I bet you really believe that don't you?

Unfortunately many hospitals are PC crazy.

There have been sexual harassment casses simply because a guy looked at a nurse while they were in the elivator.

And yes, I do beleive that. There was a case some years back in a uni in sydney were they refussed to serve a 'black coffee' as it was deemed offencive.

As I say, it'a a joke!

wobbles wrote 'Show me somebody who has ever been jailed, arrested or even charged for saying something deemed to be Politically Incorrect.'

Frederick Toben

Ah yes, Austin Powerless - who refers to the Holocaust as the "Holohoax", as I recall.

While Toben's penalty was actually for contempt of court, rather than the execrable garbage he espouses, I think you have a point in this case. I've never agreed with laws that penalise people for saying what they think, even if their publications serve to provide ideological grounds for other idiots to commit hate crimes. I'd much rather the intellectual effluent was exposed like an open sewer, rather than concealed in the ideological cesspits to which they retreat when PC holds sway.

That way everybody is else is confronted with the problem, rather than being able to pretend that it no longer exists.

Uncoincidentally, websites like OLO help in this regard.

"I'd much rather the intellectual effluent was exposed like an open sewer, rather than concealed in the ideological cesspits to which they retreat when PC holds sway." - spot on.

On the broader topic - I suspect that some work places have gone overboard at times to protect themselves. It was brought home recently when the email invite to a staff christmas event was mostly taken up with links to several policies which might apply (sexual harassment, use of alcohol etc). Policies which are readily available on our intranet, policies which there are posters around the building about and which most staff had attended a training session on at some point. The links added little and did much to detract from the appeal of the event. It seemed rather sad that someone though it was a good idea to post the links with the invite.

R0bert

Dear Houellie,

The wonder of this life is that people,
even the worst kind of people, can
surprise you...

What creates human weaknesses, and what prevents us
from improving our choices in life?
When will the roads we choose be paved with
concrete instead of quicksand?
When will we stop feeling guilty for who we are?
The thing about enlightenment is that one can't
go back to the warm safe place that ignorance keeps
so impenetrable for us.

Houlley

You paint a pretty dim picture of the Left. You write about the Left as would Dickens, as an absurd caricature of an anti-human endeavour, bleeding heart, all corporations are baddies figure with little redeeming features.

Yes there are good and bad people in any organisation, whether in business or in social service and it is those people that might give their organisation/group it's essential flavour or reputation.

One cannot forget, though that corporations have to show a profit for the benefit of shareholders and would-be investors and sometimes these profits are got at the expense of other social considerations or other values we might also hold dear (in my view anyway).

There are some corporations that demonstrate a greater duty of care to their employees/customers but there is room for improvement. Do you think service has improved over the last 20 years or got worse?

As I see it, from an essentially middle/slight Left leaning (if we must talk labels) is the Left invite human endeavour, creativity, innovation but not via exploitation or at the expense of other values or social wellbeing.

You cannot lump the left all in one basket equally as one cannot lump the right.

Don't forget the Right can be very negative and dismal about any talk of fairer industrial relations legislation, there are those that call sustainable ideas as being akin to Nazism, that any criticism of free market economics as akin to Communism, or those with environmental or ecological ideas as "dark green" tree dwellers.

These extreme Rightists paint a pretty dim and negative attitude as well as an unwillingness to look outside their perceived perfect square.

Happily, most people do not sit at those extreme ends ideologically. We are usually a blend of sometimes eclectic ideas and views that don't categorize any of us as wholly belonging to one category or another. Most humans are more complex than that which is why generally I don't like the Left/Right divide, it is obstructive to positive change and pragmatic Third Way thinking even though that can be criticised as Nice Capitalism.