Following rules is racist
A local leader of Black Lives Matter was arrested after she had to be removed from a Racial Equity Institute training session, and she says it proves institutional racism.
From the Asheville Citizen-Times:
Sharon Smith, 64, was arrested on March 16 at a Racial Equity Institute event at Mountain Area Health Education Center, in Biltmore Forest. Police charged her with misdemeanor counts of resisting a public officer, disorderly conduct and marijuana possession, which she said was added only after she was searched at the jail.
According to Biltmore Forest Police Chief Chris Beddingfield, the situation was “handled great.”
Smith, the educational director of Asheville Black Lives Matter, disagrees.
“It's a perfect case study in how systemic racism works, absolutely perfect,” she said.
According to the report, Smith had previously "graduated" from this Racial Equity Institute event. But she decided to go to this month's training again. While there, she answered a question posed to the participants.
Well, that's against the rules.
If you're a past participant, you're not allowed to participate again.
Carol Rogoff Hallstrom, a fellow alumna of the training and a veteran of the civil rights movement, reached over the person sitting between her and Smith and told Smith that she wasn’t allowed to speak out, per policy. Smith told Hallstrom she should be allowed to speak.
“There’s no way, according to systemic racism theory, that any white woman should be telling a woman of color what she should and shouldn’t be saying. That’s just not OK,” Smith said.
I'm not clear if she's saying the rule itself is part of the systemic racism - or only that a white woman cited the rule in saying all the attendees should be treated equally under the law-- er... rule.
Well, this led to an argument. A "disruption" as it's called in the report.
So, the cops were called and Smith was escorted from the event and arrested for not complying.
I do feel the need to point out the obvious that Smith was breaking the rules meant to aid first-time participants in the program. This is not "systemic racism," "institutional racism," or any other kind of "racism."
This is simply a person who believes rules should apply to others but not her, and is willing to disrupt an event .
Love thy neighbor, you sick f**kers
If you've been watching high schooler-turned gun-grabby spokesperson, David Hogg, you know he's an incendiary jawsmith fomenting animosity from behind the protective shield of an agreeable media establishment and leftist organizations.
He has now launched an advertising boycott against radio and FOX talk show host Laura Ingraham after she mocked him for not getting into four colleges at which he applied.
I am not a fan of Ingraham. I think her tweet was stupid and juvenile.
I do appreciate the fact that it helps smoke out Hogg for the little fascist-in-training he is.
Ingraham apologized...
Hogg rejected her apology, tweeting that it was an effort to “save her advertisers” and that he would only accept her apology if she denounced the way Fox News “has treated my friends and I in this fight,” adding that “it’s time to love thy neighbor, not mudsling at children” and that she should “focus less on fear and more on facts.”
He then appeared on CNN Friday morning and insisted that Ingraham should “stand down,” and said that while she is an honest opinion host, she needs to be “more objective.”
Look, if Hogg doesn’t want to accept Ingraham’s apology, that’s his decision. But the rest of us need to stop pretending that he’s the beacon of moral authority.
It’s ironic that he’s calling on everyone to “love thy neighbor” and to end the “mudslinging” because he certainly hasn’t practiced what he’s preaching. Over the past several weeks, he has referred to the NRA as “child murderers,” called Dana Loesch “disgusting” and accused her of not caring about children’s lives, smeared Republican Sen. Marco Rubio by claiming he’s bribed by the NRA in exchange for the lives of Florida students, and blasted Republicans as “sick f–kers” for not meeting his standards on gun reform. And judging from his boycott campaign, Hogg’s solution to save children’s lives is to bully the opposition into silence.
Hogg believes that he can get away with playing two roles at once: a teen victim of a mass shooting and a vocal gun control activist.
This is the "clown nose on, clown nose off" tactic utilized by so many leftist entertainers - most notably, Jon Stewart and Jimmy Kimmel.
They get to lash out at political opponents when they take their clown noses off, but when their opponents begin engaging, the clown nose goes back on with a "Hey, I'm just a comedian!" excuse.
This is what Hogg is doing.
For weeks, the media shamelessly allowed these Parkland students to go unchallenged as they spouted divisive, hyperbolic nonsense that was full of inaccuracies. Because of that, Hogg feels justified to say and do whatever he wants without consequence. He has been given such political power that he is using it to launch boycott campaigns against those who simply hurt his feelings.
Precisely.
It's the perfect illustration of the "helicopter parenting" mentality when applied on a larger scale.
Take a look at this CNN host's rush to defend Hogg and make him feel good about himself. The over-protecting "everyone gets a trophy" emotional shielding here is unprofessional and damaging.
FDA trying a new way to look at smoking
The FDA is changing the way it regulates tobacco. The President of American Commitment, Phil Kerpen, writes the new focus will be on harm reduction:
"... the idea that smokers who can't quit outright can get nicotine from products other than cigarettes and dramatically improve their health outcomes as a result. The first test of the extent to which things have really changed at the FDA comes with the application of a product called IQOS from Philip Morris, an electronic device that heats tobacco enough to release nicotine – but without combustion and all of the health harms associated with the products of combustion."
Kerpen quotes the new head of the FDA, Scott Gottlieb:
"The overwhelming amount of death and disease attributable to tobacco is caused by addiction to cigarettes," Gottlieb correctly observed in a landmark speech last year. "Unless we change course, 5.6 million young people alive today will die prematurely later in life from tobacco use. Envisioning a world where cigarettes would no longer create or sustain addiction, and where adults who still need or want nicotine could get it from alternative and less harmful sources, needs to be the cornerstone of our efforts."
You can read more here.
We'll be talking with Kerpen today at 3:00 pm.