Outrage of the day

Hamline University suspends a student for voicing conservative views concerning guns: "Hamline University has suspended a student after he sent an e-mail suggesting that the Virginia Tech massacre might have been stopped if students had been allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus. Student Troy Scheffler is now required to undergo a mandatory “mental health evaluation” before being allowed to return to school. Scheffler, who was suspended without due process just two days after sending the e-mail, has turned to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help."

Outrageous.
But the student in question has a real friend in FIRE--see for example the organization's courageous battle, and pretty much total victory gained, in this recent battle.

That's a funny way to do "ethics"

Lynne Stewart, a disbarred lawyer who got in trouble because she was found to have facilitated a terrorist client's communication with other terrorists, is scheduled to speak at a Hofstra University legal "ethics" conference.

But hey, with all the other lawyers there, she might just fit right in.

I think this also qualifies as the Outrage of the Day.

Outrage of the day

The Washington Post refuses to run a comic strip because it engages in some humor at the expense of traditionalist Muslims.

But no, that's not necessarily the outrage---the real outrage is that the editors of the Post don't have the guts to say WHY they pulled the strip. All they've done instead is to spike it, and in a rather cowardly fashion refuse to say why. Sad.

Outrage of the day

From James Taranto at Opinionjournal.com (scroll down to find the story). "Zero-tolerance" nonsense, junior-high-school-variety. Quote: "An East Valley eighth-grader was suspended this week after he turned in homework with a sketch that school officials said resembled a gun and posed a threat to his classmates," reports the East Valley Tribune of Mesa, Ariz.: But parents of the 13-year-old, who attends Payne Junior High School in the Chandler Unified School District, said the drawing was a harmless doodle of a fake laser, and school officials overreacted. . . .Payne Junior High officials did not allow the Tribune to view the drawing. The Mostellers said the drawing did not depict blood, injuries, bullets or any human targets. They said it was just a drawing that resembled a gun. But Payne Junior High administrators determined that was enough to constitute a gun threat and gave the boy a five-day suspension that was later reduced to three days."

Are there really people who think these draconian, inflexible, nonsensical-on-their-face, if-you-even-draw-a-picture-of-something-that-looks-like-a-gun-you're-suspended policies are good things?

Outrage of the day

Full article is here. It speaks for itself. Here's an excerpt---but read the whole thing:

Tom McKenna is a longtime Stuart businessman who speaks only English.
He says that's why he's being kicked out of the storefront on South Dixie Highway where he has run Seacoast Water Care for seven years.

"I don't know how else to put it," said McKenna, 51.
I'm not sure I do either.

On July 5 — the day after Independence Day — McKenna received a letter from landlord Ivan Munroe telling him to consider another location.

Munroe said in his letter he wants to have "quality tenants serving the Spanish need in the area."

"I guess I don't serve the 'Spanish need,' whatever that means," McKenna said.
"I have plenty of Spanish-speaking workers come in here to buy water for their landscaping crews," he said. "And people in the neighborhood use the vending machines out front to fill their water bottles for their homes."

The building is on the east side of Dixie Highway, south of Indian Street in Golden Gate. Directly south of McKenna's store, across Southeast Ellendale Street, is a Texaco gas station where men, most of whom speak primarily Spanish, gather to wait for someone to hire them for day labor.
The population of the Golden Gate neighborhood east of McKenna's store also has become mostly Spanish-speaking.

To McKenna, that's irrelevant, as it should be. A customer is a customer is a customer.
But all the signs for the check-cashing store and the Mexican restaurant that share the building with McKenna are in Spanish.

Apparently the signs for Seacoast Water Care don't fit in. They're in English.
Munroe pretty much admitted that's one of the reasons he wants McKenna to move.

"I can have a vision, can't I? And his business just doesn't fit there," Munroe said. "He's not a good tenant, that's my opinion. He's been late on the rent."

Outrage of the day

Details here. This is a story about young undercover journalists. One, an 18 year old young man named David McSwane, posed as a high school senior, about to graduate, who was interested in joining the military. He secretly taped army recruiters lying to him, and encouraging him to lie, in order to join. It became a big story. Fine. Army recruiters shouldn't lie. But then there's the story of a different undercover journalist, a young female college reporter at UCLA. The fact that her "scoop" (indeed, her exposure of lying) has been ignored is an outrage. Michelle Malkin tells the story:

No such laurels have been awarded to Lila Rose, however. And none will be forthcoming, I predict. Rose is an 18-year-old student journalist at UCLA. Like McSwane and his breed of undercover reporters, she surreptitiously infiltrated a massive organization that enlists young people. Like McSwane and his breed of undercover reporters, Rose exposed deceptive practices. Rose posed as a 15-year-old seeking the services and advice of her target. Like McSwane and his breed of undercover reporters, she caught her targets urging her to lie and evade the law in order to sign her up.

But Rose’s target was the Left’s beloved Planned Parenthood, not the military. And that has made all the difference in the nonexistent national coverage of her undercover journalism. Rose edits The Advocate, a pro-life campus publication of the student group Live Action. She posed as a minor impregnated by a 23-year-old boyfriend and caught a Planned Parenthood employee advising her to lie about her age to relieve the abortion provider from a legal obligation to report statutory rape to the police.

“If you’re 15, we have to report it,” the staffer told Rose in a secretly taped video. “If you’re not, if you’re older than that, then we don’t need to.” “OK, but if I just say I’m not 15, then it’s different?” Rose queried. “You could say 16,” the worker helpfully suggested. “Just figure out a birth date that works. And I don’t know anything.” Other than coverage from a few pro-life groups and conservative websites, Rose’s stunning revelations have received virtually no mainstream media attention. And no calls from lawmakers for investigations of Planned Parenthood’s predatory tactics and practices — which have been also caught on tape in other states by undercover citizen investigators.

