P.C. is B.S.

Below are just a few recent stories published around the world or on the net of insane political correctness.

A hairstylist in London was forced to pay $7,800 to a Muslim woman because she "hurt" her feelings. That's right, she "hurt" her feelings. Apparently the Muslim women applied for a hair stylist position wearing her traditional garb and stated that she could not show her hair but wanted to be employed to style the hair of others. The hair stylist was quoted as saying "She is simply someone I met for a job interview, who, for a host of reasons, was not right for the job. I cannot see how she deserves $7,800," "Because of this, there will be a black mark against my name for the rest of my life. I feel I have not done anything wrong, and this is a terrible price to pay for a meeting that lasted 10 minutes." She was unable to prove to the court that employing someone with a headscarf would have a negative impact on her business' stylistic integrity. The Muslim women later admitted that she had attended 25 interviews and had not been chosen for any of them before she met this particular hairstylist. The extremist Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir later admitted it had "advised her."

Bonfires along the Pacific Northwest coast are a long-standing tradition. But the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper reports the Parks and Recreation Department there might be dousing the custom. Why? Because of global warming. The Parks staff is recommending reducing fires at both Alki Park and Golden Gardens Park. A memo from the staff to the city's Parks and Recreation Board says the question is "whether it is good policy for Seattle parks to continue public beach fires when the carbon emissions contributes to global warming." I kid you not!

Female Islamic extremists are insisting that Al Qaeda give them the right to become terrorists. Usama bin Laden's right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, recently praised the wives of Al Qaeda fighters on an Islamic Web site. But, he declared that a woman's role should be limited to the household and caring for children, and that there are no women in Al Qaeda. But he failed to mention that women in the terror network's Iraq branch have carried out at least 20 suicide bombings since 2003. Now, The Scotsman newspaper reports a number of extremist Web sites are buzzing with complaints. One letter written by a female extremist says, "When Zawahiri said there are no women in Al Qaeda, he saddened and hurt me." Another woman pleaded with God to liberate women so they can participate in holy war. And, there is even an online magazine which explains how women can take part in terrorist training camps and features biographies of female fighters.

The administrators of Anglia Ruskin University outside London are asking graduating students not to throw their mortar board hats into the air when celebrating — because they might hurt someone. A statement on its Web site said: "This not only causes damage to the hats, but it can also cause injury if the corner of the hat hits the graduate or others who may be nearby."
As you can imagine, such a warning has inspired ridicule far and wide. So a new statement on the Web site says that the school has not "banned" hat throwing, but says one student had to be hospitalized after being hit with a hat several years ago. Yeah, right.

Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon says "anywhere but here" if Republican John McCain wins November's election. She says she will "be checking out a move to Italy. Maybe Canada, I don't know. We're at an abyss." However, celebrities in the past do not have a stellar track record of making good on threats to flee if their candidate loses. Numerous stars vowed to pack up if George W. Bush won the 2000 election, including Barbara Streisand, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and even Sarandon's long-time boyfriend Tim Robbins. All still currently reside in the U.S.

Chicago's handgun law requires all existing firearms to be re-registered every year. The Chicago Tribune reports proposals to re-open the registration window for people who forget, have been steadily rejected for nearly 20 years. But now, Democratic Mayor Richard Daley says he's in favor of a one month amnesty. The change comes as longtime Democratic Alderman Richard Mell faces penalties for — you guessed it — failing to re-register what is described as his arsenal of shotguns, rifles and pistols. Mell helped pass the original law in 1982. Daley says he advocates the amnesty to get a realistic handle on the number of guns in Chicago, not as a favor to Mell. Do any of you actually believe this?

Former Vice President Al Gore says global warming is to blame for the Myanmar cyclone. In an interview with National Public Radio, Gore called the storm one of the "consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with global warming." But many experts say it is impossible to make such a link. Willie Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for astrophysics states "It is an alarmist statement and Vice President Gore wants to confuse the crowd" adding "there is no way to blame any single event on CO2 and global warming."
That's a sentiment supported by Dr. Adam Lea at the University College of London who says, "it's impossible to say." And Jeff Poor of the Business and Media Institute writes that "using tragedy to advance an agenda has been a strategy for many global warming activists."

It isn't just the rights of animals that some are promoting. The Weekly Standard reports an ethics panel in Switzerland is expressing concern that the arbitrary killing of plants is morally wrong. The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology says that humans cannot claim "absolute ownership" over plants; that "individual plants have an inherent worth," and that man may not use them as he pleases. It cites a hypothetical example of a farmer "decapitating" wildflowers as expressing a moral stance toward the organism and possibly doing something bad to the flowers themselves.One critic of the report says the concept of plant dignity provides what he called "another tool of opponents to argue against any form of plant biotechnology."