Monday, July 9, 2012

The Most Dangerous Man in the Mid-South

Tan Son Nhat Airport

Who is Franklin Sanders, a.k.a. "The Moneychanger"?

The following was originally published in Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, February 1997.

Almost 30 years ago, just a few weeks before I got married, on a drugstore bookstand I found a strange book: Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal. It was a collection of essays about a philosophy of freedom. Two dealt with the American monetary system. The author explained that nothing—no gold or silver—backed our currency. He argued that sooner or later, this fiat money system would lead to disaster, and that only a money backed by real value—gold—could last.

That author was Alan Greenspan. Since then our careers—Alan's and mine—have taken very different paths.

In 1967, Alan Greenspan was already a fairly well known economic consultant. In the 1970s, President Ford appointed him to his Council of Economic Advisors. In 1987, Alan Greenspan was appointed Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Funny, he doesn't talk much about gold anymore.

In 1967, I was a college senior. Susan and I were married on December 16th, and when I graduated in 1968 the draft board gave me 30 days' to frolic before conscription. I arrived at Fort Polk, Louisiana one hot October night, caught the Army bus out to the post and sat down behind the driver, facing across the bus. I opened my copy of Aristotle's Works and began reading.

I noticed I was the only man on board with hair. The fellow sitting across from me asked, "Whatcha reading?" Wordlessly, I flipped up the book so he could read the title on the spine. "Boy," he said without any reflection. "Have you come to the wrong place."

In 1969 I retired from the Army to attend graduate school in German at Tulane University. The next year I received a full scholarship to the Free University in West Berlin, where I saw first hand what unchallenged state power could do. The West was pulsing with life and light, the East dead and empty. In the Museum of the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie I read the last radio message from the Free Hungarians in 1956: "Tell Europe we are dying for them."

After Susan and I came home late in 1973 I worked in several businesses, learning first hand what it means to "make your way in the world." I kept studying economics and monetary systems, on my own and in graduate classes.

In 1980 I opened my own business in West Memphis, Arkansas, across the Mississippi from Memphis, selling physical gold and silver. First thing I did was write to the Arkansas Attorney General to explain that I thought exchanges of gold and silver money for paper money weren't subject to the sales tax, since they were exchanges of money for money. What was his official position?

He never bothered to answer my certified letter. Or the second. Or the third.

More @ The Moneychanger

In 2014, The Obama Dictatorship Will Be Complete

Via Michael Downing

Though few Americans are aware of it, the unconscionable ObamaCare ruling of Chief Justice John Roberts stands to provide Barack Hussein Obama unlimited and fundamentally irrevocable power less than 2 years after the November election. For should he win, Obama will acquire the “legal” authority to select 15 individuals whose word will automatically become the law of the land.

Within the 2500 pages of the comically-named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is cached the 2014 establishment of the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Nominated exclusively by the president, the 15 members of the Board will ostensibly be tasked with “…prevent[ing] per-enrollee Medicare spending from growing faster than a specified target rate.” To accomplish this congressional mandate, ObamaCare has provided the Board with the authority to submit legislative “proposals” to Congress; proposals which will automatically become law unless both Houses AND the President agree upon and pass into law a substitute measure.

In short, “the Board’s edicts …become law without congressional action, congressional approval, meaningful congressional oversight, or being subject to a presidential veto.” Moreover, citizens will have NO authority to challenge the Board’s pronouncements in court, for ObamaCare “…specifically states that the Secretary [of Health and Human Service’s] implementation of IPAB’s proposals is not judicially reviewable.” Therefore a group of presidential, POLITICAL appointees will have the practical power of shaping and imposing upon the American public, the laws of the land! For in addition to creating edicts loosely attached to Medicare and its myriad applications, in 2015 the IPAB will be permitted to impose price controls, taxes and “…ration care for all Americans whether the government pays their medical bills or not!” Thus even the Medicare stipulation will no longer be a practical deterrent to the Board’s authority.

How is all of this possible? According to the Cato Institute, “…by carving out a discrete list of limitations on the Board’s delegated powers, the [Affordable Care] Act implicitly gives IPAB otherwise unlimited power to exercise any enumerated congressional power with respect to any governmental body, industry, property, product, person, service or activity.” And just like Congress, the IPAB has been given the authority to appropriate federal funds and impose conditions for their receipt. This means “the Board could propose…to require states to implement federal laws or to enact new state laws in order to receive federal funding.”

