Black hurricanes and green showers. Politically correct?

[Randwolf]

Recently in Ireland:

According to Henry McDonald, Ireland editor of The Observer, the staff at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, in Belfast, found the word "brainstorming" potentially offensive to people with brain disorders. To indicate the creative generation of ideas, they prefer "thought showers."



A few years ago in the U.S.:

One of Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee's crusades in 2005 as a Representative of subtropical Gulf Coast Houston was to end what she called the government policy of giving hurricanes "lily white" names.

"All racial groups should be represented," she told The Hill Magazine, adding that she hoped the weather establishment in future "would try to be inclusive of African American names" such as "Keisha, Jamal and Deshawn."



Isn't this taking "politically correct" a little too far? Is this really offensive to the groups represented here? What are the sponsors true agendas?

Personally, I could care less what they name hurricanes or how creative idea sessions are referred to, but all the fuss seems a bit ridiculous...

What are your thoughts?

 

[skaught]

Isn't this taking "politically correct" a little too far? Is this really offensive to the groups represented here? What are the sponsors true agendas?

Personally, I could care less what they name hurricanes or how creative idea sessions are referred to, but all the fuss seems a bit ridiculous...

What are your thoughts?

Yes it is taking things a little too far. I think they should all be given an aurous wash.

 

[Randwolf]

Furthermore, according to a chain email I recently received (for about the 15th time):

She [Lee Jackson] would also like the weather reports to be broadcast in "language" that street people can understand, because one of the problems that happened in New Orleans was, that black people couldn't understand the seriousness of the situation due to the racially-biased language of the weather report.

So if the weather person says that the winds are going to blow at 140+ MPH, thats too hard to understand. I can hear it now: A weatherman in New Orleans says, "Wazzup, mutha-fukkas! Hehr-i-cane Chamiqua be headin 'fo' yo ass like Leroy on a crotch rocket! Bitch be a category fo' ! So, turn off dem chitlins,grab yo' chirren, leave yo crib, and head fo' denearest FEMA office fo yo FREE shit!"

Isn't this just a bit over the top? Talk about offensive....

 

[cosmictraveler]

According to Henry McDonald, Ireland editor of The Observer, the staff at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, in Belfast, found the word "brainstorming" potentially offensive to people with brain disorders. To indicate the creative generation of ideas, they prefer "thought showers."

Tell him I said to go fuck off!

 

[Pandaemoni]

In neither case do I imagine that anyone would be offended. That said, in the case of hurricanes, why wouldn't they add additional names to that list? They have to come up with a new list every year...and would anyone be harmed if Keisha were on that list?

 

[visceral_instinct]

According to Henry McDonald, Ireland editor of The Observer, the staff at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, in Belfast, found the word "brainstorming" potentially offensive to people with brain disorders. To indicate the creative generation of ideas, they prefer "thought showers."

That's utterly fucking retarded. Brains are for thinking. Generating a storm of thoughts can therefore reasonably be termed 'brainstorming'.

 

[Randwolf]

In neither case do I imagine that anyone would be offended. That said, in the case of hurricanes, why wouldn't they add additional names to that list? They have to come up with a new list every year...and would anyone be harmed if Keisha were on that list?

Again, who cares? Like you say, what difference does it make?


In any event...

Lee's call for action may have been heard by the World Meteorological Organization, which selects hurricane names for the Atlantic basin. Because of their destruction, hurricane officials have retired the storm names Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma. The replacements are: Don, Katia, Rina, Sean and Whitney

http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2006/04/us_rep_sheila_j.html


However, a WorldNetDaily reader wrote:

"You can be sure if there were too many 'black' names assigned to hurricanes, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee would instead be complaining that this practice unfairly stereotypes blacks as violent. Let's hope this silly storm blows over!"

And...

Would somebody named Deshawn really want to turn on the evening news and hear victims cursing the death and destruction caused by “Hurricane Deshawn?” Have we not been told for years that any expression linking African-Americans or even the color black – as in the words blackout or blackmail – with bad things is inherently racist?

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=DAA44227-D7E1-486A-B995-87BEF867F6E7


The practice of naming hurricanes in the U.S. solely after women came to an end in 1978 when men's and women's names were included in the Eastern North Pacific storm lists. In 1979, male and female names were included in lists for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

Apparently, it is very important that everyone has equal opportunity to have a hurricane namesake.


My point is, don't people, especially elected officials, have better things to do with their time? Isn't this just a shallow attempt at rabble rousing for personal political benefit? Does anyone even care? Thought showers, indeed. Give me a break....

 

[Randwolf]

And, let's not leave the U.K. out:

"At the Honley Church of England School, in Huddersfield, Great Britain, PCism has invaded the arts where a school production of Roald Dahl’s Three Little Pigs has gone from being populated by three little pigs to three little puppies. And why would that be? Because the school officials are afraid that the piggies just might “offend” the local Muslim population, of course."

http://www.bloggernews.net/15457

The three little pigs? Offend the Muslims? Please... Where, exactly, does it end?

 

[Randwolf]

Here is more...

Kentucky is awash in horses. That may not be much news to those who know that the Blue Grass State has a long tradition of dealing in horseflesh, but the healthy trade in horses is not what is causing the current state of overabundance.

It is liberal PCism that is causing the glut and it is a glut that is killing the beasts.

Opposition from liberal groups to the slaughter of horses for meat markets overseas (and even for markets in Canada) has caused horse dealers in the United States to be stuck with thousands upon thousands of horses that they can neither sell, nor afford to feed and keep healthy. In fact, because there are so many horses on the market and the prices have fallen through the floor, the fortunes of many horse breeders is so bad that they cannot even afford to have unsold horses humanely put down by expensive veterinary services.

