CAIR Files Complaint On Behalf Of Muslim Woman Barred From Skating Rink For Wearing A Head Scarf

Rules are rules, but many conservative Muslims feel that certain rules shouldn't apply to them because, well, they are special and should be exempt, given all the various strict religious requirements they adhere to. By choice, mind you. And regardless of whether those rules state absolutely 'no exceptions' are to be made, they feel they should be excluded, and if not, they automatically run to CAIR (Council on America Islamic Relations) crying 'discrimination'. There have been several women who, in spite of knowing full well Disney's strict dress code have filed suit against the Mickey Mouse franchise because the company initially balked at their request to wear their hijabs (veils). Sadly, Disney eventually caved after CAIR stepped in and won concessions for the women.

So much for rules.

Now an Hispanic Muslim woman, 40-year-old Marisol Rodriguez-Colon, has solicited CAIR to intervene on her behalf because a roller-skating rink (Ron-A-Roll rink) refused to let her skate with her hijab.

Their rules are very specific, with a sign at the entrance that plainly states:

"No Hats. No Headwear. No Exceptions."

The rule was not instituted to discriminate against Muslims, it's for safety reasons, but Colon decided that this was plainly a case of discrimination when she and another Muslimah relative were not allowed to enter the premises of Ron-A-Roll rink for a birthday party for her niece. They were given the option to wear a helmet over their hijabs, which they both flatly refused.

"I wear this with pride," Colon said. "I was mortified -- by asking someone to wear a helmet you are actually ostracizing us.

"You are singling us out and showing everyone there is an issue -- that something is wrong with these two women."

"You are not allowed -- you are not welcome here. That is what that says to me," Colon said of the statement.

She said she was insulted that the rink would deny entrance to people "because of what they believe and what they are wearing because of those beliefs."

Management insists upon the rules because of safety issues, and we know very well that if they were to be harmed in any way, these women would be the first to sue the establishment, big time, for any injuries incurred.

So instead of removing their hijabs, or using the helmets, the women left and immediately contacted CAIR, which filed its obligatory complaint with Connecticut's Human Rights Commission, because of course not being allowed to skate in a hijab is a major human rights violation.

And apparently, this isn't the first complaint regarding skating rinks and hijabs, but in the following case, the venue caved.

Several years ago, University of Albany student Zahra Shah was barred from wearing her headscarf at an upstate New York roller rink.

That arena, citing insurance reasons, also banned headwear.

An employee at the time told Shah that other skaters could trip and get hurt if the hijab fell off.

When Shah explained that she wore the scarf for religious reasons, one rink employee told her it was like a cowboy "religiously" wearing a cowboy hat.

After a barrage of phone calls from activist groups and others, the rink management apologized and said Shah could skate with her headscarf.

Perhaps these kinds of places should have contracts that people like Colon would have to sign that would prevent them for suing if they were injured. Maybe that would shut them up.

Source: NY Post

Joke of the day: New TSA Signs

Received this in my email. Secretary Napolitano's latest TSA signs. Click on image to enlarge. Enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving isn't just a time to gorge on Turkey or Tofurkey along with all the various fixings that are part and parcel of the autumnal harvest celebration. Yes, it's wonderful to spend time with family and friends munching on all the yummy dishes we come to expect- the yams, the cranberry sauce and stuffing, the mashed potatoes, the pumpkin and apple pies. But we should also take stock of the blessings in our lives, be they few or abundant. There is always something to be grateful and thankful for, whether it's having a roof over our heads and food on the table, or a job, or good health, or the fact that we are alive.

I wish you all a bountiful and blessed Thanksgiving in the company and warmth of good friends and family.

Crossposted on Mind, Body and Spirit

My TSA Pat Down- why I opted out

I wasn't quite sure how I felt about the recent, ongoing uproar regarding the latest TSA enhanced security measures, until my trip westward this past Monday.

I definitely know that the thought of being shredded into pieces of confetti at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet in the air, my bits of flesh commingling with that of my fellow passengers, seemed to trump all the talk about feeling violated by both the backscatter body scanners and the enhanced pat downs. But I also wasn't sure what I would do when faced with a decision between being simultaneously ogled and exposed to radiation in the scanner, or being fondled by some potentially perverted TSA agent during an 'enhanced' pat down.