More @ The Western Center For of Journalism

Transportation Secretary: Without Obama 'No One Would Have Ever Predicted' Lexus Hybrids– Which Debuted in ‘04


Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has credited the Obama administration’s work on fuel standards for having "jump started" the development of Lexus hybrids, even though the company debuted its SUV hybrid in 2004.

While discussing vehicle fuel standards at the Aspen Ideas Festival on July 3rd, LaHood said, “I don’t think the car manufacturers would be manufacturing the cars they are manufacturing today as hybrids, if it weren’t for what the president did in signing the executive order and what Lisa (Jackson, EPA Administrator) and I have done over the last three and half years about developing C.A.F.E. (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards for automobiles and light trucks that will get 54.4 miles per gallon by 2025."

More @ CNS

Jack Booted Thugs


My boat, the Thuy Kieu, flying the VNCH flag, in Dana Point Harbor, California 1977/78? My two oldest daughters, Emily and Virginia, seem to be pondering life......!

Thoughts Aloud
VERBATIM POST

Recently in a comment section hereabouts, some disparaging remarks were made about the way Southern cops handled 'civil disobedience' by outside agitators, bussed into their cities to stir up racial unrest back in the early '60s. I was a peace officer myself in California back in the late '60s and early '70s. Oh, how our culture has changed since then. Please view these two short and profoundly contrasting recruitment videos at BoingBoing.

How utterly disgusting! Please notice the first one is from a modern Southern city, and the second one is from Newport Beach, CA. I'd say it is about time to drop the stereotype of racist Southerners and their cops. Now, I have lived for a few months twice in Newport Beach. Once in the mid '70s as an entrepreneur, and again in the early '80s, as the captiain of a $3M yacht. Both times, it was a laid back beach town, with no ghettos or much crime that I was aware of. It was totally safe to walk any street, at any time of the day or night. This was Beach Boy country, for Pete's sake!

What you see in the second, is the very reason I gave up the notion of making a career out of police work. We were 'Peace Officers' in the '60s, not 'Law Enforcement Officers.' There were no SWAT teams; we carried a six-shot revolver with 12 extra rounds, which rarely came out of our holster in the presence of a citizen. Our only 'special weapon' was a 12GA five-shot shotgun, kept locked up in the cruiser. Only the motorcycle officers ever wore boots. Citizens didn't get nervous at the sight of us; we were friendly and so were they. Both viewed our jobs as keepers of the peace, not agents of Big Brother trying to catch them committing an infraction.

When the profession started morphing into gung ho Jack Booted Thugs, I bailed out. I wanted no part of that mentality. As the years have passed, they have gotten more and more agessive, and less and less respectable. The Rodney King video was just the beginning, and YouTube today is filled with even more egregious examples. It has become embarrassing to admit I ever was a cop. Why do we put up with this nonsense?

◄Dave►

20 Republicans set to uphold controversial UN treaty (updated)

Via Carl


Upon the advice of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Obama has confirmed his intention to sign two controversial U.N. treaties -- the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) and the so called "small arms" treaty.

Although many citizens and elected representatives are sounding the alarm about the small arms treaty, such as this entry Sunday at the Daily Paul, some political observers note that the treaty is unlikely to pass the Senate. But a very different scenario is developing for the Law of the Sea.

Twenty Republican senators are set to join with Democrats in upholding LOST.

In a breaking update, two of the 20 Republican senators have now indicated they will oppose the Law of the Sea Treaty. One political activist stated that it is important for citizens to call the offices of all 20 to make sure those Senators are on the record with their intent to vote against the treaty. McConnell and Toomey now state they will vote no.

The U.S. Constitution grants authority to presidents to enter into treaty agreements with other nations and entities. But due to the fact that a treaty, if approved, becomes the law of the land, the U.S. Senate must approve by an exact two-thirds majority rather than the simple supermajority of 60 votes. This means that 67 votes are needed in the Senate to approve a treaty.

Most political observers believe that all 53 Democrats in the Senate will vote to approve LOST. And if the 20 Republicans who have failed to indicate opposition to the treaty hold firm, the Senate will have more than the required 67 votes to pass.

