Free Speech Thread

[KyleEl]

I just heard Mike Huckabee say on the radio "Atheists don't have a prayer."

[Aeryn]

Feb 1, 2013 12:31:09 GMT -5 SoCal said:

The thought police are not welcome in this thread.

But you have no problem when they lock threads you don't like. Hypocrite.

[SoCal]

Sept 12, 2013 22:13:00 GMT -5 Aeryn said:

Feb 1, 2013 12:31:09 GMT -5 SoCal said:

The thought police are not welcome in this thread.

But you have no problem when they lock threads you don't like. Hypocrite.

Aeryn, I had nothing to do with the mods locking your thread. All I did was post a comment in your unfortunate thread. That the mods decided to lock it had nothing whatsoever to do with me.

As a matter of fact, I'm sorry they did that. I was hoping others might post their disappointment with your unfunny picture and leave it at that.

You know, there were little children on those planes that hit the towers. Can you imagine the terror they must have been feeling as they hurtled to their deaths? That's why I said your posted image wasn't funny. That is NOT hypocritical. Maybe you should look up that word in the dictionary before you use it again.

I don't like it when the mods lock a thread. Never have, never will. If you have a problem with that......go to the mods, not me.

[Aeryn]

Sept 13, 2013 16:40:26 GMT -5 SoCal said:

Sept 12, 2013 22:13:00 GMT -5 Aeryn said:

But you have no problem when they lock threads you don't like. Hypocrite.

Aeryn, I had nothing to do with the mods locking your thread. All I did was post a comment in your unfortunate thread. That the mods decided to lock it had nothing whatsoever to do with me.

As a matter of fact, I'm sorry they did that. I was hoping others might post their disappointment with your unfunny picture and leave it at that.

You know, there were little children on those planes that hit the towers. Can you imagine the terror they must have been feeling as they hurtled to their deaths? That's why I said your posted image wasn't funny. That is NOT hypocritical. Maybe you should look up that word in the dictionary before you use it again.

I don't like it when the mods lock a thread. Never have, never will. If you have a problem with that......go to the mods, not me.

Oh, okay. I get what you're saying.

Another fun fact...mods removed my signature picture. Allegedly because it demonstrated "religious intolerance." The thing is, that picture has been there for awhile...but just happened to be removed after I mentioned the thread lock in the vent thread. I'm sure it was a coincidence.

[SoCal]

Shoot first, ask questions afterr only works in the movies.

[KyleEl]

SoCal's cat is named Sambo, so ...

This is getting off topic but I saw a movie recently starring Sarah Jessica Parker as the person who was in charge of solving a problem of a black student getting racist messages, such as being called Little Black Sambo, at a Vermont college, in an area where there were few minorities, where there were no minority students so the school encouraged minority applicants but didn't really do a good job of treating them like they belonged. And some of the white students got upset they were getting special treatment. In trying to solve the racism problem they turned the place into a Jerry Springer episode.

"Spinning into Butter". I forgot the name. This is what the tigers did in the story.

I had a Little Black Sambo book as a child but it wasn't racist. Sambo and his parents looked rich.

[SoCal]

What's wrong with my cat's name? I think it's cute. I usually call him "Sammy." But when I got him, I remembered the storybook from my childhood called "Little Black Sambo" and I thought the name fit him. He's almost completely black with lovely green eyes.

Are you trying to make something more of that? Shame on you.

[XCWModGramps]

1975-76 I worked at Sambo's restaurant.
Dishwasher then cook.

Couple of years after I left they made them take all the pictures of Sambo and his tiger off the walls.

The world has not been the same since.

[SoCal]

I remember that restaurant. Was it just a California place or were there restaurants in many other states. Too bad it had to shut down because of the name.

[Aeryn]

The name was offensive to black people...it always has been.

[XCWModGramps]

Sept 18, 2013 9:07:36 GMT -5 SoCal said:

I remember that restaurant. Was it just a California place or were there restaurants in many other states. Too bad it had to shut down because of the name.

The one I worked at was in Kalamazoo MI where I grew up. They were scattered in different states. I believe there is still 1 open in CA.

[XCWModGramps]

Sept 18, 2013 18:29:51 GMT -5 Aeryn said:

The name was offensive to black people...it always has been.

Back in the day it was only offensive when used as slang in a derogatory manner. The restaurant I worked at had a large black customer base.

[SoCal]

Sept 18, 2013 18:29:51 GMT -5 Aeryn said:

The name was offensive to black people...it always has been.