Instead, Rose faces threats of a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood, which sent her a cease-and-desist letter and had the appalling nerve this week to lecture Rose about the need “to be more respectful of California laws,” according to the conservative Cybercast News Service.

Where are the muckraking champions when you need them? Intrepid Lila Rose has learned the hard way: Not all undercover journalists are equal.

Outrage of the day

Back in April, Senator Barack Obama made a campaign appearance at Georgia Tech University. Fine, no problem. Naturally, on campus, news and ads for his event were everywhere. Fine--you'd expect that. What you would NOT expect is an official of the university to say, in effect, vote Obama! (and full details are here)--money quote:

What I didn’t expect was to learn of his visit from an email sent by the Georgia Tech Dean of Students Office.
In the email message sent through the Buzzport announcement system, usually reserved for official Institute business, all 17,000 Georgia Tech students were informed about Obama’s visit and solicited to volunteer for his campaign. The message stated:

"Senator Obama is also in need of a lot of volunteers to help him publicize while he is in Atlanta. If you are interested in volunteering you can check the box that says volunteers on the RSVP page. Volunteers will be needed for Wednesday (street publicity team), Thursday (sign making party) and Saturday (helping with the actual event) you can also reply to this message if you'd like to volunteer. "

Is this solicitation an appropriate use of the Buzzport announcement system?
According to the Dean of Students website:

"The Office of the Dean of Students provides advocacy and support for students. This office assists students in resolution of problems, provides information and referral about campus resources, and promotes initiatives that address students [sic] needs and interests."

Outrage of the day

Details and quote here. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), on the bridge collapse in Minnesota of yesterday, immediately begins the blame game and finger-pointing: at President Bush, obviously: "Politicians in Washington, D.C. began finger-pointing and blaming each other Thursday following the bridge collapse in Minnesota. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Minnesota bridge tragedy is a wakeup call on America's deteriorating infrastructure. "Since 9/11 we have taken our eye off the ball," said Reid, suggesting infrastructure spending has taken a back seat to spending on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. "(The bridge disaster) really should be a wakeup call for America," said Reid, "a wakeup call to America because we have an infrastructure that is deteriorated and deteriorating. Bridges, dams, highways, water systems, sewage systems."

They're still pulling people out of the water up there in Minneapolis, and Senator Reid is already busy playing partisan politics with it and blaming Bush??? Contemptible.

Outrage of the day

Actually today there are two. Remember would-be shoe bomber Richard Reed? His Muslim extremism means he feels little sympathy with Christians, according to letters he's written from prison: "He asks his father whether he has been praying five times a day, and says his aunt could not have reached heaven if she died while believing in Christianity. "What you wrote about Aunt Lynn being in a better place, you should know that while Allah is merciful and forgiving, this applies only to those who upheld His rights, at least at a basic level," the newspaper quotes him as writing." (Christians who suggest that Jews will never go to heaven receive heavy criticism--and they ought to receive such. So where is the criticism for radical Muslims who suggest the same thing about Christians?)

And then there's continuing news from Eastern Michigan University. Remember what happened there? A student was raped and murdered in her dorm room, yet for months the university claimed there was no foul play involved--until a couple of months later, when a student was arrested and charged with the crime. The president of the university was eventually fired by the Board of Regents for the cover-up. Well; so last night EMU's former president, John Fallon, went on Larry King Live. He claims it wasn't his fault; that he was lied to concerning the case by the Vice President for Student Affairs, Jim Vick. But hey, Mr. Vick has said in the past that it's not his fault, either--he says that the university's director of public safety, Cindy Hall, didn't tell HIM all the details. Meanwhile, Fallon makes dark references to reports being shredded without his knowledge, shadowy conspirators, etc etc. Er...well. Within two months of the student's death, there was an arrest. So there was an ongoing police investigation of what happened. Fallon knew nothing of this? Really? If so, then he didn't try very hard to find out what was going on. This is a case of a whole bunch of people shamefully failing to take responsibility.

Outrage of the day

Lindsay Lohan and her entourage. No, not because she did something wrong. We've all done bad things of one kind or another. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone, and all that. No, instead it's because she, and her handlers and her publicists and family members and other hangers-on were all telling us that she was doing better and getting better and had learned her lesson and that they were helping her, etc etc etc. Good grief, she'd just been to rehab, she'd just had a major accident over Memorial Day, and yet barely two months later it happened all over again. So everyone, especially Lindsay, who was saying things were better and everything was going to be okay, either had no idea what they were talking about or were lying through their teeth. They're very lucky that nobody has gotten killed or seriously injured in the midst of all these incidents.

Outrage of the day

It's got to be Venezuela's Hugo Chavez who, despite being popularly elected, is emerging as a Castroist dictator. Today he said that foreigners who come to Venezuela and criticize him and his government should be booted out of the country. Quote: "How long are we going to allow a person — from any country in the world — to come to our own house to say there's a dictatorship here, that the president is a tyrant, and nobody does anything about it?" Chavez asked during his weekly television and radio program.

So if anybody dares call Hugo Chavez a "tyrant", why...he'll act like one. Like the dictator he is.

Outrage of the day

A new feature. In this case, it's a quote--you can read the entire piece from which it's taken here. The outrage: “The way our society equalizes incomes,” he argued, “is through much higher taxes than we have today. There is no other way.”

So he's never heard of economic growth and the growth of the middle class???