The 20 Republicans who are apparently set to uphold the treaty are Enzi, McConnell, Hutchison, Toomey, Johanns, Ayotte, Graham, McCain, Lugar, Kirk, Snowe, Collins, Murkowski, Isakson, Grassley, Portman, Corker, Cochran, Brown, and Alexander.

More @ Examiner

Behind The NC Flyergate Scandal – NC House 63

North_Carolina_License_Plate

For the last month, Freedom Outpost has brought your attention to the shroud of mysteries surrounding the sudden outburst of bullying and lawsuit threatening by the NCGOP leadership to everyday grassroots republicans. Read the Previous Articles here and here.

Now, we will begin a series that will be, in essence, a weekly surgical case study in examining the recent redistricting, and its effects on grassroots candidates in the primary season of 2012. We will introduce you to the people responsible for the redistricting, the possible motives of each new NC House District, the possible new patsies selected to run in each one, and the possible ties to multiple factions within the State Republican party. We at Freedom Outpost are completely against “politics as usual” and our only desire is for truth, transparency, and accountability.

Enter NC House 63: Typically, it was redistricted to be more “red”. This is only problematic for you if you’re a democrat.

However, what’s interesting about 63 is not necessarily the lines that were drawn (unless you have a few buddies at the Alamance Country Club, but the players on the stage that is set for a GOP victory there in November. The first player to come forth from the wings was Mr. Roger Parker a well-liked and highly respected true conservative candidate with a large grassroots following. After barely losing in a heavily leaning blue district the last election cycle, Mr. Parker seemed a “lock” for the seat this year. People in Alamance County were genuinely excited about being properly represented in Raleigh by one of their own.

However, on the last weekend before the filing deadline for all candidates was due, a sideways wind blew across District 63. On that wind rode a certain Mr. Steve Ross. Certainly no stranger to politics, Mr. Ross is a former Burlington mayor and current city council member. For all intents and purposes Steve Ross’ voting record, with very few exceptions, mirrors that of a Democrat. With his voice and his vote, he favored forced annexation, a move very unpopular with many conservatives of his District. So the stage was set for a heated primary, with two candidates seemingly on opposite sides of the fence: a true conservative loved by the people, and an establishment hack that was in every sense of the word: a RINO. But a funny thing happened on the way to the station – As quickly as the fuse was lit, it was extinguished. It seemed as though that just as quickly as Mr. Ross stepped into the race, Mr. Parker stepped out, leaving many disappointed people scratching their heads. So many people, in fact, that Mr. Parker still got 35% of the vote when the polls were closed at the end of primary Tuesday.

So the question has to be asked: What really happened?

More @ Freedom Outpost

Lobbyists Hold 'White Trash Reception' on Capitol Hill

OK, seems only fair to have a black trash one.

What the arrogant District of Crime elites really think of We the People! They hold parties to mock us as the corporatist crony capitalist fascists celebrate their ownership of government.

Poll: Americans Support House Holding Eric Holder In Contempt By Wide 53% To 33% Margin


More than half of Americans support the move by House Republicans to censure Attorney General Eric Holder, but *six in 10 also say that the GOP's move was politically motivated, according to a poll released Monday.Some 53 percent of respondents in the CNN/ORC poll say they believe the House did the right thing when voting 255-67 late last month to censure Holder for failing to turn over documents related to the "Fast and Furious" gun-tracking operation. One-third of respondents say they disapprove of the action, while 13 percent are unsure.

More @ The Hill

* Right, as it couldn't possible have anything to do with the hundreds dead..... The average American is a nincompoop.


Krawetz found guilty of attacking handcuffed woman

Via American Apocalypse



A Superior Court judge Monday found Lincoln Police Officer Edward Krawetz guilty of felony battery, in the May, 2009 attack on a handcuffed woman outside the Twin River slots parlor. \

As Judge Edward C. Clifton delivered the guilty verdict after a more than 2 1/2 hour recounting of the testimony and evidence, Krawetz looked down and shook his head "no."
"Obviously, he's disappointed," with the verdict, said Krawetz's attorney, John Harwood.

"It's not a good day for law enforcement in the state when a police officer is attacked, makes a split-second decision and then gets this type of decision," Harwood said.


The judge had earlier dismissed the charge of assault, saying that there was no testimony the the victim had any fear of harm in her encounter with Krawetz. She did not testify at the jury-waived trial.


