Free Speech Thread

[SoCal]

I don't think "Z Nation" belongs in the "Walking Dead" thread. It needs its own spot.

[AntiArbitrator]

Oct 19, 2014 13:03:26 GMT -5 SoCal said:

I don't think "Z Nation" belongs in the "Walking Dead" thread. It needs its own spot.

It has been moved to Network Shows.

[AntiArbitrator]

KyleEl I heard on CNN today that Mike Huckabee is throwing his hat in the ring to run for President. Do you think he is serious?

[SoCal]

Huckabee will go nowhere......fast.

I Like Carly Fiorina. too bad she didn't beat Diane Feinstein when she ran against her in CA. Don't know how well she'll do either.

Just not Jeb Bush!!!!

[AntiArbitrator]

I do not want to see Ben Carson run either. He sounded sane when he spoke on CNN today, but sometimes he sounds half crazy.

[KyleEl]

May 4, 2015 14:33:50 GMT -5 AntiArbitrator said:

KyleEl I heard on CNN today that Mike Huckabee is throwing his hat in the ring to run for President. Do you think he is serious?

I only know that several of the online newspapers I look at said that he was officially running.

As of yesterday the morning DJ on my radio station said it was "awkward" not having him on the morning show after all these years. He didn't mention Paul Harvey being there for even more years before that. I don't know precisely how long, but Mr. Harvey was on other stations I listened to at that time as far back as 1991. And I read that he had been on that station for many years. I only heard him there if I happened to be in the car at that time and hoping to hear good music. It was a nice surprise if it was him instead.

As for what he would say, I'm not paying to hear it.

[SoCal]

Let's see.....so far we have:

Republicans:
Marco Rubio
Ben Carson
Rand Paul
Mike Huckabee
Carly Fiorina

Democrats: Hillary Clinton
Bernie Sanders

Am I missing anyone?

[AntiArbitrator]

I have not yet seen the list of cartoon characters who will most likely be running, per the usual nominations. 

[SoCal]

Bernie Sanders = Colonel Sanders? All he needs is the goatee. Maybe a white suit.

[SoCal]

I forgot to add Chris Christie to the bunch running for prez. At least I think he is. Maybe not. I don't know. I don't really care.

[AntiArbitrator]

I have heard so many jokes at Christie's expense, I do not know if I could take him seriously.

[KyleEl]

More about Mike Huckabee. Jeff objected to my putting this on the sports thread. I don't know how long this game has been going on, but I'm glad he's not on today to be pre-empted if it was on when his show would have been. I changed the time on the clock radio so it would alert me when to start cleaning up on Saturday. My routine when the college library is closed usually makes it impossible to start when the radio turned itself off using the old schedule.

I said all of this on May 1:

This week I have heard only four separate broadcasts, even though I have listened at nine different times. In a few minutes I will probably hear his last one. One time there was a baseball game. The other four times I didn't hear something new, it was a repeat of an earlier broadcast, which is something he didn't do as far as I know except on holidays.

One of the broadcasts was not about current events but just described how kids today have their lives scheduled and they are given fancy video games and other electronic gadgets. Mr. Huckabee grew up poor but didn't know it. He and his friends didn't have the best of everything. They made their own fun. A trash can lid became a shield for sword fights, for example. The box a refrigerator came in was a big treat. Today's geniuses got their creative skills from growing up like that. Those who developed video games, he said, did not likely grow up with them.

And then there was a broadcast devoted primarily to criticizing environmentalists who use private planes to get to meetings. Well, it's not convenient to take the train for hours. Oh, well, if it's not convenient ... but isn't that true for the rest of us? Oh, but if you're an environmentalist it's different because you feel really bad.

Another broadcast mentioned the problems and the heroes in the Baltimore riots. There was one that mentioned a girl who had her prom in the hospital. Plus assorted dumb criminals and heroes.

[SoCal]

Glad you put this here in the free speech thread.

And I agree with you. When we were kids, we couldn't wait to get outside to play, be it: hide-and-go-seek (at nighttime for gosh sakes!) fly kites, roller skate, ride bikes and devise our own made up games. We had some good ones, too. We made tree houses....we kids used hammers and nails. We built skate boards, scooters and go-karts.

