The Bigsibling Blog

but words will never hurt me.

Johnathan Derbyshire has an excellent article in the New York Sun regarding hate speech, actions and words and the difference between them all in his review of Jerome Neu’s book "Sticks and Stones: The Philosophy of Insults".

One of the things he says really hit the nail on the head for me:

Mr. Neu’s skepticism about hate speech legislation, speech codes, and blasphemy laws is grounded in a very Millian understanding of what is involved in upholding freedom of speech. We should, he argues, see certain kinds of discomfort, offended feelings, and so on as being among the unavoidable costs of free thought, inquiry, and argument. The Muslim protesters who besieged the office of the editor of Jyllands-Posten were entitled to his respect, but not his "submission." Failing to recognize that these are not the same threatens to make free expression itself the "victim."

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Somehow, the Aussies seem to get it. Their government officials don’t seem to be as frieghtened of being labeled “politically incorrect” as our own government officials. Personall, I’d just like to see someone running for office who wasn’t afraid to tell it like it is, warts and all.

A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia and her Queen at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his Ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown.
…
Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians.”
“However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the ‘politically correct’ crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others. I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to Australia ”

Head on over to SoHo’s and read the entire article. Very much worth reading.

For instance, all those people coming here, to America, because they like what America has to offer and what America stands for, then running around trying to change it to more or less mimic whatever place it was they came from. Do these idiots not realize, that what they LIKED about America enough to come here in the first place is that it is, in fact, NOT like where they came from? Sheesh

H/T SoHo

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*** CONTENT WARNING
THE CONTENTS OF THIS RANT CONTAIN WORDS THAT ARE VULGAR AND OFFENSIVE. WHILE I USUALLY KEEP MY POSTS CLEAN, AND RATHER ‘PG’ RATED, I FELT I COULD NOT RANT ABOUT THIS SUBJECT, AND MAINTAIN THAT COMPOSURE, SO I AM GIVING WARNING NOW. IF THE READER IS OFFENDED BY WORDS, PLEASE DO NOT READ FURTHER – YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ***

This is disturbing to me. Back in March the Guardian Unlimited reported the New York City council voted unanimously to ban the word ‘nigger’ from New York City. Yes, I know, it was a symbolic ban. And there is not teeth in the ban, and even if there were, there is no way to enforce the ban. And frankly, banning the word nigger is not really a problem. But what is coming out of that ban is a problem.

Read more »

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Photo of Greensburg aftermath stolen from the Associated Press (thanks in advance or not suing me!)

Greensburg, Kansas. For those who have had their heads in a hole, this was the town that, on Friday night, was wiped off the face of the earth by a 1.7 mile wide category EF-5 tornado with reported winds of over 200 miles per hour. That is faster than most NASCAR drivers travel.

Yesterday Kathleen Sebelius, the governer of Kansas was complaining about how there aren’t enough National Guard troops and equipment in Kansas to send proper aid to the folks in Greensburg because they are all in Iraq and Afganistan.

This morning on CNN, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) said that the state is missing vital National Guard equipment because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Usually the state has approximately 70-80 percent of its equipment at any given time, but it currently has just 40-50 percent. She added that these shortages “will just make it [recovery] that much slower.”

This sounds horrendous – unless you hear from the folks of Greensburg themselves.

Only hours after the town was flattened, [state senator Tim] Huelskamp said, people were already griping – not because the government wasn’t there with its porta-potties, but because they were there and in the way.

In Greensburg, the ‘first responders’ were not the federal government, or the state government, or the Red Cross, or Salvation Army or anyone else. In Greensburg, the ‘first-responders’ were the citizens of Greensburg, and those from neighboring towns, farms and ranches.

By the time any official government response was sent, the streets of Greensburg were already cleared. People were already being moved and cared for. The neighboring towns sent buses and cars and trucks with winches. They cleared the streets and accounted for everyone. Then the official first responders showed up and kept the good townsfolk of Greensburg et al. from doing what needed to be done.

“It’s a very unique situation,” she [Sharon Watson of the Kansas Emergency Management Office] explained. “It’s not like Katrina. The scale is smaller, but with Katrina, you still had something left. Here – it’s hard to comprehend, but here there is nothing. It’s a complete loss. So we have to make sure it’s safe.”

