Friday, May 13, 2016


The strange priorities of British police

Ted Heath was undoubtedly queer and queers do tend to like boys so his local cops probably think they will find SOMETHING if they look hard enough.  But Ted is long dead so what is the point?  Surely not the dreaded "homophobia"?

Police have vowed to continue a probe into child abuse allegations against Sir Edward Heath – even though a key witness has been discredited.

Mike Veale, Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police, said he was ‘satisfied it was appropriate’ to continue the investigation into the former prime minister, who died in 2005.

He said the operation – which has so far cost £367,965 – would proceed despite the Metropolitan Police’s decision to close down its VIP sex abuse inquiry, in which Sir Edward was named as a suspect by a discredited witness known as ‘Nick’.

Last August, Wiltshire Police was criticised for holding a bizarre televised appeal for witnesses outside Sir Edward’s former house in Salisbury in the shadow of the city’s cathedral.

A senior officer urged victims not ‘to suffer in silence’ and to contact them if they had been abused by the respected politician. Lurid allegations against the late Tory PM, including that he stopped then Tory MP Harvey Proctor castrating ‘Nick’ with a penknife at a paedophile sex party, have since been comprehensively demolished.

But Wiltshire Police, leading an inquiry involving seven forces into historical abuse allegations against Sir Edward, said the nine-month investigation ‘remains live’.

In a letter to the Commons’ home affairs select committee published last night, Mr Veale said: ‘We are committed to going where the evidence leads and it will conclude when we are satisfied that our objectives have been proportionately achieved.

‘As with all investigations, the length of the inquiry will usually be commensurate with the complexity, seriousness and volume of allegations. I would ask no inference is drawn, suffice to say I am satisfied the length of this investigation is proportionate.’

Mr Veale, who has 16 police officers dedicated to the allegations dating back nearly 50 years, said he would personally conduct ‘due diligence’ on the investigation, codenamed Operation Conifer, to ensure ‘proportionality, legality and necessity’.

He added: ‘I will continue to think carefully about the implications of [the] operation. Doing the right thing is more important than the reputation of Wiltshire Police, and I am satisfied that it is appropriate for the investigation to continue.’

Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the home affairs select committee, said: ‘Concerns have been expressed to the committee over the rationale for this investigation and its cost.

'Ministers have previously criticised the inappropriate decision for a senior police officer to appeal for individuals to come forward with information at the gates of Sir Edward Heath’s former home. We will be monitoring this issue closely.’

Wiltshire Police’s inquiry began last year following allegations it covered up child sex claims against the politician, who never married. Forces including Kent, Jersey and Hampshire have been involved in the probe.

As part of the investigation, officers will spend up to two years trawling through Sir Edward’s private papers, questioning lunch guests at his old home Arundells, as well as former political aides and staff.

They will also try to track down any surviving crew on his yacht over extraordinary claims he abused a boy before throwing him overboard.

‘Nick’, who has since been exposed as a fantasist, claimed to have been raped by the former PM and also made lurid claims against a group of Establishment figures, including ex-Home Secretary Leon Brittan and former head of the army Lord Bramall.

But in March, the Met made the humiliating decision to scrap its £2million Operation Midland inquiry having failed to find any corroborating evidence.

Meanwhile, Wiltshire Police is being probed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission over claims a prosecution against a brothel-keeper was shelved more than 20 years ago after a threat was made to ‘expose’ Sir Edward.

SOURCE






EEOC Runs Ahead of the Courts on Questions of Gender Identity Discrimination

A number of federal statutes, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, bar discrimination on the basis of "sex."

And now, with transgender issues making daily headlines, a number of federal courts are being asked to decide if "sex" goes beyond simple anatomy and must also include "gender identity."

There's absolutely no doubt about it at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which flat-out states on its website that it is illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee "because of the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation)..."

In fact, the EEOC is busy establishing case law on the subject.

Just six days ago, the EEOC told a Minnesota company to pay $140,000 to a man who was asked to leave his job after he told co-workers he planned to "transition" from male to female.

Here are the facts of the case, as stated by the EEOC:

Ellucian, a higher education technology services company, barred the transgender employee from his assigned contract job on a college campus, the day after the employee told co-workers he "planned to transition from male to female."

The college where the employee was working asked Ellucian to remove the employee from their campus, and Ellucian complied with the college's request.

According to the EEOC, "Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination, including bias based on transgender status, gender stereotyping and subjecting an employee to different terms and conditions and/or a hostile work environment because of sex."

Despite the EEOC's affirmative opinion that the federal ban on "sex" discrimination includes gender-identity discrimination, the question has not been resolved conclusively by the courts.

In an opinion released on Tuesday, Attorney General Mark Herring of Virginia, a Democrat, noted that numerous federal statutes and regulations prohibit sex-based discrimination, but those statues do not define the term "sex."

