Thursday, March 03, 2016



The Hateful Message of Black Lives Matter

The words of the movement “Black Lives Matter” is reminiscent to the rhetoric of 1930s Germany where only “Aryan Lives” mattered. Let’s be clear: This rhetorical comparison is not correlated to the actions of the two movements. Both quotes imply that other lives don’t matter.

 In Pre-WWII Germany the bigoted rhetoric against those who were not Aryan including, but not limited to, Jews and the disabled, created a divide that led to genocide. Though America is not on that course (thankfully), the hateful rhetoric behind “Black Lives Matter” underscores Benjamin Franklin’s prophetic message:  United we stand, divided we fall. This hateful rhetoric exemplifies the latter.

Lives Matter. History has not always been kind to Blacks and other minorities. Jews suffered through exiles, crusades, pogroms, and the Holocaust (included the discriminatory Nuremberg Laws). Blacks suffered through slavery, lynching, and Jim Crow laws, which promoted segregation.

What’s thematic is differentiating between who’s human and who’s not. That theme is nothing but barbaric. I’m alive today because those in my family, especially my grandmother, survived Hitler’s slaughter-fest. My grandmother was in an orphanage when German soldiers approached and were about to take her into custody. However, due to logistical reasons they were unable to do so. The orphanage took action and a Christian family hid her on their farm in France. That Christian family believed this Jewish life mattered. There were people like this family known as Righteous Gentiles. They believed that innocent lives matter regardless of their background.

Last week Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke out in favor of Black Lives Matter. In response to someone erasing the words “black lives matter” and substituting “all lives matter” on the Facebook wall at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, Zuckerberg remarked this action as a “deeply hurtful and tiresome experience for the black community and really the entire Facebook community.”

"'Black lives matter' doesn't mean other lives don't," Zuckerberg said. "It's simply asking that the black community also achieves the justice they deserve."

While understandable, Zuckerberg’s point is misguided and sleazy. In the 2016 presidential campaign, Black Lives Matter activists jeered at former Maryland Governor and Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley when he said, “All lives matter.”

It is no surprise Black Lives Matter reflects frustration among African-Americans and cause disruptions (like at an event featuring Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders). Big government has failed them, especially in inner-cities. During the riots in Baltimore last year regarding the death of Freddie Gray, who died in police custody, former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen wrote about the failure of inner-city government policies.

Titled “The Baltimore Democrats Built”, Thiessen wrote why inner-city policies have failed everywhere. The title of his piece can be replaced with cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. “The mayor is a Democrat. Every member of the city council is a Democrat. The school system is run by Democrats (and their teachers union overlords),” Thiessen wrote.

Thiessen added, “O’Malley says recent events in Baltimore should serve as ‘a wake-up call for the entire country.’ He’s right about that. After five decades of virtually uninterrupted Democratic rule, Baltimore is an utter disaster. The left’s approach to poverty has failed.”

In an article in the New York Post last December, NYPD detective James Coll wrote:

    "On Aug. 28, the evening before a Black Lives Matter demonstration in St. Paul, Minn., Harris County Deputy Darren Goforth was killed pumping gas at a station in Texas by a man who shot him 15 times in the back. The murder didn’t stop participants from chanting, “Pigs in a blanket! Fry ’em like bacon!” the next day while a family grieved and a community searched for answers that never came.

    A select category of political leaders has been unable to make a connection between the caustic oratory of some in the Black Lives Matter movement and recent violence perpetuated against the police. These same individuals have had much less difficulty, however, equating irresponsible words with the death tolls that have followed in other instances where they gain a political advantage.

    Some call it unfair to blame the entire Black Lives Matter movement for the relative few who clutch their banner while calling for even more cop funerals. They miss the hypocrisy: There are police critics who paint all officers with the same broad brush. And they miss the point that ignoring the demagoguery has made hatred of the police acceptable to many and violence against officers appear necessary to some"

It is time to confront this bigoted, sadistic, and uncivilized movement that conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin labels, “a civil wrongs group… the old Black Panther movement.” History’s themes, such as bigotry, repeat themselves for better or worse.

All lives matter. Thug lives don’t.
 
SOURCE






British far-Left union accused of 'bullying' young Labour activists into voting for Jeremy Corbyn ally at the centre of anti-Semitism claims

Members of the Unite union have been accused of ‘bullying’ young Labour activists into voting a Jeremy Corbyn ally into a key position in the Labour Party.

MPs called for an inquiry after text messages showed Unite officials ordering Labour members in their teens and early 20s to elect hard-Left candidate James Elliott to the party’s ruling executive - and demanding to inspect their ballot papers.

Despite the activities of Unite and the Corbyn supporters group Momentum to get him elected, he narrowly lost the vote to moderate candidate Jasmin Beckett, a working-class student from Liverpool.

Mr Elliott, a student at Oxford University, is a controversial figure who worked on Mr Corbyn’s leadership bid.

A pro-Palestinian campaigner who has written articles railing against ‘Zionists’, he is active in the University’s Labour Club which is being investigated following anti-Semitism claims.

He is one of two Labour activists being investigated over claims from the group's co-chairman, Alex Chalmers, who quit earlier this month after complaining that many of its members 'have some kind of problem with Jews'. Mr Elliott denies any involvement.

He is a third-year history student at St Edmund Hall at Oxford University who helped to write Mr Corbyn's youth manifesto.

