The Bigsibling Blog

In the small town of Aspen, CO- home to exceptional skiing and quaint shops (and formerly John Denver), a controversy has brewed. It appears there is a film on the internet titled “Judea Declares War on Germany.” I haven’t seen it, nor have I even heard of it before this recent flap. By the title, I am surmising the film bends towards the anti-Semitic and attempts to justify the Nazi led attempt at genocide.The controversy arrives courtesy of Steve Campbell of Glenwood Springs, CO. He asked local television station GrassRoots TV to air the film. Knowing the film would be extremely controversial, the station’s board of directors opened the subject for debate. Most people haven’t seen the film, but believe it is a film depicting denial of the holocaust. But Campbell says the film does not deny the holocaust, but tries to show other evidence that is not widely discussed.

It seems to me, by the title and the description given by Campbell, that the film is severely titled against the Jews. An attempt to justify the attempted genocide by Nazi Germany. Of course, if the people who believe in censorship have their way, the good folks in Roaring Fork Valley may never know what the film depicts.

Believe me, I can understand, and have a hard time not siding with, the good, decent, upstanding folks who don’t want this film aired. More than the likely the film is not more than a pack of vile, disgusting half-truths and out-and-out lies. But does that mean it should be banned? It was banned in Australia already. Of course, it can’t be shown in France or Germany because holocaust denial is actually a crime in those places. Are we to do that here as well? Are we to make a crime out of exercising one’s free speech?

While the Constitution of the United States of America guarantees us, each and every one of us, free speech, it guarantees nothing in the way of a forum for that speech. It does not dictate that every television or radio station or newspaper or magazine must broadcast our speech, or give any air or print time to that speech. So while the GrassRoots TV station will be completely within its rights to not air the film, I tend to think along the lines of Harvie Branscomb who, at the meeting, declared:

“I’m scared of information totalitarianism.”

As well as Sheila Markowitz, of Glenwood Springs, CO who, at the same meeting, stated:

“I am afraid when I’m told I can’t see something, I would rather have this be seen and let people decide.”

Look, people by and large are not idiots. Even the lefties out in Aspen, CO are not idiots. Heck, if they can afford to live in Aspen, they have to be doing something right. By refusing to allow this film to be seen, the board is telling the folks of Roaring Fork Valley that they are too stupid to know what is truth and what is fiction. That they are so stupid they will all suddenly become skinheads just by watching this film.

I know this much, if someone says that I can’t watch a film or read a book because it is bad for me, I’m pretty much going to run out and do just that. I would have to see what is so bad that it required being banned. I remember the movie “Children of the Damned” when I was quite a bit younger. I remember wanting so badly to see that movie because the newspaper adverts declared in big bold letters “Banned in Cleveland” – or it could have been Chicago, or some other city, but that isn’t the point – the point is, by declaring that movie to be banned I just had to see the movie! I had to see what it was about. I didn’t like the movie much as I recall, it seemed fairly banal. But it got me to see it.

Now I’m probably going to feel the inexplicable need to hunt down this movie and watch it. Just because the government of Australia says their citizens can’t, and even more so because it seems like the board of directors at GrassRoots TV will also tell their viewing audience they can’t see it either. I’m pretty sure I can find the thing on the YouTube.
source

Technorati Tags: GrassRoots TV, Aspen, Glenwood Springs, Colorado, Judea Declares War on Germany, Holocaust, Steve Campbell

Stumble it!

I feel bad for my kids. I really do. It has to suck to be a kid in this day and age. First, one learns in kindergarten they have to be wary of who they speak with and how they touch them. We have seen incidents where five year old kids are charged with sexual harassment because they give their kindergarten teacher a hug. Or because they give another school mate a hug or a peck on the cheek.

