'Political correctness.'

This is often used as a smear against the 'left', but what is 'political correctness' if not, quite literally, a term for shared societal attitudes and expectations that sometimes go overboard?

In which case, it can just as easily be applied to both ends of the political spectrum. The over-stated fear of pedophiles and of the 'evil-money grubbing mass-media' are also forms of political correctness.

To get back to the point, I think that those parents have the 'right' to name their kid whatever they want.
They have the 'right' to ask the cake shop to make them the cake. The cake shop has the 'right' to tell them to jam it up their aryan rectums.

Seems like everybody's 'rights' are in order here.

Next please.

TRTL,

There's a thing in the news a bit atm, some shopkeepers don't want burkas worn in their shops.. so can they tell the Muslim women to shove it up their Islamic rectums as well?

If your ok with that, then yeh, I agree.. no ones rights are crapped on.

When politics dictates what is correct it's propaganda really.

Like the wood chipping company suing protesters for loss of revenue. Your politics dictates whether you are on the side of the protesters and their right to protest, or the company and it's right to do lawful business. Ha ha, I like the irony of the righties using the lefties' civil liberties against them.

What do people think of the debate about placing a ban on the niqab by retailers? Remember bike riders are forced to remove their helmets when entering a store or bank. Or what about banning sunglasses, baseball caps and hoodie-style tops? In London they've banned 'hoodies' from a lot of shops. I remember a mate of mine who went to a catholic school and was forced to get a hair cut too.

I suppose it all goes in hand with religion being a sacred cow. Private stores can ban people for all sorts of dress, but once that dress is linked to religion it's suddenly not PC, and denying people their rights. Yet religios institutions can reject people from their private premises who don't share their ideals, or make kids get a hair cut.

I think what we need to do is create an organised religion with beliefs that let you get away with murder. As a start, in my new religion, I would think clothes are the work of the devil. God made us without clothes and wearing them is an insult to the beauty of the body that god created. Would shops then have to let me in naked?

BTW: Polycarp, what do you think of Mary and Jesus appearing in that lava lamp? Or maybe that's one for Gibo.

I don't have an issue with the banning of the burkha in shops, but I suppose I am skeptical about the motivation.

Before I would side with the shopkeepers, I would ask if there have been any instances of people robbing a store, using a burkha as cover.

If there have been cases, then yes it seems eminently reasonable. There have been cases of people using motorcycle helmets.

However, I've not heard of any burkha robberies. I imagine that if somebody did, they would spark quite the controversy and if caught, perhaps they would earn themselves a higher profile than they desire.

So yes, I can understand the shops wanting to ban the burkha, though I don't have a lot of patience for people using that as a cover to harass them, in much the same way that polycarp uses ancient scriptural texts as a cover to attack a rival religion.

Eminently sensible as usual from TRTL

TRTL,

Yep, fair enough, but did you check to see if the guy had killed any Jews or done any Nazi crimes before you labeled him an rectum...

Personally I think both ideologies are vile, and I don't want to censor criticism of the Nazis at all, but yeh, why should the Muslim rectums be offered a chance to prove they are ok when the Ayrian rectums arn't.

Is it rude for me to call people Muslim rectums and ok for you to call people Ayrian rectums? This seems to be the general assumption.

This is the kind of stuff I just genuinely find so fake and cannot take seriously.

Personally I'd prefer we (politely) judge as we see fit with out being hauled over the coals for it. Including the untouchable Islam.