Well, just what would we do without the government around to protect us from ourselves? It seems to me the good folks of Greensburg had a handle on the situation, and the KEMO people should have sat back and watched and taken notes so they would know what to do in the future.

Yes, Greensburg, Kansas will be rebuilt. And it will cost the tax payers of the United States much less per capita than it would had this happened on either of the coasts. This is because the people who live in Greensburg are Kansans. They built the town the first time without any assistance from good ol’ Uncle Sam, and they’ll do it again. The folks of Greensburg still maintain the independent pioneer spirit that built this nation. The folks of Greensburg still buy into the John Wayne spirit. The rest of the nation could take a lesson from the good people of Greensburg, Kansas.

sources:
Netscape News – Sebelius: Iraq War Is Slowing National Guard’s Tornado Response
National Review Online – Blown Away?

Technorati Tags: Greensburg, Kansas, Tornado, Government, Response, Citizens, Neighbors

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Alec was an [unmentionable] and Hasselhoff is a drunk. So what?
Alec called his daughter a pig. What is the big deal? I mean, it isn’t like she is a Muslim or something that would make the name-calling so terribly wrong.

If there is any parent out there who says they have never lost their temper and said things to their kids that they shouldn’t have, they are either terrible parents, or liars. I have called my kids pigs. I call them that all the time. “What are you, a pig? Clean up that pig-sty of a room of yours.” Who hasn’t?

What parent has not gotten angry and lashed out with words. I’m not excusing Baldwin’s behavior, but really, it isn’t worth crucifying the guy over.

And why is it Hasselhoff is compared to Baldwin because Hasselhoff was drunk? I don’t get it. Baldwin was verbally abusive, Hasselhoff was just drunk. Normal, everyday things for most people. But when some celebrity displays normal everyday behavior, suddenly it is no good?

Puh-leeze.

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Yesterday was 1 May. Some may remember 1 May of 2006. That is the day where numerous immigrants, most of them Hispanic, and a great many of them who entered this country illegally, staged mass rallies, marches and demonstrations around the country demanding they be treated as legal citizens.

There are two ways to become a citizen of the United States of America. The obvious first way is to be born here. The second is to earn one’s citizenship by going through proper channels, following the laws of this land and contributing to society. People who enter the country illegally start off on the wrong foot already. Sure, they only want a better life for themselves and their children. But the exact same argument could be made by the bank robber. That argument doesn’t wash. The ends does not justify the means.

What ticked off so many Americans about the demonstrations last year, was that these people, who came here illegally, were demanding rights that were not theirs to demand. All the while they were flying the flags of their homeland, and cursing America and degrading the United States. Some were even calling for a large portion of the United States to be returned to Mexico. This kind of disrespect for my country makes me ashamed to be a beaner. They come here illegally, and refuse to learn the language, and refuse to assimilate into the American culture, and then are surprised that they are treated harshly?

Of course America needs immigrants. America was built by immigrants. It could be said that every man, woman and child in America either came from somewhere else, or their ancestors did. And don’t get with the Indians, because they came across the Aleutian land bridge millennea before whitey landed on the east coast. So yes, we are all immigrants, or descendants of immigrants. The difference being that most of our ancestors came here legally. They came with the proper papers and the learned the language and assimilated into the culture.

American culture is extremely unique in the world. When a group of immigrants comes into the country, we take their culture and merge it with our own. How else could one explain Italian restaurants in every town. St. Patrick’s Day parades across the nation. And Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo is a huge Mexican celebration. But everyone celebrates it. On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone is Irish for the day, on Cinco de Mayo, everyone is Mexican for the day.

The fact of the matter is, our lawmakers in Washington must take measures to secure the borders. Without secure borders, we cannot be a secure nation. Without secure borders, there is no point in trying to live the farce that we are a sovereign nation of laws. If we don’t secure the borders and create a simpler, more streamlined process by which people can obtain temporary work visas, then we are doomed.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” – Abraham Lincoln

We say that everyone should be treated equally, yet we turn a blind eye to the abusive and slave-like conditions in which the illegal migrant worker is forced to endure. We recently raised the minimum wage, but we did not raise the minimum wage for everyone. We raised the minimum wage only for those legal to live and work in the United States. The illegal immigrant is still paid next to nothing. They have no health insurance, they work for practically slave wages, and then to have those wages docked to help pay their ‘coyotes’ which brought them here. Many girls are forced into prostitution.

