Scotland's Sunday Herald says that two newspapers there have been investigated by police for racial intimidation after they published articles critical of the country's immigration policies.
A formal racial complaint was lodged against the Barrhead News for publishing an article that claimed the town could be "swamped by gypsies from across Europe." The story was about a group of French travelers who had settled on the site of an old factory.
A Strathclyde Police spokesman told the paper that his office had received a complaint about a "racist incident" involving the paper.
The Herald also reported that Alan Buchan, owner and editor of the free North East Weekly, was charged with incitement to racial hatred after a two-hour interview by police. The charges apparently stem from an editorial in which he criticized plans to turn a former air force base into an immigrant center and create a new prison nearby.
Under the heading "Perverts & Refugees," Buchan wrote: "The people of rural England have been in massive rebelling (sic) over the establishment of refugee centres holding upwards of 5000 immigrants because they were fully aware that their communities would be swamped and turned into cesspools.
"As a result the government has abandoned its plans for England and now could be looking at a refugee complex of over 5000 and a prison unit of 800 for Buchan.
"The reason that the people of rural England have reject (sic) this is that they know their communities would be turned into ghettos where murder, rape, robbery, assault, break-ins and numerous other crimes became prevalent."
Touché
Florida State University officials say the NCAA's decision to prohibit the display of "hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery at any of the 88 NCAA championships" is culturally insensitive, reports the Miami Herald.
''Florida State University is stunned at the complete lack of appreciation for cultural diversity shown by the National Collegiate Athletic Association's executive committee,'' FSU President T.K. Wetherell said. 'That the NCAA would now label our close bond with the Seminole people as culturally 'hostile and abusive' is both outrageous and insulting.''
Beginning early next year, the NCAA will no longer allow colleges whose teams use American Indian mascots and symbols to host post-season tournaments and bowl games — including the FSU Seminoles.
Wetherell pointed out that the Seminole Tribe of Florida in June passed a unanimous resolution declaring its support for FSU's nickname and mascot.
A spokesman for the Chippewa tribe in Michigan expressed similar sentiments, saying the NCAA should butt out of its relationship with Central Michigan University and its Chippewas.
"The rich relationship that the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe has with CMU cannot be determined by an outside entity without contacting the institution and the government involved," a tribe spokesman said.
"Any arbitrary decision made from an outside source regarding university-tribal relations is not acceptable.''
Long Summer
A professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio has so much time on his hands this summer that he has taken to writing letters to the Toledo Blade complaining about how insensitive the funny pages are.
"Shame on The Blade for running the appalling July 28 "Dennis The Menace" cartoon, which was incredibly insensitive to all Native Americans," writes Jeffrey Gordon, an Associate Professor of Geography at the university. "The cartoon depicts the Mitchell family in the Southwest visiting a 'Navajo Ruins.'"
"Dennis is standing on a lower wall of the ruins while lassoing a higher portion. His mother states, 'We should be thankful they were in ruins before he got here.' Despite clearly being aware of their child's destructive intent, Dennis' parents totally disregard his outrageous (and illegal) behavior and the serious physical damage he can cause to ancient and irreplaceable Native American sites - a legacy to be enjoyed by future generations.
"This cartoon, so disrespectful of Native Americans and their rich heritage, has no rightful place in our multicultural society."
What Jokes Would Those Be?
The Roanoke Times reports that officials at Virginia Tech are allowing sexually segregated classes for visiting Saudi students because U.S. officials don't want to "impress our culture on them."
The students, some 60 faculty members from King Abdulaziz University, are taking identical development courses at Tech this summer, but instead of being integrated they are segregated sexually.
Dr. Adnan Merdad, a professor of general and thoracic surgery, says he prefers the segregated classes because "the jokes are better."
NORAD Too?
Officers at the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado have deleted most American Indian references from the names of their training exercises for fear of offending Native Americans, according to the Washington Times.
An internal memo cited by the paper says NORAD has changed the names of the exercises "Amalgam Chief," "Amalgam Fabric Brave" and "Fabric Indian" to "Amalgam Arrow," "Amalgam Fabric Dart" and "Fabric Sabre."
