I thought it might seem a bit exaggerated, but still amusing.

Now I think it’s just amusing.

It’s clearly not exaggerated.  After all, there’s this:

Black students at the University of Memphis hanged from a tree a piñata made to look like a white woman, and took turns beating it with a stick. A photo of the incident has been making the rounds on the internet, and the university had to issue a statement about it this week.

Click here to see the photo.

Was it a racist act? No, turns out it wasn’t intended that way at all. Just some kids having fun at a party.

But imagine if the racial dynamics had been reversed — white students beating a black piñata hanging from a tree. I think we can all be grateful that wasn’t the case.

Sometimes a piñata is just a piñata.

Leftists, as Theodore Dalrymple has said, have turned satire into prophecy.

This is the theme of Bias Incident: The World’s Most Politically Incorrect Novel in a nutshell.

Don’t believe me that this stuff is being used to take away your freedom?  Well, witness this awful case from New Jersey:

This one has me really steamed, I must admit. You might want to turn down the volume on your iPod here; I can’t guarantee I won’t break into uncontrollable screaming at some point in this segment.Next Tuesday the trial of 19-year-old Dharun Ravi opens in New Brunswick, New Jersey. If found guilty, Mr Ravi could go to jail for ten years.

What did Dharun Ravi do? Well, he was a freshman roommate at Rutgers University with a chap named Tyler Clementi. Clementi was homosexual, and not a closeted one — he didn’t make much of a secret of it. Why would he? Our young people are taught from kindergarten on that “gay is just as good as straight,” that Heather has two mommies, that homosexuals should be “proud,” and so on. My local high school has a club for homosexual students. Anyone who’s embarrassed or ashamed about being homosexual hasn’t been paying attention for about thirty years. And in fact, Clementi wasn’t: in those first three weeks of his freshman year, he attended at least one meeting of the Rutgers students Bisexual, Gay, and Lesbian Alliance.

Well, a year last September, Dharun Ravi and another freshman, Molly Wei, used a webcam to secretly watch Clementi kissing a young man Clementi had picked up. After watching the video, Ravi gossiped about it on Twitter, quote: “I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.”

Three days after that, Clementi committed suicide by jumping from the George Washington Bridge. Whether this had any connection at all to the webcam incident, is not known. That Dharun Ravi thought his prank might drive Clementi to suicide is preposterous; that he intended that result is preposterosity squared.

The homosexualists were up in arms none the less, and every damn fool politician in New Jersey joined in the hue and cry. Chris Christie, who I think less of every time he opens his fat mouth, quote: “I don’t know how those two folks are going to sleep at night, knowing that they contributed to driving that young man to that alternative.” They don’t know that, Governor, and neither do you, and neither does anyone. They played a trivial prank; Clement killed himself; cause and effect are not obvious, certainly not established to any fair evidentiary standards.

The even more dimwitted Senator Frank Lautenberg has introduced national legislation that, quote, “would require colleges and universities that receive federal student aid to adopt codes of conduct that prohibit bullying and harassment of students.” So now it’s going to be a federal crime for students to pull pranks. What the hell country is this, North Korea? What’s going to be the next federal offense on the statute book — forgetting to feed your goldfish?

The New Jersey prosecutors are not actually charging Dharun Ravi in connection with Clementi’s death. How could they, since you’d have to be even stupider than Chris Christie and Frank Lautenberg to think that any such thing was in his mind. The actual charges are: invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, witness tampering, and evidence tampering. The last two items are just b.s. Invasion of privacy is a reasonable description of what Ravi did, though you need to be borderline insane, which apparently New Jersey is, to think that it’s a suitable matter for a full court trial with multi-year sentences in the balance.

The truly poisonous charge is that second one, “bias intimidation.” This is basically a charge that Ravi had Bad Thoughts: that he looked down on homosexuals and invaded Clementi’s privacy on those grounds. It’s a charge of Thoughtcrime.