Sure we watched a lot of TV, but there was less programming on then, too. But to be outside playing with our friends, some of whom went to other schools which meant we hadn't seen them all day, was the best.

Digging mud holes, filling them with water and splashing around; playing in the garage with dad's old tools. Why we even went to the public school playground to use the monkey bars or play basketball or (does anyone remember) karems.

We had a wonderful childhood. Too bad today's kids sit around with their video games and hunched over their I-phones. Of course, my parents didn't think we spent ENOUGH time outdoors!

[SoCal]

Bernie Sanders writes a piece about women wanting to be raped by multiple men at the same time?!? And he's a member of the Senate AND a presidential candidate?

UNBELIEVEABLE.

[Aeryn]

I have nothing against Bruce Jenner. But I'm not going to LIE and say he looks "beautiful" as a woman. So many politically correct types (especially Hollywood types) are on Twitter, gushing about how ravishing Bruce is now. No...he's NOT. And no, I'm not going to refer to him as "she."

It's like The Emperor's New Clothes. People are afraid of being criticized if they say Bruce makes one UGLY ASS woman. This is a fucking farce. I abhor sheep. I can't abide weak-willed types. I HATE FOLLOWERS AND KISS ASSES.

But I DO respect the courage it took for Bruce to do this. Good for him.

[SoCal]

I'm not a supporter of Marco Rubio, but everyone has to admit, the NY Times just can't help itself from trying to smear republicans:

The New York Times has the story:

A review of records dating back to 1997 shows that the couple had a combined 17 citations: Mr. Rubio with four and his wife with 13. On four separate occasions they agreed to attend remedial driving school after a violation.

Move over, Woodward & Bernstein — Pulitzer incoming for the Times on this one.

Geez, Marco Rubio has gotten 4 traffic tickets since 1997 and that's news? And I notice they included his wife in the statistic to make the total number higher.

What maroons!

[KyleEl]

The president of the University of New Hampshire publicly complained in July about the "bias-free language guide" posted on the school's website -- since, he said, it denounces use of such words as "Americans" (as insensitive to South Americans), "seniors" (better, "people of advanced age"), "rich" (should be "person of material wealth") and "poor" (change to "person who lacks advantages that others have").

[SoCal]

Haven't these loons read the Constitution? What is it about free speech they don't understand? Of course, if anything was said that insulted white, heterosexual Christians...well, that'd be okay, if not celebrated.

Comes the Revolution!

[KyleEl]

George Will says all the cities named after slave owners should have their names changed--Jefferson City, Jacksonville, even Washington D.C.

[KyleEl]

Also, I walk past a house with Confederate flags every couple of months. Two months ago I figured the man would probably react to the Charleston shooting. More flags than I had ever seen anywhere. One big one said, "I ain't comin' down."

I don't know whether there were fewer of them this week or if I just wasn't surprised.

[SoCal]

This doesn't offend me, I think it's hilarious. How 'bout you?

[KyleEl]

I can't watch videos at home. It'll just be a black square.

Yes, I know what Mr. Will was really doing.

[SoCal]

It's an old SNL sketch with Garret Morris in prisoner stripes. He sings a song....." I'm gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whities I see, I'm gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whities I see....and when I kill all the whities I see, ol whitey he won't bother me......." It goes on from there.

Probably from 1976 or 76......hysterical!

[KyleEl]

Kevin Siers is the Charlotte Observer cartoonist. He drew that woman in Kentucky celebrating with Mike Huckabee and with one of those Middle East extremists.

After I listened to Mr. Huckabee twice a day most days for several years, I just don't think of him that way.

[Kimba116]

Sept 11, 2015 16:15:10 GMT -5 SoCal said:

This doesn't offend me, I think it's hilarious. How 'bout you?

It doesn't offend me either. I want to say that i've seen that clip before but if i did, it would have been in reruns.



I just saw this posted on yahoo and felt that it should be on this thread:


Parents of a former student at Aurora Academy Charter School are raising questions about communication between their daughter and a teacher.

The father of a 7-year-old girl is voicing concerns this week after his daughter received an inappropriate note from a teacher at her elementary school.

