"America" Now Wrong

According to the Michigan Dept. of Education it is, and they should know, shouldn't they? It's actually just an old bit of pedantry revived for the purposes of politically correct nuisance-making. Everybody and his dog knows that there are two whole continents called America (North and South) so when people refer to the USA as "America", they are doing so as an abbreviation for "The United States of America". But exactly that abbreviation is now forbidden in Michigan schools. Details here.

Crazily enough, they allow the usage "United States", which is inconsistent, as Mexico is also a "United States". I guess that they are ignoramuses enough not to know that. They are only "educators" after all.

Anyway, Michigan teachers are going to become a lot more long-winded if they have to say "Citizens of the United States" every time when they would normally say "Americans".

Update:

Thanks to all the publicity, the Michigan Dept. of Education have done a big backdown -- saying the policy was never "official"




Criticism of Birth Control not Allowed at a Catholic College

It seems pretty hard these days to find a "Catholic" college that in fact has any respect for church teachings. Chicago's De Paul, for instance, seems to be more enamoured of Islam than anything else. But one might have imagined that the humbler colleges would at least permit the presentation of church teachings. Not so when it comes to birth-control, it seems:

"A University of St. Thomas honors graduate who scolded his fellow seniors at Saturday's commencement ceremony for being "selfish" apologized Monday for offending people during his politically charged speech.

Ben Kessler, an academic All-America football player who plans to become a priest, chastised students for using birth control, criticized them for a recent food fight and upheld the St. Paul university's controversial policy against allowing unmarried faculty and staff members in romantic relationships to room together on school trips that involve students".

Source

Another Ban on Southerners Honoring Their History

South Carolina:

"A 15-year-old girl led a small protest march Monday against her high school's ban on Confederate flag clothing, which she is also challenging in court.

Candice Hardwick walked with about a dozen people, about half of them family members and some wearing Confederate T-shirts, a few blocks to her school. Hardwick wore a Confederate belt buckle and button and had the Confederate flag on her mobile phone cover. She removed those items before entering the school, where she is a sophomore...

Hardwick says she wants to wear the emblem to pay tribute to ancestors who fought in the Civil War. She said she has been forced to change clothes or turn her shirt inside-out, and has been suspended twice and threatened with being kicked off the track team."

Source

There is no Supreme Court ruling on such matters as yet.




Black Racism Must not be Challenged

A Brooklyn school for problem students invited a black speaker, Raqiyah Mays, to address their students -- a speaker who had previously been fired from a job for her outspoken racism:

"The press was invited to cover the visit - but when the Daily News asked the principal if Mays was an ideal role model for the students, the reporter was booted for asking "inappropriate questions."

"It's in the best interest of the children that you leave," said school counselor Wayne Harris, who threatened to call security."

Source

New York officialdom disowned the speaker but there was no word of any reprimand of the school officals for their attempt at press censorship. What would have happened if a white principal had tried to shield white racism?




Ya Gotta Laugh!



Remember the riots in much of the Islamic world about the Mohammed cartoons? Iran was of course a great source of protest at the time. But guess what? The Iranians themselves are now being subjected to riots over a cartoon!

Lots of Iranians think that one of their ethnic minorities -- the Azeris -- are dumb. And a cartoon was recently published in an Iranian newspaper that portrayed the Azeris as cockroaches! So: Big riots from the Azeris!

So the erring cartoonist has now been carted off to prison and the newspaper has been shut down by the Iranian authorities. Why? Because the mullahs fear that the USA might use the Azeris to stir up trouble against them! Details here and here

Pesky things, those cartoons. It sounds like lots of third worlders would die a death if they were exposed to the sort of fierce cartoons that appear in Australian newspapers. See this one about Australian blacks, for instance. Australians just turn the page. Even the Left can't be bothered. And nobody bothers about ones like this either, insulting though it is to Australians.