The Far East Rises in the West

The white/black test-score gap has been in the news since the 1960s, yet much like Mark Twain supposedly said about the weather, despite all the talk, nobody seems able to do much about it.

America in the later 21st century will likely be dominated numerically by blacks and Latinos. In 2008, the Census Bureau projected that America’s Hispanic population would increase by 66 million from 2000 to 2050. So far, though, there’s scant evidence that they will have much impact on elites other than as affirmative-action tokens.

The big news in this century has been the growing Asian-white test-score gap at the high end.

Consider a feature article in The New York Times over the weekend, “To Be Black at Stuyvesant High.” It was seemingly commissioned to argue for admissions quotas at the famously competitive Manhattan public high school by pointing out that only 3.6 percent of Stuyvesant’s students are now black or Hispanic, down from 15 percent in 1970. My guess is that the story’s emphasis on a lonely black student was mostly an elaborate framing device for its more interesting but unspoken message: Holy God, look at ALL THE ASIANS!

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Why Democrats Lost the Redneck Vote

From Francis Fukuyama to Barack Obama to The New Yorker, nobody to the left of Joe Bageant seems to understand why poor white hillbillies prefer Republican oligarchs to the glorious rainbow coalition of the condescending. They wonder why the white working class lost the loving feeling they used to have for the Democratic Party.

Perhaps like a modern-day Squanto, I can help the lefties understand my tribe. I was born to the lower middle class and spent a couple of adult years living the life. I score a 63 in Charles Murray’s “bubble quiz,” which puts me into the “first generation middle class with working class parents” category. When I was a boy, people around me came from intact families, went to Catholic Church, knew people in the military, and worked jobs which soil the hands. They enjoyed pastimes such as deer hunting, mud bogging, and backyard wrestling. We were dimly aware of a hostile tribe in the nearby college town. These were folks who drank coffee with foam in it, who thought so little of the average hayseed that they would walk out in front of a moving pickup truck. The latte-sippers didn’t control the Democratic Party in those days: Working-class white men such as Tip O’Neill did, and everyone in my town voted for the Party of the Working Man.

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Alcohol or Salad?

Via A Trainwreck in Maxwell

Impose Political Correctness in Homeschools?

"The adjective 'public' modifies the noun 'school' the same way it does 'transportation' or 'restroom': serving as a warning that it is filthy and full of junkies and criminals."
-- Tamara, the editor of the View From The Porch blog

Footnote: Dixie said add 'women' to 'school' and 'transportation':)

==========

A new education act in the Canadian province of Alberta is poised to impose political correctness on families—even those who teach their own children in their own homes.

The legislative proposal known as Bill 2 in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta would explicitly require that all instructional materials “reflect the diverse nature and heritage of society in Alberta, promote understanding and respect for others and honour and respect the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Alberta Human Rights Act.” The bill further requires not only public schools, but also private schools and homeschools to comply with these requirements (§ 1 “interpretation of school”).

LifeSiteNews reports that the Human Rights Act has been used to target Christians and conservatives across the country, particularly those espousing traditional views on homosexuality. However, this is a first-of-its-kind attempt by a government to control what families teach in the area of values and beliefs in their own home. Allowing the government to exert this kind of power and influence could be very restrictive and permit extremely intrusive invasions of family privacy.

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Oppose Dangerous Global Internet Treaty

In the annals of President Obama’s short reign, many have learned to expect the unexpected. New and innovative processes combined with unconstitutional initiatives are helping the Obama Administration serve its political agenda. Topping the list just might be the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a treaty signed by President Obama on October 1, 2011, and now presented to the American public and Congress as an “executive agreement.”

Although containing many confusing rules and regulations that even the international signers don’t exactly understand, ACTA is basically an international trade agreement or global pact to protect private interests and copyright holders. Like the name implies, though, ACTA combines counterfeiting and piracy, which of course are two very different things.

Under ACTA, copyright holders could demand that their intellectual property rights were violated and Internet connections could be terminated for suspects without due process. Even a country like China could demand that an Internet service provider (ISP) in the U.S. be forced to remove content or the website shutdown. In addition, much broader power to search laptops and other devices at global checkpoints would be initiated. It is an Internet censorship measure that would penalize those who innocently share a newspaper article or upload a video with copyrighted music.

But most alarming is the nefarious way in which the legislative process has been circumvented.

