PC Police - Another Notch in Their Gun

The Politically Correct (PC) Police have struck again.

Last month it was Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich who was fired because he contributed $1,000 to support California's Proposition 8 which restricted marriage to just a man and a woman.

Mozilla has a detailed non-discrimination policy and some people in the company feel that Eich's action violates that policy, so much so that he should be disqualified from running Mozilla.

Now to put this into perspective, we must consider the following facts.

• Brendan Eich started with Netscape/Mozilla in the early days of the Internet in 1995
• Eich is the creator of Javascript scripting language, that is still used to day by billions of web pages
• The contribution of $1,000 to support Proposition 8 happened in 2008, 6 years ago
• Barack Obama was also an avid supporter of Prop 8 back in 2008
• The story came to light in 2012 with a little bit of flak on Twitter
• He was promoted to CEO in March, 2014; resigned under pressure in April, 2014
• Eich helped create and successfully lead Mozilla in various capacities without any complaints for 18 years

The uproar that was created by the vehemently hateful persecutors of hate speech, produced an environment inside Mozilla where Eich stated that "under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader." Therefore, after enduring all the wrong actions of politically correct zealots, Brendan Eich, a man who had done nothing wrong, nothing illegal or unethical, had to step down as CEO to protect the company he created and loved.

Now, the PC police struck again after Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, was recorded ranting on the phone to his girl friend that he didn't want her to be seen in public with blacks and she was to never bring any blacks to a Clippers Basketball game. In retaliation, the NBA has banned Sterling from attending any Clippers or NBA games, practices, business meeting, etc., AND they fined him $2.5 million dollars.

I need to be clear that Mr. Sterling has a long history of employee abuse, racists actions and inflammatory litigation, (See Ben Shapiro's article). He is not a nice man and I would never work for him nor invite him to my home for a barbecue. I do not condone his attitudes nor his actions. But as repugnant as he is (See Ann Coulter's article), Donald Sterling, like Brendan Eich, is still an American with the right of Freedom of Speech. He has the right to his own attitude and opinion, especially if others find it repulsive.

To put this into perspective, this is the same as if Warren Buffet had a fight on the phone with his wife forbidding her to associate with any lying, cheating, manipulating stock broker; then he was told by the Federal Exchange Commission that; he would be banned from buying stocks, bonds or Treasury notes, he could never attend a board meeting of any of his companies, and he had pay a $2.5 million dollar fine that would be given to organizations combating domestic violence.

Or, if Bill Gates had a fight with this wife in their bedroom where he prohibited her from ever using any browser other than Internet Explorer and then the Association of Internet Providers banned him for life from ever using the Internet, forced him to sell off Internet Explorer and fined him $2.5 million dollars.

It appears as though fornication, adultery, tax evasion, public lying of officials, and treasonous acts of elected officials are all condoned activities in the United States of America, but having racial views opposing the self-appointed PC police; requires confiscation of personal property, banning from public events, and destruction of your career. At this rate, it will not be long before the media and social pressure are the judge and jury of the future.

Donald Sterling has proven by his actions that he is racist, insensitive, greedy, and a first class jerk, but none of those things are illegal. As I understand the situation, he has broken no laws or violated any contracts in this matter. It was a private phone conversation with a close associate and he probably didn't know he was being recorded, which in California is illegal.

If the NBA wants to exercise authority over the Los Angeles Clippers and get rid of Donald Sterling, they need to choose reasons that are based on violations of law, agreements, or legal contracts; not emotional voodoo and hysterical hyperboles. The only way to beat a bigot is for everyone to stop associating with him until he chooses to change his actions. His players can quit and the fans can stop attending games, but the NBA has no bite behind their bark.

I will not be surprised to see Sterling fight this action and win.


Photos are from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich
http://www.totalprosports.com/2014/04/27/clippers-owner-donald-sterling-racist-recording-comment-girlfriend-audio/