The Bigsibling Blog

More on government trying to run private businesses. kowtowing to special interests to the detriment of industry – and all of us. The senate has recently passed a bill mandating a 40% increase in mileage for all cars, SUVs and trucks by 2020, and requiring huge increases in the production of ethanol.

What I am seeing here is, “it doesn’t matter what the consequences are to industry or the individual, we are going to make theses requirements.” Other than using diesel, I don’t see how a 1 ton dually is going to get the mandated 35 MPG and still have enough power and torque to do what it needs to do.

The other part is what bothers me the most; that is the requirement for increases in ethanol production. Who are they requiring to produce it? And does it matter whether the companies forced into this production can profit from it? I don’t think the Dems care whether anyone can profit from it. As long as it satisfies the special interests and kowtows to faithful follower of the Church of AlGoreism and their global warming brouhaha.

By what right? By what right to people who have not financial stake in whether a company lives or dies, make decisions on how that company should be run or what it should produce? Is that some innate right that people have? To be able to force industry to bend to their will, not by supporting or rejecting what that industry produces, but by sheer force of want or need?

When did this happen in America? When is it that the needs of someone outweighed reason and common sense? Just because one needs ethanol, why is it that a company is obligated to make it for them? Why can’t they make their own ethanol? Why is it that they must force another to supply their needs? Whatever happened to fulfilling one’s own needs? Where did that go? If I need a glass of water, I get up and get myself a glass of water. I don’t call the police or the fire department to come over and get me a glass of water. They are there to fulfill needs, why can’t they fulfill this need of mine? It is utterly ridiculous what is happening.

Thanks for visiting, I really do appreciate it. And I apologize for being gone the last 10 days or so. But you know…

Technorati Tags: Socialism, Congress, Gas Mileage, MPG, legislation

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Some people will refuse to see the growing trend, and thus the growing problem. Some will cheer this trend as a giant leap in diversity, or multi-cultural ism or what-not. Others will cheer this trend as something that is long overdue and with particular glee since the trend is decidedly anti-Christian. The trend I am speaking of is the Islamification of North America. It is starting, of course, in Canada. I say ‘of course in Canada’, not because of any ill feelings to the Canucks. I have some very good friends that are ex-pat Canucks. I have spent quite a bit of time in Canada traversing the Al-Can highway, and spending time in little towns waiting for auto parts for a broken down motor home, but that is another tale.

I say ‘of course in Canada’, because the Canadian government, by and large, is what can be defined as a ’secular progressive’ government. That is, they are more and more of the ideology that everyone is OK, no one is bad – it is their environment that made them do bad things. That they must do everything for everyone. Cradle to grave entitlements are the better way to go, everyone who has their own language, and doesn’t want to learn the language of the majority, can demand that all signs and packaging support their own language. And so on and so forth.

A group of Muslim students in Canada banded together and form the “Task Force on Needs of Muslim Students.” Boiled down, what they are after is for everyone to kow-tow to their demands. Their demands enforce, in essence, Sharia law, the law of the Koran. Their list of demands are long and vast. Their list of demands include indoctrination of non Muslims and the edict that all non Muslims interact with Muslims the way Muslims want to be interacted with. In short, it seems the Muslim students are saying it does not matter if one is a Muslim or not, as long as they act the way Muslims act, it is okay (for now anyway).

They cite the experiences of some Muslims to support their demands. Some Muslims feel put upon and unwelcome.

“A participant from the University of Windsor wearing the hijab echoed this sentiment: ‘I feel that other students are not welcoming…’”

While this may seem bad, there are many, many people, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, who feel unwelcome by others. To single this out as a Muslim problem is terribly arrogant and exhibits a great degree of narrow-sightedness.

“Regular prayer is a fundamental tenet of Islam. It is common practice for Muslims to pray 5 times a day at specified intervals. Such practices can significantly overlap with students’ time on campus and in class. Participants of the Task Force’s campus hearings regularly outlined conflicts between prayer and their in-class academic obligations often with consequences to participation marks and tests or assignments.”

I am uncertain of what universities in Canada are like, but in the US, university students generally chose their own schedules. Classes are offered at a variety of times and days to accommodate the schedules of students. It is very easy for a student to simply not take a class at a time that will interfere with their prayers. Short of that, they student has to make a decision on whether they want to pray, or go to class. The choice is theirs. The universities are in place to offer people the opportunity to obtain an education. The universities are not there to ensure that everyone’s special needs are met and accommodated and that their class schedules flow around each specific groups’ wants and needs.

