Letters to the Editor
-
Since when has Australia gone P.C.?
I read about this over a week ago, figuring that the dateline had to be from Berkeley or some other bastion of what some call the "loony left." But AUSTRALIA? A country not known for politeness and political sensitivity? Thank goodness common sense prevailed in the end! (WWCDD...What would Crocodile Dundee do?)
-
The massive power of the "offended"
This is just another sad example of how much power has been granted to those who claim to be "offended." A hundred's of year old tradition is subservient not just to those offended, but the tradition is being put down because of there mere fear of offending. Are we ever going to overcome the PC patrol, or are we going to become a society of offended victims?
-
Mutating Story
I was sure I read about this last week (or saw it on the news) and the issue was completely about scaring children, and had nothing to do with the connotation of "ho". It sounds like someone wants to make PC hay out of this, when it really should fall under the "Won't Someone Think Of The Children!" rubric.
It's stupid either way, but the PC angle seems slightly more stupid.
-
Is it just me...
...or does this seem like a hoax that someone fell for? When I first heard the story I thought it had to be another case of someone taking an article from The Onion seriously. I just cannot for the life of me envision either the most radical of feminists or the most prudish or evangelicals being offended by a store Santa saying "ho, ho, ho." Absurd!
-
Ho, Ho, Hold the presses!
Isn't the author being just a bit credulous? This story appeared in a Murdoch-owned Australian tabloid. The training company denies it (see CBS, which bothered to check), saying only that a booming "ho, ho, ho" sometimes scares tots, so it trains Santas, as it always has, how to be more subtle when coaxing the little ones to sit on their laps. That rings true, of course, since we've all seen kids frightened by Santa or at least watched Ralphie in "Christmas Story." Nevertheless, papers around the world picked up on this -- and especially the imaginary political correctness element -- because it fills some kind of need for stories that let us mutter a self-satisfied "what's the world coming to." Let's see some reporting here. Can Ms. Mieszkowski get a quote from some of the Santas? Is the story true, or is truth beside the point if the story is good enough?
-
don't call it a hoedown
I was recently at a several day family reunion, and we were having theme-dinners each night. One of the nights was country night, and my mother explained to me that they were originally going to call it hoedown night, but they didn't want to say the ho word. She even dropped her voice to a whisper when she said it, like older people sometimes do with "cancer". I couldn't stop laughing - Mom, I said, if we can't say hoedown the gangstas have already won!
-
Oh, for the love of all that's ho-ly!
I really ho-pe this is a ho-ax, or something along those lines, but I'm afraid it's not. It seems all too plausible.
A lot of words have two meanings. Anyone with any sense can accept the nice one while having a private chuckle over the naughty one.
Then again, we have a Wii. We're used to stuff like this.
-
ajbuckle
"This is just another sad example of how much power has been granted to those who claim to be "offended.""
Assuming the article is accurate, no one has been offended by Santa saying "Ho, ho, ho." Assuming the article is accurate, the training company overreacted in a completely thoughtless, knee-jerk manner to the slightest hypothetical potential they might lose a portion of their customer base.
If it is all true, this is another sad example of how greed makes people stupid.
-
Sorry of this is a little off-topic, Broadsheet:
But I think this kind of news story falls-into your general sphere of interest:
http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=55792&provider=top
8 and 9 year old boys were accused of raping an 11 year old girl. How on earth could you have not noticed this?
Here's a quote...
“The father of one of the two 8-year-old suspects spoke with WXIA’s Kevin Rowson and said his son told him that everything that happened in the woods was consensual. Brandon LeBlanc said the girl accused the boys only after her parents had learned she had sexual relations... “This is a clear case of a girl who didn’t want to get in trouble with her parents.”
Speaking on CNN, Acworth Police Chief Mike Wilkie reacted, “We can certainly understand why a father would speak defensively of his child.”
“That accusation has an implication that children at that age can consent to that type of act, and, of course, they cannot. That’s illegal, they cannot have consent, so we have to go forward with the charges that we have.”
So an 11 year old girl can't consent, but an 8 year old boy can consent? How does that work, exactly? Girls are always so much more mature than boys, right? And remember: Teh Oppressive Patriarchy always judges and punishes women more harshly than men, so how does this logic go?
And isn't it odd that the girl only said she was attacked when her parents threatened to punish her? I mean, we all know that women don't lie about rape... Like this one, for instance http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2007/11/sexual_assault
In fact, you wonder a lot of things about this child-rape case: how can a 3rd-grader even have sex? Should "playing doctor" be criminalized as well? In the videos about this, the girl seems a lot bigger than the boys who attacked her, so how could that physically work?
And seeing how feminist agitation about sexual harassment has led to the expulsion of kindergarten boys for hugging their classmates, wouldn't you agree that this kind of thing is a logical extension of feminist agitation about rape? No? How can it not be?
Broadsheet, you awake? I thought no female victim ever escaped your view?
-
HO HO HO & HEH HEH HEH
I see this crap all the time and everywhere.
It is ALWAYS the anti's who get their hateful, angry ways.
The anti's are anti~YOURS only.
These neurotic control freaks are NEVER anti~their own.
It is PAST the tme when those of us of normal and clear thinking minds take over and control what WE decide to be able to see, read, hear, etc.
This is just like the other crap which is being done to normal people in politics and other "rights".
I am one human being who has actually SHOWN the courage to stand up to these sickos and say,
"I WILL say this, etc!!"
If you don't have the guts to stand up to them in actions and/or the actions of words, you do not deserve to have the right.