A coalition of conservative groups has written an open letter to the media asking them to stop using data from the Southern Poverty Law Center so long as the group continues to lump right-wing think tanks in with groups like the KKK as “hate groups.” From the Alabama Political Reporter:

Nearly 50 prominent conservatives and far-right lawyers have penned an open letter to the media, asking reporters not to use statistics and information gathered by the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center.

The letter was penned by leaders of fundamentalist and conservative groups, many of which are listed as anti-LGBT hate groups on the SPLC’s Hate Map. The signers call the SPLC a “discredited, left-wing, political activist organization that seeks to silence its political opponents with a ‘hate group’ label of its own invention and application that is not only false and defamatory, but that also endangers the lives of those targeted with it.”…

The signers blame the SPLC for a shooting in 2012 at the offices of the Family Research Council, during which a building manager was shot and injured. The shooter, Floyd Lee Corkins, said in a police interrogation that he chose the building because the AFA had been listed as an anti-LGBT hate group by the SPLC.

In addition to the shooting by Floyd Lee Corkins, the letter devotes a page to criticism of the SPLC for referring to Ayaan Hirsi Ali as an anti-Muslim extremist. The letter concludes by suggesting no media outlet would direct readers to a map that listed the locations of abortion clinics:

If a national pro-life advocacy organization were to release a map with caricatures of abortionists and title it, “Here’s Where the Baby Killers are Located in Your State,” would the media run the story? Would it reprint the map and discuss the location of these “pro-death” doctors throughout the news day? Clearly, it would not.

This summer, Politco published a story in which several observers suggested the SPLC had gone too far in some cases. Journalist Ken Silverstein, who wrote a critical piece about the organization for Harpers in 2000 told Politico, “The organization has always tried to find ways to milk money out of the public by finding whatever threat they can most credibly promote.”

And the group has been extremely successful at fundraising, having amassed a $320 million endowment fund. The Weekly Standard reports that the SPLC has so much money on hand it is now sending millions of it offshore:

The Southern Poverty Law Center invests almost 20 percent of its nearly $320 million endowment fund in offshore equities and other investments. The 2016 annual reportof the Alabama-based civil rights organization reports $69,093,576 of “non-U.S. equity funds” among the assets comprising the total endowment fund of $319,283,961, a fund the SPLC describes as a “plan for the day when nonprofits like the SPLC can no longer afford to solicit support through the mail because of rising postage and printing costs.”

The SPLC has a vested interest in making the hate map appear as threatening as possible. It’s clearly been good for business.

Note: They’re not providing counseling for people traumatized by the *content* of Shapiro’s speech, which would be pitiful enough. They’re not providing counseling for people afraid that Antifa will burn down the campus, a not unreasonable worry. From what I can tell, they’re providing counseling for people traumatized by the mere fact that Shapiro is speaking on campus. Liberals must outnumber conservatives there on the order of a thousand to one and Shapiro himself is as mainstream and mild-mannered as conservative commentators come. But the thought of him defiling a Berkeley auditorium by critiquing leftism for two hours has the administration worried that some students might need actual psychological treatment afterward.

My first thought on today’s email from the school’s provost was that *I* might need counseling after reading it. But Dan Gainor makes a fair point: Anyone who can’t tolerate Shapiro’s presence in the general geographic vicinity for an afternoon probably does need to see someone. I hope these sick bastards finally get the help they need.

Our commitment to free speech, as well as to the law, mandates that the students who invited Shapiro be able to host their event for those who wish to hear him speak. Our commitment to the principles of community mandates that all students, faculty, and staff be able to be present on campus, engaging in their regular academic activities without fear. Achieving this poses unusual challenges for us; this memo lays out the arrangements that we are putting in place.

At 4 p.m. on September 14, UCPD will establish a closed perimeter around Zellerbach Hall and surrounding buildings. Buildings near Zellerbach Hall will be closed at 4 p.m., with no access permitted. The perimeter will be assembled over the course of the day starting in the morning. Affected buildings include: César E. Chávez Student Center, Alumni House, Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, Sproul Hall, and Eshleman Hall…

Support and counseling services for students, staff and faculty

We are deeply concerned about the impact some speakers may have on individuals’ sense of safety and belonging. No one should be made to feel threatened or harassed simply because of who they are or for what they believe. For that reason, the following support services are being offered and encouraged…

The only person facing a serious threat during Shapiro’s speech is Shapiro himself but the rules of the Orwellian “speech is violence” game require casting him as the aggressor and the mob as the victim. When a hostile stranger trespasses on your property, you have the right to expel him by force to defend it. This is a turf war and Shapiro is invading liberal turf. The idea of a public university as a public forum or academia as a space for the free exchange of ideas is a fart in the wind compared to the feral left’s territorial imperatives here. The higher the cost, figuratively and literally, for a conservative to come to campus, the fewer conservatives will come. In that sense, the Antifa droogs are practicing basic free-market economics in organizing a rampage whenever a right-winger dares to set foot in Berkeley. They’re taxing a disfavored good until it becomes prohibitively expensive.

I want to know how many students and faculty end up availing themselves of counseling because of Shapiro’s speech. If there really is a sizable number who need professional help to cope mentally with the affront of ideological dissent in physical proximity to them, it’d be good for the public to know that. Let’s find out how many snowflakes melted from heat this mild. And if there *isn’t* a sizable number who seek counseling, that’s important to know too. After all, Berkeley administrators are also looking for ways to raise the cost for conservatives coming to campus. They don’t want to provide right-wingers a forum for their own ideological reasons and they really don’t want the logistical headaches of having to manage the campus/Antifa backlash. You probably wouldn’t be thrilled to have Shapiro speak either if it meant another round of worrying about Marxist degenerates smashing windows all over town in “protest.” The point is, the alleged need for counseling may be a lie pushed by the school itself to discourage other right-wingers from speaking at Berkeley. If it’s that traumatic to the locals to have you address a few hundred fans, you might conclude that it’s not worth the bother. So let’s have the counseling numbers afterward. How about it?

Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson to Appear at Campaign Event for Roy Moore in AL Sen Race

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by Jeff Poor8 Sep 20170

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Big Government, Alabama Senate race, Baldwin County, Phil Robertson, Roy Moore