Because of activists roaming about the houses of legislation in the US urging people to stop the trade in horsemeat, many thousands of horses are fated to starve to death today. Owners are so economically damaged by this activism that horses are starving in their stables or being let go into the wild to fend for themselves, abandoned to roam about searching for whatever sustenance they can find.

The unintended consequence of “saving the horses” is now leading to the torture by starvation of thousands of them.

Some “compassion” these nuts end up having for the animals they claim to love, eh?

http://www.bloggernews.net/15457

 

[Tiassa]

Yes, so why not just perpetuate the damn things?

Isn't this just a bit over the top? Talk about offensive.

Yes, chain e-mails generally are offensive and idiotic.

Here is more...

Seriously, dude, Warner Todd Huston is a f@cking moron.

 

[Randwolf]

Yes, chain e-mails generally are offensive and idiotic.

Seriously, dude, Warner Todd Huston is a f@cking moron.

Thanks for your input, Tiassa. Insightful and enlightening as usual. Be sure you read these postings carefully, lest you assume that allies are enemies. Please expound with one of your two page essays....

Last edited by Tiassa : Today at 06:34 PM. Reason: Revise and extend my remarks.

How did the post read before you "revised and extend[ed]" it?

Oh, and how about addressing the OP? Too much trouble?

 

[Tiassa]

Notes on personal accountability

How did the post read before you "revised and extend[ed]" it?

It simply addressed the moronic chain e-mail. I had intended to leave the wild speculations about horses alone, but when I noticed you were linking to a Warner Todd Huston post, I was compelled to make the point. The guy's just a f@cking moron, and it would diminish you if we pretended to take his post—or the chain e-mail—seriously.

To begin with, let's not pretend that one breeding cycle created this "glut". If breeders don't want to pay attention to shifting trends in the markets, it's their own fault.

Of course, Rand would have blamed other people, wouldn't she? Business owners have no personal accountability to the health of their business, do they? It's always someone else's fault?

 

[Randwolf]

Of course, Rand would have blamed other people, wouldn't she? Business owners have no personal accountability to the health of their business, do they? It's always someone else's fault?

You so don't understand. It is never someone else's fault. Having said that, the only reason for the citation was to amplify the OP. "Politically correct" can be taken to a fault, stripping resources from what is actually important by focusing on the trivial.


I am sure that this quote won't help, because the source will be considered a "f@cking moron" (or some such idiocy), and therefore, we won't need to trouble ourselves with the underlying question, right Tiassa?

Here we go:

Professor Jessica Bryan, a teacher at North Idaho College, has defended saying “anyone who’s ever voted Republican” should be executed as she conducted her college classes. In retrospect to that and other uncivil rhetoric, the professor claims that since she said it “with a smile”, she should bear no consequences from insulting any student who would take offence at being told they should be murdered for their political beliefs.

As an aside Tiassa, why do all of your opinions stink of pompous jackal shit?

 

[Tiassa]

Talk about a set-up ....

I am sure that this quote won't help, because the source will be considered a "f@cking moron" (or some such idiocy), and therefore, we won't need to trouble ourselves with the underlying question, right Tiassa?

Here we go

That one's an old story 'round here. We covered it last year, as part of a desperate tantrum against liberals.

There are a number of problems with this story. First, apparently at North Idaho College, nobody ever records lectures. Did you ever see a movie from the 1980s called Real Genius? It actually has a great joke in there about recording lectures; in progressing scenes, there are more and more recording devices instead of students in the lecture hall until, at one point, our hero walks in and finds the hall full of recording devices, and a reel-to-reel tape machine playing the lecture. I never saw anything quite so absurd in life, but students recording lectures was common when I was at the University of Oregon, common when friends were at Stanford, common when other friends were at the University of Washington, and common, indeed, when a friend was at the College of Idaho.

What this lends toward is that nobody can seem to give any more information than the isolated objectionable quotes. There is absolutely no context offered by the objectors, and the offended student seemed fairly alone in her perception of a threat.

Which leads to the point of Huston's (and other people's) idiocy: Whether or not the comment was appropriate is its own discussion. It's amazing, however, how many people perceive, or pretend to perceive, a genuine threat in Bryan's words. Second-rate, moronic moralizing that relies specifically on a lack of information doesn't serve any cause well.

Tiassa, why do all of your opinions stink of pompous jackal shit?

Because you've been spending too much time with your head up your ass. Go wash your face.

 

[Randwolf]

Because you've been spending too much time with your head up your ass. Go wash your face.

Tiassa, if I promise to listen, and not record, could you address the OP? Do you think there is a limit to "politically correct"?

 

[Tiassa]

Well, duh

Do you think there is a limit to "politically correct"?

Of course there is.

 

[Randwolf]

Of course there is.

Where does this limit lie? Do you think that the two examples cited in the OP approach or surpass that limit?

/patiently awaits some sort of substantive reply

 

[Asguard]

political correctness itself is by definition behond that limit though in reality the limit is what sociaty will accept

For instance where people stop refering to something as antidiscrimination and start refering to it as political correctness that is a sure sign its passed the limit. The difficulty lies when that is used to benift a paticular group however.

for instance an anti same sex group who call same sex marrage as 'political correctness' because they disagree with it

 

[Randwolf]

political correctness itself is by definition behond that limit though in reality the limit is what sociaty will accept

Good point Asguard. My bias is reflected in the OP. So I guess the question is, are these examples of "political correctness" or valid attempts to combat discrimination? If the former, what agendas cause this sort of absurdity?

 

[Asguard]

i surpose it depends. Are they picking extra names because they keep running out with the extra cyclones caused by climate change and someone THINKS this is to apease a certain group or is it really to apease a certain group?

Who knows, you would have to ask the guy who made the decision.

As for the brain storming thing that just sounds like shear idiocy but who knows