Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Blame the Censors

When I think back on my life and wonder what lead me to want to be a writer or feel the way I do about certain things, I think about certain turning points in my childhood. One thing I clearly remember was something that happened in the mid 1960s. I was just a little kid then and a big fan of Saturday morning cartoons. Especially Jonny Quest, the Herculoids and some other action shows.

As a consequence of the Vietnam War, a bunch of lefty parents decided that kids should not be exposed to violence on television and the culture, because they claimed boys would grow up to be war-like. So they pressured toy makers to limit or ban toy guns. And they managed to get “violent cartoons” off the air (in other words, the ones I liked) to be replaced by tame, lame crap such as this junk. I was so offended by this junk, I raged about the injustice of these handful of people effecting the stuff I loved.

How could a small group of people have so much power over other people’s interests? That was my first lesson in the power of pressure groups.

I was only 11 in 1968, but I can tell you it pissed me off. So much so that to this day I have a deep abiding dislike for censors and political correctness.

Whatever happens to you as a kid has an effect on your later life. And even though I have outgrown those cartoons of my youth (I have checked them out on Boomerang and I still think they are way, way more imaginative and entertaining than that 1968 drivel and much of what followed), I am still dedicated to opposing the forces of repression. And that includes those who try to tell people what they should think, by banning what they can see, read or watch.  The actions of those self righteous parent groups in the 60s made me a libertarian at age 11.

I will keep fighting their ilk until the day die. 

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Monday, April 14, 2008

End Misandry Now

Advertising Age sends a message to advertisers. Stop bashing men and fathers. It seems like every ad portrays men as stupid, dumb asses who need women to tell them what to do. It’s like a reversal of the stereotypes of women in the 60s. Now people are talking back.

The way the advertising industry portrays men has drawn increasing scrutiny in both the trade press and the mainstream media. Defenders of the status quo—in which men are depicted as irresponsible fathers and lazy, foolish husbands—are starting to feel outnumbered. It’s an understandable feeling.

In 2005, Bob Jeffery, chairman of JWT, said his agency had committed itself to developing “smart, positive portrayals of the modern man.” Meanwhile, anti-male ads have been criticized by, among others: Marian Salzman, chief marketing officer of Porter Novelli; Mark Tungate, author of “Branded Male: Marketing to Men”; syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, whose weekly columns appear in 300 newspapers; TV host Bill Maher; CBS News anchor Charles Osgood; nationally syndicated radio-talk-show host Laura Schlessinger; syndicated columnist Jacey Eckhart; Chicago Tribune columnist Ross Werland; law professor/author and blogger Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit; Christine B. Whelan, author of “Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women”; and major-market-talk-show hosts Al Rantel, Mike McConnell, Ron Smith and Joe Elliott.

The evidence is clear: “Man as idiot” isn’t going over very well these days.

Stereotypes are the products of hacks and bigots. In this case the bigots are people “educated” under the PC ethic of modern day universities where too many professors teach the same kind of jingoism they claim to deplore in white males. The sooner and end comes to this hackery, the better. 

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Sunday, February 17, 2008

The History of Political Correctness

As you may know, I hate PC. It’s censorship, plain and simple. It’s also segregation of the mind, classifying people into inane categories. It seeks to separate us into classes. And I don’t mean the school kind.

The origins and ultimate goal of political correctness are blatantly Marxist. It was created to box in and neutralize dissent. This documentary talks about its long history and origins. It’s worth watching. 

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Thursday, November 15, 2007

Political Correctness Must Die

It’s gotten out of hand a decade or two ago. But this is ridiculous.

Santas in Australia’s largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas’s traditional “ho ho ho” greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.

Sydney’s Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say “ha ha ha” instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.

One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use “ho ho ho” because it could frighten children and was too close to “ho”, a US slang term for prostitute.

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Sunday, April 15, 2007

Right On

Jason Whitlock answers Sharpton’s response.

And while they’re at it, Sharpton and Jackson should apologize to these sick and dying kids.

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Thursday, April 12, 2007

Blacklash

The only thing stupider than Don Imus’ comment the other day is the media’s reaction to it. Most people, black or white couldn’t care less. But the usual race hustlers and white guilt peddlers were out in force and now Don Imus has been fired from all his networks. The self righteousness of these clowns is beyond appalling since it comes on the heels of the disclosure that the accused Duke athletes were totally innocent after being accused of raping a black stripper. The reactionaries like Sharpton, who’s had history of his own hoax racism scams in the past, wasn’t satisfied with Imus coming on his show and apologizing. Nor did he offer any to the Duke players, who he had blasted as rapists.

Imus really didn’t owe apologies to anyone except, maybe the basketball team he mocked. His biggest mistake after his comment was probably going to Sharpton’s show, as if he matters. People really need to stop feeding that troll. He has done nothing but draw attention to himself and call everyone racist, even when they aren’t.

The double standard in the media towards whites as opposed to blacks is really absurd. Whites can’t say anything that remotely sounds critical of blacks, but blacks can say almost anything about whites without reprisal. And white broadcasters lose their jobs even if they just misspoke or said something that sounds vaguely like it might be racist, even if it’s positive (like Jimmy the Greek’s settlement that blacks run better because they were bred that way). But if you listen to a lot of blacks talk on TV you often hear racist comments about whites, or even blacks.

I’m not endorsing racist statements at all, but we’re supposed to have free speech in this country. Events like this always generate calls to limit speech. For example, that other race hustler, Jesse Jackson, is calling for the banning of the N word from all media, even though the N word isn’t the issue here at all. As many people have pointed out, there’s nothing Imus said that hasn’t been said by rap artists on a regular basis. And the word Ho has become almost a joke word. It gets tossed around quite a bit, to the point where it’s almost become cute. The word lacks even a racial connotation at this point.

I’ve never listened to Imus, what little I’ve heard didn’t interest me. Politically, he seemed to favor Democrats (but he hated the Clintons, apparently). But notice how the media creeps are trying to label him a conservative. And now there are calls to go after Limbaugh, Boortz, Savage, etc. The lefties in the media have been trying to shut down talk radio for years, which shows you how much regard they gave for the Bill of Rights.

This whole Imus thing is a media invention. And it’s all about trying to shut down anyone who isn’t PC enough. Political correctness is nothing but censorship and if that hasn’t been obvious to you now, it should be. It’s a tool to control what people can say.

As for the media, their credibility continues to suffer. All the phonies who called for Imus to be fired are only telling you they are gutless slaves to political correctness. And as such they shouldn’t be watched anymore. They should be banned. Maybe then, they will be fired. We need less enablers of censorship and PC and more honesty, even when its ugly.

And now for your moment of Zen. This is a perfect example of how phony media issues are. They are always overblown to the point of absurdity.

UPDATE: Obama should be fired by the people of the US.
Sharpton gets death threats.

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Sunday, April 01, 2007

England Becomes France

The British seem to be surrendering to the Muslims one step at a time. The question is, why? They never took such measures for other minorities.

Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Governmentbacked study has revealed.

It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.

There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades - where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem - because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques.

The findings have prompted claims that some schools are using history ‘as a vehicle for promoting political correctness’.

The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, looked into ‘emotive and controversial’ history teaching in primary and secondary schools.

The very idea of not wanting to offend people is offensive. It’s impossible to not offend people. So choose you you decide not to offend is in itself, discrimination. 

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