Diversity über alles.

From Best of the Web Today:

From Bad to Diverse

Heehee.

From the Yakima Herald-Republic, here's the latest foolery (Flapdoodle! Or bilgewater. - F. G.) from Washington state:

A "diversity calendar" published by the state Department of Corrections that lists the birthdays of several controversial historical figures, including the Japanese commander who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor, has angered at
least one employee and Sen. Jim Honeyford, who called it a "personal affront to veterans."

Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, wrote Corrections Director Harold Clarke requesting an explanation for why the April and May calendars recognize Isoroku Yamamoto, (WTF??? - F.G.) Lenin, Karl Marx and Ho Chi Minh. . . .

Gary Larson, a spokesman for Corrections, said the calendars are not celebrations of individuals.

"Basically, the purpose of this calendar was meant to be an
instructional tool that just lists people who had an impact on the world and provoke thought. The intent was certainly not to be offensive to veterans or anyone else," he said. "One of the goals of diversity is that we co-exist in the world with people we disagree with."

Remember the good old days when the only thing prisoners had to worry about learning was how to make brooms and license plates?

This is going to sound harsh, but Larson was funnier when he was doing The Far Side. Anyway, the calendar also included less offensive names, such as Irving Berlin, Audrey Hepburn, Sigmund Freud, Peter the Great, Eva Peron, Booker T. Washington, Charlotte Bronte and Sheena Easton. But it contains errors, such as listing Lenin's first name as Nikolai and misspelling Joe Louis.

What's more it occurred to us that among people born in April, one of those who had the greatest "impact on the world" was Hitler (April 20). Presumably he didn't make the calendar cut or the outrage would have been even greater. Columnist Peter Callaghan of the Tacoma News Tribune proves our instinct correct:

I asked Larson if there are limits to the type of person who might be included. April also is the birth month of Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh. May contains the birthdays of Cambodian despot Pol Pot and Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. Larson suggested all are
eligible.

"I don't know that we would have necessarily included or excluded anyone else," he said.

Hitler as a symbol of diversity? Or perhaps as a symbol of the emptiness of the concept.

Diversity über alles, indeed.