The Middlesex County prosecutor’s office actually offered Ravi a plea deal back in May: if he’d plead guilty they’d give him five years in the slammer. If not, he’d go to trial and face ten if found guilty on the Thoughtcrime charge. Ravi turned down the deal, and the trial starts next week.

Once again, here’s what Ravi did: He used a webcam to film his roommate kissing a guy. Then he tweeted that, quote, “I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.” And for this, we’re talking fives and tens of years in jail — not really because of the trivial thing he did, but for having bad thoughts.

This is the most horrible, most shameful prosecution I’ve heard of for a long time. Homosexuals are less than four percent of our population, perhaps only one percent; and rather than face down the shrieking hysteria of this tiny minority, we are turning our jurisprudence upside down and wrecking the life of a harmless young man in an effort to appease the mob.

From all that I’ve read — and I’ve read a good deal about this case: Ian Parker’s report in the February 6th New Yorker is a good starting point — Tyler Clementi was a chronically unhappy young man. He killed himself, for reasons not known. That’s an awful thing: I speak as the father of two teenagers.

It is not the purpose of the federal government to try to prevent unhappy people from killing themselves though; nor is it the purpose of the judiciary, when such a thing happens, to hunt out a scapegoat and drag him through the courts at the behest of rich, noisy nuisance lobbies.

“You can’t go to jail for what you’re thinking,” went the old song. In New Jersey, you can, if you’re thinking unkind thoughts about homosexuals. This prosecution is a disgrace to New Jersey, a shame on the people of New Jersey and on their gibbering, pandering, fool politicians. The charges against Dharun Ravi are nothing less than totalitarian.

Now I’m going to start the uncontrollable screaming; but it’s OK, I’ll do it off mike.

You can bet your bottom dollar on this:  when the Supreme Court decides that the First Amendment is unconstitutional (yes, I know, it’s a contradiction in terms, but they’ll use artful language to express their point), it will use the suicide of youths as the fig leaf for that step into totalitarianism.  Mark my words.

That said, the death of Tyler Clementi is a tragedy.  I wish his family the ultimate comfort of being reunited at the Resurrection.

AMSTERDAM – The Orthodox Jewish community of Amsterdam suspended its US-born chief rabbi on Tuesday for cosigning a declaration which said homosexuality was a “treatable” inclination.

[...]

Ralbag, who was made chief rabbi of Amsterdam in 2005, was temporarily relieved of his duties on Tuesday by the board of the Orthodox Jewish community (NIHS) after he signed a document describing homosexuality as an inclination which “can be modified and healed.”

The document, titled “Declaration On The Torah Approach To Homosexuality” (torahdec.org) called on “authority figures” to “guide same-sex strugglers towards a path of healing and overcoming their inclinations.”

Now, I take no position on whether sexual attraction can be changed.  I have little doubt that there is some flexibility in patterns of sexual attraction, but how much and how frequently these patterns can be changed is an open question.

But I’m an orthodox Jew.  I have no doubt that it is possible for anybody who is sufficiently motivated to observe the Torah in its entirety, including its sexual prohibitions.  These sexual prohibitions include the prohibitions against homosexual conduct.

Why do am I so sure of this?  Because, as an orthodox Jew, I believe in what the Torah says about the feasibility of keeping the Torah in its entirety:

For this commandment which I command you this day, is not concealed from you, nor is it far away.  It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us and fetch it for us, to tell [it] to us, so that we can fulfill it?”  Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us and fetch it for us, to tell [it] to us, so that we can fulfill it?”  Rather,[this] thing is very close to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can fulfill it.

So, that’s the Torah’s position.  That it is possible to fulfill its commandments.

But if the fascists get their way it will be (yet again) illegal to preach the Torah.

Now, I will admit that there is a certain amount of racism in this country.  The human being is, at least to some extent, a tribal animal, and some tribal aspects of the human personality will not be eradicated.  Other aspects of the human beast that will never be ended are the out-group homogeneity bias and snobbery.  The human being is a flawed creature.

But you know what would NOT happen in a country that could be described as racist?

This.

Our country is less racist than any other country in the history of the world.  Those who tar it with that brush deserve nothing but our scorn.

