A state senator in Wisconsin is irate that a high school band playing at the Senate’s inaugural ceremony played a few bars from the Southern anthem "Dixie," reports The Associated Press.
The Richland Center High School band didn’t play the whole song, merely a portion of it as part of an old Elvis Presley (search) hit called "An American Trilogy." The other two portions of the trilogy are "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "All My Trials."
State Sen. Spencer Coggs (search) said he was shocked and dismayed by the song. He is demanding an apology and that all future playlists be submitted for prior approval.
He's Back
The California atheist who unsuccessfully sued to get the phrase "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance is back with a new version of the same suit and another one seeking to prevent members of the clergy from praying at President Bush's inauguration, reports Religion News Service.
Dr. Michael Newdow refiled the pledge suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on Monday. In the new case, Newdow has been joined in the suit by three families who include atheists and claim they are offended "to have their government and its agents advocating for a religious view they each specifically decry."
Newdow says he also filed suit in a Washington district court to try to stop clergy from uttering prayers at Bush's Jan. 20 inauguration. He said in the filing that such prayers make him feel like a "second-class citizen."
Township Trouble
The Manchester Evening News reports that police in that Northern England city have been banned from using the word "township" to describe sections of the city because it conjures images of apartheid-era South Africa and might be construed as racist.
Police there adopted the term a year ago to describe new, smaller policing subdivisions around town.
But a police inspector said the term "township" had "clear connotations" with South Africa’s ancient regime and insisted that it be removed from all official communications.
"With immediate effect this term will no longer be used," Chief Inspector Jeff McMahon said. "The new term is 'partnership.' … In all written and verbal communication this should be substituted where the term township would currently be used. The term partnership suggests the notion of working together to fight crime and protect people."
More Nuttiness in New Paltz
Activists in New Paltz, N.Y., are calling for a boycott of a local movie theater because its owner ran a radio advertisement critical of filmmaker Michael Moore and praising the values associated with John Wayne, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Stewart, reports the Poughkeepsie Journal.
Steve Greenfield co-chairs a group that launched the boycott. He and his brethren have been passing out fliers reading, "Don't Sponsor Hate: This Theater is Under Boycott" outside the cinemas.
The group called the ad on local radio stations "blatantly racist."
"... It is especially offensive that the theaters' management recalls John Wayne movies as the paragon of 'family film fare,'" it said in a press release.
"John Wayne starred in over 100 of the most violent films ever made, including dozens in which Native Americans and Mexicans were portrayed as dangerous savages created specifically for remorseless sport hunting by white settlers and armies."
The group also doesn't like the radio station WGHQ either. "WGHQ's programs aggressively promote racism, religious intolerance and theocratic government, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, torture and the next wars in Syria and Iran," the group says.
Lessons Learned
A parent in Virginia is having a hissy fit because her 9-year-old daughter played the role of a slave owner during a classroom lesson that involved a mock slave auction, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Michelle Wilson says her daughter came home one day from Swift Creek Elementary School in Chesterfield County saying she had bought a slave as part of a fourth-grade lesson.
Wilson says the role-playing exercise, which has been used to teach students about slavery for several years, was demeaning and degrading. She is demanding that Chesterfield's teachers be subjected to diversity training to make up for the transgression.
'Hate Speech'
Defendants in court in Denver charged with unlawfully disrupting a Columbus Day parade are trying to justify their actions by calling the parade a form of "hate speech," reports the Rocky Mountain News.
Some 230 people are charged with loitering and failure to obey lawful orders for trying to block the city's annual October parade.
Some of the defendants claim their actions were necessary because the parade is a form of ethnic intimidation. They object to celebrating Columbus, whom they condemn as a slave trader responsible for genocide in the deaths of up to 10 million American Indians.
They decried as racists a group of teenage girls on top of one float who threw candy at the protesters in an "aggressive manner."
For more doses of politically correct nuttiness, head on over to the TongueTied daily edition.
Mailbag:
Bill S. writes:
Geeze, I don't recall anyone from the Council on American-Islamic Relations voicing any opinions about all the profiling coming out of the Arab news media.
You know -- all the stuff about the American, Christian infidels who are not only responsible for the Indian Ocean disaster (apparently we exploded a nuclear device or two somewhere in the vicinity) and all the other troubles in the world because we fornicate too much?
The silence from our American/Islamic friends is deafening.
Richard K. writes:
Perhaps if Islamic terrorists were not beheading innocent captives, killing American troops with IED's every day, driving explosive-ridden watercraft into our naval vessels, blowing up our embassys, flying aircraft into our buildings killing thousands of innocent civilians-- not to mention the Palestinian "dumb bombs" that explode themselves amongst Israeli civilians-- then CAIR's Rabiah Ahmed would not have to worry about there being a TV show that allegedly "casts a cloud of suspicion over every American-Muslim family out there."
Those responsible for these horrific acts cast a far larger cloud than a meaningless television show.
Perhaps Mr. Ahmed should concern himself with cleaning up "his own house," which would go much further towards improving Arab-American relations than trying to bully TV script writers into waiving their First Amendment rights.
George K. writes:
It should be noted that the pinhead who labelled Chicago's program for offering blue recycling bags for Christmas trees as discriminatory against non-Christians is not even a resident of Chicago. He lives in Buffalo Grove, a suburb, so it has no impact on him whatsoever. Some idiots will never leave well enough alone in order to push their agenda.
Bill H. writes:
Since I just returned from Asia this past week, I find it going to the ends of multi-culturalism to revert back to installing pit toilets in a New Zealand University. These things are being eliminated in Asia, not installed, and I might add, with great fanfare. If the student is at university, and on international studies, and has not figured out the toilet, (the plane had the same style), then they are in trouble. Do not waste their families hard earned money!
Fred L. writes:
Get a Life and quit offering legitimacy to these persons with personal agendas.
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