While most have never heard of the term “executive agreement,” it has been used quite liberally since the dawn of the 20th century. Most often executive agreements are used in relation to foreign policy. Both FDR and Truman made secret executive agreements at Cairo, Yalta, and Potsdam that greatly impacted the entire world. The bombing of Cambodia and Laos were secret arrangements that also came under the executive agreement label.

Often the ploy is to sign on to international agreements, then force Congress to approve the agreements by resolution in order to meet “international obligations,” that were solidified in secret and without open debate. And that seems to be the case with Obama and ACTA. It’s also an easy way to hide draconian legislation inside these trade agreements which the public routinely turns a blind eye to. With ACTA, Obama could achieve what the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) couldn’t, and that is legitimize dangerous and sweeping intellectual property regulations that would give our government and international governments the keys to the Internet.

Forcing implementation of ACTA is an attempt by Obama to bind the entire nation to international regulations that only Congress is empowered to authorize. Intellectual property and copyright laws are the concern of Congress, so its members should be hopping mad that their role has once again been usurped by the White House. Allowing an executive agreement to trump constitutionally authorized legislative powers is a dangerous precedent and should be challenged and resisted.

Contact your Senators and Representative and tell them to assert the legislative powers they have been granted by the Constitution by rejecting ACTA and this blatant extension of the Executive Branch’s power. Let them know that they should never support legislation in favor of ACTA, or pass it as a treaty. Right now it seems the only Senator who understands the gravity of the situation is Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) who sent a letter to President Obama on the subject back in 2011 wherein Wyden points out the lack of congressional approval for ACTA.

In a preemptive strike, also warn your congressional representatives of the dangers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) that is the sequel to ACTA. The TPP is currently being negotiated by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) with Pacific Rim countries. The Obama Administration’s transparency policy for TPP “does not involve any commitments to sharing the text with the general public.” Instead only member countries and the USTR advisory board know the contents of this secret pact that is said to subject whole countries to “fines” for non-compliance.

This is not how Americans should have regulations imposed upon them. Preserve the Internet from global control and censorship by helping to stop ACTA and the TPP now!

Thanks,

Your friends at The John Birch Society

A few goodies from Ol' Remus

Link

On War

Now the enemy isn't even the enemy, they're seen as potential clients for social services the Defense Department is eager to provide.
Ol' Remus, woodpilereport.com

It appears we have stumbled upon the largest terrorist organization in the world and have found original documents tracing its funding to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, two of the top financial officers in the US, says Gordon Duff in this article, Bush, Fed, Europe Banks in $15 Trillion Fraud, All Documented, at Veterans Today.
(Hat tip: urbansurvival.com)

I'm not normally an easy sell for the evil-elites story line. I believe that rank, unorganized human stupidity and selfishness explain well-nigh all deplorable social phenomena. But there are times when I wonder whether the conspiracy theorists might be onto something.
John Derbyshire, takimag.com

2008 - Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu, via King and Power at online.wsj.com 2008

People who receive that unemployment check go out and spend it and help stimulate the economy, so that's healthy as well.
White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, via Daniel Halper at weeklystandard.com

Which of these doesn't belong with the others? Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Diane Feinstein, Valerie Jarrett. It's the last one, she was never elected to office.
Ol' Remus, woodpilereport.com

Made in USA

Two window displays in Windsor Locks, Connecticut 1939. Figure the prices in silver at $34 an ounce, .77 ounces per silver dollar. In those terms the $3.95 coat would be priced at about $100 today in Federal Reserve Notes. In terms of official inflation today's price would be $64.41 FRNs. Windsor Locks is a town of 12,000 in north-central Connecticut.

Store window display, Windsor Locks Connecticut, 1939

Store window display, Windsor Locks Connecticut, 1939

Rand Paul: Life at Conception Act Petition

Via Billy

Sign here.

America 1950 vs. America 2012

Would you rather live in the America of 1950 or the America of 2012? Has the United States changed for the better over the last 62 years? Many fondly remember the 1950s and the 1960s as the "golden age" of America. We emerged from World War II as the wealthiest and most powerful nation on the planet. During that time period, just about anyone that wanted to get a job could find a job and the U.S. middle class expanded rapidly. Back in 1950, America was still considered to be a "land of opportunity" and the economy was growing like crazy. There was less crime, there was less divorce, the American people had much less debt and the world seemed a whole lot less crazy.

