May you have a festive and enjoyable holiday, secure in the knowledge that Homeland Security forces are keeping you safe from flying fish, killer robots with laser-beam eyes, and the Martian fleet.
InstaPunditry -- And it Shows
An item from our erudite friend Glenn:
MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT, this time in California:
The 17-year-old junior says that stance inspired threats from which teachers have refused to protect him. Some faculty members even started a public campaign against his group. . . In a telephone interview, Tim said he's been threatened at least three times . . . . One boy said he was going to "find someone" to beat up Tim. In two of those instances, Tim said two faculty members stood by and did nothing to help him.
All because he had an unpopular opinion. I hope the Justice Department will look into this breach of civil rights, and the apparent complicity of state employees in the suppression of speech they find disagreeable.posted at 02:24 PM by Glenn Reynolds
But when you read the Moonie Times article that Glenn excerpted from, you learn that the "threats" consisted of Hispanic boys calling Tim "white boy" and "racist" while they "blocked him from going down the hall" (but they weren't all that good at blocking, since Tim was able to "duck into a classroom"); and on another occasion, "surrounding" him in a classroom while a teacher was present. And yes, there was that time when a kid told Tim he was going to pay someone to beat him up -- which must be a new threat (just in time for the Washington Times interview), because when the local paper covered the story on December 22, Tim never mentioned it.
Anyway, the events have been reported to the police, who "don't think they were real threats." And the Principal said he investigated Tim's story, and "and found no evidence of inappropriate action by teachers."
But Tim still has people looking out for him. Besides being declared a hero by every right-wing group from The Eagle Forum to WorldNetDaily to ChronWatch, Tim has had a civil rights complaint lodged on his behalf:
A San Bruno group, the European/American Issues Forum, said it had filed a formal complaint on Buehler's behalf with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, alleging the school was failing "to eliminate a hostile environment" against the club president.
But hey, per Glenn, the Justice Department should get in on the case too --perhaps dropping that officially bogus one involving a Senior Administration Official who disclosed the affiliation of a CIA officer under non-official cover. Because THAT one is clearly a non-starter, and you'll never hear anything about IT again!
But back to young Tim, who has said his role model is Michael Savage. He does indeed have a right to publish a newsletter which says that "liberals welcome every Muhammad, Jamul and Jose who wishes to leave his third-world state and come to America -- mostly illegally -- to rip off our health care system, balkanize our language and destroy our political system." And he also has the right to accuse his teachers of being "liberal traitors" and to encourage his classmates to turn them in.
Nobody should threaten him for exercising his right to free speech, obnoxious though it may be. But since it seems doubtful that he was actually threatened in a criminal sense, I don't know if calling in the DOJ to try to make the Hispanic kids and the teachers LIKE Tim is actually legal. But Glenn's the lawyer, so I defer to his expertise.
2:03:45 AM
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Should Auld TownHalls Be Forgot?
Nobody copied off of someone else's paper this time, so no common themes. But I suspect that some of our pundits have already been toasting the New Year, since we have a wackier Town than usual. And somebody wake up Jonah Goldberg and Rich Lowry and tell them to shake off the hangovers and get their columns in!
Ben Shapiro
More from Rabbi Ben about why it's okay for him to be part of the Christian Right.
The Noahide Laws provide the formula for a better world. Imagine a world with no Enron, no Mafia, no satanic cults.Brent Bozell
When ABC news did a special which showed how commercials pressure kids to eat unhealthy foods, it failed to mention that "NYPD Blue" ep where a killer confessed to using a dildo. [Darth Vader Voice: "Nedra Pickler, I, Brent Bozell, am your FATHER!"]
The question to Eisner: Do you like being responsible for thousands of children asking their parents what a dildo is?Joel Mowbray
Joel has come up with a new school yard taunt: "General Zinni, What a Ninny!", and a new P.C. dictum: when you complain about neocons, you are an antisemite.
Discussing the Iraq war with the Washington Post last week, former General Anthony Zinni took the path chosen by so many anti-Semites: he blamed it on the Jews.Linda Chavez
Neither President Bush nor Vice-President Cheney—nor for that matter Zinni’s old friend, Secretary of State Colin Powell—was to blame. It was the Jews. They “captured” both Bush and Cheney, and Powell was merely being a “good soldier.”
Technically, the former head of the Central Command in the Middle East didn’t say “Jews.” He instead used a term that has become a new favorite for anti-Semites: “neoconservatives.”
