Altheia Richardson, Clemson University’s director of the Gantt Multicultural Center has triggered a controversy with a proposal that all students should pass an “intercultural competency” test before they’re allowed to run for office or hold positions in the South Carolina college’s student government. Clemson students are already required to to take a social justice course following enrollment. Richardson’s proposal has enraged some students as an ideological test for office — a position that Richardson denies.
Category: Bizarre
This week it was revealed that a New York Times editor has decided that the newspaper should not use the term “female genital mutilation” as “culturally loaded” and might insult “people who follow the rite.” It is the culmination of a trend across the country where students are being trained to spot and avoid any form of cultural bias, a push that can be highly beneficial or highly damaging in how one defines bias. At the risk of total social isolation, it may be time to speak in favor of cultural bias, at least when it comes to founding principles of human rights.
If you are one of those people who long to look dirty but not feel dirty, Nordstrom has the answer for you. The chain is selling a pair of $425 jeans that are designed to look covered in dirt to show that “you’re not afraid to get down and dirty.” They are called the “Barracuda Straight Leg Jeans” and they may be the single dumbest idea I have encountered this year.
Continue reading “Nordstrom Selling $425 Jeans That Look Like They Are Covered In Dirt”
Drexel University Professor George Ciccariello-Maher is an unabashed lightning rod for controversy. Last Christmas, he wrote how he longed for “white genocide”. Then recently he wrote how he wanted to “vomit” when an airline passenger gave up his first class seat to a soldier. It is chilling and obnoxious rhetoric, but he made these comments on his private social media sites. The investigation by Drexel appears to be the direct result of donors threatening to withdraw support for the university. As such, it is a highly troubling intrusion into the right of free speech of faculty.
If you like your misogyny with a heavy serving of irony, you could do no better than the United Nations this week after Saudi Arabia was elected to a 2018-2022 term on the Commission on the Status of Women, the U.N. agency that, according to its website, is “exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.” As with Iran being put on the Commission, the irony would be humorous if there were not millions of victims over decades of abuse by these countries. Previously, Saudi Arabia taking over the top spot on the Human Rights Commission was viewed as unbelievable, but the entry on the Commission on the Status of Women sets a level of irony that may be unsurpassable.
There is an interesting finding from a Washington Post poll that is rather buried in the story: “The new survey finds 46 percent saying they voted for Clinton and 43 percent for Trump, similar to her two-point national vote margin. Asked how they would vote if the election were held today, 43 say they would support Trump and 40 percent say Clinton.” Given Trump’s dismal popularity (perhaps the least popular president in the first 100 days in office since the start of modern polling), it was a surprising result. It comes at a time when Clinton has been listing a number of reasons for her historic defeat . . . except for herself. This includes her explanation (and her supporters) that it was not Clinton but self-hating, misogynistic women who could not vote for any woman for President.
Continue reading “Washington Post Poll: Trump Would Still Beat Clinton”
We recently discussed the discovery of a dead bat in a salad bag. It appears that you can also have some ground golf ball to go with your salad if you shop at Harris Teeter. Frozen hash browns sold in nine states by Harris Teeter and Roundy’s were found to have pieces of golf balls. McCain Foods USA’s recall notice said the golf balls apparently were “inadvertently harvested” along with the potatoes and chopped up.
Azhar Hussain, an assistant professor at Indiana State University, has been arrested for allegedly making false reports of anti-Islamic threats and an attack. Hussain, 56, teaches aviation technology.
Benedictine College has found a budding cell of Hindu mysticism in its small Catholic college in Atchison, Kansas. The school has gotten rid of the “yoga” classes to avoid the taint of a Hindu association. A new course will be renamed as “lifestyle fitness” and involving “stretching” to sanitize the classes of exotic religious influence.
Continue reading “Catholic College Bans “Yoga” To Protect Against “Hindu Mysticism””
We have previously discussed the inherent conflict between Islamic governments and free speech and free exercise. There is also a recognition among extremists that democracy itself is incapable with the dream of an Islamic caliphate. The head of the Tunisian Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir movement made this point vividly clear in calling for all good Muslim to “bury” democracy.
Continue reading “Tunisian Islamic Head Calls For The Death Of Democracy”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Indiana Jones must have caused a great uproar against the peace and decency of the Pacific Northwest.
On February 27, 1854 the first Legislative Assembly in the newly organized Washington Territory ratified the Statutes of the Territory of Washington. While the criminal code is rather ordinary for the mid-nineteenth century, one has to wonder what kind of menace was to be found in the territorial capital of Olympia. It seems the likes of Indiana Jones was one of those menaces.
Continue reading “Indiana Jones Was Banned From Washington Territory”
David Harlow, 38, may not be a good option for a second date for a woman who met him through Tinder. After she went to the bathroom at their first face-to-face meeting, Harlow allegedly ran off with her purse.
There has been an abundance of discussion of Kendall Jenner’s “social justice” Pepsi ad that proved a disaster for the company after Black Lives Matter objected that (even though no signs in the commercial referred to BLM) the commercial trivialized BLM. The commercial showed people marching with signs saying things like “Join the conversation” and Jenner giving a police officer a Pepsi. When I saw it, I just thought it was sappy and shallow. It was an effort of another major company to sell its product on a social justice theme. Even if you want your Pepsi with a side of social justice, companies want to be praised as having a conscience without actually saying anything controversial or edgy. To corporate and media officials, Jenner wiping off her make up was a brave and edgy moment. (Apparently a starlet taking off her makeup is a brave and inspiring thing to behold). The commercial however has raised a legal question that returns to a prior subject discussed on this blog: copyright and trademark laws. It appears that not only did BLM hate the commercial, so did the police. The San Francisco Police have threatened a lawsuit stating the image of a badge looks like their official badge, and used without their permission. Once again, I do not know how we allowed Congress to put us in this place where showing a police badge (or in this case a badge resembling a police badge) can get you sued.
Elevators were at the center to two ironic stories this week. The first, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson’s two-day visit to Miami to discuss the challenges for public housing. His most immediate challenge was getting out of the elevator at the Courtside Family Apartments in Overtown. In the meantime in England, Australian tourists Browyn and Graham Cowan went to Court after suing over an elevator mishap with the Tower Bridge. They then missed their court date because . . . you guessed it . . . the court elevator trapped them.
Continue reading “Elevating Irony: Two Elevator Mishaps Prove Poignant Points”
I am (as many on this blog know) an avid dog lover so I cannot resist sharing videotapes of dog exploits. This videotape made my morning to watch as a 10-year-old Great Pyrenees named General decide that he has had enough with hospital food and accommodations. The dog opens a series of doors until he finally just strolls out into the world.