Titled:   Boy turns in knife but may still be expelled

Zero tolerance rears its ugly head again in Indiana.

Elliot, 14, said he was walking to the school entrance in the brisk weather March 3 and had placed his hands in his coat pocket when he felt the Swiss army pocketknife in the pocket.

 

"I went straight to the office right inside (the front door)," he said.

 

He said he handed the knife to Teri Donahue, the school's treasurer, and told her he had brought it to school by mistake.

 

As a result of Elliot's actions, the school's principal, Jimmy Meadows, suspended Elliot for the maximum 10 school days as allowed by law and recommended Elliot be expelled. A confidential expulsion hearing is scheduled for April 10.

A few posts ago I commented on how Google has been collaborating with the Chinese government to censor certain images and writings from the Chinese population.

DhimmiWatch has spotted how Yahoo is doing something similar right here in the US:

Yahoo! is banning the use of allah in email names - even if the letters are included within another name.

This was uncovered by Reg reader Ed Callahan whose mother Linda Callahan was trying to sign up for a Verizon email address. She could not get it to accept her surname.

Enquiries to Verizon revealed that a partnership with Yahoo! was to blame. Yahoo! will not accept any identies which include the letters "allah".

Nor will Yahoo! accept yahoo, osama or binladen. But it will accept god, messiah, jesus, jehova, buddah, satan and both priest and pedophile.

A commenter added:

Compare:

Yahoo Images: search for "mohammed cartoons"

Google Images: search for "Mohammed cartoons"

The times are indeed troubling.

god_messiah_jesus_jehova_buddah_satan_priest_pedophile@yahoo.com

Titled:    I am not being censored by the Chinese government

TriggerFinger notices he is not being censored by the Chinese and publishes a picture to help the cause:

We note that Liberty1st is not censored either 

Titled:    Anders Fogh Rasmussen reveals his dhimmi side

Dhimmi Watch notes the irony of the current situation in Denmark. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister recently had an interview in Der Spiegel, where he describes how his country has spent the past few years sending money to the Palestinians to appease the arabs:

SPIEGEL: Your government launched an ambitious program two years ago to strengthen the dialogue and ties with Arab countries that has now failed. How are you going to revive this program?

Fogh Rasmussen: It is a paradox: we were one of the first countries to start such a partnership program and we are among the largest net contributors to, for example, the Palestinians. And now we have to watch as the Danish flag is burned and violent demonstrations against us are organized. The Arab initiative was supposed to accelerate economic and social reforms in the region so it's now a shock to be so severely criticized. At the time, we felt we were at the forefront of modernization.

SPIEGEL: Now some are calling for a drastic reduction in economic support to, for example, the Palestinian Authority.

Fogh Rasmussen: We won't change our policies. It's now time to calm the waters, not cut funds. In the long-term, it would be in our own best interest to rebuild our good relationship with the Arab world.

They paid the Danegeld, then got attacked anyway. And with all that understood, they have decided to continue to pay.

Fools.

Posted by Dave the hyphenated American

Titled:      The War on the Free Press

Michelle Malkin has been making a principled stand against the Cartoon Jihadists. The news though isn't good.

Malaysia:  Gov't shuts down newspaper the published cartoons.

Yemen: Gov't shuts down newspaper the published cartoons. Arrest warrant issued for Editor.

South Africa:  Johannesburg High Court which prevents the publishing of cartoons found offensive by the Muslim community.

Ukraine:  Editor-in-chief of popular Ukrainian newspaper "Today" apologizes before Muslims for publishing cartoons.

Poland:  Editor of Polish newspaper apologizes for reprinting cartoons.

Canada: Student newspaper that reprinted cartoons has issue destroyed.

Sweden:  "Sweden is reportedly shutting down websites that show the dread Mohammed cartoons."

U.N.:  Kofi Annan criticizes reprinting of controversial cartoons.

Europe:  The European Union may try to draw up a media code of conduct to avoid a repeat of the furore.

Denmark:  At the Jyllands-Posten, Flemming Rose, the culture editor who commissioned the Muhammad cartoons, has been put on indefinite leave

France:  Well, maybe the less said, the better.

Yes folks, they're winning. Just the Great Satan left now to defend free speech and liberty.

Titled:   Don't mention the walk

With Europe still trying to work out exactly what it believes in concerning when cartoons and Freedom of Speech collide, Germany is making restrictive policy of its own. English fans visiting Germany for the soccer World Cup are banned from certain traditional activities, namely walking in a funny way and making jokes about the war. Not the War on Terror, mind, but WWs I and II - yes, those of over 60 years ago.

The Sun Online reports:

GERMAN cops will use sweeping powers to collar England fans doing Basil Fawlty-style Hitler impressions at the World Cup.

Yobs will be instantly banged up for TWO WEEKS if they goose-step like John Cleese in his most famous Fawlty Towers scene.

And hard core louts who give Nazi salutes — like the one jokingly made by Michael Barrymore in Celebrity Big Brother — could be hauled before a judge within 24 hours.

If convicted of inciting hatred they will face jail terms of up to THREE YEARS.

Wearing joke German helmets or any offensive insignia will also result in a stretch behind bars.

Given the British penchant for anti-German humor, I would expect a large portion of the crowd to be herded off into pens to await the end of hostilities the competition.