The Virginia attorney general stated, "it would be premature at this time to offer a definitive opinion on the question of whether sex discrimination categorically includes...gender identity discrimination," but he also noted that "the unmistakeable trend in federal courts is towards construing anti-sex-discrimination statutes to prohibit discrimination against LGBT individuals in many circumstances."

In his opinion, Attorney General Mark Herring stated that the EEOC's "reasonable interpretation of Title VII is entitled to deference," and Herring quoted at length from EEOC's 2012 decision in Macy v. Holder, which found that "evidence of gender stereotyping is simply one means of proving sex discrimination" toward transgenders.

EEOC, in announcing its findings in the Ellucian case, also referred to the April 2012 Macy case, noting that it "ruled that employment discrimination against employees because they are transgender is sex discrimination which violates Title VII."

"Since that time, EEOC has focused on protecting transgender individuals as a strategic enforcement priority and has resolved several potential charges and lawsuits," the news release said.

Under the terms of the agreement with Ellucian, the company must not only pay the transgender person $140,000; it also must modify its code of conduct to include gender identity as a protected basis in its anti-discrimination provisions, and it must distribute the new code of conduct to all employees.

Ellucian must also provide training for all of its employees in the U.S. on gender identity discrimination, with additional training and coaching for all personnel who may receive removal requests from clients. And finally, Ellucian must report all removal requests made by clients to EEOC for the next three years.

"We appreciate that Ellucian worked cooperatively with EEOC to resolve this charge without having to go through protracted litigation," said Julianne Bowman, district director of the EEOC's Chicago District. "As a result of this agreement, Ellucian is helping to lead the way for transgender employees to enjoy equal rights in the workplace in Minnesota."

SOURCE






Another one of those charming Muslims that Australia is lucky to have



A MAN who has been charged for allegedly stomping on and destroying baby graves came out of Burwood Local Court this morning swinging at the media.

Muhammad Ibrahim, 25, slapped away cameras and almost ran a photographer over in his Jeep, which had been parked illegally.

Ibrahim was in no mood to talk to the media after turning up about 30 minutes late to his hearing for allegedly destroying almost 70 Christian graves at Rookwood Cemetery on November 27 last year.

Ibrahim pushed one camera away and grabbed another as he walked towards a Jeep that he had parked in a no-stopping zone almost directly outside the court house.

He climbed into the Jeep and, with a parking ticket still stuck under his windscreen wipers, did a three-point turn, narrowly missing a Daily Telegraph photographer.

He then stopped to pull down the window and stick up his middle finger for the cameras.

It is not the first time Ibrahim has been involved in an altercation outside court. When he appeared in March, he was confronted by a group of angry Russian patriots who chased him down the street shouting, “you’re a coward.”

Ibrahim’s hearing was adjourned because of a delay in locating his co-accused Nassem Raad.

Magistrate Eve Wynhausen adjourned the court case so that Ibrahim and Raad, who has also pleaded not guilty, can face a hearing together.

Ibrahim has pleaded not guilty to destroying or damaging property and supply of a prohibited drug. Raad has pleaded not guilty to entering an enclosed land without lawful excuse and destroy or damage property.

The Daily Telegraph understands almost 70 graves around a Greek Orthodox church were destroyed with crosses and headstones smashed including on at least four baby graves.

A security guard at the cemetery said he saw one father turn up to his infants grave sobbing.

A caretaker told the Daily Telegraph that many of the Greek Orthodox Christians would visit their relatives graves every day and the destruction of their loved ones headstones was deeply distressing to them.

As of January, the damage bill was $50,000 but it is expected to be a lot higher. Ibrahim and Raad’s cases will return to Burwood Local Court on June 30.

SOURCE






Australia: Waleed Aly’s complaint at Logies about TV racism erases the true trailblazers



WAS there anything more ludicrous than seeing Waleed Aly complaining last weekend about racism even after he was given the Gold Logie for Best Personality on TV?

Was there anything sillier than seeing Noni Hazelhurst likewise complaining last weekend about women not getting a fair go at the very moment that she was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame?

Please, children are watching. Wouldn’t a “thank you” rather than a “stuff you” not have set a better example?

And wouldn’t a tribute to Australia have been more appropriate than all this childish displaying of wounds that seem to be not even the barest of scratches?

Instead, we were treated to something Kafkaesque on Logies night, where tales were told of Australia’s allegedly inherent racism and sexism at an event that at every turn contradicted that fashionable smear, so wildly applauded by the audience.

Take Aly’s acceptance speech. By any measure, Aly has succeeded so completely in this country that he is a walking contradiction of claims that Muslims or people from Middle Eastern families are invariably the oppressed.

Instead, our institutions have rushed to embrace and sanctify this man who seemed the moderate and unthreatening Muslim of their dreams — a man who allowed them to prove their own broad-mindedness at minimal risk and to ignore the explosions, gunfire and screams of “Allahu akbar” on the TV news.