Cary Reed, a father of five in Aurora Colorado, says his daughter started at the Aurora Academy Charter School this year as a second grader. “She had been there for two weeks and didn’t really know anybody yet, and my understanding is that she was sitting by herself at recess, and not necessarily playing with anyone because she hadn’t befriended anyone yet,” Reed tells Yahoo Parenting. “This fourth grade teacher was on the playground and had given up his lunch hour to play with the kids, which on the surface is commendable. But then she came home with a note from him that she was excited about. She was calling him by his first name; we hadn’t heard of him and we knew he wasn’t her teacher, so it kind of gave us an eye raise.”

This note that a 7-year-old received from a teacher at her school, referring to a game they played at recess, caused concern for her parents.

The note, which Reed’s daughter shared with her parents, included a photograph of the teacher sticking his tongue out at the girl and called her by the nickname Stinky Butt. “It seemed kind of weird. Why would he take a personal photo of himself? And that Stinky Butt part got to me — I work in education, and I wouldn’t do that,” Reed, who is an administrator at a charter school program for at-risk youth, says. “On the flip side, we thought maybe it was harmless and we didn’t want to pass judgment or tell our daughter to stay away from him just based on this. But if I were in his position, I might have said something to her teacher or an administrator as a heads-up, like ‘Hey, I wrote her this note, just let her parents know who I am.’ That kind of thing.”

The following day, Reed’s daughter, whose name he declined to share, came home with a second note from the same teacher. This time, the note included a poem with lines like, “you make me smile” and “I hope our friendship can be the key.” The note raised more warning flags for Reed. “It seemed like it was asking for friendship,” he says. “It was really inviting, and it just felt off. Whether this had good or bad intentions, it crossed professional boundaries and made me wonder what he is up to.”

Parents took their daughter out of the school after she received this poem from a teacher. (Photo: Cary Reed)

Reed says that he and his wife spoke to administrators at the school about their concerns, and they originally expressed similar surprise at the contents of the note. But, after speaking with the teacher, the school principal told Reed there was no wrongdoing, he says. “She put the onus on our daughter, like ‘Oh, your daughter approached him and at recess, she engaged the relationship, and it went from there. Stinky Butt just became the name he used to refer to her,’” Reed says. “I said, ‘You are telling me a 7-year-old established a relationship with a teacher, and the teacher turned around and engaged in pet names?’ The adult is the one that sets the parameters and boundaries of a relationship, not the child. The child will take it as far as she can every single time.”

In a meeting with the principal and the teacher, Reed says he was informed that administrators told the teacher his language in the note was improper and asked him not to give up his lunch hour anymore, but they would not be taking any further action. “They said there was no wrongdoing, he doesn’t have a history of inappropriate behavior, and that was it.”

In a statement to Yahoo Parenting, Aurora Academy Charter School principal Pat Ledger stated that there was no sexual nature to the letters in question. “Improper language may have been used in the letter sent to the student,” she wrote in an email. “We have spoken to our staff member and are working to prevent this from happening in the future. Due to privacy laws and because this is a personnel matter, we are unable to disclose additional information. We did an internal investigation, an external investigation was done, the Police were notified and no basis for dismissal was found. This teacher is still employed.”

The teacher in question did not respond to Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment.

Reed says he is not accusing this teacher of anything, including having made any sexual advances toward his daughter, but also that he simply can’t be sure. “I don’t know him from more than the 30 minutes we spoke, but I’m not willing to put my daughter’s innocence on the line to assume he didn’t have any bad intentions,” he says.

In the two weeks since this incident, Reed has removed his daughter from the school and enrolled her elsewhere. He says he’s speaking out now because he thinks other local parents should be informed. “If you are not going to fire this teacher, at least inform your staff, let the parents know there was a questionable incident, do some boundaries training,” he says. “My daughter is going to be safe, because she’s in a new school. But if this had happened to someone else, I would want to know so I could have options as a parent. The school should say, ‘We had an issue, we didn’t feel it was a fireable offense, but here’s what you should know.’”

