Sunday, August 19, 2012



Some graphic political correctness



I have hesitated for a while before putting up the above --  as the right-hand panel of the diptych rather turned my stomach  -- but in the end I thought I might risk my readers' stomachs with it





Employee's lawsuit accuses Napolitano’s DHS of humiliating men, favoring women

A longtime special agent in the Department of Homeland Security has filed a salacious discrimination lawsuit, saying he was shoved aside in favor of a woman with ties to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano -- who the suit claims presided over a female "frat-house"-style department that routinely humiliated male staffers.

The lawsuit, filed in May by James T. Hayes Jr., focuses on two Napolitano appointees, Suzanne Barr and Dora Schriro, who joined DHS in February 2009, five months after Hayes was promoted to director of ICE Detention and Removal Operations.

Hayes claims Schriro, who was brought on as a special adviser to Napolitano, was not qualified for the job because she lacked law enforcement experience. Hayes maintained Schriro enjoyed a “long-standing relationship” with Napolitano and soon began assuming his duties.

Hayes was pushed aside "because of this relationship (with Napolitano) and because he was not female," the suit says.

Schriro previously led the Arizona and Missouri corrections departments. She has since left DHS and now serves as commissioner for the New York City Department of Correction.

The lawsuit also alleges that Barr cultivated a "frat-house type atmosphere" at DHS that "is targeted to humiliate and intimidate male employees."

In one instance, the suit alleges, Barr "moved the entire contents of the offices of three male employees" to the men's bathroom. It also claims she repeatedly used "sexually offensive behavior" -- like "screaming" about an explicit sexual act at a male employee in his hotel room and "covertly" taking a male agent's Blackberry and sending a message to his female supervisor that he "had a crush" on her and "fantasized about her."

The suit also claims Barr held conference calls to discuss excuses for firing Hayes, after Schriro assumed some of his responsibilities. Hayes was later removed from his Washington ICE job and assigned to the New York office. Subsequently, Hayes filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Office -- the suit alleges the department then retaliated against him. This alleged retaliation is the crux of the lawsuit.  

After the suit was first reported by blogger Debbie Schlussel, DHS issued a statement knocking down the claims.

"ICE doesn't comment on unfounded claims and will respond to Mr. Hayes' allegations as appropriate through the judicial system," a DHS spokesman said.

A representative for Schriro also issued a statement saying her "selection and service at DHS were based on the merits. Any suggestion to the contrary is false."

Hayes has held a number of high-ranking assignments at DHS, including his current post as special agent in charge of New York City ICE.

But Hayes lawyer Morris Fischer told FoxNews.com his client considered the transfer to New York to be a demotion. He also called the department's public response Friday to the allegations "offensive."

"The only thing unfounded in this case were the six unfounded misconduct investigations the secretary's staff subjected my client to after he first complained about the discriminatory work environment at ICE," Fischer said.

The suit says that in late 2009, DHS launched or re-opened at least six different misconduct probes against him. Those probes were concluded with a finding they were "without merit," the suit said.   "On information and belief, these investigations were initiated by the agency in order to intimidate the plaintiff," the suit said.

Hayes is seeking more than $330,000 in damages.  Barr is still Napolitano's chief of staff for ICE.

SOURCE




Newswoman’s Analysis Betrays Bias … or is it Ignorance?

    Marybeth Hicks

It must be said: What NBC newswoman Andrea Mitchell knows about suburban moms would fit on the back of a postage stamp.

Ms. Mitchell, reporting from Virginia at the Saturday rally where Mitt Romney introduced Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate, announced with authority that Mr. Ryan was “not a pick for suburban moms. This was not a pick for women. This was a pick for the base.”

Forgive a blunt observation when I say that merely having a vagina does not make you an expert on the opinions of other women. I submit that Ms. Mitchell, neither a suburban resident nor a mom, and certainly not a coupon clipper, has zero inside information on the likely response of women like me to Mr. Ryan’s inclusion on the Republican ticket.

Of course, Ms. Mitchell’s well-established liberal bias renders her analysis meaningless anyway. Still, we gals out here in the Target-red flyover are annoyed that radical feminists keep trying to speak for us.

Women like Ms. Mitchell — leftists who still swoon over Barack Obama like schoolgirls crushing on the high school quarterback — are working hard to keep alive the bogus “war on women” meme, in which American females, presumably obsessed with having lots and lots of sex, are under attack by old, white men (and the Catholic Church) intent on taking away their birth control.

It’s a notion so ridiculous (and by the way, so insulting to all women) that it feels absurd to even type that sentence.

In reality, suburban moms and women generally care most about the same thing that concerns suburban dads and men: our pathetic economy and the lack of good jobs available for our husbands, our teens and young adult children, and us.

Yes, we’re concerned about health care. But feminists would have us believe that we’re threatened because college girls must pay for their own birth-control pills (as if having premarital sex during college is a civil right). We could not care less.

We’re too busy scrounging around our wallets for the $20 needed for sports physicals so our kids can join a team this fall. And to be sure, we care about the $70 we’re spending to fill the gas tank so we can drive our sons and daughters to campus in the first place.

Perhaps Ms. Mitchell’s feminist demagoguery is a reflection of a certain ignorance that is no fault of her own. I mean, does she really sit down and balance the Greenspan family checkbook? What could she possibly know about the concerns of real suburban moms?

Not much, to be sure, but being a partisan hack, she certainly knows this: Research shows it is so-called “Wal-Mart moms” who are likely to decide this very close and crucial election.

I’m not talking about “the people of Wal-Mart” — the uneducated, mullet-sporting, NASCAR fans that the left believes them to be — but the college-educated, married, religious, moderate and conservative women who literally shop at Wal-Mart about once a week.