Add to this the fact that now, at Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park, ILL kids are not even allowed to hug anyone on school grounds…at all….ever. Hugging, banned. I try to wrap my mind around this whole deal, but I am miserably failiing. The reason, according to the principal, is because some students were forming what she called “hugging lines” in the hallways, giving each other hugs and making it difficult for some kids to get through the hallways. Okay, sure, there is a problem there, but really, is banning hugs the answer? Sadly, Victoria Sharts (the principal – I don’t think, in this case, ‘your principal is your ‘pal’ really fits here), believes that people should only hug at airports and family renuions. That makes me sad, really. That this lady is so devoid of emotion and any kind of caring human contact that she feels hugs are inappropriate anywhere by an airport or family reunion. It makes me wonder how such a cold person could be in charge of a middle school.

In addition to the hugging thing, over to the left a bit, and down the map we look at Colorado Springs, CO. There, the elementary schools have banned the age old game of tag. Yes, that is correct, it is not unlawful to play tag at recess in Colorado Springs, CO. It seems that some kids that played tag, didn’t want to be chased. So instead of telling the kids “don’t play tag” they just ban the whole shebang. It is like the little girl several years back who was being charged with assault for hitting a kid with a ball while they were playing…dodgeball. If one doesn’t want to be hit with a ball, don’t play dodgeball. If one doesn’t want to be chased, don’t play tag. But instead of just telling the kid not to play tag, the make it so no one can play tag. I suppose that way the kid who didn’t like being chased doesn’t feel like an outsider. Heck no, they probably just feel ostracized now. I know what my kids are like. And if this had happened to them, the whiny cry-baby kid would certainly not be welcome in any other games played. They would go out of their way to keep away from him. After all, if the kid is slow, does that mean a foot race is no longer a valid option at recess?

And what, to many kids, is one of the greatest holidays of all time is under attack as well. The holiday where kids get loads of candy, don’t have to be good, don’t have to wait for some bearded fat man, and can wear a disguise. Yes, I’m speaking of Halloween. The Kohl Elementary School in Broomfield, CO (again with the Coloradoans – when I lived there, we used to joke that Colorado was being Californicated – I guess that is over and the Californicators have won) has eliminated their Halloween celebration. In its place is – you guessed it – a “Fall Festival”. What the heck is a Fall Festival? And why are we celebrating the Fall? What does the Fall do that is so special it requires a festival? My guess is, some dimwitted parents of some kid complained that Halloween – for whatever reason – was simply inappropriate. So, in order to be ‘inclusive’ the school scraps Halloween, and replaces with this some crap festival. It seems to me it would have been better to just scrap the whole thing altogether. Not have any celebration in the fall. It isn’t like the kids are not going to celebrate Halloween anyway. They are still going to dress up in costumes and go trick or treating. They are still going to stay up light on 31 October eating way too much candy. The only thing this accomplishes is 1) kids don’t get to wear their costumes to school and 2) teachers have to come up with some lame excuse as to why they are having a great big party on 5 Oct.

No way. For all those who think they would like a second go ’round at youth, you can have it, I don’t want it. When I was a kid, we ran the neighborhood. In school we played tag, and dodgeball, and we had schoolyard fights. And you know what? Never were the police called. Not once was a kid arrested or accused or charged with anything. Usually we ended up in the principal’s office. And later that night we would end up on the wrong side of dad’s belt. But today? No way Jose. I’ll leave the mess that is childhood today to the kids.

Technorati Tags: Broomfield Colorado, Colorado Springs, Oak Park Illinois, childhood, youth, elemtary school, middle school, grade school

Stumble it!

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

Stumble it!

I’m shocked! SHOCKED I tell you, that the freedom loving defenders of free speech like the Revs Sharpton and Jackson are calling for the tar-and-feathering of Don Imus (okay, that was sarcastic, I’m not really shocked…it was expected).

Everyone who currently has a pulse has heard about the Don Imus
debacle. It seems Imus, on his morning radio program, called the
ladies of Rutger’s basketball team “nappy-haired hos” or something
along those lines (I’m paraphrasing).

Personally, I cannot honestly say that I have ever listened to Imus. It is possible that I captured some of this stuff while simply surfing around the radio on long drives or something like that. But I’ve never actually tuned in to hear what he had to say. What I’m saying is, I don’t know what this guy is about. I don’t know if he is political, and if so, which way he leans or if he leans at all.