Since 9/11, I had always travelled metal-less (at least through the metal detectors) to avoid having to endure the 'normal' pat down, so I figured I'd probably be spared this time around as well since that strategy had always worked in the past. But several days pre-flight I still wasn't sure which route I would choose if, for some reason, I was faced with either choice. The enhanced pat down didn't sound so incredibly horrendous- although I can see why a male might feel a tad more violated than a female. A man's package, or "junk" as the "don't touch my junk" guy Jon Tyner put it, seems to be a little more available for an inadvertent or intentional copping a feel than a woman's private parts, but even so, the thought wasn't very appealing. The scanner was equally unappealing. Aside from the fact that some TSA stranger gets to see you literally buck naked, the radiation was what concerned me most.

No-one knows for sure the actual dangers of being subjected to the radiation emitted from the body scanner. TSA claims it's safe, but there are people who say there's no way to determine how dangerous it might be. In fact, board certified neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock (of The Blaylock Wellness Report), believes it's more dangerous than the Feds are willing to admit.

Blaylock says:

A group of scientists and professors from the University of California at San Francisco voiced their concern to Obama’s science and technology adviser John Holdren in a well-stated letter back in April.

The group included experts in radiation biology, biophysics, and imaging, who expressed “serious concerns” about the “dangerously high” dose of radiation to the skin.

He goes on to say:

One of the main concerns is that most of the energy from the airport scanners is concentrated on the surface of the skin and a few millimeters into the skin. Some very radiation-sensitive tissues are close to the skin — such as the testes, eyes, and circulating blood cells in the skin.

This is why defenders using such analogies as the dose being “1,000-times less than a chest X-ray” and “far less than what passengers are exposed to in-flight” are deceptive. Radiation damage depends on the volume of tissue exposed. Chest X-rays and gamma-radiation from outer space is diffused over the entire body so that the dose to the skin is extremely small. Of note, outer space radiation does increase cancer rates in passengers, pilots, and flight attendants.

We also know that certain groups of people are at a much higher risk than others. These include babies, small children, pregnant women, the elderly, people with impaired immunity (those with HIV infection, cancer patients, people with immune deficiency diseases, and people with abnormal DNA repair mechanism, just to name a few).

As someone with auto-immune issues, and having had a bunch of X-Rays this year and last, the negatives pretty much clinched it for me- I was going to 'opt out', and did. Not because there was a planned 'opt out' campaign going on for Thanksgiving travel, but because I simply did not want to be exposed to any more unnecessary radiation.

THE PAT DOWN:

As I reached the security area, and searched for somewhere to put my carry-on baggage a TSA agent shouted that the 1st lane was available, so off came the shoes, and everything was placed in the bins, and as my bags went through the scanner I suddenly realized I was faced with my choice. I calmly explained my position to the TSA agent who tried to dissuade me from opting out by giving me a detailed explanation of what the pat down entailed, even though I assured him I was quite familiar with the procedure and to go for it. I told some agents that were standing around that I was more concerned about my baggage being safe while I was being patted down than being groped, which is when someone told me that I shouldn't have placed my baggage in the bins and sent it on through if I had planned on opting out. I told her that I had no clue that I was in the designated body scanner lane, to which she replied there were signs indicating so. I don't recall seeing anything, but you can be damn sure I am going to check on my way home. I was asked if I wanted to be patted down in private and I declined, since I figured there would be less chance of roving hands in public. So the woman had me stand with my legs apart and my arms lifted shoulder-high, and explained exactly what she was going to do, and continued to do so until she was finished. It was time consuming, but relatively painless, and I never felt physically violated. The oddest thing I encountered during the whole ordeal was the agent's fascination with the elastic waistband on my pants, her proudly returning to show me that her gloves came up clean for explosives and that I could go, and the sick, old man sitting next to me in his wheel chair that was about to be groped.

