The Blowhard
07-08-2002, 10:07 AM
State and local officials in Washington are now barred by law from using the term "Oriental" in any statutes, codes, rules and regulations, reports The Seattle Times. Instead, officials must use "Asian" to describe people of Asian descent.
The law, a first in the country, substitutes the word in one existing statute about minority contractors and prevents its use going forward. It is limited to references to human beings, however, so a statute mentioning "oriental medicine or oriental herbology" gets to stay.
"It's pejorative terminology," the bill's sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Paull Shin, said of the term. "It's offensive."
U.S. Rep. Michael Honda, D-Calif., is said to be considering introducing a similar bill in Congress next year.
Rethinking 'Retarded,' Again
Readers of the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote that paper to complain its use of the word `retarded' in a headline was evil and tantamount to a racial slur, writes the paper's ombudsman, Lou Gelfand.
The headline, 'Reprieve for the retarded' over a story about the Supreme Court's declaring it unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded prisoners, was dubbed "derogatory terminology" by one reader and "mean" by another.
The paper stuck to its gun, however. The chairman of a committee that discusses such things, copy editor John Addington, said mentally retarded is an accurate phrase and does not demean anyone.
"It simply states a fact," he said. "'Developmentally disabled' (a term sometimes preferred) is vague and can confuse the reader."
Relativism Rocks!
A poll conducted for the National Association of Scholars finds that three out of four college students are being told by their professors that there is no right and wrong in the world - that everything is relative.
The poll, of 401 randomly sampled college students by Zogby International, found that three-quarters of all college seniors are taught that right and wrong depend "on differences in individual values and cultural diversity." Only about a quarter said they heard that "there are clear and uniform standards of right and wrong by which every one should be judged" from their teachers.
Students asked to prioritize the importance of various business practices in light of the recent corporate shenanigans said that, based on what they had been taught at college, "recruiting a diverse workforce in which women and minorities are advanced and promoted" was more important than "providing clear and accurate business statements to stockholders and creditors."
Delusions of Grandeur
The man whose case convinced a San Francisco judge to declare the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional has a lot of other grandiose ideas, among them getting rid of masculine and feminine pronouns, reports The New York Times.
Mike Newdow apparently would replace "he" and "she" with "re," "his" and "hers" with "rees" and "him" and "her" with "erm."
Newdow also plans to challenge the use of "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency and put an end to prayers at presidential inaugurations. The self-described atheist wants to ferret out all uses of religion in daily life, he says.
A New Pledge
A University of Texas communications professor who describes herself as a longtime member of the International Socialist Organization and spends her spare time promoting gay rights and workers' power has penned a new Pledge of Allegiance more suitable for self-proclaimed "godless radicals" as herself, notices journalist Andrew Sullivan.
Dana Cloud and her 11-year-old daughter have always been uncomfortable saying the pledge, she says, not only because of the religious imposition, but because "it seems very strange to pledge loyalty to a scrap of cloth representing a corrupt nation that imposes its will, both economic and military, around the world by force."
Cloud's new pledge goes as follows:
I pledge allegiance to all the ordinary people around the world,
to the laid off Enron workers and the WorldCom workers
the maquiladora workers
and the sweatshop workers from New York to Indonesia,
The law, a first in the country, substitutes the word in one existing statute about minority contractors and prevents its use going forward. It is limited to references to human beings, however, so a statute mentioning "oriental medicine or oriental herbology" gets to stay.
"It's pejorative terminology," the bill's sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Paull Shin, said of the term. "It's offensive."
U.S. Rep. Michael Honda, D-Calif., is said to be considering introducing a similar bill in Congress next year.
Rethinking 'Retarded,' Again
Readers of the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote that paper to complain its use of the word `retarded' in a headline was evil and tantamount to a racial slur, writes the paper's ombudsman, Lou Gelfand.
The headline, 'Reprieve for the retarded' over a story about the Supreme Court's declaring it unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded prisoners, was dubbed "derogatory terminology" by one reader and "mean" by another.
The paper stuck to its gun, however. The chairman of a committee that discusses such things, copy editor John Addington, said mentally retarded is an accurate phrase and does not demean anyone.
"It simply states a fact," he said. "'Developmentally disabled' (a term sometimes preferred) is vague and can confuse the reader."
Relativism Rocks!
A poll conducted for the National Association of Scholars finds that three out of four college students are being told by their professors that there is no right and wrong in the world - that everything is relative.
The poll, of 401 randomly sampled college students by Zogby International, found that three-quarters of all college seniors are taught that right and wrong depend "on differences in individual values and cultural diversity." Only about a quarter said they heard that "there are clear and uniform standards of right and wrong by which every one should be judged" from their teachers.
Students asked to prioritize the importance of various business practices in light of the recent corporate shenanigans said that, based on what they had been taught at college, "recruiting a diverse workforce in which women and minorities are advanced and promoted" was more important than "providing clear and accurate business statements to stockholders and creditors."
Delusions of Grandeur
The man whose case convinced a San Francisco judge to declare the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional has a lot of other grandiose ideas, among them getting rid of masculine and feminine pronouns, reports The New York Times.
Mike Newdow apparently would replace "he" and "she" with "re," "his" and "hers" with "rees" and "him" and "her" with "erm."
Newdow also plans to challenge the use of "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency and put an end to prayers at presidential inaugurations. The self-described atheist wants to ferret out all uses of religion in daily life, he says.
A New Pledge
A University of Texas communications professor who describes herself as a longtime member of the International Socialist Organization and spends her spare time promoting gay rights and workers' power has penned a new Pledge of Allegiance more suitable for self-proclaimed "godless radicals" as herself, notices journalist Andrew Sullivan.
Dana Cloud and her 11-year-old daughter have always been uncomfortable saying the pledge, she says, not only because of the religious imposition, but because "it seems very strange to pledge loyalty to a scrap of cloth representing a corrupt nation that imposes its will, both economic and military, around the world by force."
Cloud's new pledge goes as follows:
I pledge allegiance to all the ordinary people around the world,
to the laid off Enron workers and the WorldCom workers
the maquiladora workers
and the sweatshop workers from New York to Indonesia,