What I do know is that in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, one has the right to free speech. But one does not have any right whatsoever to NOT be offended. This is the bottom line.  People are screaming for Imus to be fired. Should he be? No. He should not be fired for being a idiot. What should (and probably will happen) is for his advertisers to pull out. Quit advertising on the show, then the show will no longer be profitable, and whoever it is that produces his show will have to cancel the show due to lack of advertisers. When people start getting fired because they say something stupid or offensive, this land of free speech takes a grievous turn in the wrong direction.

Technorati Tags: Don Imus, Rutgers, Free Speech

Stumble it!

Fashion designer Julien Macdonald has some gonads. In this day and age, to create a fashion show that is mostly fur…that’s real fur, not that fake faux fur crap, takes some guts.  In response to his show, PETA says “Every year tens of thousands of animals will be killed for Julien’s collections.” – Ummm….so?

source 

Stumble it!

I’m no fan of Kevin Federline (you know, the soon-to-be former Mr. Britney Spears).  In fact, if he dropped off the face of the earth, I would be the first in line to not shed any tears.  But I believe he is coming under some unfair criticism for appearing in a Nationwide Insurance Super Bowl commercial.

In the commercial K-Fed is rapping his little heart out, all jacked with bling and shiney things and hot girls.  Then he wakes up and finds it was all a dream, and he is actually working in a fast food place, his manager yelling at him.

Enter the National Restaurant Association.  They are whining that K-Fed is implying that working in the restaurant industry is demeaning and unpleasant. Umm…hello?  Is there anybody ther at the restaurant place?  First off, K-Fed is not working at a restaurant, he is working at a fast food joint.

Frankly, for anyone 28 years old, and working at a fast food joint, I would hope to hell he feels demeaned.  Working as a burger flipper in a fast food dump is an unpleasant experience.  It’s kids work.  Work you get when you’re 16 and you need to put gas in your car so you can take your girl to the movies next weekend.  It’s not a career.  At least not for normal people.  

Sure there are the management types in those places, and people do make a career as fast food eatery managers, and probably pretty good careers. But that is not the role K-Fed plays in the commerical.  He’s the guy that asks “you want fries with that?”.

There is a reason that Oxford’s English Dictionary puts the definition of “low paying dead end job” as a “McJob.”  I mean, c’mon people.  Grow a sense of humor and realize that this company is not poking fun of people who work in real restaurants.

source

Tech Tags: Federline Nationwide Super Bowl commericial fast food

Stumble it!

It is not enough that people are tolerated.  They must be…well…I don’t know what.  But for a couple of students at William & Mary University, being tolerated will simply not due.  A couple of the Einsteins that attend the second oldest university in the nation have whined and complained about a cross that is (was) prominantly displayed in the college’s *gasp* chapel.  It seems that when the pansy ass whiners went into the chapel they felt mearly tolerated by the presence of the cross.

The cross has since been removed from the chapel and the chapel is now just a building until one of those pesky Christians wants to use it for something akin to what it was built for.  Then they put the cross back up – until those darned Christians leave, then it can go back to being just a building that used to be a chapel.

Maybe these whiny Hawkings don’t realize that W&M was founded by the Anglicans.  Or more likely, they just don’t give a damn about history and all that jazz.  Nice to know that there are plenty of schools my kids can attend besides W&M.  I really do want my kids to get a good education, not something like what is apperantly given at W&M.

All of this begs the question, why on earth go into a Christian chapel and be flabergasted that it contains a cross?  Maybe it’s because I didn’t go to such an elite school that common sense tells me, if I go into a synagogue, I’m going to see Jewish symbols.  If I go into a moque, I’m going to see Islamic symbols, and if I go into the Temple of Diana, I’m going to see pagan symbols. But for some reason when one enters a Christian chapel, they do not expect Christian symbols?

Maybe these whiny Hawkings don’t realize that W&M was founded by the Anglicans.  Or more likely, they just don’t give a damn about history and all that jazz.  Nice to know that there are plenty of schools my kids can attend besides W&M.  I really do want my kids to get a good education, not something like what is apperantly given at W&M.

I just don’t get it.

source

Tech Tags: William & Mary university tolerance christian cross chapel intolerance

Stumble it!