ACORN Roundup (updated)

There are rumours that suggest there will be more Giles/O’Keefe videos from more ACORN offices. I will keep a look out and post anything new that comes up, especially if it gives any more insight into ACORN’s increasingly dubious claim that the pair was turned away from '”dozens” of ACORN offices.

For anyone who has been interested in the dirty dealings at ACORN, the Washington Examiner has a roundup of stories going back to February.

It shows that ACORN is about so much more than helping people to set up their child prostitute slavery empire and avoid paying taxes. It’s about not paying its own taxes, exploiting employees, failing to file accounts, demanding those sub-prime mortgages that got us in this mess (demanding them now, that is; of course they demanded them during the boom years and helped trigger the whole issue). Hey, to get the full impression you’ll have to look at the link.

Phil Kerpen is rather dubious that ACORN’s culpability in the sub-prime loan catastrophe will be exposed by the commission investigating why the recent economic problems came about.

Big Government, who launched their site by breaking the recent ACORN scandals, has a good ponder about the whys and the wherefores. Of course it all connects with political correctness, and the distortion of values inherent in politically-acceptable (but in fact utterly contemptible) attitudes to poor people of minority ethnic identity.

The most interesting thing about this satire? The wall belongs to Shepard Fairey, who designed Obama’s ‘Hope’ poster, and didn’t charge for it (in the process probably breaking election funding law, but by the time anyone noticed Obama was in charge). Someone is clearly connecting Obama’s campaign and ACORN.

Jay Leno also sees the humour. Although not as good as the Jon Stewart video it is still well worth watching.

Update: lots more at the New York Post and even the Washington Post. However it appears that Obama has f-all idea what's going on.

Why Do We Have To Be ‘Proper’?

To be proper or polite is social lubricant. It takes away the little snags and makes social interaction run more smoothly, allows easier interaction and co-operation. As such it is important in some circumstances. Unfortunately in those circumstances it is falling away, and what is now termed anti-social behaviour (which is largely extreme rudeness and impropriety) is increasing, one of the great social ills of a generation told by left-wing nannies that the state is responsible for everything. We forget at our peril that we are all dependent on the kindness of strangers.

However there are circumstances where propriety is not needed at all. The obvious example is in a group of close friends, whose interaction and co-operation is dependent upon much deeper understanding. Another case is where entities have no need to co-operate or interact, and where impropriety simply does not matter.

So what business is it of Poland if Jeremy Clarkson’s humour is not proper? Poland can quite happily ignore Jeremy Clarkson. It would be ridiculous to suggest that this has any bearing on the editorial standards at the BBC outside Top Gear, where it might matter to Poland. There was no deeply nasty or offensive suggestion given about Poland, which might have affected opinion Poles have of Brits or Brits of Poles beyond the manufactured indignation of the media. Even they had to make some heavy interpretation and assumption to become offended.

Humour is important, freedom of speech more so. It is not up to officials or even elected politicians to determine what is funny, or what is a suitable topic for humour. Oh, and regardless of what the Polish embassy staff thought, I laughed like a drain.