Those who advocate doing nothing to stem the tide of illegal immigration are promoting these abhorrent conditions. They are advocating for a permanent class of sub-standard persons. To me, as a beaner, this is unacceptable. Who cares if these people are forced to work in conditions that most people would not allow their dogs to live in? But hey, at least our lettuce is cheap – right?

Technorati Tags: Immigration, Illegal Immigrants, Border Fence, Slave Labor, Prosititution

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Why are people so surprised? When kids and others do bad, morally reprehensible things, why is there such surprise? Is this not exactly where society has been heading? When we, as a society, remove any moral code, when we claim anything can be justified, people will do bad things. There is nothing standing in the way to stop them. There are all sorts of stories, examples can be found here, and here, and here. These are just a sampling of the things people do. What astounds me is how people are so surprised at these actions.

In a world where we have removed any moral absolutes, where we have allowed the flimsiest of excuses to justify immoral behavior. Where society sends such mixed signals to its inhabitants, how can people be so shocked? When we let child rapists spend less than a year in jail because pedophilia is a ’sickness’, there by excusing the criminal for the crime.

Over the past several decades, society has lost its moral compass. Society says it is OK for people to do whatever they want as long as it can be somehow justified. In a discussion I had with a pure leftist, he was lamenting that society has let its moral compass go, but in the same breath declared there were no moral absolutes. I asked him about having sex with a 10 year old. He declared the act reprehensible, but if you were a mormon, and that was your belief, then it was ok. It is this kind of attitude, this kind of, anything-goes-as-long-as-you-can-justify-it mentallity that has driven people like the kid in Lewiston, Mn that threw a ham steak at some Muslim kids at his school. This is nuts. This should not have happened. This kid should have had the moral training that prevented this kind of behavior. This is stupidity in search of a crime. I can’t seem to equate a ham steak with a crime. Stupid, yes. Ignorant, yes. Prejudice, maybe. Offensive, definitely. Hateful? Probably not.

Kids are kids, they will be kids, they will always be mean and cruel. They were when I was in school, and they are now as my kids are in school. Kids tease people who are different. It is a fact of life. Kids pick on those that let themselves be picked on. It is the Darwinian nature of things. Survival of the fittest. For people who love the whole evolution thing, we, as a society, try to balk that trend every chance we get.

That is the culture we have raised them in. In the past 20 – 30 years kids have been told it is okay to behave the way you want to behave. We, as a society, are preaching that there are no moral absolutes. Wrong is not always wrong. If a kid does something bad, it is not his fault, but the fault of his environment, or his ADD or some other excuse. Wrong answers are not marked in red because it may damage self esteem.

With no moral right and wrongs, how is a kid to know that showing disrespect to their fellow students is wrong? We have brought these kids up with a belief that punishment for bad behavior is unacceptable. In a society that has misplaced its moral compass. We don’t teach kids morals any longer. So now, that kids have no morals, we are surprised when they behave immorally?

What I am getting at is that, as a society, we have gotten into the habit of not teaching kids any morals. Of not explaining basic courtesies, of not teaching them politeness. Society has found it acceptable that allowing kids to ‘grow into themselves’ is proper. Society has deemed it proper that girls should be called ‘hos’ and that there is noting wrong with advocating the destruction of human life. Society has found it ok for people to molest children and receive six month prison sentences. This is a societal problem. The general disregard for one’s fellow man.

And yes, there are absolute morals. There is such a thing as absolute right and wrong. There are actions that are wrong under any and all circumstances. By claiming there are no absolute morals, one is simply giving into, and feeding the contingents of society that want no moral judgments on anyone, anytime. But when a kid shows a piece of ham to a Muslim, well that is just morally wrong.

Can one see the dilemma here? Does one not get the contradictions in all of this? There are no moral absolutes…well, except for showing ham to a Muslim.

People say these things are reprehensible, but if one believes in living life that way, that makes it ok. This sends mixed messages. It is not OK to rape someone, unless you believe it is OK. It is not ok to have sex with a 10 year old, unless your are a Mormon, then it is OK.