A grateful Labor government appointed Aly to the board of the Australia Council. The ABC, committed to every kind of diversity except diversity of thought, signed up this preacher of Leftist pieties and Islamic apologetics as an on-air presenter. An eager Monash University made him a lecturer at its Global Terrorism Research Centre, even though he had not even completed a PhD.

Gold Logie award winner Waleed Aly has complained about racism.
The Age made him a columnist, Channel 10 made him a host of The Project and the Australian government sent him on a tour of the Middle East.

The journalist union’s Walkley Awards even handed him a prize for his columns and a portrait of Aly as a kind of Christ, blood dripping from his noble head, was a finalist for the Archibald Prize for portraiture.

No one can have been showered with so much by so many so soon — and so clearly while being so different.

Yet Aly in his speech still wouldn’t take yes, yes, yes for an answer. He instead attacked the TV industry for not being welcoming enough to Muslims, ethnics and people with funny names. You know, to people just like Waleed Aly.

“If tonight means anything, it’s that the Australian public, our audience — as far as they are concerned there is absolutely no reason why that can’t change,” he said, clutching his Logie.

And then he told the most astonishingly far-fetched tale of oppression, announcing that ethnic actors had seen in him their representative, even their hero, and had urged him to win the Logie for them.

“Someone who is in this room — and I’m not going to use the name they use in the industry — came up to me, introduced themselves and said to me, ‘I really hope you win. My name is Mustafa. But I can’t use that name because I won’t get a job’.”

How sad. But how suss. It soon turned out that this actor too scared to reveal his Middle Eastern first name was Tyler De Nawi, who still kept and traded under his Middle Eastern surname without any trouble.

Even stranger, De Nawi had just starred in the Channel 9’s prime-time hit TV show, Here Come the Habibs, playing someone from a Lebanese background just like his own.

Exactly what did Aly think De Nawi was hiding? If De Nawi thought he had to keep his Lebanese background secret to succeed, he was going about it in a hell of a strange way. But on Aly ploughed, saying an actor called “Dimitri” had also urged him to win.

“To Dimitri and Mustafa and to everyone else with an unpronounceable name like I don’t know, I really just want to say one thing and it’s that I am incredibly humbled that you would even think to invest in me that way,” he sighed.

Please. A man with an even more allegedly “unpronounceable” name than Dimitri — Alex Dimitriades — had already just won the Logie for the Most Outstanding Actor.

And Deborah Mailman, of Aboriginal ancestry, had won Most Outstanding Actress, showing that honouring people of different colour and “race” is not quite the Aly-specific Big Deal in this exceptionally embracing country.

That is the real shame of this Aly schtick — that by presenting himself as the great challenger of our racism he wipes out the abundant history we have of people who did that challenging long ago and helped to create the kind of country where an Aly effortlessly cleans up big-time.

Am I too harsh?

Then consider how Aly’s wife, Muslim convert Susan Carland, herself given a lecturer’s job by Monash University and a gig by ABC radio, has presented her husband as the shining first to challenge a colour-phobic TV industry.

As The Australian reported in a generous profile of Aly last month: “Aly’s wife, academic Susan Carland, points out the significance of having a non-white face on commercial TV.

“ ‘I think a lot of people forget that — he’s the first non-white on prime-time commercial TV. That’s huge,’ she says, later sending me a text to correct herself: ‘PS, Waleed told me apparently Ernie Dingo hosted something on commercial TV back in the day’.”

Strange how a couple who have apparently discussed Aly’s great significance could only just remember Aboriginal Ernie Dingo — who merely hosted “something on commercial TV — and no one else.

It appears that so many others who went before have been wiped from their memories, including Aboriginal current affairs host Stan Grant, Sri Lankan entertainer Kamahl, exercise guru Swami Sarasvati, Aboriginal presenter Aaron Pedersen of Gladiators Australia, the much-loved African American singer Marcia Hines and Bellbird’s Bob Maza, whose Hall of Fame entry hails him for having “changed the way indigenous people were portrayed in the media”.

Also wiped from this Aly-Was-First history are Big Brother’s Trevor Butler, MasterChef’s Poh Ling Yeow and Adam Liaw and Australian Idol’s Casey Donovan.

And, while Carland limited Aly’s exceptionalism to commercial TV, surely the ABC’s Trisha Goddard and the SBS’s Lee Lin Chin deserve some acknowledgment?

The truth is that whatever the flaws of Australia’s past, Aly is by no means the exception or the saviour by which we will be saved from the sin of our alleged racism.

He instead slots easily into a long tradition of Australians embracing people of all backgrounds who make an effort to join.

It is this version of Australia that should be taught — an affirmation of Australia’s warm heart, not a damnation of its imagined evil.

So next time let’s have a Logies winner admit they are not a victim but a winner in a society from which they so richly profit.

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.

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