Problem Eliminated

Remember when liberals were upset at "eliminationist" rhetoric? When they tied the Gabby Gifford shooting to Sarah Palin's use of targets on a map? Well that was then.

The threat is over now folks. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has once again vowed to eliminate Israel, but we mustn't take him seriously. Never mind the millennia plus of hatred toward Jews and a handful of wars intended to eliminate Israel. They are just words, pure posturing etc... and he surely doesn't mean it. Isn't that right liberals?

Imagine

Imagine a world where -  if your beliefs are insulted by anyone, anywhere in the world - you are justified to fly off the handle, to riot, burn and kill.

It might just start in your local grocery store if a young mother offends her toddlers belief in candy before dinner. Imagine the rampage through the store with poor mom helplessly following behind, apologizing profusely.

Imagine a homosexual couple strolling down the street holding hands. Clearly this could offend the beliefs of those who believe homosexuality is wrong or an abomination. So they get killed.

Of course this would offend the homosexual community who believe they have a right to express there love openly. So they burn down the homes and churches of advocates of traditional marriage.

Then there are those who believe in white supremacy. Those beliefs may well be offended by the very sight of dark skinned people. So they throw rocks at them until they are out of eyesight.

Some believe that white's are oppressing people of color and enriching themselves off the backs of the non-white labor. So they steel the nice car owned by the white guy.

Thankfully, even President Obama doesn't want a world like this. Surely everyone can't act violently with even the slightest provocation. For starters, it would complicate our efforts to celebrate diversity.

It is best that only the Arab street gets to react violently when offended. They can have there own set of rules and expectations. And our job will be to ensure that none of the several billion people on earth do anything to offend the sensitivities of the prickly mobs in the Middle East.

And soon peace will rage throughout our world!

Double Standard Exposed

Tennis and tornadoes are not a good mix. On Saturday at the US Open Tennis Tournament, they made for bad tennis and questionable scheduling decisions. At issue was whether to play the two men's semifinals matches back to back or concurrently. They decided to play them back to back and sure enough, the second match had to be postponed because of the weather. Arguably this resulted in a significant advantage to the winner of the first match as he got an extra day of rest before the final.

The three commentators were agreed that the powers that be made the wrong call. One of them, I don't remember her name, said "I guarantee you that there were no women on that committee." This comment was pretty much ignored by the two male commentators and the comment never became an issue on the set or anywhere else so far as I know.

Now imagine if one of the male commentators had said "I guarantee you there were no men on that committee." Perhaps this becomes a story for the media.

Now suppose one of the three white commentators had said "I guarantee you there were no white people making that call." National story. Jesse Jackson to the rescue. Heads roll.

But there is no bias in the media.

Obama Helping Bush Oil Buddies

Remember, way back in the Bush administration, when gas prices spiked to around $4 per gallon? It was widely assumed by liberals that Bush was somehow manipulating the price of gas for the benefit of himself and his rich oil buddies?

Well, with gas prices exceeding those in the Bush days we hear nothing on the subject of price manipulation. Of course, using the same "logic" would mean that Obama is now working to enrich Bush's oil buddies. And we can't have that news swirling around before his election now can we?

After Title IX

Is Title IX necessary? Title IX is the law which more or less mandates equal rates of participation in athletics at schools receiving federal funds.

Would universities scrap their womens' teams and insist that the pursuit of athletics is appropriate for men only?

Would mens' wrestling return to many campuses and would we say goodbye to the womens' fencing team?

Or would things remain pretty much the same?

I guess the broader question for our society is to what extent do we see ourselves as unfair to women? 

My own guess is that we would see a modest increase in intercollegiate athletic opportunities for men and a modest decrease in those for women. This would not in my view reflect a bias against women by our universities but rather would reflect the reality that males tend to have a greater interest in sports than females, on average. 

And if Title IX remains necessary, what does it say about our bastions of liberalism (universities) that they must be coerced to treat women fairly?