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January 27, 2010
Exclusive: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! (1/27/10)
Whenever you think general incompetence by those who purport to serve by the consent of the governed can’t get any worse, think again:
“County removes dictionary from schools” (DougStephen.com, 1/26/10)
Perhaps it's not that surprising that a mother in Menifee, California, asked the Menifee Union School District to ban all copies of the 10th edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary after her child stumbled across the term "oral sex." What is surprising, indeed horrifying, is that district officials immediately complied with her request, and pulled all dictionaries off classroom shelves throughout the Southern California school district, which serves 9,000 kids, kindergarten through eighth grade.
District officials said on Friday that they are forming a committee to consider a permanent classroom ban of the Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. District spokeswoman Betti Cadmus said that school officials will review the dictionary to decide if it should be permanently banned because of the "sexually graphic" entry. "It's hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we'll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature," Cadmus said. (Isn't that just what those fourth and fifth graders like to do?!)
(read entire blog post here)
It only took one mother’s complaint to remove all copies of a dictionary from a school that serves 9,000 children? A dictionary of all things. There are plenty of uncomfortable words in the dictionary, such as “sadist” and “Holocaust.” Both bring up unsavory images. But would you deny your children the knowledge of the Holocaust just because they might stumble upon another word you don’t particularly like?
It’s one thing for parents to object to a particular book their child is assigned to read if it contains explicit sexual imagery (like those the “safe school” czar’s advocacy group is pushing). It’s another for a dictionary, a tool for learning, is banished because it contains a word or phrase that one finds unsavory. And even more disturbing is when a school crumbles with just one complaint. Will the thesaurus be next?
“Dem lawmaker: Congress could pass health reform if men were ‘sent home’” (TheHill.com, 1/24/10)
A female Democratic lawmaker in footage released Sunday said Congress could pass healthcare if female lawmakers "sent the men home."
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) said that both Republican and Democratic women members of Congress understand how to care for relatives and thus want the healthcare system to change.
"We go to the ladies room and the Republican women and the Democratic women and we just roll our eyes," she said. "And the Republican women said when we were fighting over the healthcare bill, if we sent the men home..." at which point she was interrupted by loud applause.
"You know why? I'm not trying to diss the men but I'm telling you it's the truth that every single woman there has been responsible for taking care of a [relatives] and so we think we can find a common ground there," she said.
(read entire article here)
At least her comments were bipartisan. And she didn’t blame Bush.
But just imagine if a male rep or senator said, “Do you know how easily [insert bill here] would pass if we could just send the women home?” NOW would demand a public apology. Women on the hill would call for a Senate hearing on the matter. Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda would start burning their bras again (and they really can’t afford to be without them these days). And the media would treat us to stories about the ever-present glass ceiling ad nauseum.
Health care “reform” in its current state isn’t as simple as the age old war of the sexes. But thanks for playing.
Brought to you by the editors and research staff of FamilySecurityMatters.org.
