Union Jack Banned at Heathrow: Sensitivity Above and Beyond the Call of Reason

Looks like insane sensitivity isn't a strictly American phenomenon:

"ARMED cops patrolling Heathrow Airport have been banned from wearing tiny Union Jack badges in support of British troops.

"Top brass claimed the tie-pin badges - which cost £1 with proceeds going to the Help for Heroes charity - were OFFENSIVE.

"But one officer asked: 'How can the Union Jack be offensive?

" 'This ruling is even more absurd coming this weekend on the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

" 'We must be the only country ashamed to display our national flag.'..." (The Sun)

Being ashamed of the flag is nothing new in America: in some circles, it's been all the rage for decades: so The United Kingdom isn't alone.

A Digression: Quotes Without Sources

The blog post at Creative Minority Report ran that quote, citing another blog which didn't give a source, as far as I could tell. A little digging turned up what I'm pretty sure is the original article, in The Sun, June 8, 2009.

Batty Brits Think Union Jack Offensive - So What?

The "my country, wrong or worse" attitude is nothing new here in America. One way to seem sophisticated over here is to act as though Frank Burns, of M*A*S*H, is a typical conservative American, and discuss how America is to blame for the global economic downturn, flooding in Bangladesh, and the Maunder Minimum.

And, either not display the American flag at all, or fly it upside-down, or with alternative designs. Burning the flag seems to have gone out of fashion of late: but that could change again.

I'm not that 'sophisticated.' I like living in a country where I can express views that don't necessarily conform to the dominant culture's view.

I think I see where that attitude toward the flag may have come from in America. When I was growing up, the flag was used quite a bit by organizations like the VFW and American Legion. And, by people with (in my view) narrowly nationalistic views.

But, again in America, the flag isn't - or shouldn't be - an emblem for one particular point of view. It's the flag of America, a country where people are allowed to express dissenting opinions, and protest against the armed forces who sacrifice to maintain the right to protest.

The United Kingdom has a history of freedom of speech, too, and it troubles me to see that the weirdly hypertrophied concern for the feelings of a sensitive few which has developed in America seems to be active in the U.K. as well.

Related posts:

• "Department of Homeland Security No Longer Fears American Veterans?"
  (May 14, 2009)
• "Genocide! Racism! Down With Columbus Day!!"
  (April 8, 2009)
• " 'America Sucks' - Binghamton, New York, Bullies, and 'Little Eichmanns' "
  (April 4, 2009)
• "Professor Ward Churchill is Back: A Glorious Victory for Academic Freedom, Tenure, and the American Academic Way"
  (April 3, 2009)
• "Sounds of Silence: 2009"
  (March 31, 2009)
• "Carville, Limbaugh, 9/11, Obama, and Objectivity in the News"
  (March 11, 2009)
• "CCSU Students Talk About Guns: Naturally, Their Professor Called the Police"
  (March 4, 2009)
• "Turkey, the Ottoman Empire, Dead Armenians, and Learning from Mistakes"
  (February 28, 2009)
  
• "Honor Killing, Muzzammil Hassan and Aasiya, Protecting Feelings,and Common Sense"
  (February 20, 2009)
  
• "Goodbye Quagmire, Hello Quicksand: Champions of Relevance Catch Up"
  (January 5, 2009)
• "President-Elect Obama's Problem With Left-Wing Bloggers"
  (December 22, 2008)
• "The New York Times Banned in China"
  (December 20, 2008)
• "Free Speech, Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, Campus Activists, and America's Future"
  (December 18, 2008)
• "William Felkner vs. College Conformity: Traditional Information Gatekeepers Face Another Challenge"
  (December 16, 2008)
• "Ayman al-Zawahri's Islam and American Culture: Common Ground, Almost"
  (November 28, 2008)
• "LittleBigPlanet PlayStation Game Recalled to Avoid Sunni Snit"
  (October 21, 2008)
• "The Sign Says 'Obama Half-Breed Muslin' - Freedom of Speech, Politics, Spelling, and Race"
  (October 1, 2008)
  
• "More Academic Freedom, American Style?"
  (September 22, 2008)
• "Another Teacher in Trouble in a Muslim Country"
  (September 14, 2008)
• " 'Self-Satisfied Ignorance?' Eucharist, Quran, and Atheist Book Trashed"
  (August 5, 2008)
• "Islam in the Information Age: Afghan Journalist Charged with Blasphemy"
  (July 30, 2008)
• "Famous People Say America Must Lead"
  (September 23, 2008)
• "Haditha, Iraq; My Lai, Vietnam: This Isn't the Good Old Days"
  (July 13, 2008)
• "United States of America: 232 Years in the Freedom Business"
  (July 3, 2008)
  
• "America, Iran, Freedom of Speech, Censorship: Be Careful What You Wish For"
  (June 22, 2008)

News and views:

• "Union Jack Banned at Heathrow"
  Creative Minority Report (June 12, 2009)
• " 'Soldier' badge is banned"
  The Sun (June 8, 2009)

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A tip of the hat to fatherschnippel, for the heads-up on the blog post.

