The “Cougar” Edition of Great Moments in Political Correctness

I try not to get too wound up about political correctness. As a general rule, it’s best to make fun of the that crowd, which is why I have shared PC versions of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and the Fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper. Every so often, though, I come across a [...]

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The Never-Ending Battle Between the U.S. and U.K. for Stupidest Government Policy

In June of last year, I posted several examples of idiotic government policy from both the United States and United Kingdom and asked which nation had the dumbest bureaucrats and politicians. Since then, we have found new examples of brain-dead government and jaw-dropping political correctness from England, including an effort to stop children from watching [...]

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I’m Thankful…that I’m Not an Idiot Education Bureaucrat from Florida

I’m thankful for the usual things, such as my kids and being an American. But I’m also thankful I’m not a blithering idiot like the bureaucrats at a Florida school. Here are a few details of this astounding example of utter stupidity. A sheriff’s deputy was dispatched last week to a Florida elementary school after [...]

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Is Government Really this Stupid?…and a True Confession from My Sordid Past (Maybe)

I realize this questions answers itself, but I’m continuously amazed at the bone-headed decisions made by politicians and bureaucrats. Indeed, I wish I had this example for my recent post comparing incompetent officials in the United States with their counterparts in the United Kingdom. A kid in Indiana played a prank involving a blow-up doll [...]

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Which Nation Has Dumber Bureaucrats and More Political Correctness, the United States or United Kingdom?

Somebody just sent me a story from the UK-based Daily Telegraph about two little boys who got in trouble for playing army at school. You may think I’m joking, but here’s a blurb from the report. Staff at Nathaniel Newton Infant School in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, reprimanded the two boys after they were seen making pistol [...]

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Political Correctness Run Amok: Senate Indian Affairs Committee to Hold Hearing about Osama bin Laden’s “Geronimo” Code-name

As a taxpayer, I’m not overly happy that we still have an Indian Affairs Committee. And I’m definitely not happy that the Committee is wasting my money by holding a hearing about stereotypes. And I’m rolling my eyes that some folks on the Committee are upset that Osama bin Laden was given the code-name Geronimo. [...]

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What Thanksgiving Will Be Like after Six More Years of Obama (Followed by Four Years of Bloomberg)

“Winston, come into the dining room, it’s time to eat,”  Julia yelled to her husband. “In a minute, Honey, it’s a tie score,” he answered, stalling for time.   Actually Winston wasn’t very interested in the traditional holiday football  game between  Detroit  and  Washington .  Ever since the  government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of [...]

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The European Union’s War on Christmas (and War on Taxpayers)

The contest between the United States and Europe for dumb public policy is always hard to judge. The Europeans tend to make more policy mistakes, though Obama certainly is giving them some stiff competition. America, by contrast, is prone to really inane bouts of political correctness. But perhaps the Europeans are catching up in that [...]

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Local Government Stupidity Contest

This post could be entitled, “So many dumb bureaucrats, so little time,” but let’s have some fun and turn it into a contest. Which bone-headed decision by a local government best exemplifies mindless bureaucracy, politically correct nonsense, and government waste? Contestant Number One is Sgt Brian Albert of the Baltimore County Natural Resources Police, who [...]

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Jay Leno, Al-Qaeda, and the War Against Christmas

While I don’t like political correctness and I personally boycott stores that advertise “holiday” sales rather than “Christmas” sales, I certainly don’t see the “War against Christmas” as a meaningful public policy issue. But I do appreciate clever humor, so this Jay Leno joke is worth sharing. Al-Qaida is planning Christmas attacks in the U.S. [...]

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The Gender Police Will Want to Crucify Mark Perry for this New Video on SAT Scores

Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute blogs at Carpe Diem and perhaps is best known as being the go-to guy for things-are-better-than-you-think statistics. But he has bravely waded into the PC battlefield with a new video examining lower test scores for females on the math portion of the SAT. Using the same technology as [...]

