As made clear in a recent column, I am no fan of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) or its manifestly negligent decision to choose Rio as the location of this year’s Olympics. For the last year, the IOC has been in the full denial mode as various experts detailed the gross failures of Brazil to address shortfalls in pollution control and infrastructure (including the recent controversy over pools turning green and smelly). Even with the health of athletes at stake, IOC officials have dismissed every health warning concerning the raw sewage in the water events and the rampant crime around the Olympic facilities. The most recent example came with the latest robbery of athletes. In this case, an Olympic star and three other athletes were held and robbed at gunpoint at a gasoline station. Despite public accounts coming from Lochte and his mother, the IOC assured the world media that the story was absolutely false. Nothing to see here. Of course, the story was true but the IOC seems to put truth just behind the health of athletes on the list of its priorities. UPDATE: The police have released videotapes and accounts that sharply contradict the account of Lochte and his friends.
Category: Bizarre
The University of Houston has offered the latest example of how free speech is being rapidly eradicated on our campuses. Rohini Sethi, vice president of the university’s student government association, was given a 50-day suspension from her student government post for saying “all lives matter” on social media. She has now been told that the suspension will be lifted after she publicly apologized and agreed to attend cultural events.
The Round Rock Independent School District appears to have found a cheap way to improve the test results of its students . . . it eliminated all Ds. That’s right, a D will now be a C. While insisting that it is merely following other schools, the move is a laughable recognition that the district cannot actually improve performance so it will instead artificially improve grading.
You might have guessed that Sanjuana Mercado-Mendez, 52, was a drunk driver, but there is a twist after New Mexico police pulled over her weaving blue 1994 Oldsmobile.
Continue reading “Can You Guess What This Person Was Charged With?”
There is a new controversy at Claremont Colleges where a housing advertisement specifically barred white students from living in an off-campus house. Karé Ureña (PZ ’18) posted a housing offer for People of Color only and added “I don’t want to live with any white folks.” There has been a rising objection, particularly from conservative students, that there is a double standard on campuses and that, in this case, the school would never tolerate a student barred blacks or Hispanics from applying for housing. Indeed, off-campus housing at Tulane University was recently the scene of students tearing down a display viewed as racist without any sanction from the university. Some (even CNN commentators) insist that African-Americans or people of color cannot be racist by definition. For example, CNN Political commentator Marc Lamont Hill has maintained that black people lack the “institutional power” necessary to “deploy racism.”
Continue reading “Claremont Colleges Face Controversy Over Housing Ad That Excludes White Students”
Fox News and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that a text message from a former aide to Chris Christie said that the New Jersey governor “flat out lied” during a news conference about the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal. The text message is part of a court filing reviewed by Fox.
England has seen the rise of calls for speech prosecutions, including calls from powerful politicians for crackdowns on insulting or offensive comments. We have previously discussed the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in England ( here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). The rapid decline of free speech in England has been both chilling and frightening for civil libertarians as the country appears to have abandoned this once defining right of Western Civilization. Now, a Manchester man reportedly has been arrested and sentenced for making “grossly offensive” comments about Muslims on Facebook. Stephen Bennett, 39, (who has a Muslim mother-in-law and sister-in-law) has been sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work and a 12-month community order for expressing his views.
My friend Professor Eugene Volokh raised an interesting case out of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) where the commission reinstated what many would consider a facially invalid harassment lawsuit over a worker wearing a simple “Don’t Tread on Me” cap. The cap was claimed cited as “racially offensive to African Americans” because “the flag was designed by Christopher Gadsden, a ‘slave trader & owner of slaves.’” It is a bizarre case but the concern over the fluid standard for such cases was magnified by a response to Gene from Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman who added that a worker “Saying at work that ‘Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be president because women shouldn’t work full-time’” could also be a legitimate basis for sanctions.
We previously discussed the controversy surrounding Oberlin Professor Joy Karega, who has attracted fervent criticism for her social media comments including blaming Israel for the 9/11 attacks. In a move that will magnify the free speech issues discussed earlier, Karega has been suspended with pay as assistant professor of rhetoric and composition.
Continue reading “Controversial Oberlin Professor Suspended Over Anti-Israeli Comments”
A new video is circulating on the Internet showing Sheikh Abdullah al-Muhaysini, a Saudi cleric in Syria affiliated with al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, sending out young Muslims to die in the battle for Aleppo with the promise of 72 virgins who are so beautiful that they can simply spit in the sea and turn it sweet. They also apparently release perfume when you hug them. There are many Muslims who insist that the 72 virgin claim is a myth started by anti-Islamic forces.
There is an interesting case out of Leroy, Alabama where Nathanial Johnson, 68, is facing an investigation after subduing and trying a burglar to a tree. By the time, he returned with the police, the man, Cleveland Jones Gully, 31, was dead and Johnson could go from the victim to the accused in a criminal case.
If you said impersonating a police officer to meet Hooters waitresses, you have a gift. Nicholas M. Fuhst, 18, went into a Hooters in Kochville Township, Michigan and said that he was an undercover cop in need for reviewing the background information of various waitresses. They gave him the information but also gave the real police a call. Fuhst has now pleaded no contest to impersonating a police officer.
Continue reading “Can You Guess What This Person Was Charged With?”
Ali Hammuda, an Imam at a Cardiff mosque, seems intent on maintaining a position as one of the most hateful and extreme voices in the West when it comes to Islamic values. Hammuda first attracted international attention when three young men from his mosque who became extremists in ISIS in Syria. He is now back in the news after a secret recording shows him telling his followers that it is permissible and moral under the teachings of Mohammed to have sex slaves.
There is an interesting free speech controversy in Melbourne and on the Internet. Melbourne street artist, Lushsux, has not only been told by a city council to remove a parody mural of Hillary Clinton but his Instagram account has been shutdown. Once again, the concern is that there remains a overt liberal bias in the sanctioning of comments or images on the Internet. Twitter for example has been repeatedly criticized for its barring or harassing conservative writers. UPDATE: Lushsux has responded to the city demands by painting over the picture to place Clinton in a burka.
Continue reading “Instagram Closes Artist’s Site After Posting Clinton Parody [UPDATED]”