Columnist Debbie Schlussel takes on some GLAAD activists who recently made a stink over some tweets about kickball player David Beckman.

The content of those tweets isn’t important.  They would offend nobody who wasn’t purposely looking to be offended.  The purpose of the opposition to those tweets seems to be to strike fear into the hearts of people who would oppose GLAAD’s agenda.

Here’s Schlussel on the issue:

Please Gay Speech Gestapo, tell me which colors and celebrities are off limits.  I know I can talk about vermillion and Channing Tatum.  But I’m not exactly sure about mint green or Matt Damon. And, by the way, David Beckham is straight. But men who like men apparently think of something different than the rest of us when they hear the movie title, “Bend It Like Beckham.” So, now, I gotta figure out, not only which celebrities are gay and off limits, but which married, straight celebrities with several children are gay icons and therefore off limits. Does Jake Gyllenhaal and the remaining living cast of “Brokeback Mountain” qualify? How ’bout all past, present, and future Marlboro Men and guys in Stetson ads, like Jan Brady, er . . . Tom Brady? Anyone with a mustache? David Axelrod and Michelle Hussein Obama? All off limits in the tweet market.

Well, the gay thought police are gloating at their latest victory in censorship:

Shortly after, GLAAD responded, “Advocates of gay bashing have no place at @CNN #SuperBowl #LGBT.”

On Monday, in a blog post titled “Final Thoughts On Super Bowl-Twitter Controversy,” Martin denied that his tweets were intended to incite violence against the LGBT community. “That is furthest from the truth, and I sincerely regret any offense my words have caused.”

In response to the news of his suspension, GLAAD posted a statement on its website praising CNN for taking action. “CNN today took a strong stand against anti-LGBT violence and language that demeans any community,” said Rich Ferraro, GLAAD spokesman. “Yesterday, Martin also spoke out against anti-LGBT violence. We look forward to hearing from CNN and Roland Martin to discuss how we can work together as allies and achieve our common goal of reducing anti-LGBT violence as well as the language that contributes to it.”

Ah, it’s the Pink Jesse Jackson shakedown! You knew this was gonna happen. Roland Martin has to bend over, while CNN allows GLAAD to do a whole rectal exam of sensitivity training.

It’s amazing to me that gays–who are subject to execution, beheading-style throughout the Muslim world–are concerned with Roland Martin’s tweets about pink clothing, yet not a peep outta them about the Islamic jihad against homosexuality (just as–and I’ve noted this before on this site–they attack the Mormon Church, but not mosques all over California, for supporting California’s Prop 8 on gay marriage).  Maybe it’s because their pink and purple jihad sounds just like something outta Riyadh, Cairo, or Tehran.

But, then again, they have the same tolerance–and sense of humor–as their haters in the Muslim world.

See, everyone has something in common.

Glenn Reynolds comments:  See, once we stopped persecuting commies, the value of dissent quickly became unappreciated.

My aggressive stance towards those who threaten to use the government to correct the thinking of their fellow citizens was (entirely predictably) interpreted by some as “homophobia.”

As for me, I stand on principle.  And my principle is to support people’s freedom of association.  So, in this case, I support freedom of association:

A restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee refused to serve state Sen. Stacey Campfield, the man who sponsored the state’s “don’t say gay” bill, compared homosexuality to bestiality, and most recently told Michelangelo Signorile that it’s virtually impossible to spread HIV/AIDS through heterosexual sex. “I hope that Stacy Campfield now knows what if feels like to be unfairly discriminated against,” the Bistro at the Bijou wrote on its Facebook wall on Sunday. The restaurant has received an overwhelmingly positive response. (HT: Michelangelo Signorile)

Were Campfield to sue the bistro owners to get the government to correct their thinking, I would similarly consider him a cowardly and loathsome enemy of freedom and would similarly consider him as be deserving of being spat upon be lovers of freedom everywhere.

When gay activists are enemies of freedom, they make themselves my (and your) enemies.  When republicans do so, they make themselves my enemies as well.