by Ilya Somin. Instead, Let's Abolish It. Top Army and Marine Corps generals recently stated that they believe that women should be required to register for the draft, now that they are no longer barred from most combat positions in the armed forces: The top Army and Marine Corps generals told senators Tuesday that it will take up to three years ... MORE
by Victor Davis Hanson. Political correctness has taken a toll. What do campus microaggressions, safe spaces, trigger warnings, speech codes, and censorship have to do with higher learning? American universities want it both ways. They expect unquestioned subsidized support from the public, but also to operate in a way impossible for anyone else. ... MORE
Oversensitivity will be the death of free expression. Monty Python member John Cleese has become the latest comedy legend to wade into the shark-infested waters that is the debate over political correctness in comedy. In a video for commentary website Big Think, Cleese warns that oversensitivity from political correctness is hurting comedy and ... MORE
by Olaf Ekberg. The NAACP’s mission of political correctness and equality careened off the rails this week when a local president complimented a TV reporters breasts during an interview. Don Harris, the president of the Maricopa County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, had just finished an event ... MORE
Intolerant conformism is no laughing matter. Comedy, it seems, is no laughing matter these days, caught up in one controversy after another over the acceptable limits of humor. Last week it was the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that was in the firing line again, accused of racism by everybody from the Queen of Jordan to ... MORE
Racism is a convenient rationale. The latest tempest in a teapot controversy is over a lack of black nominees for this year's Academy Awards in Hollywood. The assumption seems to be that different groups would be proportionally represented if somebody were not doing somebody else wrong. That assumption carries great weight in far more ... MORE
by Jeff Scully. The slave mentality has taken root in the USA. A total of 53 percent of Americans think colleges should punish
students that make racially offensive statements. That’s the finding
from a recent poll conducted by YouGov for the Huffington Post. Troublingly, the poll, in its five questions, never bothers to define
what the form of ... MORE
Free speech is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it for those who are easily offended, readily intimidated or who need everything wrapped in a neat and tidy bow. Free speech is often messy, foul-mouthed, obscene, intolerant, undignified, insensitive, cantankerous, bawdy and volatile. Unfortunately, our appreciation for a robust freedom ... MORE
by Robby Soave. No good deed goes unpunished. Schrade Middle School in Garland, Texas, suspended a 12-year-old girl for several days—and has placed her in alternative schooling for the next month—because she lent her inhaler to a classmate who was having difficulty breathing. According to Fox 4 News,
Indiyah Rush was in gym ... MORE
NY's transgender nitwittery. New York City is proposing a $250,000 fine for using the wrong pronoun in reference to a transgendered person. Really?! How would you know which pronoun to use? Why would a he that used to be a she be upset if one slipped up and used the feminine pronoun? Accidents happen, especially where confusion abounds. ... MORE
Another slap at free speech. The Republic just published a very informative report on a new civil rights guideline that could end up with NYC citizens facing hefty fines for what is being called “misgendering.” The idea, as the original news story explains, is that calling a trans person the wrong pronoun or title is now seen as a civil rights violation. ... MORE
by Maria Thielman. The idea that a young person is someone to be protected, shielded, and
treated delicately at all costs is part of what’s behind universities
letting students force their professors out (as Yale just did)
because they “hurt our feelings,” and part of why people don’t know how
to debate anymore and just engage in shouting matches. ... MORE