“…an institution is required to evaluate the needs of a group, including accommodations for religious observances and holidays.

Most participants of the Task Force’s campus hearings lamented that Islamic holidays are not recognised by their institution. Eid ul-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, and Eid ul-Adha, were most frequently mentioned as a day that students would like to be recognised.”

Simply put universities cannot recognize the holidays of all the different religious groups. If they did, there would be no time for students to actually learn something. Currently, some universities recognize the holidays for the predominate religion. That is, the religion of the majority. If there were a university where the religion of the majority of the students was Islam, then the university would recognize that religions holidays, to the exclusion of others. Somehow, I don’t believe that the Christians would be whining about having to go to class on All Saints Day.

“…students reported the frequent experience that when stereotypical views of Islam were discussed, they were commonly accepted and not challenged by professors or other students.”

There is a difference between not challenging something, and accepting it. But it looks like, if you don’t stand up and declare Islam to be a good and hearty religion, that is correct and above all others, then you are accepting the stereotypes placed on the religion.

And this is where it really gets tricky:

“Students stressed a desire to see curricula place a greater emphasis on representing Islam,…
Specifically, suggestions included more courses on Islam and consideration of Islamic history, themes of the Quran, and the Islamic world today.”

This is at the root of all of their demands. They want to indoctrinate regular students into Islam. They want to make sure that every student and teacher on campus has a positive view of Islam. If one does not agree with Islam, or believe in Allah, they are Islamophobes. If one says that Jesus is the saviour, and Muhommad a false prophet, they are Islamophobes. To these people, the people who want to change, by force, the minds all people, whomever does not believe in Islam, whomever does not hold the view that Islam is the end all and be all, is an Islamophobe, and should be dealt with as such.

This is their list of demands.