Sambo is offensive? Geez, some groups get pissed over the silliest things. So, it's just one more word Jesse Jackson won't let people use? Screw him. I'm not changing my cat's name.

[AntiArbitrator]

I think it is interesting that the story was not originally written about an American child and that it is a very good children's story. The problem stemmed from the way artists illustrated the character.

"Sambo is a South Indian boy who encounters four hungry tigers, and surrenders his colourful new clothes, shoes, and umbrella so they will not eat him. The tigers are vain and each thinks he is better dressed than the others. They chase each other around a tree until they are reduced to a pool of melted butter. Sambo then recovers his clothes and his mother makes pancakes out of the butter."

The illustrations have been changed.

The illustrations for Aunt Jemina's products have also changed. I wonder if it is politically incorrect to use Jemina.

[SoCal]

Good point. Must we change the names of "Aunt Jemina's Pancake Syrup" and "Uncle Ben's Long Grain Rice?" Geez, can everyone stop being so danged prickly?

You won't hear me demanding that the term "Paddy Wagon" stop being used. Or asking Notre Dame to stop calling its football team the "Fighting Irish."

Maybe the children's story was called "Little Black Sambo" because the English called India's population "black." And thanks, AA, for pointing out that the story was about a little boy in India, not a little boy from Africa.

I'm just so tired of people looking for a reason to be offended. Lighten the hell up.

[KyleEl]

Sept 16, 2013 17:22:52 GMT -5 SoCal said:

What's wrong with my cat's name? I think it's cute. I usually call him "Sammy." But when I got him, I remembered the storybook from my childhood called "Little Black Sambo" and I thought the name fit him. He's almost completely black with lovely green eyes.

Are you trying to make something more of that? Shame on you.

Sounds pretty. No, it was just something I was reminded of that I wanted to mention anyway.

[KyleEl]

Sept 18, 2013 9:07:36 GMT -5 SoCal said:

I remember that restaurant. Was it just a California place or were there restaurants in many other states. Too bad it had to shut down because of the name.

There is still a Mammy's Kitchen in Myrtle Beach. They took down Mammy's picture from the outside of the place some years ago. She looked a little too much like Aunt Jemima. This would be a problem because if they did copy the picture, it belonged to the Aunt Jemima people.

[KyleEl]

I forgot this. Mammy's is in two locations. I think the other one used to be called Pappy's.

[SoCal]

Screw Obama-care. Screw Obama.


Like most members of the Congress that passed it and, undoubtedly, the president of the United States who signed it, I have not read the entirety of the ill-named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Yet there is one aspect concerning that legislation of which I am certain: I will not comply.


I will not comply because I am a free citizen of the United States, not a subject of its government. I consider non-compliance with this monstrosity and the tens of thousands of pages of regulations that are to be enforced by an unelected bureaucracy, and that have left a gigantic carbon footprint on our environment and the United States Constitution, a duty.


Non-compliance is my executive order, and that order reads in part that I do not recognize any government's claim on my action or inaction in the marketplace, nor upon any personal information I am unwilling to divulge.


I will not submit to a cabal who read George Orwell's 1984 not as a terrifying warning, but as an instruction manual. Nor will I submit to the dictates of those who attempt to trample the right of free speech of others in the halls of government who are warning us about the looming tyranny. I refer to those sons of liberty who, as Camus wrote, "are not all legitimate or to be admired. Those who applaud it only when it justifies their privileges and shout nothing but censorship when it threatens them are not on our side."


If (when) the IRS or HHS or any other such entity attempts to extort a tax or fee of any kind for not participating in mandated commerce, they will be met with resistance. I will not pay any such tax or fee.


I live in Massachusetts, where, once upon a time, a spirit of resistance and independence animated much of the citizenry. But many here have devolved from the shot heard round the world to sheltering in place. Not I -- nor many of my fellow Bay Staters, who are outnumbered but undaunted.


Refusing to comply with the dictates of an illegitimate law that is selectively enforced, and from which the privileged few are exempted, is not, in the annals of American history, brave or difficult. Those who refuse to comply are not barefoot in the snows of Valley Forge, crying out in agony at Gettysburg, or rushing the cockpit of Flight 93. While there will be consequences to civil disobedience in defiance of oppression, any difficulties can be and will be overcome.


