Tag Archives: political correctness

local news

Freshmen or first-year?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I need to get out more.

Texas Christian University, in Fort Worth, has decided it no longer will refer to new students at the school as “freshmen.” It will call ’em “first-year students.”

Oh, my goodness. This is another cog in the gender-neutral wheel that’s being turned at institutions around the nation. Some folks believe that the term “freshmen” is, um, too gender specific. To fix that issue, they want to rid the language of such terminology.

OK. How do I respond to this?

Let’s see. I’ll respond by disregarding it for the most part. I don’t attend school. Neither do my sons. My granddaughter is still in elementary school, so she isn’t even old enough to be troubled by terms and phrases that she might perceive to be offensive.

Sigh.

I long have considered myself to be a liberated American male. Many of the changes in popular culture have been all right with me. This one, though, simply annoys me. It’s not as though I’ll spend a moment worrying about it. I won’t lose a minute of sleep over whether TCU’s freshmen students will be called “first-year” Horned Frogs.

As I step back and take a longer view of it, I am left to wonder: When is this gender-neutrality effort going to end? 

The older I get the more I find myself disliking politically correct terminology. I get that we no longer use racially insensitive terms and I am fine with that nod to political correctness. I supported the decision to change the name of the Washington team that plays in the National Football League.

However, TCU’s decision to end the use of the term “freshmen” is an annoyance I cannot let pass.

Let us all stay tuned. I am certain there will be many more of these so-called language “reforms” on the horizon.

national news

It isn’t ‘political correctness,’ Mr. POTUS

1 Comment

A reporter stood before Donald Trump today to pose a question; he said he had to speak loudly because he was wearing a surgical mask.

“You’re being politically correct,” Trump told the reporter, speaking in that dismissive tone he uses to discuss measures people are taking to avoid being sickened by the coronavirus.

The reporter answered that he was merely being cautious, that he doesn’t want to catch the killer virus.

And so it goes on and on with the Dipsh** in Chief, who continues to dismiss the wearing of masks as a preventative measure by Americans.

Trump won’t wear one in public. He says a mask makes him “look ridiculous.” He poked fun today at his likely election opponent, Democrat Joseph R. Biden, for wearing a mask during Memorial Day services in Delaware. Biden was asked by a CNN reporter whether wearing  mask is a sign of “strength” or “weakness.”

Joe Biden’s answer? It’s a sign of “leadership.” Bingo!

Donald Trump has failed every leadership test he has ever taken since becoming a politician.

Oh! There’s this: The disease that would in Donald Trump’s words disappear “miraculously” when we had recorded 15 cases is about to claim its 100,000th fatality.

Sports news

Nothing PC about this disqualification, Mr. POTUS

Donald J. “Horse Racing Expert in Chief” Trump has tweeted his displeasure over this past weekend’s result in the Kentucky Derby.

It seems the president of the United States is unhappy that Maximum Security was disqualified for blocking a couple of his competitors as the horses came down the home stretch in the famed horse race.

The president, though, said the decision was a bow to what he called “political correctness.” To which I scratch my noggin in astonishment.

There was nothing I could see that was PC about the stewards’ decision to DQ Maximum Security and give the victory to the second-place finisher, Country House.

I saw the video of the infraction. Maximum Security violated the rules. Country House, one of the longer shots in the field, was granted the victory according to the rules of the race.

So, Mr. President, stop blaming a form of “political correctness” where none exists. Stick to tweeting about things about which you know something.

Oh, wait! That would be nothing at all.

national news

Political correctness afflicts more than liberals

2 Comments

pc

Political conservatives — and the man who’s about to become president of the United States — made a lot of noise blasting what they call “political correctness.”

They griped that liberals hid behind politically correct terms to avoid offending someone. Donald J. Trump essentially blamed political correctness for the shooting at that Orlando, Fla., nightclub where dozens of people died at the hands of a radical Islamic terrorist.

Allow me this brief retort. PCness ain’t the sole province of those on the left. Righties have fallen into the same so-called trap.

I refer to the term “alt-right.” It’s become a common phrase meant to avoid calling what those on the political fringe really represent. They represent racism, white supremacy, neo-Nazis.

I once thought the term originated on the left. I would hear left-leaning commentators using the term. It’s now shifted, as the lefties have wised up to the notion that “alt-right” has become a code for the white supremacists.

Now we hear from conservatives who have glommed on to that term. They certainly won’t identify the white supremacists among their ranks by that name. They will seek a form of refuge behind the politically correct terminology, just as they have accused liberals of doing.