• Recognise at the administrative level, the institution’s obligation to accommodate the needs of Muslim students in a way that is consistent with the Ontario Human Rights Code.
• Expand awareness and educational anti-racism campaigns to target Islamophobia on campus.
• Encourage students who have experienced Islamophobic and racist acts to immediately register that with the appropriate campus office (security, equity services, ombuds, etc.) and the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
• Students’ unions and Muslim students’ associations should be familiar with reporting mechanisms at the institutional level and through the Ontario Human Rights Commission in order to help encourage and facilitate a culture of reporting Islamophobia and racism on campus.
• Institutions and their security staff should take seriously and promptly address reports of Islamophobic incidents.
• Statistics regarding the number of Islamophobic complaints and their nature should be compiled and maintained by the institution, the Ontario Human Rights Commission, students’ unions, and other relevant bodies.
• Conduct a review of institutional policies that relate to discriminatory practices to ensure sufficiency in dealing with Islamophobic incidents and creating a permanently safe and welcoming environment.
• Convene meetings among relevant administrators, students’ unions, Muslim students’ associations, faculty associations, and the campus media to recognise the collective responsibility to identify and stop Islamophobia and racism on campus.
• In consultation with students, develop a institutional response to Islamophobia and a plan to streamline, and make more effective, reporting mechanisms for Islamophobic acts.
• Improve and enhance institutional counselling services to properly address Muslim students’ needs by, for example, hiring Muslim chaplains, similar to those that exist for other denominations.
• Implement mentorship initiatives to connect new students to students of similar faith.
• Develop training modules on Islamophobia for campus security and maintenance staff. Islamophobic graffiti, for example, should not be removed until it has been properly documented by security staff.
• Students’ unions, Muslim students’ associations, and campus women’s centres should promote the right of all women, especially Muslim women, to participate in campus activities free of discrimination and misinformed stereotypes.
• Notify offices of human rights and anti-discrimination on campus of factual errors and prejudicial depictions in the campus media and encourage campus publications to acknowledge the problem and remedy damage done.
• Students should continue to critique media analysis of Islam and Muslim students via letters to their local and student newspapers.
• Encourage Muslim students and faculty to write for their student or community newspapers and other communications materials.
• Increase and institute recognition of religious observances on campus and in college and university policy by ensuring that information on Muslim religious observances is available to college/university administrators, faculty, academic and support staff, and students.
• Send out memoranda to professors and teaching staff in advance of religious holidays and observances.
• Increase flexibility for assignment due dates and exam scheduling to minimise or eliminate overlap with Friday prayer. Make provisions for alternate academic arrangements that are not more onerous than regularly scheduled assignments should be made.
• Ensure that students are not penalised for missed class or lab time associated with religious observances.
• Integrate education modules on Islam and Islamophobia into training sessions for general teaching staff.
• Institutional academic bodies should seek to ensure more courses offered on Islamic studies and Muslim culture.
• Require academic instructors to rely on resource materials for courses on Islam that are based on evidence and scholarship.
• Ensure diversity within course materials. Ensure that materials discussed in the classroom meet academic standards or be presented in the context of academic analysis.
• Teaching staff should not target discussion of Islam to Muslim students in the class and
  Muslim students should not be made to feel that they are subject of class discussions regarding Islam.
• Train teaching staff in anti-racist teaching practices and methods for identifying and responding to racism and conflict in the classroom.
• Encourage Muslim graduates to consider working within academia.
• Extend equity considerations in hiring to include Muslim candidates.
• Promote the retention of Muslim faculty by ensuring a positive work environment.
• Federal and Ontario student financial aid that is delivered through the Canada Student Loans Program and Ontario Student Assistance Program respectively should reduce reliance on a loan-based financial aid system.
• Governments should reduce financial barriers for students through tuition fee protection in the form of tuition fee freezes and reductions along with targeted financial aid delivered through need-based grants.
• Income contingent loan repayment and other forms of regressive financial aid schemes should be rejected by policy makers.
• Education related government loans should not accumulate interest, even after graduation.
• Ensure that adequate prayer space is acknowledged as a human rights issue and made available by the institution.
• Develop a campus plan that involves students and ensures multiple prayer spaces across campus for easy access from all points and that new building plans account for prayer space and ablution washing facilities if necessary.
• With involvement of students, conduct regular audits of the adequacy and availability of prayer space facilities including the size, convenience of locations, ablution washing facilities and separate accommodation for women.
• Make prayer space audit results publicly available, especially to new students who need them in order decide where to study.
• Ensure permanency, upkeep, and proper location of prayer space on campus.
• Conduct a food service audit with campus food services to assess kitchen facilities and food service delivery processes to determine areas of implementation and improvement of halal food provisions.
• Universities should expand their food choices on campus and provide more halal options, especially in residence cafeterias and food services. Halal food should be provided at the same quality and costs as non-halal food.
• Clearly identify halal options on menus and in campus food service facilities. Ensure clear labelling of halal food, and food ingredients.
• Improve training of food service staff in the preparation of halal food, including training food service employees to change sanitary gloves and wash cutlery and surfaces after preparing non-halal food.
• Include a requirement to provide halal food and halal practices in any new contracts with food service providers. Modify existing contracts to provide both halal food and halal practices.
• Create standard policy to allow Muslim students to bring outside food options for larger catered events, including allowances for Muslim students to bring in culturally appropriate food on Iftar and other religious holidays.
• Ensure that orientation planning is open to, and reflective of, Muslim students and their organisations.
• Provide inclusively training for orientation event organisers.
• Include in orientation packages and summer mailouts the information necessary for Muslim students to properly access necessary campus and community services, such as local mosques, prayer room locations, Muslim students’ associations and central students’ unions’ contact information and opportunities to meet with Muslim students who attend college or university for mentorship and advice.
• Include dry options in events and programmes, where alcohol is not served. Events in the evening can, for example, be “dry” for the first hour or so before making alcohol available.
• Liaise with responsible university officials to determine decision-making structures for scheduling athletics and recreation facilities.
• Conduct a student survey on athletic requirements to determine the need for gender specific hours including a use assessment of athletic facilities (i.e. identifying peak and off-peak hours, usage, etc.).
• Improve access and athletic facilities for Muslim women students.
• Provide women-only gym time. Provide curtains or screens over the observation windows looking into the swimming pool during women-only swim times.
• Ensure that more Muslim dons are hired for campus residence, or contact information for Muslim dons at the residence complex be made available.
• Provide training for residence dons and general information to residence occupants about the needs of Muslim students, especially as they pertain to alcohol.
• Increase availability of halal food in residence and allow flexibility for students to prepare their own food.
  Allow Muslim students to opt-out of mandatory meal plans where insufficient halal options exist.
• Institute alcohol-free residences on campus.
• Implement equity and diversity programming in campus events, including those organised by campus students’ unions and administrations.
• Cross promote student union and Muslim Students’ Association services.
• Ensure proper funding of central students’ unions and Muslim students’ associations to properly service Muslim students.