Krawetz has been suspended and on leave from the Lincoln police since the incident, in which he exchanged kicks with a handcuffed woman, Donna Levesque outside the casino. A survellience video casino showed Krawetz kicking Levesque in the head after she tried kicking him in the shin.


More @ WPRO

Happy 4th: 1LT Michael Behenna Loses Final Appeal

Via Deborah

People need to leave the armed forces ASAP



DEFEND MICHAEL
VERBATIM POST

On July 5th, 2012, we learned that the majority on the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF), in a 3-2 split, upheld the unpremeditated murder conviction of our son 1LT Michael Behenna. Needless to say, we are very disappointed in the decision of the CAAF.

The CAAF had accepted two issues in Michael’s case (1) the improper self-defense instruction, and (2) Governments failure to disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense, ie. MacDonell’s expert opinion. We know from reading the 2 dissenting judges opinion that the arguments by Michael’s lawyers were very compelling. In fact, the entire court agreed that the self-defense instruction was erroneous. However, the majority court ruled Michael used deadly force by threatening the terrorist with a gun and had no right to self-defense in his given situation – a fact strongly disputed by the dissenting judges – so the majority ruled the self-defense instruction written by trial judge Steven Dixon, even though incorrect, did not prejudice Michael’s defense. The entire court agreed the expert opinion of Dr. MacDonell should have been turned over to the defense, but the majority dismissed the potential Brady violation as irrelevant to Michael’s defense, as MacDonell’s opinion only strengthened Michael’s version that he was attacked, but Michael had no right to defend himself.

The CAAF basically ruled that Michael made a mistake by taking the terrorist to a culvert for an unauthorized interrogation and in the process gave up any right to defend himself no matter what happened in the culvert (note that no police officer in America loses their right to defend themselves in similar situations.) If you recall, the military prosecutors originally prosecuted Michael for executing the terrorist in the culvert, and no evidence or even any mention of Michael losing his right to self-defense was presented to the jury (panel). Michael had no opportunity to present a defense to an allegation of loss of right of self-defense, because that was never the theory presented by the prosecutors. As stated in the dissenting opinion, “was it murder, or was it self-defense.”

Obviously we were one vote away from having Michael back home with us, and the dissenting CAAF judges widely diverged from the majority, which gives us hope that perhaps Michael’s legal battle is not over. Michael remains in prison today for a mistake he made in a combat zone while facing a terrorist who had killed at least two American soldiers and for whom the military had issued a kill/capture order. The court did not believe that Michael executed Mansur as originally charged and for which he was convicted. We will continue to pursue all legal avenues including the Supreme Court, and in search of relief for Michael, we will also contact officials who can understand the perspective of what Soldier’s encounter in a war zone and how dealing with terrorists cannot be equated to a drug deal gone bad in America.

Michael and our entire family want to thank all of those supporters who have taken their valuable time and effort to help Michael’s cause and we know that your continued support will lead to Michael’s ultimate release. We will begin a campaign to contact President Obama and presidential candidate Mitt Romney to take notice of Michael’s case and request they use their influence to pardon Michael or reduce his sentence. The people’s voice must be heard in a case where a Soldier faced his enemy in a war zone. Although Michael has told us he was disappointed in the ruling, he remains a man of integrity and character, and will not be broken by this latest setback. He said that when he walks through the doors of Ft. Leavenworth military prison to freedom he will be a much wiser man than when he first went in.

Attached is an article by Diane West which sums up our thoughts regarding the decision by CAAF. http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/2170/Devastating-Michael-Behennas-Conviction-Upheld.aspx

Thank you for your continued support for a hero we remain proud to call our son!!!

Some goodies from Ol' Remus


I get gasping, horrified protestations that I want to take food from the mouths of babes I didn't sire. Or have my sanity questioned about how could I be so stupid to not want to "invest" in the higher education of some person I've never met.
--Chief Instructor at bisonrma.blogspot.com

Political combat has never been more vicious. The tactics in use have descended well below mere slander and defamation. Actual corpses have already accumulated at the margins. More will follow.
--Francis Porretto at bastionofliberty.blogspot.com

art-link-symbol-small.jpg The right to privacy rests largely on a presumption of innocence. It assumes that — in the absence of evidence of wrongdoing — an individual has a right to shut his front door and tell other people (including government) to mind their own business. Today, this assumption has been twisted inside out so that a desire for privacy means you have something to hide, says --Wendy McElroy in this article, Your Privacy Is Yours, at Whiskey and Gunpowder.

