MuskegonPundit

Saturday, November 05, 2016

Free Speech! (Does Not Include Legal Bills and Career Ruin)

Free Speech! (Does Not Include Legal Bills and Career Ruin) :: SteynOnline
"The assault on free speech continues around the world.

In Australia, the Section 18C "hate speech" case against three Queensland University of Technology students has been thrown out by the Federal Court.

I mentioned this travesty in my Oz tour earlier this year:
A group of students walked into a QUT computer lab only to be told it was an "aboriginal-only" computer lab and made to leave.
Apparently, aborigines have an entirely different Windows operating system.
So the guys went back to their rooms and made a few sardonic comments on Facebook, such as "I wonder where the white supremacist computer lab is."

For reacting to neo-segregationism with droll self-mockery, they were dragged into a three-year legal nightmare.

My pal Tim Blair is celebrating this as a landmark victory against the totalitarian thought-police of the Australian "Human Rights" Commission, but, as I always say, the process is the punishment:

Some of them choose to pay $5000 just to make the whole thing go away, so afraid of being labelled racists are they. Others choose to fight this patent injustice, even though they're being sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is ruining their lives, and even an ultimate victory in the courts is a loss. The process is the punishment, as author Mark Steyn endlessly reminds us.

I do - because it's true.
For years to come, whenever any prospective employer Googles these guys' names, the first zillion things to come up will be that they're hatey-hatey-haters.

Until, deep within the search engine, the Google algorithm will belatedly turn up a story explaining that the case was dismissed.

Not everyone can withstand what these three students withstood. Which is why four of the seven accused caved in and coughed up rather than risk the possibility of a quarter-million-dollar fine and the certainty of career ruin..."
Read on!

King County using customer grocery store data to target pet owners, send licensing notices | KOMO

King County using customer grocery store data to target pet owners, send licensing notices | KOMO
"SEATTLE - A King County letter that ended up in the mailboxes of thousands of pet owners is raising concerns over privacy.
The letter told pet owners to license their pets or face a $250 fine.

"It feels weird to me, it feels like they're kind of snooping around in a place where they shouldn't be," said dog owner Chris Lee.
Turns out for the last four years, King County has been using data companies to target specific taxpayers, or in this case pet owners.
That means every time customers swipe those rewards cards, they're gathering data.
"This is kind of standard marketing practice or procedure that people use," said Cameron Satterfield, from King County Animal Services.
The letter ended up in nearly 40,000 mailboxes.
"This is not King County going and grabbing this data, you know, big brother watching what you buy at the grocery store," said Satterfield.
Instead, the county said they pay the company who pays stores such as Safeway and QFC for access to customer data contained in every one of those reward card swipes.
"This is a cost effective and we feel, less intrusive way of reminding people of the requirement and benefits of pet licensing," said Satterfield...."

'Voter fraud'? California man finds dozens of ballots stacked outside home | Fox News

'Voter fraud'? California man finds dozens of ballots stacked outside home | Fox News:

"Jerry Mosna was gardening outside his San Pedro, Calif., home Saturday when he noticed something odd: Two stacks of 2016 ballots on his mailbox.

The 83 ballots, each unused, were addressed to different people, all supposedly living in his elderly neighbor’s two-bedroom apartment.

“I think this is spooky,” Mosna said. “All the different names, none we recognize, all at one address.”"

Most People Today Want to be Propagandized

Most People Today Want to be Propagandized | Intellectual Takeout:
"There’s a principle in hypnotism that goes like this: A person cannot be hypnotized against his will. He must be a willing subject. He must be fully cooperative.
So it goes with propaganda.
For propaganda to be effective, it requires submissive subjects.

As Professor Nicholas O’Shaughnessy wrote, propaganda is a “co-production in which we are willing participants.”
...If these are the characteristics of propaganda, then it is no exaggeration to say that we are surrounded by it today.
Most news organizations have become partisan shills and propagandists.
They provide viewers with a steady stream of videos, audio clips, images, and articles—most lacking nuance and of dubious intellectual merit—that serve the intended purpose of promoting an ideology while fueling disdain for the “opposition”.
And they have become very successful doing it.
The reason they are successful, I fear, is that:

most people today want to be propagandized—though they would never admit it.
Most people want to be given ideological marching orders and talking points from an authority.
Most people have zero interest, and see little value, in engaging with arguments put forward by those who hold differing positions, unless it’s to ridicule them.
Most people want to simply choose the news media organizations that best fit with their selected ideological camps and immerse themselves in their informational streams.

This realization is unfortunate, but not really surprising..."
Read on!!

A REAL DAD!-----Daddy Warpath: Curt Schilling Gets Ultimate Payback on Trolls Who Send Vile Tweets to His Daughter

Daddy Warpath: Curt Schilling Gets Ultimate Payback on Trolls Who Send Vile Tweets to His Daughter

When baseball great Curt Schilling took to Twitter congratulating his daughter on getting to play softball at the college of her choice, he knew he'd attract a few boo-birds.

But, he could have never predicted the level of obscenity that would ensue.

Most of the tweets are too graphic and disgusting to be worthy of re-posting. However, Twitchy was able to clean up a couple of the messages:

Schilling responded by writing about the incident on his blog, 38 Pitches:

"If you are a dad this is something you well know already, if you are a dad with a daughter this is likely to get your blood going.