Charol Shakeshaft, professor of educational leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University, says that Reed was right to be concerned. “There isn’t a friendship between teachers and students. Friendship is a term between equals. There is learning and professional courtesy, but you don’t send your child to school to be friends with a teacher,” she tells Yahoo Parenting. “This note is exactly what grooming looks like and is so inappropriate that I would call it a red flag.”

Shakeshaft adds that if this teacher did in fact notice that a student seemed especially lonely on the playground, he should have taken different actions. “He might bring it up in a faculty meeting and get her teachers to think of appropriate approaches, or speak to the guidance counselor to look into it. He can certainly say ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ but to send a note like that is way off the scale.”

The language in the notes — using his first name and the “Stinky Butt” nickname, acting like the two are special friends, giving a general feeling of “you are different than the rest of the kids” — is what Shakeshaft says concerns her. “I’m not saying this guy will sexually abuse, just that this behavior fits the profile,” she says. She also believes the school should keep a close eye on the situation. “There are lots of things that aren’t against the law that we don’t allow teachers to do, and we fire them for doing those things. The school is supposed to keep kids safe.”

Ultimately, Shakeshaft says Reed and his wife made the right call. “It’s wonderful to see parents who are looking out to be sure their child is safe,” she says. “I see all the time, parents see something they think seems weird, they go to the school and say something, and the school says ‘We’ll talk to him, he’s a touchy feely teacher’ and a year later we learn the worst has happened.”

Parents should err on the side of caution and listen to their instincts, Shakeshaft says. “We tend to think ‘Oh, I must be overreacting.’ That’s what parents tend to think, and the school reinforces that by saying ‘Yes, it’s weird, but nothing serious,’” she says. “Trust your gut.”


There are also pics of the 2 notes. To see them, go here:


www.yahoo.com/parenting/teacher-s-inappropriate-note-to-c1261925865963574.html

[KyleEl]

"Black-ish" had an episode about the N-word. Dre thinks it's perfectly all right for him to use the word with other African-Americans. He and his son Jack listen to a rap song in the car going to school which uses the word. At a talent show, Jack performed the song (bleeped on ABC with his mouth blurred) and was expelled due to a zero-tolerance policy his mother had asked for.

Dre fought to get his son back in school, and even his wife Bow ended up looking like a hypocrite when she tried to get others to back her.

Eventually the expulsion was reduced to a suspension.

Dre and his co-workers had an interesting discussion. They agreed the white people couldn't use the word and some people said if we can't, nobody should.

[Aeryn]

Sept 25, 2015 13:54:53 GMT -5 KyleEl said:

"Black-ish" had an episode about the N-word. Dre thinks it's perfectly all right for him to use the word with other African-Americans. He and his son Jack listen to a rap song in the car going to school which uses the word. At a talent show, Jack performed the song (bleeped on ABC with his mouth blurred) and was expelled due to a zero-tolerance policy his mother had asked for.

Dre fought to get his son back in school, and even his wife Bow ended up looking like a hypocrite when she tried to get others to back her.

Eventually the expulsion was reduced to a suspension.

Dre and his co-workers had an interesting discussion. They agreed the white people couldn't use the word and some people said if we can't, nobody should.

No, white people can't use the N-word. That's just how it is.

[SoCal]

What part of "freedom of speech" is difficult to understand?

"The First Amendment protects the freedom of speech and has been upheld by the Supreme Court more than once. But with occurrences like Charlies Hebdo and other incidents of racist, obscene, and hateful speech occurring, should this protection still apply? As Professor Tom Bell explains, it was unfavorable speech that not only allowed individuals to protest Jim Crow laws and neo Nazis and to fight for unpopular causes like the abolition of slavery or gay rights. In order for society to progress, hateful and offensive speech should not be censored. Freedom of expression must be protected."

--Tom Bell
Learn Liberty

[SoCal]

So.............the Attorney General of the United States will prosecute anyone who "uses Anti-Muslim rhetoric to incite hate."

O really? Come and get me Ms Lynch!

Perhaps you've forgotten the 1st amendment.

Moron

[KyleEl]

Political correctness during the holidays:

www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/mark-washburn/article45746495.html

Just so you'll know, the photo with his column drives home the point that he's like Andy Rooney. His opinions tend to be conservative and if you know him, you know he's just making fun of political correctness.