What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread, you decide.
Here’s a few to get things rollin’.
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File this first one under “Unintended Consequences”.
From AmmoLand.com,
York Arms Cancels All Its New York Police Orders
“Based on the recent legislation in New York, we are prohibited from selling rifles and receivers to residents of New York.
We have chosen to extend that prohibition to all governmental agencies associated with or located within New York.
As a result we have halted sales of rifles, short barreled rifles, short barreled shotguns, machine guns, and silencers to New York governmental agencies.”
There’s also an effort under way to get SIG, Smith and Wesson, and Glock on board to do the same.
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Jesse Jackson Jr. to plead guilty, with jail time.
From Politico
“Former Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) will plead guilty to conspiring with his wife to illegally spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses, including a $43,000 Rolex watch, fur coats and memorabilia associated with Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Bruce Lee, according to information obtained by POLITICO.
The charges against him include conspiracy, making false statements, and mail and wire fraud.”
“Prosecutors will recommend a prison sentence of between 46 months and 57 months for Jackson Jr., as well as a fine of $10,000 to $100,000, and forfeiture of a yet-to-be-determined portion of the misspent $750,000 in campaign funds.”
His wife and an Alderwoman, as well as Jr.’s campaign manager/treasurer has also pled to a tax charge.
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But hey, at least the Obama admin is trying to make easier for them to find employment when they get out.
Should it be a federal crime to refuse to hire ex-convicts and felons? The EEOC thinks so. I can see so many places where this could be a huge problem. And let’s be honest, this is just another attempt to push for the restoration of voting rights as well.
From TheWallStJournal
“The EEOC ignored that judicial thrashing and pressed on. Last April, the agency unveiled its “Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions,” declaring that “criminal record exclusions have a disparate impact based on race and national origin.”
Though blacks make up only 13% of the U.S. population, more blacks were arrested nationwide for robbery, murder and manslaughter in 2009 than whites, according to the FBI. The imprisonment rate for black men “was nearly 7 times higher than White men and almost 3 times higher than Hispanic men,” notes the EEOC. These statistical disparities inspired the EEOC to rewrite the corporate hiring handbook to level the playing field between “protected groups” and the rest of the workforce.”
“Most businesses perform criminal background checks on job applicants, but the EEOC guidance frowns on such checks and creates new legal tripwires that could spark federal lawsuits. One EEOC commissioner who opposed the new policy, Constance Barker, warned in April that “the only real impact the new Guidance will have will be to scare business owners from ever conducting criminal background checks. . . . The Guidance tells them that they are taking a tremendous risk if they do.””
Once again liberals attempt to remove the punishments associated with committing criminal acts. When you are a convicted criminal, certain job opportunities become unavailable to you. And that makes sense. This doesn’t.
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And lastly, like above, more waste of taxpayer dollars.
From JudicialWatch
“Judicial Watch today released previously unseen USDA videos revealing a compulsory “Cultural Sensitivity Training” program requiring USDA employees to bang on tables, chanting in unison “The pilgrims were illegal aliens” while being instructed to no longer use the word “minorities,” but to replace it with “emerging majorities.” Judicial Watch received the videos pursuant to a May 18, 2012, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
The sensitivity training sessions, described as “a huge expense” by diversity awareness trainer and self-described “citizen of the world” Samuel Betances, were held on USDA premises. The diversity event is apparently part of what USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack described in a memo sent to all agency employees as a “new era of Civil Rights” and “a broader effort towards cultural transformation at USDA.” In 2011 and 2012, the USDA paid Betances and his firm nearly $200,000 for their part in the “cultural transformation” program.
USDA Training Administrator, Vincent Loran, in an October 10, 2011, email previously revealed by Judicial Watch, asked Betances for a copy of a training video vowing to keep it secret. “It will not be used for or show [sic] in any way shape or form,” Loran promised. Nevertheless, Judicial Watch was able to obtain the video.”
🙄
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Wandering Views 
My Dad was an engineer and a supervisor with the FAA. When Clinton was elected, he was given orders from Washington “to practice affirmative action in hiring, and to recruit a workforce diverse in race, gender, nationality and sexual preferences.”.
Dad responded: “Am I to take your directive literally, and if so where would you suggest I go to look for pedophiles and necrophiles?”
For this act he was sent to several of the reeducation camps described in your article. However, he disrupted these meetings, rallied the inmates and vigorously sought to determine the amount of money wasted on each such session. Therefor, he was encouraged to take early retirement.
Happily, he spent his last few working years in the private sector.
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You can do anything in the boat but rock it.
😆
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So will the ex-convict thing apply to schools a nd daycares?
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KBells,
That was my point too. Do we allow someone with a couple robbery convictions to work at a bank? Or pedophiles at day care centers? Or rapists at women’s shelters? These might seem extreme, but if you can’t do a background check, how would you know? Just a bad idea all the way around.
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Or even a drug conviction where you need someone to operate dangerous equipment.
Also if this person hurts a customer or fellow employee and sues you can you then turn around and sue the EEOC.
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“Emerging majorities” LOL
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AJ
I do think you are right about guarding against repeat offenses, on the one hand. On the other, in theory, a person who has served their time has completed their punishment. I think our country needs to do better at rehabilitation and then employment/support when a felon has served their time. I don’t have the answers as this is way out of my field, I’ve not even read much on it, but it just seems a waste to society and a waste of a person to not give them some way back. A quandary.