Centrist Labour MPs are relieved that Mr Elliott lost. His election to the 33-member National Executive Committee – containing MPs, trade union representatives and others – could have swung the balance to Mr Corbyn’s supporters, who want to empower party members to decide policy over issues such as Trident renewal.

Birmingham MP Jess Phillips tweeted that she was concerned by ‘reports of nasty bullying’ at the Young Labour conference in Scarborough today and told young activists who contacted her that she would raise the issue with the party on Monday.

Fellow Labour MP Ian Austin added: ‘Things seem to have got out of hand and I’m sure the party will want to look into it.’

Teenage Labour member Zac Harvey posted a text message exchange with Unite official Charlotte Upton in which she said: ‘I need you to send me a picture of your Unite ballot paper with James Elliott selected’ and said it was ‘not acceptable’ for him to refuse.

Other delegates tweeted that he was then forced to leave the conference hotel because he did not show them his ballot paper – and that they had to collect his things from his room as he ‘felt unsafe’.

Another member Jade Botterill tweeted: ‘Now there are people intimidating candidates, following them into toilets, threatening them! Absolutely vile.’ She added: ‘People here are being bullied – this isn’t organising, this is victimising.’

Unite was accused this month of trying to help Mr Elliott by offering their members free travel and hotel rooms.

Mr Elliott wrote in a recent article: ‘Anti-Semitism is a tired old accusation from Zionists, retreating behind mendacious slurs when losing the arguments.’ He has also written slamming the ‘very long history of collusion between Zionists and the Labour party’ which he claims ‘shames the working-class origins and socialist sentiments of the latter’.

The Unite union was at the centre of vote-rigging claims in 2013 when Labour was nominating a new candidate to be MP for Falkirk in Scotland. Local residents claimed to have been signed up without their knowledge to support the union-backed candidate.

A Unite spokesman said: ‘There is not a shred of truth in the claim that a delegate was asked to leave his hotel accommodation, nor that there was any wrong doing by the Unite delegation co-chair who acted with propriety at all times. Claims to the contrary are deliberately misleading and malicious, intended for no other reason than to bring this union into disrepute.

‘The Labour party is due to examine the Young Labour elections including some concerning allegations of a smear campaign organised by one candidate against a rival. Unite urges that a full and independent look at these elections is agreed, and we will happily cooperate fully in this process.’

SOURCE






Sharia courts in the UK 'prepared to ignore marital rape, domestic abuse and child marriage'

Some of the UK's sharia courts are ignoring marital rape and are prepared to ignore domestic abuse and child marriage, a prominent Muslim professor has found.

Laws condoned by some of the courts are in some cases more extreme than in parts of Pakistan, according to a new book written by an expert in human rights and Islamic law.

Elham Manea, herself a Muslim, spent four years examining scores of Islamic 'councils' in the UK that rule on thousands of disputes within Muslim communities.

The professor at Zurich University in Switzerland travelled to London and the Midlands to gather information from clerics.

She also scoured recordings of speeches for her book 'Women and Sharia Law'.

According to the Sunday Times, she found some clerics believed girls of 12 could be married.

She also found that some of them accepted that offenders should have their hands cut off as a means of punishment, Tom Harper reports.

Manea, whose family is from Yemen, gives one example of a British woman who was forced into a marriage with her cousin in Pakistan before being raped on her wedding night.

After returning to the UK she begged sharia court clerics to cancel the wedding, but Manea wrote:  'They did not care that she was forced to marry. They did not care that she is being raped in marriage, they do not see that as rape in marriage.'

In other examples, she quotes a cleric as saying 'a man should not be questioned why he hit his wife because this is something between them.'

The author argues in her book - released later this year- that courts lead to 'segregation, inequality and discrimination'.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said told the Sunday Times councils had 'no enforcement powers and operate only with consent of parties'.

It said it was committed to ensuring councils 'apply rules of natural justice in their proceedings, treat parties with equal respect and fairness, have more women members on the council panels and all panel members are given training on judge craft'.

SOURCE






Australia: Senator Joe Bullock quits citing Labor's support for 'homosexual marriage'

West Australian Senator Joe Bullock has announced he is retiring from politics citing an inability to support the Labor Party's position requiring MPs to vote in favour of same-sex marriage.

Calling it "homosexual marriage," the 61-year-old right-wing Senator told Parliament on Tuesday night that he was "morally obliged" to quit, just two years after entering Parliament because he could not agree with the party's decision to impose a binding vote on MPs.

He said his decision to retire began when he was asked how he could support the Labor Party given his view on same sex marriage.

"This question has dogged me for six months," Senator Bullock said. "How can I in good conscience recommend to the people that they vote for a party which is determined to deny its parliamentarians a conscience vote on the homosexual marriage question?" "The simple answer is that I can't."

Senator Bullock said he would not defect to the crossbench because he was elected on the ALP's ticket.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten immediately issued a gracious statement saying that while he often disagreed with the West Australian, he wished him well.

"A man of deeply held faith and convictions, Joe has always held to his views," Mr Shorten said.

"I don't agree with his views on a number of issues – including marriage equality – but I respect his right to hold those opinions."

"I respect the decision he's made to step down tonight, knowing it's come after a long period of consideration."

But one Labor MP who did not want to be named told Fairfax Media there was no love lost for the outspoken conservative Senator.  "Good riddance to the big fat rat," the MP said.

Senator Bullock is the fourth West Australian to announce their retirement ahead of the 2016 election. Gary Gray, Melissa Parke and Alannah MacTiernan have all recently said they will be quitting politics. Mr Gray attended Senator Bullock's speech in the Senate.

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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