art-link-symbol-small.jpg Sovereignty takes another hit - The World Trade Organization issued a final ruling today against the U.S. country-of-origin labeling law... Now Congress must gut or change the law to avoid the application of punitive trade sanctions, says
--Rebekah Wilce in this article at PolicyMic.

art-link-symbol-small.jpg As suddenly as Obama began attacking the Supreme Court, he as suddenly dropped the subject and remained quiet... It was extremely odd for a conservative justice to side with the liberal wing of the Supreme Court. We know it is odd that Roberts literally had to rewrite the law in order to fit his interpretation, saysKris Zane in this article, Did Obama And The Supreme Court Collude?, at The Western Center for Journalism.

art-link-symbol-small.jpg Islamic apologists and Western oikophobes scoff and spit and snort that anyone would dare draw equivalencies between the transatlantic and the Arab slave trades, yet the historical record laughs in their faces, says Jim Goad in this article, Islam’s Role in Slavery, at Taki's Magazine.

art-link-symbol-small.jpg Utah - People who produce $1000 or more worth of food have an impact on the food market, and the USDA wants to know about what you are doing in your backyard... Survivalist.com points out that the Utah Garden Challenge is linked to the United Nations Agenda 21 Sustainable Development plan for totalitarian control, says Cassandra Anderson in this article, Utah Garden Challenge Actually Government Registration In Disguise, at Alt-Market.

Probably the worst thing that has happened in America in my time is the decay of confidence in the courts. No one can be sure any more that in a given case they will uphold the plainest mandate of the Constitution. On the contrary, everyone begins to be more or less convinced in advance that they won't.
--H. L. Mencken, Minority Report, 1956

Who believes that punishing the uninsured with a fine paid to the IRS empowers the powerless?
--Daniel Flynn at frontpagemag.com

Bank of America: for every $11.50 they make defrauding customers, they pay $1 in fines.
--Max Keiser at maxkeiser.com

Dismissal of the American people's intellectual, spiritual, and moral substance is the very heart of what our ruling class is about. Its principal article of faith, its claim to the right to decide for others, is precisely that it knows things and operates by standards beyond others' comprehension.
--Angelo Codevilla at spectator.org

Israel: As Serious About Deportation As Obamacrats Are About Amnesty

Filipino

You have to admit it: the Israelis have style. Consider Israel-born daughter of Filipino migrant arrested and faces deportation on first day of summer vacation by Talia Nesher Haaretz Monday July 02

Only two days after the school year ended, an Israel-born six-year-old girl was arrested along with her mother, a migrant worker from the Philippines, ahead of their deportation.

This is the first time a child at such a young age, which is attending kindergarten and is a part of the education system, is arrested to be deported…

A.J. Mathias finished kindergarten on Friday and was planning to start first grade in two months. Her mother, Annalyn, had come to Israel legally, but lost her work permit when she had a baby.


None of this nonsense about Birthright Citizenship in Israel! Note also the family is Filipino, not African – and so not part of that dangerous group of which the Israelis are right to be afraid.

More @ VDARE

Obama Parody Brought to Attention of Secret Service





Godfather Politics
VERBATIM POST

Make fun of the president, get reported to the Secret Service.

That seems to be the lesson to draw from an entry in the annual Fourth of July Parade in Huntsville, Utah, that poked some gentle fun at King Barack I.

Huntsville resident Dave Clawson was the man behind the parody float, which featured a man in a suit and Barack Obama mask getting out of a limousine and dancing with a bunch of women and “Secret Service agents.”

The limousine featured signs that said “Huntsville welcomes the Obama Farewell Tour” and “Ask about our assault gun plan. Call Eric Holder.”

Clawson in years past has participated in the parade with floats that parodied Presidents Bush and Clinton, and celebrities like Paris Hilton and Michael Jackson. Some in the community told reporters they consider his floats a local tradition.

Much of what’s currently wrong with this country is the fault of the raging narcissist in the Oval Office, and most of what’s wrong with King Obama’s reign is King Obama himself, but the rest of it is his mind-numbed, sycophantic, neo-Nazi followers.