Some of these demands are not too far out. For instance, the food. I don’t see it as unreasonable that the university offer halal food, like they do now for kosher food. But some of these, c’mon now. Zero interest loans because Muslims don’t believe in paying interest? WTF is that? Alcohol-free residences? I understand that Muslims do not partake in alcohol, by why does that mean that no one else can partake? I am not seeing the reasoning here, unless it is to force others to conform to the beliefs of the Muslims (but that can’t possibly be it…can it?).

This next quote gives a very real glimpse of what we are looking at:

“‘Even though I haven’t, myself, experienced any physical acts of aggression or any outright Islamophobic comments, it feels like there is a measure of mistrust and suspicion and undue attention to my personal appearance.’”

Translated from newspeak into real English it reads, while nobody has treated me different, I know they are thinking about me differently.

People will undoubtedly read this and mark me as an Islamophobe. Fact is, I am no Islamophobe. The fact that I do not agree with the Islam religion, or its teachings and laws does not make me an Islamophobe. It does not make me a racist. I do not agree with the gay lifestyle either, and believe that it is wrong. That does not make me a homophobe. Frankly, I could care less if one wants to practice their religion in anyway they see fit…as long as it does not impact me, I don’t give a flying leap. One can worship the devil, they can dance around in the woods naked worshipping Diana, they can throw chicken bones in a circle and recite voodoo cantations to their hearts delight. I don’t care.

What I do care is when those worshiping Diana want to dance around naked in the city park. Or the voodoo folks start throwing chicken bones on my doorstep. Or when I have to make special arrangement, on my dime and my time for someone to pray the way they want to pray. I should not be forced to build a prayer facility with my tax dollars…for anyone, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrianism anything. I should not be forced to change my own standard or way of living, to accommodate your choices. And yes, I said choices. Religion, folks, is a choice. One chooses to follow a certain religion. One chooses to pray and participate in whatever religion they belong to. I should not be required to be inconvenienced in any way shape or form because of the choices made by others.

People do not have a right to ‘feel welcomed.’ People do not have a guarantee to be ‘included’ or not to feel ostracized. While it would be nice if we could all be like kindergartners, where no one really cared who you were or where you were from, only if you were nice to play with, that is not the way of the world. People today are expecting too often to be coddled and cared for some reason or another, if someone is in the minority, the majority must do whatever it can, must make whatever sacrifices are required of it, in order that the feelings of the minority are upheld and that the minority does not lose their self esteem.

Thanks to LadyPredator for bringing up this story.

You can read/download the Final Report in PDF format (56 pages).

Technorati Tags:
Islam,Canada,Students,Sharia,Koran,Muslim,Comply,Force,Pray,Hijab,Demands

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Reason wins out in California…at least it gains a small victory, but not quite an outright victory.

California Democrat Sally Lieber re-vamped her bill which would have outlawed spanking children under 3 years old.  It’s been replaced with specific violations parents could commit while disciplining their children.

It is important to note that there is a difference between discipline and abuse.  Her bill lowers the threshold for abuse, and defines as abuse;

use of a stick, rod or belt to hit a child, striking a child with a
closed fist, and striking a child under the age of 3 years old on the
face or hand

Some of them I can see.  Hitting a kid with a closed fist, regardless of his age, is wrong.  That is plainly and simply abuse.  But using a build or rod?  No, while that can be abusive, so can the form of discipline loved by the libs – the time out.  A time out can be just as abused as corporal punishment with a belt.

Check any metro newspaper and one can find stories about kids being locked in their rooms, or a garage or a shed for hours, even days at a stretch.  But this bill would not prohibit that. 

Instead, Ms. Lieber tends to believe she knows how better to raise children than parents do.  If the current state of the populous of California is any indication of the proper way to raise children, I’ll pass thank you very much.  What we don’t need is a country full of people who engage in the same type of thinking as the people of California.