A NORAD spokesman, Air Force Master Sgt. John Tomassi, confirmed that the language was changed with Indians in mind.
"We are sensitive to such issues," he said. "We don't have a professional sports team like the Washington Redskins. But we still are sensitive to the same sorts of issues that those organizations are."
Who Says Socialists Don't Have Brains?
A Labour MP and self-avowed Socialist from West Yorkshire in the UK writes in Canada's National Post that it's high time the multi-culti crowd came to grips with what they have wrought and start getting realistic about the philosophy they have espoused for three decades.
Ann Cryer, MP for Keighley, says that she has tried for years to raise serious issues with an eye toward improving the lot of South Asians in her constituency, only to be shouted down as a racist Islamaphobe by the politically correct.
It should not, she says, be labeled intolerant to point out that "a patriarchal immigrant society that treats women as mere commodities, tolerates murder in the name of honour and forces children into marriages they do not want is unacceptable in a modern, 21st century society such as Britain's.
"If we shy away from challenging unacceptable practices then we are as guilty as those who seek to enforce them. We cannot afford to have double standards: Unacceptable cultural practices are unacceptable for everyone," she says.
For more doses of politically correct nuttiness, head on over to the TongueTied daily edition.
Mailbag:
Jason R. writes:
I can't wait for someone in a position of power to realize that constitutional rights only apply to US citizens. Illegal immigrants have no rights in this country. Illegal immigrants have no place in this country. I have known quite a few illegal immigrants, and honestly, some of them that I knew are the hardest working, salt of the earth type of people that most of us Americans hope to be. They hold down 3 jobs and send money home, and I say God bless 'em, but go home and come back legally. I don't care how hard you work - if you are not here legally, go home. If you are here as a legal immigrant, I'll greet you with open arms, and welcome you home as a fellow American.
Bill P. in Pennsylvania writes:
Your observation of "political correctness run amok" in this week's segment about a man suing the hospital for which he worked could not be more out of line with reality. If this man's allegations prove true and he's being harassed, belittled, and denied advancement on the basis of his sex, then it's both illegal and immoral. If the story had been of a woman who'd gone into mechanical engineering being treated with derision and denied advancement, you'd not even sniff at the story. Nobody should suffer humiliation at the hands of coworkers or denied advancement opportunity simply on the basis of sex.
Gary in Omaha writes:
In regards to your "Boo Hoo" article I completely disagree! I have worked as an elementary teacher for many years and have had very bad things (that I would rather not go into) done to me by women and for little to no reason. Things that if the situation were reversed I would probably have been fired. Why is the treatment of men not up to the quality of the treatment of women? Women can be cruel and manipulative and mean. Just like men can be. I am not talking about just name-calling either even thought that can get really old. You obviously have never been in a situation like that.
Charles S. writes:
In case the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations hasn't noticed, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen and Qatar ARE in fact governed by SHEIKS, so what was Jeff supposed to call them? MULLAHS of course, run Iran, how should one refer to them? All are major oil exporting countries.
Andrew S. in Chicago writes:
The bozo who was so offended by the email about the lesbian film needs a good dose of growing up. This guy could have done the grown up thing and just deleted the email, maybe blocked the sender, or even just written a simple reply stating that he didn't wish to receive emails on this subject in the future.
Nope, our bozo, blows his cork at the idea that this immoral woman would dare put before his Christian eyes an email of such blasphemy.
So self-righteous is he that he must send her an email back telling her how evil her lifestyle is. I am Christian - hear me hate! (We could be wrong, but something tells us a guy named Jihad Daniel is not Christian - ed) As if the average homosexual in this country is unaware of the conservative Christian opinion of their lifestyle?
Did you ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, a person like this who would over react in this manner to an email, might have had a history of espousing his views at work and making others uncomfortable?
From reading your articles my guess is that you really just don't care. What your article is, is a reactionary posting of half stories designed to keep the conservative base angry emotional and irrational. I hope you don't view yourself as doing anything greater than that. That would be a sad delusion for you to have.
Joe O. writes:
Moron.
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