Linda shows her funny side by lightheartedly predicting events she doesn't believe will happen, so she can defame people she doesn't like.
After winning the New Hampshire primary, the Iowa Caucus, and sweeping five of the six primaries held Feb. 3, Howard Dean stunned supporters by announcing that he was divorcing his wife of 23 years in order to enter a "civil union" with multi-billionaire George Soros.
Asked how he thought this might affect his chances of beating President Bush in November, the often acerbic Democrat noted, "I let the cat out of the bag months ago when I announced I was a metrosexual, only you guys weren't smart enough to pick up on it.
Michelle Malkin
Once again, Michelle has identified what's wrong with this country: those damned illegal immigrants! And now they're whiners too!
-- Illegal alien litigants. How do you say "chutzpah" in Spanish? After being caught working illegally at Wal-Mart, a group of nine illegal aliens is suing the company for alleged discrimination in failing to pay overtime and withhold taxes
Bill Murchison
Abortion is all the gays fault, so we shouldn't let them get married.
The matrix of the gay marriage culture is the abortion culture, which actively promotes sterility and the refusal of procreation. As in the gay-marriage debate, the social premises for restricting abortion came under constitutional attack. The attack succeeded. To bear children, not to bear children -- the U.S. Supreme Court couldn't have cared less.Thomas Sowell
California has too many damned rules and regulations about selling your organs, and that's why its checkbook is overdrawn. Thomas blames those meddling teens and socialites!
There are many ideological activists in California, some of whom have inherited enough money that they will never have to work a day in their lives. They -- along with college students -- have the time to spend promoting whatever political crusades are in vogue among the fashionable elites, whether that is "open space" restrictions on housing, "living wage" laws or "anti-war" resolutions.
Debra Saunders
NATO sees you when you're sleeping. It knows when you're awake. It knows when you're legally guilty of war crimes, so be good for goodness sake.
Milosevic, unlike his minions, doesn't deserve a presumed-innocent trial. When NATO sent troops into the former Yugoslavia, its leaders already had reached the verdict that Milosevic's regime was guilty of crimes so heinous that others' lives would be placed at risk in order to end it.
Tony Blankley
Tony claims that "On Top of Spaghetti" is way funnier than the evening news, with all the reports of "the almost daily killing of our troops, terrorism, Middle East suicide bombers, orange alerts, killer floods, fires and mudslides," and "the death of Queen Elizabeth's most beloved Corgi."
Even Tom Glazer's stupid parody lyrics, above, gave you at least a brief moment of lightness (though probably not sustained laughter) -- which is more than you got from today's paper or last night's evening news.Walter E. Williams
Walter used to hector his wife when she complained about high prices at the grocery store until she presumably beaned him with a can of creamed corn. He buys low and sells high, and anybody who doesn't like that is a Commie! Outsourcing his column to an Indonesian pundit who'll do the job for 2 cents a week is just good business. Since homosexuals all die of AIDS in their 30s, how come insurance companies can't charge them higher rates? And what about that guy who set the cruise control on his Winnebago and then left to go make coffee? Will HE underbid the Indonesian for Walter's column?
How many times have we heard the accusation that a corporation moved overseas to take advantage of lower-priced labor or hired cheaper-priced Indians with HB-1 visas to replace higher-priced American high-tech workers? You'd think that a desire for lower prices is somehow immoral. Why should a preference for low prices be OK for you and me, and not so for CEOs?
Trevor Bothwell
Trevor, presumably a Scaife minion who was paid in copies of Rich Lowry's book instead of money, tries to encourage you to buy some of them. And if it's "crazy" to think that the Clintons are the source of all the evil in this world, then you can just go ahead and call Trevor crazy!
As we exit 2003 and find ourselves merely one more year away from the 2004 presidential election, it will be interesting, if somewhat nauseating, to watch the machinations Sen. Hillary Clinton employs to position herself for the 2008 (or perhaps 2004?) election.So, during 2004, make sure YOUR kids know that Clinton is responsible for 9/11 and what a dildo is, and stop persecuting neocons!
[snip]
Since roughly half of America is apparently hopelessly unaware that Bill Clinton’s failure to respond forcefully to attacks on Americans was in large part responsible for 9-11, this Clinton spin obviously still works in hotel conference rooms in our liberal cities. But if it makes me a “radical” or a “reactionary” to support the toppling of the Taliban, the liberation of Iraqis, and the capture of Saddam Hussein, then I suppose I’m guilty as charged.
12:51:25 AM
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