I understand the need to protect passengers from being blown to bits by terrorists, and we can thank Muslim extremists for all the mega annoyances the traveling public has had to endure since 9/11, but there has to be a better way. Besides, the backscatter scanners would have no way of detecting explosives in breast implants or in the buttocks, which is something al Qaeda is already working on, according to various sources, and pat downs wouldn't do the job either. Since, as they say, although not all Muslims are terrorists, most terrorists are Muslims, TSA should be profiling more. We need to throw away 21st century political correctness- it has no place in the world as it is today. Of course, profiling doesn't always work either, since al Qaeda is adapting to the times. Not all terrorists these days are Middle Eastern men in their twenties to thirties, but we need to be far more proactive than we are today, and maybe we should take some lessons from Israel's El Al Airlines that actively profiles its passengers without laying a finger on them.

Danish M.P. Wants Bare Breasts In Immigration Documentary To Thwart Extremism

Holland, and now Denmark, have an idea on how to keep Muslim extremists (or any other extremists for that matter) out of their countries- by showing bare-boobed women in a documentary that all would-be immigrants must watch. Apparently, anyone who wants to move to the Netherlands must watch a documentary film introduction to the country that includes topless bathers and two men kissing. Foreign policy spokesman for the far-right Danish People's party, Peter Skaarup, wants Denmark to do the same thing. He feels that since women often shed their swim suit tops on Danish beaches, foreigners should be able to deal with that, and if they can't, then they should just stay the heck out of his country.

Denmark already is working on the documentary, which will be part of an immigration test, Skaarup just wants to add the bare boobies into the mix.

This, he said, is mainly relevant for immigrants coming from fundamentalist societies where women are oppressed and are not allowed to display their sexuality or even their hair. On the other hand Danish women are allowed to wear –-or not wear— what they please, underlining that he is not trying to provoke anyone with his statements.

“If you’re coming from a strict, religious society that might make you stop and think, oh no, I don’t want to be a part of that”, Skaarup told Danish daily, Jyllandsposten.

“Topless bathing probably isn’t a common sight on Pakistani beaches, but in Denmark it is still considered quite normal. I honestly believe that by including a couple of bare breasts in the movie, extremists may have to think twice before deciding to come to Denmark,” he said.

Naturally, there are those who aren't too thrilled about his proposal.

Integration spokesman for the conservative party, one of two government parties, Naser Khader says “a pair of naked breasts is no protection against extremism.”

“It's Quite the opposite, fundamentalists are so obsessed with sex that they will be pouring in over the borders. Maybe we should try with naked pigs,” Khader writes on his page on social networking site Facebook.

Maybe they should add bare breasts, a few piggies, and several dogs to boot. That should do the trick. But, I'm sure, the lawsuits would follow shortly.

Veteran's Day- This Bud's Video Is For You

Honor, gratitude and love to all the veterans of all the wars in the free world- for all you have done, this Bud's for you!!

Zonation's Observations On Jon Stewart's Rally To Restore Sanity

Zo, Black Christian conservative artist from machosauceproductions, was at Jon Stewart's Rally To Restore Sanity in DC along with his video camera. As always, very interesting observations.

Countering some of the negative commentary regarding Tea Party gatherings and Glenn Beck's rally in DC and criticism regarding the dearth of African Americans attending those events, Zo noticed that the Jon Stewart's shindig, was also predominately white.

Also interesting were the interviews with some of the more intellectually challenged of the participants, especially in light of the fact that there have been a plethora of videos highlighting the same types within the Tea Party crowds.

Bye-Bye Keith- MSNBC Suspends Olbermann Indefinitely

Looks like the brash, uber-obnoxious, hateful Keith Olbermann has been given the boot from the MSNBC line-up, without pay, at least for now. Suspended indefinitely for having donated to three different Democratic candidates during the mid-term elections, Phil Griffin (MSNBC's prez) said:

"I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay,"

As much as I despise the man for his hate-filled invectives, I initially thought -this is just wrong, to whom one donates is one's private business- until I discovered that NBC news requires that those who do wish to donate to political campaigns get pre-approval. Obviously, Keith didn't do that, because in his breathtaking arrogance he seems to think he runs the show. Not so, it seems.

The move is doubly significant in that it represents a major development in the relationship between Griffin and Olbermann, who once told the New Yorker, "Phil thinks he's my boss."

Uh, guess he is you're boss, after all, Keith.