And while we’re at it, let’s not refer to the lies being pushed out there as “fake news.”

Politicians get accused of lying all the time, even when they merely misspeak or say something they might not know to be lies.

This so-called “fake news” is nothing but lies. Those who put these bogus stories out there do so knowing they are lying.

Fake news? Nope. They are lies.

Alt-right? Hardly. It’s a PC version of white supremacy.

national news, political news

It’s time to start providing some detail, Mr. Trump

1 Comment

GOP%20Caricatures_Edit

I am acquainted with a young woman who has decided that Donald J. Trump should be elected the next president of the United States.

I didn’t know precisely what drew her to climb aboard Trump’s bandwagon. So, I did what I thought was the correct thing to do: I asked her directly.

I’ll refrain from identifying her. It’s true she’s just one person, but she seems to sound like countless other Trumpsters who’ve thrown in with the real estate tycoon/reality TV celebrity.

I just want to share her written response to my query.

“First, I have believed that our country should be run by a businessman/woman who understands profit/overhead/dealmaking/etc., as opposed to career politicians who have no problem freely spending tax money and demanding more.

“I am also I am also vehemently opposed to Political Correctness. It is both a false way to live and a maniacal way of attempting to force others to tow your chosen line, not their own. I detest racism with a passion, but I firmly defend the right of the Black Lives Matter movement to spew their prejudices …

“I believe, and always have, in a strong military. To me, the main objective is to protect our borders and citizens. Welfare, Planned Parenthood, etc., are all fine ventures, but should be privately funded, in my opinion. I truly admire that Trump says what he thinks and does not “sugar coat” in an effort to appear “perfect” because nobody is perfect and I hate that Politician Fakeness.

“The funny thing is, when Trump first announced I laughed him off as a joke looking for attention. But, I slowly realized that, love him or hate him, he speaks from his heart with no care for what others think. He has failed and rebounded more than once. Most people never achieve great success because they fear failure. He is an Alpha Male and I prefer that to a milquetoast.”

The thing that jumps out at me as I have studied her answer is  absence of any policy analysis. She has joined others in backing Trump because, as I read this, he hates “political correctness,” and has the kind of background, acumen and savvy that would enable him to run the country like a business.

How does he intend to build that wall along our southern border? How does he intend to bring back all those jobs? How is he going to negotiate with Russia, with Iran? With what will he replace the Affordable Care Act? How does his tax plan work? How will he reduce the national debt? What is his view of the ideal Supreme Court justice? How — precisely — is he going to win the war against international terrorism?

These are the things Trump ought to spell out. He’s not doing any of that. Instead, he tosses out innuendo and insults. He demands apologies from media outlets that criticize him, such as what he demanded this week of the Wall Street Journal for publishing a critical editorial.

But it’s OK with those who have signed on because, they say, he speaks for them. He says what others are thinking but don’t have the guts to say out loud.

He “tells it like it is.”

My question is this: What is the “it” he’s talking about?

 
national news, political news

Who’s afraid of Megyn Kelly?

Donald-Trump_3372655b

The individual who vows to stare down Russian strongman Vladimir Putin while making America “great again” appears to have come down with a case of the quivers.

Donald J. Trump’s tough talk about how he’ll make Mexico pay for the wall, how he’ll take the oil from the Islamic State and how he’ll make Russia toe the line around the world has backed out of a debate with several other Republican presidential candidates.

His reason? Well, he hasn’t exactly told us.

Trump bails out

He calls one of the debate moderators, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly a “lightweight.” He said she doesn’t like him and then adds that he doesn’t like her, either.

Trump said Kelly was mean to him in that first Fox-sponsored debate when she asked about his views of women.

Trump’s latest stunt has demonstrated beyond a doubt — as he’s done so many times before — that he is totally, utterly and categorically unfit to become the next Leader of the Free World.

How on God’s Earth do we take this guy seriously? I don’t, but hey, that’s no surprise. What still amazes me, though, is that others continue to tell those ubiquitous pollsters how much they love and adore this clown who’s so willing to stick it in the eye of those who adhere to that dreaded “political correctness.”

But he just can’t bring himself to stand in front of an American broadcast journalist and answer tough questions.

Vlad Putin, wherever he is today, is likely laughing out loud . . . at Trump.

 

International news, national news, political news

Trump shows up on terror video . . . who knew?

terrorism1

Here we go. Donald Trump has shown up on a terrorist recruitment video produced by Al-Shabaab.

