first amendment only "ok" if you're anit-American:
Sunday, March 30, 2003
By Scott Norvell
A group of Ohio college students who wanted to hang U.S. flags on a school building were told they couldn't because the flags might hurt the feelings of anti-war folks, reports the Ohio News Network.
Melissa Paxton, a student at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, wanted to show support for the troops. "I was raised to be a firm believer in my country and you know, support what's going on," she said.
But Vice President of the Administration Ransom Clark feared the flags could cause problems. "I was afraid that a major display of American flags would represent a signal if done by the college to those people who are opposing the war that we're coming down against them," he said.
The students say they will hang flags outside of their homes instead.
Wishing for 'a Million Mogadishus'
A professor at Columbia University in New York is publicly calling for the massacre of American troops in Iraq and praising as heroes those who kill them, reports Newsday.
In a six-hour "teach-in" at the college, Nicholas De Genova, an assistant professor of anthropology, said he would like to see "a million Mogadishus" -- a reference to the city in Somalia where 18 American soldiers were ambushed and killed in 1993.
"The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military," De Genova told the audience of about 3,000. "I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus."
The crowd was pretty much silent in response to the remark, but cheered loudly when he later said, "If we really believe that this war is criminal ... then we have to believe in the victory of the Iraqi people and the defeat of the U.S. war machine."
Powerful Pics
A police magazine in Australia is being accused of igniting "racial hatred and fear" for publishing pictures of veiled women in bikinis and Colonel Sanders in a turban on a page with other jokes, reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Pictures published in the March edition of the Queensland Police Journal were decried as offensive and racist by Muslim groups. They were described as derogatory toward Islam at a time when the war in Iraq was already making Muslims feel uncomfortable.
"The connotation of the three together are an attack on Islam," said Sultan Deen, chairman of the Islamic Council of Queensland. "They were very offensive."
Tongue Tied at the Times
A British MP asked to write an op-ed piece for The New York Times came face to face with American-style political correctness and lived to tell about it, the writer reports in The Spectator.
Boris Johnson, a conservative backbencher in the House of Commons asked by the editors of the Times to write about the Iraq war, was forced to change several passages to adhere to the Times ' sensibilities. A sentence about donations of U.S. aid to key members of the U.N. Security Council, for example, had to omit a reference to giving "squash courts to the President of Guinea" and instead say giving them to "the President of Chile."
"It's just easier in principle if we don't say anything deprecatory about a black African country, and since Guinea and Chile are both members of the U.N. Security Council, and since it doesn't affect your point, we would like to say Chile," his editors told him, Johnson writes.
Round II
A student newspaper at the University of Michigan has stopped running ads on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by a pro-Israel group after students complained that they were offensive to Muslims, reports the Michigan Daily.
The ad in question, sponsored by Campustruth.org, features a picture of an Olympic athlete in front of the Israeli flag, accompanied by the words "Israeli school children's hero." The picture next to it shows a man and a machine gun next to the words "Palestinian school children's hero." At the base of the ad are the words "There are two sides to every story, but only one truth."
Jeff Valuck, business manager of the Michigan Daily, said the ads were suspended following negative feedback. "We must reconsider running the ads if the university community does not want them," he said.
"A" Is for ...
The mayor of Tucson, Ariz., was hesitant to paint the huge letter "A" on a mountaintop outside of town red, white and blue because to do so would be a political statement in favor of war, reports the Tucson Daily Star.
Anti-war protestors had painted the letter black over the weekend. Mayor Bob Walkup did not want to repaint it in the colors of Old Glory, instead suggesting it should be returned to its original white. Walkup eventually relented, however, and the letter was repainted during the week.
PC Packages
The Pentagon is advising Americans who wish to send goodies to the troops in Iraq not to include pork in the packages because it might offend Muslims in the region, reports The Associated Press.
Also on the no-go list: porn, political propaganda or "religious materials contrary to Islam." |