I guess that imprisonment for alcohol-induced insensitivity is a step more civilized than burning down embassies, but it is time that the so-called developed countries decide that free speech, in all its forms, is worth protecting.

Titled:   Bush urges end to cartoon violence

Titled:   More cartoons and protests in Mohammad blasphemy row

The cartoon row mentioned in an earlier article continues to reveal the character of modern Europe.

The Danes and Norwegians rolled over pretty quickly in the face of Muslim complaining. Then France and Germany waded in, republishing the cartoons, followed by Spain and Italy. This was quite surprising for the French, especially after their talk of nuclear weapon use last week. It seemed for a moment that the French had found some backbone.

This morning we see that the French were merely dipping their toes in the water of controversy:

The owner of France Soir, a Paris daily that reprinted them on Wednesday along with one German and two Spanish papers, sacked its managing editor to show "a strong sign of respect for the beliefs and intimate convictions of every individual".

With France resuming its white flag-waving character, what of the rest of Europe?

Switzerland's Le Temps and La Tribune de Geneve ran some of them on Thursday, as did Magyar Hirlap in Budapest. Some European dailies ran cartoons making fun of the controversy.

I thought the Swiss were traditionally neutral? I mean, who would bother to invade a country where every household has to keep a military rifle and ammunition by law? Mind, for all their years of sitting on the sidelines watching the world fight around them, they don't have a lot to show for it. Money, maybe, but what have the Swiss done for you lately? Sure, they have made some fine watches, some lovely clocks and their chocolate is pretty tasty. But hardly world changing innovation and paradigm-busting thought.

Of course the Muslims continue to behave as stereotyped:

In Beirut, the leader of Lebanon's Shi'ite Hizbollah said the row would never had occurred if a 17-year-old death edict against British writer Salman Rushdie been carried out.

"Had a Muslim carried out Imam Khomeini's fatwa against the apostate Salman Rushdie, then those lowlifers would not have dared discredit the Prophet, not in Denmark, Norway or France," Hizbollah head Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday night.

Such nice people. So tolerant. So peaceful. Right...

Titled:   Why Radical Muslims and the US Don't Mix

The first protected right of the people of the US is the Freedom of Speech.

US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in United States v. Schwimmer (1929):

"The principle of free thought is not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought we hate."

When 12 cartoons - published last September by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and republished in a Norwegian paper this month - included an image of the muslim Prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, the reaction from the Religion of Peace was anything but peaceful.

The religion that thinks nothing of calling for the death of unbelievers, started a string of protests, flag burning and boycotts.

Things took a more sinister turn yesterday when 15 masked gunmen armed with hand grenades, automatic weapons and anti-tank launchers took over an EU office and demanded an apology. They behaved, ironically, much as the cartoon they were protesting against had depicted.

Pakistan's Daily Times reported that they left after half an hour, without an apology, but still angry:

 “We are calling on the citizens of the two countries to take this threat seriously because our cells are ready to implement this all over Gaza,” said one of the militants.

This morning, the UK's Gaudnian (yes, they are bad at spelling) reported a change of mind and a full apology, following further threats and attacks on Danish citizens as far away as Saudi Arabia. 

Denmark's largest selling broadsheet newspaper last night issued an apology to the "honourable citizens of the Muslim world" after publishing a series of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked protests across the Middle East.

Just so you didn't miss it, those are the honorable citizens that threaten civilians with anti-tank missiles.

CNN.com reports that a Danish muslim group has accepted the apology:

A spokesman for Denmark's Islamic Faith Community, Kasem Ahmad, said on Danish radio Tuesday that "we will clearly and articulately thank the prime minister and Jyllands-Posten for what they have done."

But they await the reaction from muslims in other countires.

Can you imagine how this would play out in the US? An armed group of terrorists threatening an office of civilians not even connected with the publication of cartoons? Followed by apologies and retractions from the President and the press? Denmark is in the grip of dhimmitude.

We must ensure we protect the liberties we have before we end up like our European cousins.

Update:    France enters Muslim cartoon row

A French newspaper has reproduced a set of caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad that have caused outrage in the Muslim world.

France Soir said it had published the cartoons to show that "religious dogma" had no place in a secular society.

Under the headline "Yes, we have the right to caricature God", the paper ran a front page cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud.

It shows the Christian deity saying: "Don't complain, Muhammad, we've all been caricatured here."

The full set of Danish drawings, some of which depict the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, were printed on the inside pages.

Titled:    Big Nanny Is Watching You

A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Roger Valdez, director of tobacco prevention for Public Health–Seattle & King County. He is in charge of Seattle-area enforcement of the statewide smoking ban approved by voters in November. I call him the tobacco czar.

We were talking about how enforcement was working out, including the 25-foot rule. In the midst of our chat, Valdez said something remarkable.

"Americans think they have a lot of rights they really don't have. Smoking is one of those things where people think they have the right to smoke, but you don't." He used "you" in the plural. "You have no right to smoke. It's an addiction. It's something you should see a doctor about."

He went on to tell me that people have no right to smoke even in their private residences.

The Christian Science Monitor has a piece up titled "Why tolerance is fading for zero tolerance in schools." The issue of Zero Tolerance has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time now. I haven't said much about it on this Blog (yet) but it has been discussed several times on the Liberty1st Forum. I think the last time it came up it was discussed here, which is a great example of zero tolerance stupidity. Don't you think?