He'll probably be back, since unlike NPR'S sacking of Juan Williams, this was merely a suspension; Griffin flexing his muscles and showing Olbermann who indeed is the big cheese. Maybe Keith will come back a humbler, less loathsome individual. Uh, nah. But this a lovely, little lesson for Keith. Gotta love that Karma!

Source: HuffingtonPost

U.S. Communist Party Members- just your average, everyday Joes

Check out your average, every day Commie, posted on the Houston Chapter of Communist Party USA. They were none too happy with the election results, but they want you to know that they're just like you and me, and want you to join their cause.

Did someone forget to tell them that Communism has failed, in the long term, in every single country that has ever implemented that form of government?

No Legalized Pot For California, But They Pick Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer- Again!

Who would have thought that California, of all places, would have voted down Proposition 19 (legalizing Marijuana). I was actually incredibly surprised considering the amount of dope heads that live there, and the fact that it supposedly produces one-third of this country's 'weed'. But after reading an article in the Sacramento Bee, published in April 2010, about pot farming in Mendocino County, it makes total sense. Legalizing it would bring down profits, from the grower to the dealer.

As for the re-election of Jerry Brown, a governor who actually admitted during a CNN interview back in 1992 that he "lied",

It’s all a lie," Brown says. "You’re pretending there’s a plan ....

Frank Sesno: What did you lie about?

Brown: You run for office and the assumption is "Oh, I know what to do." You don’t. I didn’t have a plan for California. Clinton doesn’t have a plan. Bush doesn’t have a plan .... You say you’re going to lower taxes, you’re going to put people to work, you’re gonna improve the schools, you’re going to stop crime … crime is up, schools are worse, taxes are higher. I mean, be real!"

I'm not really surprised at all, considering the amount of liberal fools that reside there. One would think that the residents of bankrupt California would have embraced Ebay's former CEO Meg Whitman, a Princeton and Harvard Business School graduate, who took Ebay from $4 billion to $8 billion in annual earnings, and from 30 to in excess of 15,000 employees in her ten year tenure at the company. But no, they settled for Jerry Brown, and re-elected ultra-liberal Barbara Boxer who bounced 143 checks the tune of $41,000 plus change.

Unfortunately, Meg Whitman never recovered from the "illegal maid" fiasco that Gloria Allred dug up at the last minute, obviously egged on by Jerry Brown and the Democratic Party's penchant for dirty politics. She should have fought back, but didn't.

My condolences to the 'good' people of California who will suffer the consequences for the folly of the dopes.

Maureen Dowd Down On Obama "Dude"- Lib columnist blasts Obama

The Left's love affair with Barack Obama is slowly fading as people become increasingly disenchanted with the man for various, often opposing reasons. For some, he's just not liberal enough to stay in favor, for others I think the misty veil of illusion is finally being lifted and they are finally seeing him for what he truly is: an arrogant man with little to no substance. Of course, there are still many people (and I know plenty) who refuse to let go of that initial attraction to an individual that suckered the world into thinking he was God incarnate, ready to right the world's wrongs. It's a little like the battered woman in an abusive relationship who doesn't have the courage to leave. She keeps hearkening back to when the love was still alive, even though the honeymoon is over.

It does still surprise me, though, when certain liberals actually have the courage to criticize their messiah, as did Maureen Dowd, queen of the liberal op-ed columnists. Her article entitled, Can The Dude Abide is chock full of interesting insights, and for the most part- so true.

Barack Obama became president by brilliantly telling his own story. To stay president, he will need to show he can understand our story.

At first it was exciting that Obama was the sort of brainy, cultivated Democrat who would be at home in a “West Wing” episode.

But now he acts like he really thinks he’s on “West Wing,” gliding through an imaginary, amber-lit set where his righteous self-regard is bound to be rewarded by the end of the hour.

Hey, dude, you’re a politician. Act like one.

As the head of the Democratic Party, the president should have supported the Democratic candidate for governor in Rhode Island, the one the Democratic Governors Association had already lavished more than $1 million in TV ads on. If Obama was going to refuse to endorse Frank Caprio out of respect for Lincoln Chafee, the former Republican who endorsed him for president and is now running as an independent, the president should have at least stayed out of Providence.

She goes on to say:

His arrogance led him to assume: If I build it, they will understand. He can’t get the gratitude he feels he deserves for his achievements if no one knows what he achieved and why those achievements are so vital.