Most of the rest of the world deeply admired us and wanted to be more like us. Of course there were a lot of things that were not great about America back in 1950, and there are many things that many of us dearly love that we would have to give up in order to go back and live during that time. For example, there was no Internet back in 1950. Instead of being able to go online and read the articles that you want to read, your news would have been almost entirely controlled by the big media companies of the day. So there are definitely some advantages that we have today that they did not have back in 1950. But not all of the changes have been for the better. America is in a constant state of change, and many are deeply concerned about where all of these changes are taking us.

There has never been any society in the history of the world that has been perfect. America was flawed in 1950 just as America is flawed today.

But that doesn't mean that we should not reflect on how much things have changed over the past 62 years.

So which version of America would you rather live in?

America 1950 vs. America 2012 - you make the call....

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Syria:Putin warns about bypassing UN in Libyan-type scenario

(ANSAmed) - MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 27 - Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has warned the West not to bypass the UN Security Council, and thereby repeat the Libyan scenario in Syria. ''I truly hope that the US and other countries will take into account the regrettable experience, and will not try to employ military means in Syria without authorisation from the Security Council,'' he wrote in a long election campaign article on foreign policy published today in Moskovskie Novosti.(ANSAmed).

Bracken: Operation #EFAD – Communique #6

Via WRSA

I’m extremely happy that Operation #EFAD has achieved self-acceleration. Clearly, operators are grasping the potential for search engine and hyperlink log-rolling between Twitter, Facebook, Free Republic, this page, and many other forums and blogs, especially over at Western Rifle Shooters Association.

Another great place to mention Operation #EFAD is over on The Blaze. www.theblaze.com/ Thanks for that suggestion.

Use this link as the recruiting portal for Operation #EFAD. About Enemies Foreign And Domestic. http://www.enemiesforeignanddomestic.com/bookefad.htm

Please keep going on Twitter, a little here and there when you are able to. Remember, a Retweet (RT) or a reply is as good as a new message, in terms of throwing Operation #EFAD back out into the flowing Twitter-stream.

Here are some new Twitter #hashtag groups to include on new tweets and replies: #2A #GOA #CCW #guns #teaparty

Here is the old list, the more patriotic and conservative groups that are able to see Operation #EFAD tweets, the better.
#NRA #RKBA #SHTF #survival #redstate #biggovt #tcot #tlot #sgp #ocra

Remember to copy this link to “About Operation #EFAD” into new tweets and replies:

http://www.enemiesforeignanddomestic.com/EFADcomm.htm

Any Operation #EFAD potential operator recruit who reads that page, and then the Communiques, can get fully up to speed and become fully mission capable in short order. This will be true even more so on D-Day, Thursday March 1. Once Operation #EFAD kicks into high gear with the free Kindle downloads, and the elite MSM eventually takes notice, they will be able to read the history right here, and we’ll all have a good laugh at their expense, for a change.

Bracken–Out.

UK: Housing Benefit Caps: 100 Families Receiving Enough for a £1million Mortgage

Insane.

At least 100 families receiving housing benefit are living in luxury homes on handouts that could fund £1m mortgages, figures have revealed.

More than 30 of those families are being given a staggering £1,500 a week to live 'swanky' lifestyles - more than three times the national average wage.

Of the 100 families, 60 have their rent paid by the state to the value of £5,000 a month, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.

At a time when millions of people are struggling to get on the housing ladder, the handouts would easily cover the monthly payments on a £1m mortgage.

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Never can be too careful driving

Via The Feral Irishman

141 Tran Quy Cap, Saigon

 

 Virginia Ham & An Hindu  

 

Saigon, Paris Of The Orient

Gun Girls

Via Borepatch

I believe the last picture should be credited to Oleg Volk.

A new energy source discovered!

Vox Popoli
Verbatim Post

At least when the United States loses its next war, there won't be any great mystery why; between all the women, the foreigners, and the gays, is there even any room for the conventional soldier? I imagine that today, considerable electricity could be generated at Arlington, what with the way all the members of the Corps who are buried there are presently spinning in their graves.

Those who support the foolish notion of homosexuals being permitted to not only serve in the military, but serve openly, often like to point to the Sacred Band of Thebes as a justification for homosexual military service. In response, I simply point out that the Sacred Band was a separate unit, removed from the rest of the Theban military, and managed to last all of 40 years before it was wiped out by Philip of Macedon at Chaeronea. So, I'm a little dubious this is the historical precedent American military commanders would be wise to follow.