“Wal-Mart moms” don’t like political labels. They don’t really care about partisan politics and they certainly aren’t radical, “repro rights” feminists.

Rather, they are the wives and mothers and grandmothers who are holding their families together, mending clothes that don’t really fit, outfitting the kids for school at second-hand stores, recycling last year’s school supplies, and serving meatless meals not because it’s the cool, vegan thing to do, but because the ground beef is not on sale.

Ms. Mitchell’s “insights” about us to the contrary, the “women’s issue” that matters to suburban moms and women in this election year is our stagnant economy and the uncertain future it is carving out for our children and for us.

The women who could make or break this election will not be pigeonholed into the media’s liberal narrative. They’re going to take a long, fair look at Paul Ryan and they may just conclude, as I did, that this is a pick that says Mr. Romney is serious about fixing what is wrong.

SOURCE





British police 'are too worried about political correctness to prevent abuse linked to witchcraft'

Political correctness is preventing police from stopping child abuse in communities that believe in witchcraft, a minister said yesterday.

Tim Loughton warned that  a ‘wall of silence’ surrounded the problem.

Police and social workers are to receive additional training amid fears of a rise in witchcraft-related murders and attacks on children.

In the high-profile cases of Kristy Bamu and Victoria Climbie, both victims were murdered because family members believed they were possessed.

Ministers are concerned that faith-based abuse is under-reported and misunderstood, and the Metropolitan Police admits that its officers are rarely able to spot the signs that a youngster is in danger of such abuse, despite dealing with 83 faith-based cases in the past decade.

Mr Loughton, the children’s minister, said: ‘It’s clear we need to make a stand.

There has been only very gradual progress in understanding the issues over the last few years – either because community leaders have been reluctant to challenge beliefs which risk leading to real abuse in their midst, or because authorities misunderstand the causes or are cowed by political correctness.’

He added: ‘Child abuse is appalling and unacceptable wherever it occurs and whatever form it takes.

'Abuse linked to faith or belief in spirits, witchcraft or possession is a horrific crime, condemned by people of all cultures, communities and faiths – but there has been a wall of silence around its scale and extent.’

Yesterday a Nigerian couple who claimed their children were possessed by evil spirits were jailed for seven years, following a decade-long campaign of abuse that came to light only after their eldest daughter threw a note out of her bedroom window pleading for help.

The case follows that of Magalie Bamu, who was jailed for life in March after torturing her 15-year-old brother Kristy to death because she thought he was practising witchcraft.

She and boyfriend Eric Bikubi, who was also jailed for life, inflicted more than 130 injuries over the course of four horrific days in Newham, east London.

The death echoed that of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie, who was tortured and starved to death in 2000 after her carers became convinced that she was possessed.

The National Action Plan to Tackle Child Abuse Linked to Faith or Belief, drawn up after Kristy Bamu’s murder, urges closer engagement with communities, while other measures include better support for victims so that more prosecutions can be secured.

Detective Superintendent Terry Sharpe, who led the Bamu case, said: ‘It may be very difficult for the children themselves to come forward or, if it is a rogue pastor scenario, for people to report their religious leaders.

'Our big push has been to empower the professionals to raise awareness of the signs.’

Bishop Joe Aldred, part of the Churches Together in England group, said people should not ‘turn a blind eye’ to the possibility that children are in danger in religious settings.  ‘Everybody has to be aware,’ he stressed.

Andrew Flanagan, head of the NSPCC, added: ‘The vast majority of people in communities where witchcraft is practised are horrified by these acts.  'We must not be afraid to raise this issue so the offenders can be exposed.’

SOURCE






Police Captain and Devout Christian Sues Department after being Punished for Refusing to go to a Mosque for a Mandatory Cultural Event

A Tulsa police officer and devout Christian is suing his department after being punished for refusing to go to a mosque for a mandatory cultural event.

Police Capt. Paul Campbell Fields, a 17-year veteran, was docked two weeks' pay, transferred, reduced to the graveyard shift and made ineligible for promotions for at least a year, after he told his chief his faith made it impossible for him to attend a "Law Enforcement Appreciation Day" at the Islamic Cultural Society of Tulsa, according to the lawsuit.

Fields, 43, is a non-denominational Christian, who quoted Scripture in legal explanation of his insubordination.

"This event is compelling me to go to a venue where a group of individuals is prepared to discuss their (Islamic) faith," Fields said during a May 2012 deposition, the transcript of which was obtained by FoxNews.com. "And in my faith, I have a duty to proselytize my faith to people (who) don't subscribe to my faith. I can't do that in uniform. And so therein lies the conflict or moral dilemma I face."

Fields' attorney, Robert Muise of The American Freedom Law Center, elaborated, "He was going to be in a place where people were going to refer to Jesus Christ as merely a prophet and not his Lord and Savior.

"And he wouldn't be able to respond to them in any way," Muise added. "That was very troubling to him."

Fields is seeking his docked pay, attorney's fees, as well as compensatory damages for the "humiliation" -- and damage to his reputation -- he suffered as a result of the affair.

The donnybrook has its origins in a Jan. 25, 2011, Tulsa Police Department staff meeting, in which Deputy Police Chief Alvin Webster informed fellow officers of the March 4 event at the Islamic center.

At that point, attendance was voluntary, according to the lawsuit.

The Islamic Cultural Center of Tulsa did not return calls or emails from FoxNews.com, but a promotional flier for the event cited in the suit states the event would include meetings with Muslim community leaders, a tour of the center's mosque, talks on Islam, as well as a 45-minute prayer service.

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, GUN WATCHAUSTRALIAN POLITICSDISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL  and EYE ON BRITAIN (Note that EYE ON BRITAIN has regular posts on the reality of socialized medicine).   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  For readers in China or for times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site  here.

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