Society at large sends these mixed messages, saying it is OK in insult Christians, but not OK to insult Muslims. It is OK for Mel Gibson to slam Jews, but not OK for Dom Imus to slander basketball players. It is OK for Carlos Mencia to say nigger, but not OK for Michael Richards. I find it astounding that people would be surprised by the actions of this kid with the ham steak, given that they don’t believe there is any action that is inherently wrong, as long as there are explanations or excuses to justify that action.

And yes, it does start with parents. Parents who were raised with a lackadaisical attitude to morality and absolute right and wrong, and who are perpetrating that same attitude, and more so, with their children. Parents who believe that anything is OK if it is only justified, and that anything can be justified with enough newpseak and explaining and stretching.

There are moral absolutes, because one refuses to see them does not make them not there.

Technorati Tags: Morality, Society, Culture, Moral Compass, Moral Absolutes

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Ever since a couple of weeks ago when Kathy Sierra was “cyber-bullied” into canceling an appearance, people have been debating on how to combat this type of activity. I even heard a PSA on the radio yesterday about cyber bullying.

Now Tim O’Reilly is creating what he calls a “Blogger’s Code of Conduct“.
I’m not going to go into it’s nuts and bolts. There are plenty of places around the web – both for and against – which dissect the code.

This is a knee-jerk reaction to someone getting their feelings hurt and being afraid. Seriously. I feel for Ms. Sierra. I am not a woman, so I could never imagine what it would be like to receive the kind of threats she has had to deal with. And I am in no way meaning to diminish what she has had to go through in this ordeal.

How can anyone really believe that this code of conduct thing would prevent this from happening in the future? How will a blogger subscribing to this code of conduct keep the blogger, or anyone else for that matter, safe and sound? Bloggers have the ability to moderate, edit and delete comments on their own sites.

Some of these comments were on Ms. Sierra’s own blog. She would have had to read these things if she moderated her comments anyway. Just because they don’t make it out into the general public, does not mean that they were not made.

Of course, what do I know? I’m just a bloke in fly-over country with a couple of readers and an opinion. But it does sound to me that a blogger handing control of their content over to a third party is rather…anti-American.

Technorati Tags: Kathy Sierra, Tim O’Reilly, Code of Conduct, Blogs, Bloggers

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I was watching the ABC morning show while walking my 1.5 mile treadmill walk at the gym this morning, and a segment came on that caught my interest. I can’t be 100% certain what all was said because I have trouble reading whatever language those transcribers type in for the closed captions, but it was about how restaurant food contains high calories.

Well…duh! It’s a restaurant for crying out loud. They were picking on a national chain, something like Red Robin or TGI Fridays or somewhere like that. They were reporting on how the chicken and broccoli pasta dish (which sounds healthy) contained 2100 calories while the gigantic monster burger had only 1950 calories.

This whole exercise was geared toward a movement to have nutritional information on restaurant menus. Because, as one might guess, people go to restaurants for their low-calorie fair, and not for good food and service.

This is just more nanny-stateism. And yes, I can fully and proudly state that I am an Anti-NannyStateist. It is more of this whole movement to remove personal responsibility from the individual person and shift it somewhere else. “It isn’t my fault I spilled coffee on my lap, it was the restaurant I bought the coffee at.” “It isn’t my fault I shot someone dead, it is the gun manufacturers’ fault.” “It isn’t my fault I drove drunk, Chevy knows that people drink and drive, and yet they make cars anyway.”

Once we as a people abolish individual responsibility for our own actions, we start on a dark and doomed path. The pendulum has got to start swinging the other way, and soon, or I truly fear for what kind of sissification will be indoctrinated into my grandchildren.

Thanks for visiting.

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Some may remember, back in the mid to late 1970’s, it seemed that everything caused cancer.  Milk had some cancer causing enzyme.  Saccharine killed lab rats by the dozens and was eventually banned.  Car fumes caused cancer.  Too much sun caused cancer.  Coca-Cola caused cancer.

Now, it is global warming.  It seems that everywhere one turns around, there is another factor that is causing global warming.  First it was the aerosols.  Then the cars, then smoking, now it is eating meat.  All of this, combined with the attempts to silence anyone who believes that global warming is a natural occurrence, and not solely man-made, makes one believe less and less in these ‘experts.’

“Arguably the best way to reduce global warming in our lifetimes is to reduce or eliminate our consumption of animal products,” writes Noam Mohr in a report for EarthSave International.

source

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