Fear No Art, Unless You're Liberal

It's time to tune into our favorite website devoted to monitoring the zany world of political correctness and other forms of nuttiness. Here are a couple of stories illustrating that when it comes to being silly, petty, and intolerant the left takes a back seat to no one. Notice, for example, how censorious these "liberals" are of speech and art which fails to express the proper images:

Human rights activists and NGOs in France are threatening to sue a French commentator who pointed out that most of the rioters in that country in recent weeks have been Muslim, according to Islamonline. Alain Finkielkraut is accused of inciting racial hatred in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published last week. "In France there are also other immigrants whose situation is difficult - Chinese, Vietnamese, Portuguese - and they're not taking part in the riots. Therefore, it is clear that this is a revolt with an ethno-religious character," he was quoted as saying.

France's Audio-Visual Council urged authorities at France Culture radio to fire Finkielkraut for such comments, and the The Jewish Union for Peace issued what was described as a "strongly-worded statement" blasting Finkielkraut's blatant racism.

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Officials at the University of Michigan will be moving two 50-year-old sculptures from a new arts building because they are sexist, according to the Michigan Daily. The two sculptures by Michigan sculptor Marshall Fredericks are among 39 placed on the Literature, Science and Arts building when it was built in 1948. Entitled Dream of the Young Man and Dream of the Young Girl, they depict, respectively, a boy dreaming about a ship with wind-filled sails and a muscular man flanked by oxen taking the hand of a woman.

When construction of a new building is completed next year, only 37 of the 39 sculptures will be making the move. Critics have longed bitched about the last two, calling them sexist because they portray finding a suitable husband as a woman's central preoccupation.

"The visual representation doesn't seem to hold the same respect for women as it does men," said Fran Blouin, director of the Bentley Historical Library on North Campus.

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A Swedish paster jailed for "agitating against minority groups" by preaching against homosexuality in a sermon has been cleared of the charges by that country's highest court, reports The Local. �ke Green, a pentecostal minister from the Baltic Sea island of �land, spent a month in jail after condemning homosexuality in a sermon to his congregation. Critics said his words amounted to hate speech. The court disagreed.

Gay rights groups immediately condemned the decision. "It is extremely serious when the church is turned into a free zone for agitation," said S�ren Andersson, chairman of gay rights group RFSL. "We are now going to face increased religious agitation from extreme right-wing Christian groups that use the church as a forum to spread their message of hatred."

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A selectman, er ... woman, in the town of Provincetown, Mass. wants to remove an oil painting of the Pilgrims voting on the Mayflower Compact in the 1600s from city hall because it doesn't have any women or American Indians participating in the process.

Columnist Brian McGrory of the Boston Globe says Selectwoman Sarah Peake described herself as "disturbed" by the image and called for a vote to have it removed. Three of the four town selectmen supported removing the oversized painting by local artist Max Bohm.

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Civil rights and anti-war marchers are calling the Boston school district's decision not to close today so students can attend a rally in honor of Rosa Parks a racist one that will "create a level of anger, confusion, and sadness that will cast a shadow over a celebration that should be a high point of the year," according to the Boston Globe.

Organizers of the protest to honor Parks' decision 50 years ago to sit at the front of a Montgomery city bus have demanded that all city offices, including schools, be closed tomorrow so that employees can participate in the march. School Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant, however, rejected the request.

Councilor Chuck Turner of Roxbury blasted the decision, which he said would be "characterized as racist, based on the definition of institutional racism -- disparate treatment of people of color."

These people deserve our sympathy. They probably can't help being the way they are.