Wal-Mart, a Muslim Woman's Veil, and a Really Rude Clerk

And CAIR (The Council on American-Islamic Relations). This time, I think that somewhat jumpy¹ civil-rights outfit had a point.

CAIR says that a Muslim woman, wearing a face veil, went through a checkout counter at a Wal-Mart store in Riverdale, Utah, on February 2, 2008.

The cashier at that counter said: "Please don't stick me up," according to The Council on American-Islamic Relations, anyway.

They could be right. Wal-Mart seems to think so. Wal-Mart's regional general manager, Rolando Rodriquez, signed a letter of apology and sent it to CAIR on Monday of this week. The Nevada chapter of CAIR released the letter yesterday.

The clerk will be subjected to "sensitivity training," and CAIR seems to be satisfied.

So am I, although

1. What I think about the matter doesn't make a whit of practical difference.
2. "Sensitivity training" is something of a hot-button phrase for me

The "sensitivity training" I know about is the eighties-style indoctrination in politically correct attitudes toward men and other undesirable types, but it may have changed in the last twenty years.

Although I've stood behind enough cash registers to know how unsettling a customer covered face can be, you don't treat a customer like that.

Not more than once, in my day. A stunt like that would have gotten me fired. On the spot, if the manager had been within earshot. If I was very lucky, I might have been re-assigned to the stockroom.

There's no reasonable doubt that some Muslims have decided that Allah is telling them to kill infidels (or "kafir," to be more 'multicultural').

That doesn't mean that everyone who wears clothing that doesn't match the dress code we've been used to is a thug, or a terrorist. Some may be weirdos, but that's an entirely different topic.

People from Somalia have been moving to central Minnesota lately: mostly in St. Cloud, for now. It's only a matter of time until Sauk Centre, the town I live in, has Somali families living here. When that happens, I'm hoping that we'll get another couple shelves of specialty foods in the grocery.

There's a near-certainty that someone will do something insulting here. There are jerks everywhere.

My hope is that people who are on the brink of jerkishness will get a grip, and accept that not everyone is just like them.

Related posts, on tolerance, bigotry, racism, and hatred.

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¹ "Hypersensitive" might be a more accurate term. CAIR hasn't been in the news lately, though, so they may have reviewed their policy, which seemed to be that any arrest, or perceive insult, of a Muslim - or Muslimah, for that matter - was a hate crime.

The University of Minnesota and the Never-Ending Battle for Tolerance, Sensitivity, and the Academic Way

Christmas is two days away.

For those who are offended by that statement, I suggest enrolling at the University of Minnesota as a student, or applying for a job on the faculty or support staff.

The War on Terror is, to a great extent, a conflict between at least one set of Muslims and the powerful, secular, western civilization they believe is the cause of their problems.

It's reasonable to argue that Muslims on this particular jihad don't really understand western civilization.

I think the same could be said of the self-appointed 'best minds' of western civilization, the people who run America's colleges and Universities. And that concerns me.

One of this season's examples of America's brightest and best (?) at work is discussed in "Reader, beware: 'Seasonal creep' threatening to break out at U," a Katherine Kersten piece in Thursday's Minneapolis, Minnesota, "StarTribune." I've got a few comments of my own.

Now that the University of Minnesota's Office of System Academic Administration has made the U of M safe from "Joy to the Word" and other disturbing songs and ideas, they're moving on to office parties.

The problem with office parties in December, as Ms. Kersten quotes from a U of M official memo, "is that 'celebrations held in December tend to make people think of Christmas, whatever the theme.' And who knows where that could lead?" Even throwing Hannukah and Kwanzaa into the mix isn't good enough. The result is still to Christmasy.

As the memo put it, "an event that is meant to be a seasonal celebration [with no allusion to Christmas] suddenly looks very Christmasy when decorated with green and red." That would be "insensitive."

There's a great deal more in Kersten's column.

I see this U of M memo as another example of academia's curious notion that Christianity is dangerous, or at least insensitive and intolerant (the closest that political correct philosophies can come to the idea of "evil," it seems).

So:

• America's colleges and universities, to a disturbing degree, are trying to keep our students safe from Christianity
• Islamic fanatics are trying to kill Americans and other infidels - and insufficiently Islamic* Muslims
• America relies on graduates from American colleges and universities to analyze and understand the likes of Al Qaeda and the Taliban

It does not fill me with confidence, to know that many of those experts have been taught to fear Santa Claus.

It could be worse. The University of Minnesota could be offering a major - and post-graduate degrees in - Scroogianics.

"Scroogianics" is the study of how Christmas hurts people, together with methods of protecting people from Santa Claus, mistletoe, red and green lights, and other perilous phenomena. This academic discipline, and the name "Scroogianics," is something I made up tonight, as a sort of darkly humorous joke.

It may not be all that funny, though. We could have something like it next year, given the flexible standards academia tends to give people and ideas that they like. Remember how professor Ward Churchill was taken seriously, until public pressure forced the University of Colorado to look up some of his citations?

* 'Insufficiently Islamic' by their standards.

Related posts, on censorship, propaganda, and freedom of speech.
Related posts, on tolerance, bigotry, racism, and hatred.