Tag Archives: political correctness

national news, political news

Terrorists compared to American patriots

You shouldn’t have gone there, Dr. Ben Carson.

No sir. You should not have compared the Islamic State terrorists — the monstrous demons who behead people in public — to the brave warriors who fought against British tyranny to create the United States of America.

That’s what you did, Doc, when you said: “They got the wrong philosophy, but they’re willing to die for what they believe, while we are busily giving away every belief and every value for the sake of political correctness.”

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ben-carson-likens-islamic-state-to-american-patriots/ar-AA8dMf7

That statement might have stood on its own, Dr. Carson, but you had prefaced it by saying American revolutionary patriots also were willing to die for their cause.

Perhaps a better comparison, Doc, would have been that kamikaze pilots flying for the Japanese Empire were willing to “die for their beliefs” as they flew their aircraft into American warships during World War II.

What you’ve done, sir, is juxtapose a cherished American ideal — the fight for liberty, freedom and individual dignity — with monstrous acts, crimes against humanity.

I understand, Dr.Carson, that you are pondering a run for the presidency in 2016. Conservatives adore your ideology and they hang on your words. I appreciate as well your intelligence and obvious brilliance as a leading neurosurgeon and medical scholar.

But just as that goofy Texas congressman, Randy Weber, erred in comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler in a tweet — for which he later sort of apologized — you have mixed two radically different examples of why people lay down their lives for causes in which they believe.

 

 

Uncategorized

Redskins name a 'source of pride'?

Sarah Palin and Mike Ditka are on the same page regarding the name of Washington, D.C.’s professional football team.

They like the name “Redskins.” They think the name should stay. Ditka, the former Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys tight end and former Bears head coach, takes liberal political correctness police to task for denigrating a great name.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/sarah-palin-mike-ditka-redskins-110265.html?hp=r3

Palin, the former half-term Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee, said the Redskins name is a “source of pride.”

Wow!

Let’s ponder that one for just a moment.

Palin hails from a state with a significant Native American population. Alaska is full of various people whose ancestry originates in that region. They aren’t immigrants. Their skin color is a bit reddish, yes?

I’m wondering if the ex-governor/turned reality TV star/turned Fox News contributor ever has called a Native Alaskan a “redskin” because she just knows they’d be proud to be labeled like that.

No, I believe ex-Gov. Palin is incorrect. It’s no source of pride, which likely explains why Native American groups all over the United States have protested the name “Redskins.”

As for Coach Ditka, I just would remind him that times do change. What once was considered OK is no longer held in favor. That’s how trends change, coach. They just evolve — right along with community attitudes.

Uncategorized

'Harvested' instead of 'killed'?

6 Comments

Maybe my idle mind is a little too, uh, idle this lovely Sunday afternoon.

With that, I’ll get something off my chest. It’s piddly and not too terribly significant, but it has to do — I think — with what I perceive to be a tilt toward political correctness.

Looking through my local newspaper — the Amarillo Globe-News — today, I noticed two captions under pictures on the Outdoor page of the Sports section. The pictures showed two hunters who had shot wild game. One was a water buck in South Africa; the other was a feral hog. The text under the pictures said the hunters “harvested” the animals.

This is not a new use of a common term. When I think of something being “harvested,” though, I think of cotton being stripped, of wheat being cut, of kids picking raspberries off the thorny bushes (which is what I used to do in the summer growing up in the Pacific Northwest).

Perhaps I should ask a newspaper copy editor, but short of that, I’ll pose the question here: When did the terms “shot” and “killed” become unacceptable for use in a daily newspaper in describing the act of hunting wild animals?

The animals shown today, as are the critters displayed all the time on that particular page, are pretty darn dead. Does the text below the pictures need to somehow soften for readers what they already can see with their own eyes?

Some folks — particularly those on the right — just love to criticize those who tend to use politically correct terminology rather than dealing straight up with whatever they’re trying to describe.

Is that what’s happening to our region’s hunting community, for crying out loud? Please tell me it ain’t so.