Remember when Hillary Rodham Clinton lambasted Trump’s anti-Muslim rants as providing fodder for terrorist groups? Trump called her a liar. So did his supporters.

To be clear, Clinton’s contention did not include visual evidence of such a video at the time she made it during the latest Democratic presidential candidate debate.

But now there appears to be actual video out there purporting to show clips of Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric.

It makes me wonder, though: Did the publicity surrounding Clinton’s accusation give the terrorists the idea to include Trump in the recruitment video? Or was the video in production all along?

It’ll be tough to pin down cause-and-effect here. Suffice to say, though, that Trump’s fiery rhetoric — the words that spit in the face of what the Republican presidential frontrunner calls “political correctness” — may have produced a consequence we all are likely to regret.

 

national news, political news, Uncategorized

Taking aim at … political correctness

Pc

Political correctness has become Public Enemy No. 1 . . . if you’re a Republican Party presidential candidate.

Those GOP debates have featured full frontal attacks from the candidates on that nefarious character called political correctness.

It gives them license, I suppose, to say whatever they want regardless of its offensiveness, ignorance or stupidity.

I want to take up for political correctness as it’s been defined by those who blame it for every national ailment under the sun.

I know. You’re surprised beyond belief.

Political correctness is not the bogeyman that candidates have identified as the enemy. Yes, there are times when PC language can go too far, when people who use it do so because they are afraid of committing the slightest offense.

But the anti-PC rhetoric we’re hearing on the campaign trail is aimed at candidates who insist that there should be nuance when talking about international diplomacy. They level their verbal fire at candidates — and current officeholders — who decline to use certain language to describe the enemies with whom we are at war. They seek to attach the PC label simply to those who choose to disagree with them, with their gratuitously harsh language.

So, the enemy now becomes political correctness.

The audiences who hear the candidates lambaste those who prefer to speak more precisely cheer them on. They like what they consider to be “bold” rhetoric; others of us watching and listening from the political peanut gallery would describe it more as “reckless.”

From where I sit, reckless rhetoric can — and quite often does — lead to consequences that produce lots of collateral damage in places where it’s hard to repair.

So, when I hear presidential candidates lampoon political correctness from their opponents, I am going to presume for the rest of this election cycle that those who support them accept the bluster that pours out of the candidates’ mouths.

However, will they accept the potential consequences that it produces?

 

Uncategorized

Fear is overwhelming us

Politically-Correct

I am attaching a link to this post.

Here it is: Stop worrying about PC-ness.

It takes a few minutes to read. It’s from a Christian pastor named Danielle Egnew.

The essay isn’t the end-all to the discussion Americans have been having about terrorism and how we should respond to the refugee crisis that’s erupted in the Middle East — not to mention the terror attacks in Paris, Beirut and places elsewhere that have escaped the world’s attention.

But take a few minutes to read this piece. I believe it speaks to what’s going on here as we seeks answers to some very troubling questions.

Enjoy …

 

political news

Anti-PC rhetoric becomes code for rudeness

1 Comment

political-correctness-school-u-penn-buffalo2

You’ve heard politicians say, “Don’t Mess with Texas.”

They say such things to convey some sort of macho image. The phrase they quote, of course, came into being in the 1980s when the Texas General Land Office sought to call attention to littering.

Not very macho, right?

Politicians today are fond of debunking “political correctness.” Oh, they say, “That’s just so PC. Let’s cut that crap and speak the truth.”

Actually, what I find happening to political correctness is that it’s becoming a punching bag for politicians who think it’s OK to be crass, rude, uncaring or lacking in humanity.

Pay attention, Donald Trump. I’m talking about you.

I agree that political correctness at times can be taken too far. Politically correct speech at times does drive me a bit batty. Maybe the most maddening example of PC language appears under photos of hunters who’ve killed game. The caption might refer to the hunter posing with a beast he or he has just “harvested,” to which I say, “BS, man. You ‘harvest’ cotton or wheat.”

Trump uses the anti-PC dodge whenever the media question the intemperate language he uses to describe his Republican Party primary field opponents. Jeb Bush is a “loser”; Lindsey Graham is an “idiot.”

Yes, some of them have hurled personal insults at Trump, too, but Trump tends to employ the anti-PC dodge as his justification for saying outrageous things about other human beings.

Perhaps politicians ought to think more about the Golden Rule than about whether it’s OK to toss political correctness into the toilet.