We are, however, drawing a line that the forces of repression, socialism, and tyranny must not cross. Some might even color the line red. Yet unlike a certain other, this red line is immovable. I yield nothing on the plane of freedom. I will not take any small step that is, in actuality, one giant leap backward to the darkness we thought we had vanquished.


Who is with me?


Matthew May welcomes comments at [e-mail].
From: "The American Thinker"

[AntiArbitrator]

Congress currently has an approval rating of ...

...drum roll please...



10%!

[AntiArbitrator]

Courtesy of USA government site:

Effects of Congress' failure to agree on a budget.

Vital services that ensure seniors and young children have access to
healthy food and meals may not have sufficient Federal funds to serve
all beneficiaries in an extended lapse.

Call centers, hotlines and regional offices that help veterans
understand their benefits will close to the public.

And, veterans’ compensation, pension, education and other benefits
could be cut off in the case of an extended shutdown.

Every one of America’s national parks and monuments, from Yosemite to
the Smithsonian to the Statue of Liberty, will be immediately closed.

New applications for small business loans and loan guarantees will be
immediately halted.

Research into life-threatening diseases and other areas will stop and
new patients won’t be accepted into clinical trials at the National
Institutes of Health.

Work to protect consumers, ranging from child product safety to
financial security to the safety of hazardous waste facilities, will
cease. The EPA will halt non-essential inspections of chemical
facilities and drinking water systems.

Permits and reviews for planned energy and transportations projects
will stop, preventing companies from working on these projects.

Loans to rural communities will be halted.

Hundreds of thousands of Federal employees including many charged with
protecting us from terrorist threats, defending our borders,
inspecting our food, and keeping our skies safe will work without pay
until the shutdown ends.

Hundreds of thousands of additional Federal workers will be
immediately and indefinitely furloughed without pay.

The following services that will continue during the government shut down:

Social Security beneficiaries will continue receiving checks.

The U.S. Postal Service will keep delivering mail.

Active military will continue serving.

Air traffic controllers, prison guards and border patrol agents will
remain on the job.

NASA Mission Control will continue supporting astronauts serving on
the Space Station.

[SoCal]

Are the WH chefs truly indespensible?

[AntiArbitrator]

I think the Secret Service could prepare some meals.

They are making the soldiers spend time in the kitchen even though it is not their job and they do not get paid extra no matter how many hours they are there.

[SoCal]

Reminder: Every Senate Democrat Voted in Favor of Exempting Themselves From Obamacare
Daniel Doherty | Oct 01, 2013





One of the most profoundly unfair provisions of Obamacare is that members of Congress and their staffers were unilaterally and illegally granted a special exemption from the law they themselves passed. Unlike many Americans, many of whom have been forcibly kicked off their current health care plans, the governing class and their staffers as of now will keep their insurance providers and receive an enormous taxpayer subsidy (depending on which plan they choose) to off-set rising health care costs. Sound fair? I didn’t think so. As it happened, many congressional staffers threatened to resign if they were forced to enroll in the Obamacare exchanges and comply with the mandate -- even though many of them helped draft (and ultimately pass) the legislation. This is what prompted the president to act. But not everyone in Congress is comfortable with upholding such a grotesque waiver. Indeed, this has been a sticking point for Senator Ted Cruz and his allies -- and something they will never let the American people forget:



What’s curious to me is that even Red State Democrats voted in lock-step with their party to buck the House of Representative’s duly passed spending bill on several occasions. Not only did they reject a continuing resolution that would end this unjust and unfair Obamacare waiver -- a de facto endorsement of special privileges and protections for members of Congress -- they voted against the provision to delay the law’s controversial mandate requirement to purchase health insurance. As recently as four days ago, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said it was “reasonable and sensible” to vote in favor of delaying this provision for one additional year. So how did he and his party end up voting? Well, in the end, along with every other Senate Democrat, he and his colleagues rejected House Republicans’ plan to avert a government shutdown. Splendid.

What does it say about a democratic republic that those who govern 'We the People' feel entitled to receive special privileges and exemptions from laws they themselves pass, while at the same time express no qualms whatsoever about forcing ordinary Americans to comply with them? Do Democrats in Congress really know what’s best for us -- and our families -- better than we do? Apparently so. Conservative icon Charles Murray put it rather nicely recently when he said that America was now becoming a nation where those “at the top of society live increasingly apart” from everyday Americans. Is he not correct? Perhaps this is why Ted Cruz volunteered to donate his salary to charity for every single day that the government remains closed. Now, of course, this gesture of solidarity is not unwelcome, but does it change anything? Absolutely not. Partisan Democrats have all but ensured that members of Congress and their aids will ultimately insulate themselves from the pain and costs of Obamacare. For their stubbornness, I sincerely hope that each and every single one of them pays at the voting booth for their intransigence. Throw the bums out. We need leaders in Congress who care more about public service than enriching themselves. Enough is enough.