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First They Came for the Happy Meals, then They Came for the Foreskins…

There is a famous statement attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller, who was imprisoned by Hitler’s National Socialist regime and barely survived the concentration camps. They came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a [...]

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Banning Happy Meal Toys in San Francisco

Reason TV has a new video in their great Nanny-of-the-Month series. The winner is a San Francisco politician who pushed through legislation to ban restaurants like McDonald’s from including toys in happy meals. Here’s a great idea: How about banning politicians from trying to tell us how to live our lives? Our Founding Fathers surely [...]

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A Contest: Which Story Is More Upsetting?

Here’s a change of pace. Instead of doing separate blog posts on the following two stories, I’m curious to see which one generates the most irritation/anger/disgust from you readers. The first option comes from the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, which is appropriately upset that Government Motors…oops, I mean General Motors…is back in the business [...]

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The Recycling Scam

Jeff Jacoby analyzes the absurd tendency of local governments to coerce residents into costly – and inefficient – recycling programs. As a resident of Fairfascist…oops, I mean Fairfax…County in Virginia, I already am painfully aware of this bureaucratic impulse. ….recyclables will all go into 64-gallon “toters,’’ which will be emptied at curbside on trash day. [...]

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Idiotic Moments in Political Correctness

Imagine having your child suspended for two years because he took a toy gun to school. Sounds absurd, right? Well, it’s real life in Broward County, Florida. Samuel Burgos has fond memories of his friends at school, but he only gets to see them in pictures now. The 8-year-old boy hasn’t been in school for [...]

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Are Separate Prisons for AIDS-Infected Prisoners an Unconstitutional Form of Discrimination?

I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t pretend any expertise on the legal issues, but this brewing controversy about prison policy in South Carolina strikes me as a case of political correctness run amok. The state separates prisoners with AIDS and sends them to a separate facility that has specialized medical treatment. This policy also [...]

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Great Moments in Political Correctness

This is something that could only happen in San Francisco. The city’s bureaucrats are considering a proposal to ban selling pets. Oops, I just committed a thought crime. They are called “companion animals,” not pets. Anyhow, the plan to ban them would have to be approved by the Board of Supervisors. Whether this happens will [...]

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Great Moments in Government Stupidity

This is not a story from The Onion. Instead, the Associated Press has a report of a school in Rhode Island that banned the hat of little eight-year old David Morales because he decorated it with a couple of toy soldiers that…gasp…had tiny little plastic weapons. I’m not even sure what to say about this, [...]

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Political Correctness Run Amok

Having played sports all my life and having been involved in sporting events with my kids, I’m a big believer in practicing and teaching sportsmanship. Simply stated, you ease up on a team once you have a big lead. But sportsmanship, like other virtues, is not something that should be imposed – especially when the [...]

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England Is Going Nuts…Again

My jaw is gaping with amazement once more at the hare-brained political correctness that is infecting (or should I say infesting?) the United Kingdom. A story in the Daily Mail states that a recruitment agency was told not to advertise for “reliable” and “hard-working” people since that discriminated against…well, people that aren’t reliable and hard [...]

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Sounds Like the School Bureaucrats Need Counseling, not the Student

This story from San Diego seems like a typical case of bureaucratic over-reaction. A school vice principal decided that a student’s science project may have been a bomb, so he set in motion events leading to a school evacuation. Without knowing further details, that decision may have been at least somewhat reasonable, but the part [...]

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The English Have Gone Bonkers

This blog periodically makes fun of England (even though it is one of my favorite nations) for big government and political correctness, but these two stories caused my jaw to drop. First, the Daily Mail reports that a man was jailed for several hours because he was falsely suspected of writing an email that indirectly [...]

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Could it be, as this National Review post indicates, that the forces of political correctness are now going after Thanksgiving?!? But for what reason? I understand the motive of the anti-religion (as opposed to non-religion) crowd that seeks to marginalize Christmas, but Thanksgiving seems to be a very odd target. My guess, for what it’s worth, [...]

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