally wrong decision, a wrong forecast.”

Klaus says that many interested parties get “a lot of money and influence” by backing the idea of global warming and organizing the Copenhagen conference, as well as its predecessor the Kyoto conference. “Some of them are really just rent seekers who hope to get some money either for their businesses or for their countries,” says Klaus. “Some of them are really true believers.”

The president reckons that environmentalism, executed on the scale suggested by global warming adherents, is a “real way to stop progress, industrial progress…and this is something unfair.”

Klaus fears that turning global warming into binding law would impede civilization as we know it.

“We’ll be the victims of irrational ideology. They will try to dictate to us how to live, what to do, how to behave,” Klaus said. “What to eat, travel, and what my children should have. This is something that we who lived in the communist era for most of our lives — we still feel very strongly about. We are very sensitive in this respect. And we feel various similarities in their way of arguing or not arguing. In the way of pushing ahead ideas regardless of rational counter-arguments.”

Klaus thinks that the world’s “silent majority” would agree with his position on global warming. “I’m so sorry that Al Gore and others around the IPCC succeeded in influencing so many people,” he said.

There you go, kids. Straight from the mouth of someone who’s lived under the kind of restraint and control this country is heading toward.

FOX News