Ricky
That might be one of the saddest recitations I’ve heard on diversity courses. Here’s the thing, when diversity courses were first started there were some folks who had no idea of what they were saying and how it affected other people. So you might hear things from a boss, like, women are just not suited to this field — as I did when I first started working. Now mind you, my field is not physically intense so, it could not be argued that there were issues with handling a fire hose, for example. After a year I observed to my boss that he had two daughters in college of whom he was quite proud and I asked how he would feel if their boss said the same sort of things he had said. It was funny — at first he said he’d not said anything like that and was angry. A few days later he asked me to lunch and apologized — he’d had a chat with his wife and daughters. Sometimes folks need obvious things pointed out to them before they can stop being obnoxious sobs.
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Good point, CB. I think things improved a lot when daughters started growing up. 🙂
Bob Buckles and another friend sent me this link on women in combat roles, which is along the lines of CB’s first paragraph.
http://puckingninja.blogspot.com/2013/02/women-in-infantry.html
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I have two problems with the PC diversity stuff. First it caters to the over sensitive. I worked with a black girl who had a guy wrote up because he got bored waiting around for his producer and made a noose with a piece of rope. Second, all groups are not treated equally. As a matter of fact the amount of PC protection a group get is pretty much dependent on how likely they are to vote Democrat. A good example was the Mormon girl, who after being teased for her religion was suspend from a public school for saying “that’s so gay.” She and her family were being personally attacked but she was punished for responding with a general. non-personal phrase. The simple explanation is Gays outrank Mormons, because Gays vote Democrat and Mormons vote Republican.
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Michelle
That’s a thoughtful piece on women in combat. You may be surprised to know that I agree with most of what the author had to say. There are only a few women who have the physical ability needed. Those women who can make the cut — without any allowances should be allowed. Those who can’t should find something else to do if they want to be in the military, or a fireman or a construction worker — I very much believe in bona fide job qualifications.
KBells
And that is an example of PC going way too far. Or liberals might argue not far enough. Replace “that’s so gay” with “that’s so christian” as a derisive comment. The noose though, with the history of lynching for blacks — that’s easily read as more than just not pc, easily read as a threat depending on the circumstance. Minimally its a doofus with no social awareness.
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So CB why weren’t the other students punished for asking the Mormon girl how many mothers she had? One was a direct personal attack and one was just an unPC remark. The punishment were doled out according to nothing more than but which group will throw a bigger fit.
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Depending on his age, though, it may simply be ignorance. I’m continually surprised at how little young people know about history.
Still, every day I’m reminded more and more of 1918-1921 Russia. 😦
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The girl had known the noose guy for years and knew he was neither a threat nor a racist. As far as what he knew, he was from up north and probably not aware of the what the noose meant half a century ago.
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As far as the ex-convict issue, the employer is the one who has to take the risk and who will held responsible and should be the onet to make the decision.
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Speaking of Russia, our pastor posted this quote on FB yesterday which received lots of ‘shares’ and nods:
“Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’ Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’ ”
~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ~
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Kbells
For the Mormon kid, I do think there ought to have been a discussion — not punishment. But then I don’t think the “that’s so gay” remark merited punishment either — but a discussion with the kid. Do you really think we should just let kids spout whatever they will unremarked? That we should ignore intentional acts of cruelty from kids?
For the guy with the noose, perhaps a better approach would have been to inform him of the history of things, but frankly if you are an American from the north or south, east or west, you really ought to know enough about our history to understand about lynchings and such. Now it may also be that the woman was too touchy, I don’t know the circumstances and pc can go way too far and soar to the heights of ridiculous. Equally so saying nothing can allow behavior to continue that ought to be stopped, like the teasing of the Mormon kid. Alot of this is really just good social sense. But we seem to have courtesy issues in the country nowadays.
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All of us are going to face some sort of descrimination. My son had to prove to his black classmates that he could play basketball as well as they could and sprint with the best of them in track. It wouldn’t have done any good to send his classmates to reeducation camps.
I actually think all the diversity and affirmative action nonsense in our government agencies is good for the country. Bureaucrats don’t have time to stifle business when they are all busy bringing or defending descrimination actions or being sent to reeducation camps.
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Chas was the one who linked the EEOC story yesterday. I found the WSJ link after reading his.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/eeoc-federal-crime-convicts/2013/02/15/id/490605?s=al&promo_code=12791-1#ixzz2L0OXSMjN
Since my manners seem to have failed me earlier,
A HAT TIP to Chas! 🙂
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CB,
While I get the whole “they served their time” idea, and I get the idea of people being permitted to redeem themselves for past errors, and I get forgiveness. I really do. But I don’t think you can simply ignore past convictions in certain areas. It would be irresponsible to do so. There’s a reason it’s called a criminal record. So that we can keep track. Ignoring certain things could be dangerous for a whole lot of people. And doing so for PC race nonsense is not worth the risk.
Also, criminals already have the right to expunge criminal records, if a judge decides they’re worthy of such. It works, and that’s the way it should be. If a judge decides to remove an offense, it won’t show up on most background checks. This proposal is just stupid.
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Re: NY and guns- Look out, Gov. Cuomo. Your police and your personal protection detail may be angry at you for pushing through that stupid law.
Re: PC language- when one of my students says “That’s so gay,” I respond, “So you are happy about it?” referring to the root meaning of the word. Personally, I don’t like to refer to homosexuals as “gay”, as I believe deep down in their innermost being they are not happy. And when they stand before a jealous God who condemns them to eternity in Hell, they will definitely not be happy.
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“Replace “that’s so gay” with “that’s so christian” as a derisive comment. ”
Actually the word “puritanical” Is frequently used erroneously and almost always negatively by educated adults.
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