Once it seemed impressive that he was so comfortable in his own skin. Now that comfort comes across as an unwillingness to be wrong.

We want the best people to govern us, but many voters are so turned off by Obama’s superior air that they’re rushing into the arms of disturbingly inferior pols.

As for trying to push his own agenda rather than listening to the people, which is an indictment of his ramming through Obama care, she says:

Obama admitted to The Times’s Peter Baker: “There is probably a perverse pride in my administration — and I take responsibility for this; this was blowing from the top — that we were going to do the right thing, even if short term it was unpopular.”

But who defines what’s “right”?

With the exception of Obama, most Americans seemed to agree that the “right” thing to do until the economy recovered was to focus on jobs instead of getting the Congress mired for months in making over health insurance and energy policy. And the “right” thing to do was to come down harder on the big banks for spending on bonuses instead of lending to small businesses that don’t get bailouts.

The mid-term elections will signal if the Obama party is over and if people are brave enough to cut the umbilical cord.

Click here to read the full op-ed.

Jon Stewart's DC Rally To Restore Sanity And Conservative Derangement Syndrome

Most of my FaceBook pals were eagerly awaiting Jon Stewart's DC Rally For Sanity. Some actually went there, others were planning on participating in sister rallies in other locales, while still others bemoaned the fact that they were unable to attend. Most of them, of course, are in the arts, but there were a few who aren't and those people were just as bummed about not being able to commune with fellow 'conservative haters' as my ultra liberal colleagues; and believe me the hate was and will continue to be palpable.

Most of them firmly believe that anyone who doesn't happen to be an Obama-loving liberal are right-wing fanatics. It matters not that some of us who dislike Obama happen to be moderate conservatives or just plain moderates, and that the majority of conservatives are not extremists- they hate us all. They see anyone deviating from the 'Obama-is-god and will magically solve the world's problems if given the chance' path as the enemy, so the fact that Republicans might take control over the house scares the heck out of them. The fact that some were endorsed by the Tea Party movement, frightens them even more. There are some who actually see the potential increase in Republican power as a doomsday scenario. Take one photographer pal who, along with an article on the Huffington Post entitled "If The Tea Party Wins, America Loses" linking to a Keith Olbermann video rant, posted the following comment on his FaceBook page:

"Fanatacism [sic]and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, with banners flying and with drums beating we’ll be marching backward, backward through the glorious ages of that 16th Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind." from Inherit the Wind

My no-longer friend, who is one of the few who knows my politics, is a bitter hater and that hatred has truly corrupted his mind. With G. W. Bush no longer in the political limelight, all that Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) has been transformed into CDS (Conservative Derangement Syndrome). Some of it is understandable, however. Although I generally respect the Tea Party movement, there are some questionable fringe elements. And some of the candidates that it endorsed, and that are now poised to either win or lose in the mid-term elections, should never have gotten this far. But Olbermann talks as if the Tea Party is synonymous with the Republican Party, which it is not.

However, just as we have a fringe element on the right, so does the left. Many of those, I'm sure, found their way to Stewart's ado on Saturday, as some of ours have ended up at Tea Party rallies over the years. But Glenn Beck's Restore Honor rally, which Stewart was lampooning, specified that there were to be no political placards at the event, and that request was honored by all, other than counter-protesters outside the venue. But at Saturday's fete there were plenty of placard, including several I found terribly offensive, see above. To view more go to Doug Ross' blog here. Of course, the typical liberal response (as evidenced in another Ross post about that libs diatribe) was that the placards were simply an exercise in sarcasm, and that conservatives are too stupid to discern the difference. What he fails to comprehend is that just as there might be some of us too "dense" (as he put it) to "get" the sarcasm in "Death To Right Wing Extremists", some left-wing crazy might also not "get it", and be inspired to haul off and harm someone he deems right wing. Isn't that what the left has criticized the Tea Party for? Some of their equally offensive placards inciting some right-wing militia-man to go out and hunt down liberals? Frankly, I have seen some very distasteful signs at Tea Party rallies, and I don't approve at all.

Whether it was sarcasm or not, it just proves that the liberals have as many stupid loons as we do, and we should be scared of them both.

Photo credit: Doug Ross