The 'Fairness' Fraud

Via Rebellion

During a recent Fox News Channel debate about the Obama administration's tax policies, Democrat Bob Beckel raised the issue of "fairness."

He pointed out that a child born to a poor woman in the Bronx enters the world with far worse prospects than a child born to an affluent couple in Connecticut.

No one can deny that. The relevant question, however, is: How does allowing politicians to take more money in taxes from successful people, to squander in ways that will improve their own reelection prospects, make anything more "fair" for others?

Even if additional tax revenue all went to poor single mothers – which it will not – the multiple problems of children raised by poor single mothers would not be cured by throwing money at them. Indeed, the skyrocketing of unwed motherhood began when government welfare programs began throwing money at teenage girls who got pregnant.

Children born and raised without fathers are a major problem to society and to themselves. There is nothing "fair" about increasing the number of such children.

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Vientiane, Laos 1969

Re-post from NamSouth 2007.

Via memory jog from Rich T

Vientiane by Night

"The brothels are cheaper than the hotels, marijuana is cheaper than pipe tobacco, and opium easier to find than a cold glass of beer."

Bill Lemon and I flew to Vientiane for a week's break in the autumn of 1969. And, yes, being the bad boys we were, we most definitely visited The White Rose and Madame Lulu's mentioned above......among quite a few other fine establishments.

From the airport, we took a cab to the hotel. We always stayed at the oldest, grandest French hotel we could find in our wanderings, though the name in Vientiane escapes me now. Air America was there in full force, and we met a pilot who had everything possible in 22 carat gold. Even his comb, which was quite extraordinary, since 22 is much too soft to work well as a comb. He introduced us to his favorite gold shop, and he definitely put us on to the right man. The owner was a Frenchman who had been born in Hanoi sixty odd years before, but had come South in 1954 as many others did. He lived in Saigon for a good period before he came to Laos. He had lived in Indochina all his life, and was married to a most beautiful, and gracious Vietnamese lady of about the same age. We were quite envious. He had the sales procedure down pat. As soon as we walked in, he broke out a bottle of Scotch, and kept our glasses full while we were there!

I bought a Patek Philippe watch, and had the band replaced with a wide 18 carat gold intricately woven one, which was actually a ladies bracelet. I also bought a dinner ring in 18 carat gold with a very nice colored Jade. Unfortunately, these were stolen back in the US. They would be worth a pretty penny today.

When we went back to the hotel, Bill wanted the driver to come back later, and thought we should give him some money in advance. I was dead set against it, but Bill went ahead, and, needless to say, he didn't return!

The next morning must have been my most memorable hangover in my life. Bill had the bottle in his room, so I climbed to his veranda from mine, but still couldn't get him up. When he finally opened his eyes, we had a drink and then went to an outside, open bar where the bartender was the slowest one I had ever seen. He took forever to make the Bloody Marys. Bill thought I would have certainly killed him if he hadn't been there!

One day our driver took us to the Morning Market and introduced us to an excellent Laotian breakfast. Before that he asked if we had ever had their rice whiskey which we hadn't, so we thought we should try some. As it turned out, it was similar to the Vietnamese kind. The man gave me a good sized glass of it, and said that the custom was to slug it down, and so I did. As it went down, I turned away while I somehow swallowed all. It was bad! When I turned back around, Bill asked how was it? I said smooth! When he tried, he immediately gagged and threw it back up. After all, what's a joke between friends?!

The Pathlet Lao compound was right there, and I put my camera bag on the stone fence, and completely forgot about it for a couple of hours. When we went back, it was still in the same place, untouched!
=========
Added 11/27/2011:

I bought a large cologne bottle with silver Angor Wat figures covering the outside in 1969 in Phnom Penh. You can still smell the cologne even though it's been empty since then. On one trip the cap became loose and spilled on my passport which I had replaced and today the smell is still quite strong. For some reason this reminded me of the French gentleman and his wife in Vientiane.

Vientiane, Laos 1969

Warrior

HERE

Link

The Selous Scouts

Lasting from the mid-1960′s to 1980, the bush war in Rhodesia saw this tiny land locked nation surrounded by communist-backed insurgents operating from the adjacent nations of Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana.

Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union was supported by Red China while Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbawe African Peoples Union was a primarily a Soviet-sponsored insurgency. With guerrilla fighters pouring across the borders, Rhodesia’s military fought tooth and nail, especially as the war heated up around 1976. Fighting the war on a shoe string to a point difficult to compare to today’s War on Terror, the Rhodesian forces conducted lightening fast raids and parachute jumps behind enemy lines.

The Rhodesian African Rifles, the Rhodesian Light Infantry, and the Rhodesian Special Air Service all preformed impressively throughout the war but one unique unconventional warfare unit took the fight to the enemy in a way that may not have been seen before or since.

Unconventional Warriors

Founded by the indomitable Col. Ron Reid-Daly, the Selous Scouts was born. Named after African bush hunter Frederick Courtney Selous, this unique Special Forces unit engaged in so-called pseudo-operations. Operating under official cover as a military tracking unit, the Selous Scouts were involved in far more perilous activities in which white Scouts would be paired up with black Scouts, or more often than not, communist guerrillas who had been captured and turned to fight against their former comrades.

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Weapon stickers

Via Tom

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Some Thoughts

I was considering launching into a diatribe over the toxicity that has surfaced over at WRSA and other places concerning CPX Foxtrot.

I won't though, because the CPX is working exactly as intended, IMO. All of that "discussion" it has generated is right on. Good data.

It's quite instructive, IMO, and the "conversation" illustrates exactly why we're screwed, from the inability to read through it, to the assumptions, to the just general nastiness and venom that has arisen.

I'd would venture to say that CPX Foxtrot has reached the right audience, both in FreeFor and elsewhere, and that it has stirred exactly the right pots. The next one will be better, I bet. That's the purpose of exercises, training, and such.

Or maybe we can just sit back and utter imprecations and half threats and buy more useless GI castoff junk to reassure ourselves that we're "doing something".

Then I was going to launch into a flame war over this idiocy.

*expletive*

*Spits*

We all have pasts.

Get over it.

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Get a Load of This Slightly Threatening Email From the Obama Re-Election Campaign

Quick question: if you received the following email from, say, your local church or some other charitable organization, would you feel even the slightest bit uncomfortable?

Courtesy WZ [emphases added]:

As you may have noticed, we’ve asked you for a donation a few times now.

But according to our records, you haven’t yet made an online donation to this campaign at this email address. (If our records are wrong, I apologize and thank you!)

I’m not writing to ask you for money again. I’m actually writing to ask your opinion about why you haven’t given, and what you think would inspire you or other Obama supporters like you to decide to take the leap and donate.

There’s a good reason we’re asking for your feedback: The kind of organization we all decided to be a part of only works if people like you pitch in to build it.

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House takes aim at Supreme Court's controversial ruling on property rights

The House this week is expected to approve legislation that would overturn a 2005 Supreme Court decision holding that state and local governments can take private property under the principle of eminent domain in order to further their economic development plans.

The 2005 decision, Kelo v. City of New London, was seen by Republicans in particular as a case of government overreach. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution limits the authority of government to seize property, by requiring compensation and mandating that the land taken be put to public use.

Prior to Kelo, the Supreme Court had held that the seizing of slums and the transfer of that land to private developers fit the "public use" standards. But in Kelo, the Supreme Court upheld the right of New London, Conn., to take non-blighted land and transfer it to a private developer, in a bid to increase local tax revenue.

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Ted Nugent: Obama Is an ‘Anti-American Monster

For those unfamiliar, Ted Nugent doesn’t shy away from sharing his opinions on myriad controversial political topics — from gun-rights to homosexuality, from religion to the military.

The veteran rocker recently said at a Republican event that, ”The whole world sucks, but America still sucks less.” He followed up the assertion by clarifying, “But with this administration, we are catching up,”

The Detroit native caught up with Mike Broomhead’s team at KFYI-AM in Phoenix for yet another bombshell of an interview. We warn, the following clip contains graphic language. Still, many will find Nugent’s trademark no holds barred attitude on politics a refreshing change of pace.

Among his more piquant revelations, Nugent believes that having Tim Geithner seve as Secretary of The Treasury, bearing in mind Geithner’s “tax cheating,“ is like having Jeffrey Dahmer ”in charge of a children’s playground.”

He also said that “welfare is slavery” and that we have “American hating maniacs” in our government.

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LANGUAGE