Deleted Comments Redacted and Reposted

Look:  I don't like censorship and I am a free speech guy and anonymous speech is free speech according to the ACLU.  (Except when anonymous speech is critical of the ACLU, their favored political figures and parties, some religions like Islam, and/or some racial groups --but not all ethnic or cultural minorities).

So on this blog I rarely moderate comments unless the language is really, really bad---- so bad it is beyond the pale.  I am a free speech guy.  Freedom of speech is not enshrined in the bill of rights to protect speech that is sanitizeed, homogenized, and nice.  It's there to protect speech that some will find offensive.  But you can't yell fire in a crowded theater either.

Political speech is rough and tumble and is also free speech.  At least it is for now--whether or not it will continue this way is an open question as we see things change in the culture of the media and mainstream thought as new terms like "hate-speech" are adopted as if they are actually in the constitution.  They aren't.

This said, the "n-word" is toxic and it should be removed from the english vocabulary and I won't have it printed on my blog ever, period.

So yesterday a couple of comments popped up on my blog which I immediately had to pull down.

One contained a curse word, one contained the "n-word."  So I pulled them down, saved a screenshot of them and then redacted the offensive content.  I am posting, below, the redacted content.

No, I am not a fan of censorship.  Yes, I support free speech.

Absurd Political Grandstanding, Ridiculous Political Theater

When speaking in gibberish and supporting meaningless, ridiculous folly--Austin Powers (here above in disguise with better teeth) likes to say "Groovy Baby!!" But I doubt even Austin Powers would push this ACLU resolution...

Sometimes politics is absurd.  Take, for example, the "direct file" resolution I voted against but that the Board just voted to approve dealing with criminal justice reform for juveniles.

We have no business in this matter, we're attempting to operate outside of our arena, this is not an issue we have power to change, yet we were given a resolution to support that essentially pits us against the State Attorney; essentially, this resolution tells our legislators that they need to fix a non-existent issue and simultaneously tells our local State Attorney "you need more oversight, we don't trust you, we don't want you to have individual discretion in sending violent, abusive, and DANGEROUS 16 and 17 year old perpetrators to face justice in the adult system."

Why would we want to punch our own prosecutor in the face?  It is reckless stupidity for no good reason, so far as I'm concerned.  It is counterproductive.  Let Judges do what they do, and let prosecutors do what they do, and stay out of their way.

Although approved on a 3-2 vote last night (despite my NO vote and significant disagreement), this resolution will go to Tallahassee.

And from there, if I had to make a good guess, it will go from our legislative delegations' desks,   right into the trash heap or paper shredder;  Do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars, right to the rubbish heap. 

The legislature is NOT going to pass this ACLU supported Democrats sponsored SB 936.  (It's not moving in committee, has been referred to rules, and does not even have a companion bill in the house so far as I can tell.) Does anyone believe Richard Corcoran would EVER allow this to go through the House??!!??

So we burn our political capital with our delegation by engaging in this feckless Kabuki theater, sending them this resolution purporting to be a "solution" not supported by judges, conservatives, or the State Attorneyto a problem that the legislature has already stated does no exist in their opinion.??

We ignore the reality of the records of the last 20 Direct Files in our county, so we can feel good, slap ourselves on the back, and curry favor with and pander to a group of  folks on the extreme left of the political spectrum, although we live in a conservative county?

What an absurd, ridiculous thing to do.  Borderline embarrassing.....I hope this is/was a one-off.

ACLU Gets it Wrong.....Again

Sara Latshaw, an employee of the ACLU of NW Florida, wrote a viewpoint that appeared  in the PNJ this Sunday.  In it, she chastises me for having the wrong plan on discipline; she regurgitates the same liberal talking points that I've heard over and over about school discipline, according to her, "leading the students on a pipeline to prison"

First things first:  The idea of a school to prison pipeline is a ridiculous myth!  It is a lie.  It should be labeled correctly for what it is--a HOME to PRISON PIPELINE!  blaming educators, administrators, deans and counselors that care about all kids for the horrible choices some students and their parents make is a cop-out and it places blame on the wrong people.  It all starts at home and everybody knows it.  If you live in a dysfunctional home, and you have a challenged upbringing, we are standing by to help you with all sorts of resources if you just reach out and take them.  Being stuck in Poverty does not make students misbehave and become abusive predators--their deficient home-lives do. So if you are living in a tough situation--let us help you!

But if you chose to use that as an excuse to destroy learning environments for students and teachers that are doing their jobs, that excuse holds no water with rational thinking individuals.  It's called personal responsibility, you have to chose to conform to school site expectations, otherwise it is your fault, and nobody else's.

And it is sad when students make horrible choices and end up getting in trouble at school;  if bad behavior escalates such students may very well end up in prison.  But I say again as loudly as I can-this is 100% up to the student and his parents to decide whether to do right, or do wrong.

If anything, as I correctly pointed out in my viewpoint about smashing the prison pipeline, we may be guilty of being too lenient on students in school---leading disruptive students to the false conclusion

Let's Get Serious About Smashing the "School to Prison Pipeline!"

Many bemoan what has been characterized as an ever-expanding “school to prison pipeline.”  As the theory goes, underprivileged minority students are disproportionately subjected to harsher, more punitive discipline than their non-minority peers.  This “pushing-out” of students is the initial driver of the pipeline, eventually landing these students in the criminal justice system.

Many scoff at this characterization, instead believing that discipline is administered in a largely even-handed manner nationwide.   Any acute over-representation of some minorities in expulsion statistics results simply from more serious infractions being committed by such students--is this rational, more logical assessment.  To believe otherwise would lend credence to the preposterous notion that minorities are being targeted institutionally, nationwide, for more draconian punishments based solely upon race. 

Believing professional educators, administrators, teachers, and deans nationwide would deliberately conspire to subject underprivileged minorities to tougher punishments than non-minority students for similar infractions is ludicrous in America circa 2015.    

Rather than institutions “targeting” students, many believe this troubling nationwide pattern of disproportionate minority removals from school is actually the by-product of dysfunctional, deficient home lives.

The breakdown of the family unit has hit epidemic proportions in America; too many children today have no fathers, no mothers, no discipline and limited social foundations as they reach school-age.

Poverty is bandied about as the cause of such problems; however this is a disingenuous cop-out; the