Kobe Bryant and Political Correctness

The NBA recently fined superstar basketball player Kobe Bryant $100,000 for calling a referee "faggot" during a nationally televised game. Kobe uttered the vulgarity basically out of frustration with the referee's perceived incompetence.

There is certainly no defending Kobe's potty mouth and lack of civility toward the referee. However, the swiftness and excessiveness of the fine imposed by the NBA over a vulgar word illustrates just how successful the Lavender Mafia and their enablers in the leftist media have been at normalizing an objectively disordered sexual orientation, as well as same-sex intercourse, in our popular culture. All this week, I've been hearing sports talk radio hosts like Dan Patrick praising not only the NBA for quickly reprimanding Kobe for his so-called "anti-gay" remark, but Kobe himself for basically kowtowing to the Lavender Mafia and the lie it perpetuates that homosexuality is the equivalent of race and ethnicity. Every time I hear this stuff, I want to call the radio shows and inform the hosts that since they are characterizing Kobe's remark as anti-gay, it must then mean that not only do they think homosexuality is not disordered (i.e., biologically unnatural) but also that they must not have any moral objection to same-sex intercourse (i.e., it's something they would do themselves).

Seeing as that these talk radio show hosts are likely informed about most non-sports issues from the leftist media (Dan Patrick is a longtime friend and former reporting partner of the execrable Keith Olbermann) and aren't very much accustomed to critical thinking, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that they would mindlessly parrot the false assumptions about homosexuality the Lavender Mafia propounds in our culture. It is exceedingly annoying, though, as is the slavish adherence to political correctness by both the NBA and Kobe Bryant.

Chinese Soldiers in the Civil War

On this day, 150 years ago, the first shots of the American Civil War were made in Charleston, South Carolina. Regardless of one’s sympathies for either the North or South, this era of history has had, and continues to have, a great deal of fascination for most people, including myself.

Thanks in large part to the Internet (or its “inventor,” Al Gore) I’m even more intrigued by the Civil War, as I’ve recently discovered to my pleasant surprise that there were some ethnic Chinese who had fought in the war as Union and Confederate soldiers. A few details about some of these men can be found here, which is where I pulled the pictures that are imbedded in this blog post.

As you read through the above linked to site, which really could be better formatted, take notice of the distinctly non-Chinese last names used by some of the profiled soldiers: Joseph Pierce, Thomas Sylvanus, Charles K. Marshall, Edward Day Cohota. Kind of odd, right? Then again, the Confederacy’s greatest general had a Chinese-sounding last name, so maybe not.

You Might Be A CINO College If You (Heart) Planned Parenthood

The Cardinal Newman Society, which is kind of an orthodoxy watch dog group of self-identified Catholic colleges and universities, has just published a report that I'd like to say is shocking, but it really isn't. The report, which can be accessed here, discloses that at least 150 so-called Catholic colleges and universities in the United States have some sort of direct connection to the nation's largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood.

Despite the Catholic Church’s unambiguous teaching on abortion and contraception, we discovered referrals to Planned Parenthood for “health” services, internships and fellowships with Planned Parenthood, seemingly boastful disclosures of employees’ past work with Planned Parenthood, and other ties to this and other “pro-choice” organizations. The problems are spread across dozens of institutions, with occasional concentrations at highly secularized institutions like Georgetown University and Seattle University, two leading Jesuit institutions.

What is publicized on the Internet often indicates more extensive concerns hidden from public view, so while the information contained this report is shocking and scandalous, it is only based on a rudimentary search of college websites and likely does not capture all ties to Planned Parenthood at Catholic colleges and universities.

Doing a quick glance through the report, it almost seems as though most of the offending colleges are Jesuit based (e.g., Georgetown, Seattle University, Gonzaga, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, Boston College, etc.). If this is true, it's got to be more than just a coincidence.

Making lemonade out of lemons, Catholic parents with almost college aged children can at least use this rather depressing report as a guide of where not to send their kids to school.

From the "Soylent Green is People!" Files

According to LifeSite News, a biotechnology company called Senomyx, which is headquartered in San Diego, has been using aborted fetal cell lines to test food flavor enhancers.

“Using isolated human taste receptors,” the Senomyx website claims, “we created proprietary taste receptor-based assay systems that provide a biochemical or electronic readout when a flavor ingredient interacts with the receptor.”

“What they do not tell the public is that they are using HEK 293 – human embryonic kidney cells taken from an electively aborted baby to produce those receptors,” stated Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director for CGL, the watch dog group that has been monitoring the use of aborted fetal material in medical products and cosmetics for years.

Some fairly well known food and beverage companies have partnered with Senomyx. They include PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, and Nestle (which makes a brand of instant coffee I now used to buy). Campbell Soups had been a Senomyx partner, but not any longer. It's unclear whether the relationship terminated because of Senomyx's alleged use of dead human body parts for its food tests.

SEIU Members = Raider Fans?

Well, at least several of those who show up at "protests" like the one in this video. I dunno, maybe some of these people get all violent because they realize nobody is going to give their hyperbolic rhetoric any credibility. Or maybe they're just fanatics. h/t Gateway Pundit