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Technorati Tags: Parenting, Rights, Stupid Laws

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One of the great things about living in Kansas is that a lot of the cow-pattie-like political correctness crap just doesn’t touch us much.  Sure there is the occasional infraction, but for the most part, Kansans just want to be left alone to do their job, raise their kids and live their lives.
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Now, this legistlator, David Wysong, from Mission Hills, KS wants to ban smoking in all inside places – except private homes.  For those who don’t know, Mission Hills is in Johnson County.  Johnson County is where the money is.  The people there are, for the most part, rather snooty.  Of course, they know what is best for everyone based on what they think is best for themselves.
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Mr. Wysong has recently lost several family members to cancer.  He feels very strongly about the whole thing.  And while I sympathize with his loss, his mandate that everyone act as he would have them act is a little way overboard.  No one forced his family members to smoke, or to frequent businesses which allow msoking in their buildings.  Not one person forced his family members to injest any second-hand smoke.  If they found themselves in a situation where they were taking in smoke, there was nothing to prevent them from leaving.
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Look, I understand all the studies that second hand smoke is problematic.  I don’t discount that.  What I do have a problem with the state running private businesses.  If business owners don’t want patrons smoking in their place, they have every right to ban it in their establishment.  Look at just about any fast food restaurant.  No government entity told McDonald’s that they had to prohibit smoking, but they did and I don’t think they lost any money over it either.
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In fact, if what the legistlators want us to believe is true – that business income will increase with more non-smokers frequenting smoke-free establishments – then they shouldn’t even need to make a law saying one has to prohibit smoking in a business.  Businesses will do whatever they have to do, make whatever changes they have to make, to remain competative and in business.  If prohibiting smoking in a place will truly increase revenues, then I believe business owners would volutnarily do so.
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Basically, they need to stay out of business.  Who was it that said “The government which governs least, governs best”?  Oh, right, Thomas Jefferson.  Man,for a Virginian, that guy was pretty smart.

This just in, as almost tailor made for this post, NPR’s “All Things Considered” aired this story on the drive home today.  It seems that three Chicago area suburbs are considering lifting the smoking bans enacted this year so they can “review the policy.”  Funny how that happens just before the big Bears playoff game.  Considering how they dind’t give a crap about the bar owners when the ban went into effect 2 Januray 2007.  The bars have complained they have lost up to 50% of their revenue as folks either go to another suburb that doesn’t have a ban, or just plain stay home.

Topeka Captial Journal
NPR

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Coming soon to a radio near you, stuff you don’t want to hear anyway.  Radio is a business.  Radio station owners are in the business to make money.  If they don’t make money, they don’t survive.  The way radio stations generate income is by advertising.  They can charge for advertising, whatever the market bears.  

The ad prices are determined by how many listeners the radio station has at any given time.  For instance, if the radio station holds 250,000 listeners during the 12:00 to 14:00 time frame, they can charge more for their advertising than they can for the 20:00 to 22:00 time slot which only holds about 75,000 listeners.

This all makes perfect sense to anyone who has a radio station, or a product to sell.  If one wants to reach the maximum amount of people at any given time, they have to pay a premiumm.

Enter Congressman Dennis Kucinich.  This guy wants to revive the “Fairness Doctrine.”  The Fairness Doctrine was eliminated in 1987 because it was…well…unfair to radio station owners.  Basically, the Fairness Doctrine states that for every hour of opinion it broadcasts on one side of a subject, it must broadcast an hour of the opposing viewpoint.

This, on the surface, seems like it might be (stealing from Fox News) Fair and Balanced.  Now, everyone knows that talk radio is bombarded with right wingers.  From Rush, to Sean, to Levin, to who knows who else.  And there was a liberal radio network setup over a year ago called “Air America”, which failed miserably because they couldn’t generate the ad revenue because not enough people listened to it.

But it doesn’t matter to the likes of Kucinich.  His real goal is to shut up the likes of Rush and Hannity and Levin and how ever else is out there spouting stuff he doens’t want the rest of the country hear.

Look for his future bills to be announced soon, including the “Equalization of Opportunity Act” which will restrict how many industries any one person can be involved in.  And the “Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog Bill” which will dictate that if someone has a somewhat profitable business in one location, a competing business cannot open up shop to compete with the established business.

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The secularlists are at it again.  They are pressuring Philadelphia to punish the Boy Scouts of America for excercising the rights granted to them by the Constitution.  The Philly city council says since the Boy Scouts don’t accept homos as leaders or scouts, then they have to vacate the building that they have been operating out of since 1928.
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Here is the kicker, tell me if you find this at all ironic – back in 1928, the City of Philadelphia built the building, named the “Bruce S. Marks Scout Rescource Center” for the specific purpose of giving the Scouts a place of their own.  The Scouts have enjoyed the facilities rent-free.
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But, because they stand for moral values and dare to make moral judgements, the Scouts are penalized.  In a world that is increasingly dominated by the secularist ‘anything goes’ crowd, this is to be expected.  It rings of something that might have been written by Ayn Rand.

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