-
-
'Blindness' movie provokes blind activists!
"Everybody was offended," Danielsen said
BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- Blind people quarantined in a mental asylum, attacking each other, soiling themselves, trading sex for food. For Marc Maurer, who's blind, such a scenario -- as shown in the movie "Blindness" -- is not a clever allegory for a breakdown in society.
Instead, it's an offensive and chilling depiction that Maurer fears could undermine efforts to integrate blind people into the mainstream.
"The movie portrays blind people as monsters, and I believe it to be a lie," said Maurer, president of the Baltimore, Maryland-based National Federation of the Blind. "Blindness doesn't turn decent people into monsters."
The organization plans to protest the movie, released by Miramax Films, at 75 theaters around the country when it's released Friday. Blind people and their allies will hand out fliers and carry signs. Among the slogans: "I'm not an actor. But I play a blind person in real life."
I didn't know blind people felt so discriminated upon. It goes to show, that you never really know how people with disabilities truly feel, until you are put in their shoes.
I guess we can bet that they won't be watching This movie.... err. listening to it. "Everybody was offended," Danielsen said ... more -
College bans 'Christmas' and 'Easter' from calendar for fear o...
A college has renamed the traditional Christmas and Easter breaks in a bid to avoid offending students from other religions.
The college's new calendar shows that both of the traditional holiday periods have now been re-branded as 'end of term breaks'.
Critics have complained that the decision by Yorkshire Coast College is nothing more than 'political correctness'.
Tory MP Robert Goodwill said: 'I have heard that some people refer to the Christmas period as the Winterval, which is worse. This is absolutely barmy.
'We are a Christian country and, to be honest, religious tolerance in this country is about respecting other people's religious beliefs.'
'We live in a country where there is a mutual respect for religious beliefs.
'School terms are traditionally separated by Christmas and Easter and they should be referred to as such.
'They are petrified that they offend the minority but what they are doing is offending the majority. A college has renamed the traditional Christmas and Easter breaks in a bid to avoid offending students from other religions. ... more -
'We're a couple of old ladies. We're certainly not paedophiles,...
An 82 year old amateur photographer was told she could not take snaps of an empty paddling pool because she might be a paedophile! She was told to put her camera away by a council worker when she started taking pictures of the pool.
"It's absolutely ridiculous – it's bureaucracy gone mad. We're a couple of old ladies we're certainly not paedophiles,'
Quote of the month? An 82 year old amateur photographer was told she could not take snaps of an empty paddling pool because she might be a paedophile! She... more -
Is Satire Dead?
"The 'New Yorker' controversy: Is satire dead?
Good political satire has always been “tricky,” said Leonard Pitts Jr. in The Miami Herald. It “seeks truth in ridiculousness,” and maybe that’s why a New Yorker cover cartoon depicting Barack Obama as a Muslim and his wife, Michelle, as an AK-47-packing radical has caused such an uproar. In a political world of stained blue dresses and “swift boat lies,” the absurd has become the ordinary, and satire is now “superfluous.”
Satire is alive and well in America, said Clive Crook in his blog at TheAtlantic.com, but it’s “supposed to be funny.” The New Yorker’s editor, David Remnick, said the drawing was meant to reduce a “certain idiotic view of Barack Obama and his wife to a comical absurdity,” but all it did was say what that view was. The punchline was missing.
No, Republicans and Democrats alike are just mad because they think the yokels in “fly-over country” won’t get the joke, said Timothy Egan in The New York Times. But not everyone outside Manhattan is “a rube just off the hay truck” who will see the drawing as proof that all the Internet rumors about Obama are true. “Irony, it turns out, does cross the Hudson River.”
And so what if some satire does go over the heads of a few people? said Kathleen Parker in National Review Online. Does that mean we’re supposed to “sanitize” it to protect the masses? No, “unsophisticated yahoos, to the extent they really are, pose a lesser threat to the nation than an elitist intelligentsia convinced it knows what's best for the rest.”
It isn’t just political correctness that has ruined our national sense of humor, said Tim Rutten in the Los Angeles Times. These days, insults seem to be the only thing we really understand. “Our division into blinkered red and blue camps that's drained humor's salutary bite from our politics.”
This is an opinion piece from The Week, and I posted it because he draws from a few other opinion pieces.
Like it or not, even if you think it's a dead horse by now, this issue says something about art, humor, society and free speech in America today. "The 'New Yorker' controversy: Is satire dead? ... more -
Don Imus being racist again
Remember when radio host Don Imus got in a lot of trouble for making fun of black people and then came back chastened, with a new tolerance and sensitivity and understanding of how his hurtful remarks were borne out of ignorance? And then he wasn't ever racist again? Yeah, me too.
Well after 7 months he's back to his old racist shenanigans. Remember when radio host Don Imus got in a lot of trouble for making fun of black people and then came back chastened, with a new tole... more -
"UNPROTECTED": A Campus Psychiatrist reveals how political correctness ...