[SoCal]

And this f--king moron is second in line to the presidency? Jesus.

Biden Accidentally Shows Press Cover of Classified Document

Vice President Joe Biden and press secretary Jay Carney at the White House, Sept. 30, 2013. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
October 1, 2013 2:57 pm
Vice President Joe Biden appeared Monday to show the cover of a codeword-classified document to reporters during a meeting between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The contents of the document, which read “CODEWORD” and “classified document,” could not be seen in the photo.

[SoCal]

Color me surprised.................NOT:


LAUSD to confiscate iPads after spending $1 billion
posted at 11:21 am on October 2, 2013 by Ed Morrissey



Wonder why California is broke and the LA Unified School District struggles at its core mission of educating children? The sad saga of the iPad project demonstrates at least some of the issues. At an estimated cost of $1 billion, the LAUSD launched an effort to hand out “borrowed” iPads to its students in order to minimize textbook and material costs, but despite all of the money spent, their security program on the devices lasted hours in the hands of the students. Now the district will try to confiscate all of the iPads, throwing in the towel on the massive investment after just a few weeks:



The ambitious plan to get an iPad in more than 30,000 Los Angeles students’ hands hit another snag.

Workers at the Los Angeles United School District (LAUSD) have started confiscating iPads that bypassed the devices’ security measures, according to the Los Angeles Times. The tampered iPads could access unauthorized websites and apps, such as Facebook, YouTube, and Pandora.

The school-issued iPads were installed with their own security software that prevented students from getting access to anything but the preloaded educational software. However, students at several different schools discovered a work around within hours after students received their iPads.
Good luck with getting them back. And does this sound a wee bit familiar this week?

Sarah Bradshaw, the chief of staff for District 5 of the LAUSD, said that there were signs that the iPad program was going to be a rough ride.

“We could see this thing coming,” she told ABC News. “So much of this has been rushed and so ill thought out.”
Sounds a lot like ObamaCare, too, another example of what happens when government strays from its core missions. Now, taxpayers will have to eat the costs of the devices — they’re not going to get much on the resale market — and the school year will get disrupted for the students, who gave the district an education instead. Meanwhile, the brainchild of this debacle will parachute out of the district at the end of the year.

But wait — the LAUSD hasn’t given up on the plan yet:

“There’s a reason why students did this,” said Ron Chandler, the chief information officer with the LAUSD. “We have to have a conversation about what is the appropriate place and maybe we need to relax our requirements a little.”
“Relax our requirements”? So when students break the rules on an expensive and embarrassing effort by the district, the plan is to change the rules to fit student behavior? I take back what I said a moment ago … the students are getting an education through this, but it’s probably not the lesson parents wanted.

[Aeryn]

The students should be awarded for their intelligence.

[SoCal]

Aeryn, I disagree. While the students certainly showed their "smarts" by being able to defeat the security (however poorly written) in the I-Pads, they were told to use these instruments only for school work.

Defeating the security on the I-Pads to acces social networking sites just shows how dishonest and culterally illeterate kids are today. Instead of using them to get smarter, they used them to chat and/or look at photos.

What a giant waste of taxpayer money.

[Aeryn]

They're kids. Of course they're going to do the opposite of what they're told!

[Kimba116]

I had to resurrect this thread... All the way back on page 5.


For anyone not aware, PA hospitals are now being bought out by a company called Penn Highlands. As part of the buyout, they change all of the hospital names to Penn Highlands regardless of how big or small the hospital is. Also, and an even worse thing, there have been major changes with a lot of nurses that have worked at the hospital for years being replaced by newer, dumber, and in no way better nurses. Doctors have also changed. Yes, that's common with any buyout but now the medical fields too? Why?
So yes:
DRMC (Du Bois Regional Medical Center) is Penn Highlands Du Bois
Punxsutawney Area Hospital is now Penn Highlands Punxsutawney
The same can be said for St Marys, Ridgway, Clearfield, etc.

And this effects ALL of Pennsylvania not just in my area. It's also happening in places like Indiana, Somerset, etc. Does that mean i have to start going to NY, OH, or VA for proper medical care? I just might have to.