If you are a boy, or young man, or husband, and you haven’t experienced children yet, or haven’t had a daughter, it’s next to impossible for you to understand."

Schilling also took to Twitter and sent this message to three influential conservative women:

In an addendum to his first blog post, Schilling wrote:

"I have to ask, is this even remotely ok? In ANY world? At ANY time?

Worse yet? No less than 7 of the clowns who sent vile or worse tweets are athletes playing college sports.

I knew every name and school, sport and position, of every one of them in less than an hour. The ones that didn’t play sports were just as easy to locate."

He also deconstructed the two men who sent some of the most offensive messages:

"The Sports Guru? Ya he’s a DJ named Adam Nagel (DJ is a bit strong since he’s on the air for 1 hour a week) on Brookdale Student Radio at Brookdale Community College. How do you think that place feels about this stud representing their school? You don’t think this isn’t going to be a nice compilation that will show up every single time this idiot is googled the rest of his life? What happens when a potential woman he’s after googles and reads this?

The other clown? He’s VP of the Theta Xi fraternity at Montclair State University. I gotta believe if Theta Xi is cool with a VP of one of their chapters acting like this I’d prefer to have no one I know in it. Also, does anyone attending Montclair State University have a student handbook? If so can you pass it along because I am pretty sure there are about 90 violations in this idiots [sic] tweets."

Being a team player, Schilling asked for a little help from his friends:

And then he warned the trolls:

...This guy might be right:

It looks like Schilling knows how to handle a few hecklers trying to mess with his daughter.

Lunch video-----The Hillary Clinton Takeover of the United States

Noon-toon

Nets Ignore Massive Bombshell on FBI Investigation Into Clinton Corruption

Nets Ignore Massive Bombshell on FBI Investigation Into Clinton Corruption:

"Instead of providing wall to wall coverage of the serious investigation being far from closed, the ABC, NBC, and CBS morning shows on Thursday devoted air time to President Obama bashing FBI director James Comey for daring to reopen the e-mail investigation.

On ABC’s Good Morning America, political analyst Matthew Dowd noted: "

Michigan Energy Battle May Mean More 500 Foot Wind Turbines in Communities

Michigan Energy Battle May Mean More 500 Foot Wind Turbines in Communities [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"Residents in some rural communities are concerned that a deal in the Republican-controlled Michigan Legislature to increase renewable energy mandates on utilities will result in their homes being surrounded by 500-foot-tall industrial wind turbines.

The deal is the result of lawmakers trying to satisfy three special interests that have competing goals as they rewrite the state utility regulation law.
Senate Bill 437, introduced by Sen. Mike Nofs, R-Battle Creek, would amend a current law that allows non-monopoly electricity generation firms to compete for up to 10 percent of Michigan’s commercial and industrial electric power market.
Customers of these generators believe the bill would end the electric choice program.
The state’s big utilities, DTE and Consumers Energy, want to get back the complete monopolies they enjoyed in their service areas before a 2000 law opened the market to competition.
Republican legislators are divided on ending electric choice, which is strongly favored by the businesses that benefit from its lower prices.
But the legislative proponents do not have enough votes in their own caucus to protect market choice. So they have offered to make a deal with Democratic legislators, who mostly side with environmentalist and wind-industry interests that want to increase the number of wind turbines.

Current law mandates that electric utilities get at least 10 percent of their power from renewable sources, including windmills.
The proposed deal would increase this requirement to 15 percent by 2020, with a 35 percent goal by 2030.
But grass roots organizers and citizens in the communities most likely to be targeted for new industrial wind farms fear the prospect of hundreds of new turbines and towers spreading across their landscapes.
...“The state legislators appear to be thinking of making yet another increase to their ignorant mandate for so-called green energy,” he said.
“Let's focus on safety, health, welfare and property rights, then if they can be done safely and fair to all, fine, move forward,” Sonck added.
“Currently, our planning commission is waiting for answers to safety questions, which to date after multiple requests have not been answered,” he said..."

Clinton Foundation Operates as Giant Slush Fund for Buying Influence

Clinton Foundation Operates as Giant Slush Fund for Buying Influence | The Daily Sheeple:
"Former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, the current Democratic Party presidential nominee, have attracted billions of dollars to their own foundation to trade power and influence, Wall Street investor and analyst Charles Ortel told Sputnik.

Charles Ortel is a veteran Wall Street investment analyst who has carried out major studies into the operation of the Clinton Foundation and its legal status, and runs a blog monitoring its activities. Ortel was the whistleblower that blew the lid off the General Electric financial discrepancies in 2008.
“The Clinton Foundation has been a gigantic slush fund,” Ortel said.
“People can donate relatively small sums to the Clinton regime and get gigantic concessions worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars back.”
During the four years that Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, hundreds of millions of dollars flowed into the Clinton Foundation from governments around the world, many of which then enjoyed favored treatment from the US State Department, Ortel noted.
“To the world at large, the Clintons are open for business,” he stated.
The US corporate media always refused to subject the Clinton Foundation to any kind of serious or skeptical coverage, in part because of fear of alienating the Clintons, Ortel explained.
“This is such a big story that the US press is not doing its job. What we have in ‘Clinton Incorporated,’ is Tammany Hall on steroids,” he said.
Read more: Clinton Foundation Operates as Giant Slush Fund for Buying Influence"