In her book "Unprotected" Dr Groosman makes a powerful case for changing the way colleges, and our whole society, present sexual intimacy and health.
"Radical politics pervades my profession, and common sense has vanished." Not long ago, a psychiatrist might call casual sexual activity 'mindless' and 'empty'
Before political correctness muzzled our nation in the nineties, a campus physician might advise a student that it is love and lifelong fidelity that bring joy and liberated sensuality, and provide the best insurance against sexuallly transmitted diseases.
Psychology, psychiatry, and social work has been captured by an ultra liberal agenda. There are 'horror stories' of 'shunning and intimidation'. Many will not speak up, fearing ridicule, vicious attack, or loss of tenre or stature.
There is an odd approach in sexual health;instead of asking our youth to strive for self- control and smart choices, we assume they'll make poor choices and have multiple partners, including some they hardly know.
Why else would every pamphlet and Web site advise them,"first talk with your partner." !
Why do they tell them how to protect their body from herpes and pregnancy but don't tell them what uncommited sex does to your heart ?
The doctrine of sex without consequences and the notion that women are just like men have made their way into the field of reproductive health, also called women's health.
The message must get out: Casual sex is a health hazard for young women.
Women must hear from campus authorities that delaying sex even for one or two years,is a fundamental way in addition to eating right, exercising, wearing sunscreen to be proactive about their health.
And why not offer support groups for students who want to change their behavior ?
Why not familiarize them with their anatomy, the research on bonding, and the risk of depression.
Many young people are neither stupid nor enslaved to their urges. Many will respond to an ennobling message and learn new behaviors.
"Tell them 20 million people in our country have HPV... and that doctors, drugs companies, and corporations are making billions." In her book "Unprotected" Dr Groosman makes a powerful case for changing the way colleges, and our whole society, present se... more -
Obama's 'Sweetie': Spontaneous or Sexist?
By DAN HARRIS
May 16, 2008
The recent flap over Sen. Barack Obama calling a female reporter "sweetie" sparked a national dialogue over what is acceptable language between men and women in the workplace.
The moment came at a campaign stop in Detroit, when Peggy Agar, a reporter at ABC's Detroit affiliate WXYZ-TV, asked Obama this question: "Senator, how are you going to help the American autoworkers?"
"Hold on a second, sweetie. We'll hold a press avail," replied Obama, referring to a structured question and answer session with the media.
Hours later, Obama left Agar a voicemail, apologizing for not answering her question and for calling her "sweetie."
"That's a bad habit of mine," Obama said in the message. "I do it sometimes with all kinds of people. I mean no disrespect and so I am duly chastened on that front."
It apparently is a habit. In an earlier campaign stop, Obama said to a woman, "Sweetie, if I start with a picture I will never get out of here."
And then: "Sweetie if I start doing autographs I just won't be … I am really late."
While the extent of the political fallout over Obama's use of the word is unclear, his "habit" has become fodder for talk shows and bloggers.
On "The View," Whoopie Goldberg said that it wasn't such a big deal. "And what he meant to say I believe was with no disrespect, 'cause I call everyone sweetie if I don't know their name," she said.
When men throw out words like sweetie or honey or girl in movies like "9 to 5" or "Anchorman," it is portrayed as supremely condescending.
"GMA" workplace contributor Tory Johnson said that each person has to decide if they are offended by the use of certain words, and to make it clear they are uncomfortable.
"If you don't like someone calling you sweetie, call them on it, but don't assume their intentions are bad," Johnson said.
"I think in general, whether politics or in the workplace, when we start policing spontaneity we're in trouble. And we should let people be themselves, and we should not assume the worst when somebody uses a word like sweetie."
For her part, reporter Peggy Agar wasn't upset about being called sweetie. "I felt more offended that he didn't answer the question," she said. By DAN HARRIS May 16, 2008 ... more -
You can huff, you can puff...but you can't offend Muslims or builders
Political correctness has officially gone haywire.
The Three Little Cowboy Builders, a modern day remix of legendary kiddy story, The Three Little Pigs, has been banned from from a school's annual awards, because "the use of pigs raises cultural issues."
Judges said it could also offend builders, those same builders who have been 'wolf-whistling' women for the last 15 years?
Anne Curtis, the book's publishers Creative Director said she was amazed at the criticism and that the accusations of the book "stereotyping tradesmen" and "alienating minority groups and offending Muslims," with her claiming "Nothing could be further from the truth. We are proud to be a company with a strong moral ethos who respects all cultures."
So, has PC become total BS? I think so... Political correctness has officially gone haywire. ... more -
Australian Santas banned from Ho Ho Hoing!
One Santa was told not to say Ho Ho Ho because it may scare children. Another was told not to Ho ho ho because it is too close to the "US word for prostitute". Political Correctness gone mad! One Santa was told not to say Ho Ho Ho because it may scare children. Another was told not to Ho ho ho because it is too close to the ... more
-
related topics
Political Correctness
Contributors (36)
Political Correctness