True to form, the liberals in Huntsville, Utah, are showing they have no sense of humor and nothing but contempt for free speech that isn’t singing Obama’s praises.

Since the parade, the Mayor’s Office has been inundated with callers accusing the mayor of racism and demanding the City Council do something to appease them.

Other callers have tied up the phones at the Sheriff’s Department, claiming that they believe the float was a threat on the president’s life. The sheriff dutifully passed that along to the Secret Service, which will probably be sending out their Men In Black to Clawson’s house any time now.

Clawson points out that the signs on his float were obviously expressing a hope that Obama loses his re-election and a reference to the “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal being investigated in Congress; although you can hardly blame liberals for not knowing that, since the Lamestream Media they read and watch has been covering up for the administration for years.

The mayor, who had nothing to do with the float, has already issued a disclaimer and apology, but Clawson is standing by his work. “I will offer an apology to no one for it,” he said. ” There was nothing wrong with it. We were just expressing a little political humor and that’s just fine. If you watch Saturday Night Live, you’ll see much worse every time.”

Clawson sounds like a brave guy. Here’s hoping the libs don’t try to make an example of him.

CHART OF THE DAY: THE SCARIEST JOBS CHART EVER

Business Insider
VERBATIM POST

post-recession-job-losses

The latest jobs report was a major disappointment, as the 80K number of net new jobs created was below the 100K that was expected, and well below any pace that will quickly reduce the unemployment number, which remains elevated at 8.2%.

And so we bring you the latest, updated version of this famous chart from Bill McBride at Calculated Risk, which shows the trajectory of the jobs decline (starting at the beginning of the recession) and the recovery, compared to all of the other post-WWII recessions.

Once again, the decline is far deeper than anything previous that we've seen, and the comeback remains bad.

North Carolina Mountain Compound

15 minutes to Maggie Valley


  • Over 10 acres of land
  • 3-Bedroom HOUSE
  • detached GUEST COTTAGE with a SAUNA
  • a BARN FOR YOUR WORKSHOP OR HORSES
  • ORCHARD
  • and a STOCKED FISH POND
  • End of the road privacy
  • In a rural setting surrounded by family farms and other homes with small acreages.
Asking $375,000.

The defensible hill side location looks down on the gravel road leading in from the main paved road. The neighborhood road winds in past ponds, pasture and barns. The two living units sit on the hill next to each other. There are two additional building sites on the land.

More @ Survival


Justice unseals indictment charging 5 in Brian Terry's death, offers $1M reward for leads on fugitives

Via NC Renegade

Bean bags, oh goodie.


The Justice Department on Monday unsealed an indictment charging five individuals allegedly involved in Border Patrol agent Brian Terry's death, and announced a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the arrest of those suspects still at large.

For the first time, federal officials also revealed that Terry and an elite squad of federal agents initially fired bean bags -- not bullets -- at a heavily armed drug cartel crew in the mountains south of Tucson in December 2011. During the exchange, Terry was shot and killed.

More @ Fox

Officer replies to their non-action on assaults: “We don't have enough officers.”


During the 2012 Red, White & Boom celebration, there were dozens of police officers at the fireworks. Most of these officers were clumped in bunches near the Scioto River and simply watched the fireworks along with the hundreds of thousands of spectators.

After the show ended and people started walking back to their cars, things turned violent. A gang of approximately 30 black youths (both male and female) started walking and running down Broad Street and randomly assaulted white people — old people, children, women.

I was first aware of the violence in front of the church at the corner of Third and Broad streets. One block east of there, a man crossed the street through the traffic holding his crying son. They clearly had been assaulted. When others asked if they were OK, he said, “No, we're not OK; we got separated from my wife and daughter, and they're still over there.”

Finally, two Columbus officers were seen slowly walking toward the scene of this violence. At this point, the black youths crossed the street to the opposite side of the officers and started randomly attacking more white people on the north side of Broad Street. I know; I was assaulted by five different youths.

At this time, the police meandered to our side of the street. Some of us went to the officers and said, “Do something, innocent people are getting assaulted right here on Broad Street.” One officer replied, “We don't have enough officers.” After seeing the dozens of officers near the riverfront, I went home feeling this officer’s answer was a poor one.

Clearly, the Columbus Police Division had brought in all the officers it could for this large gathering. Also clearly, they had not formulated a plan to ensure the safety of Columbus residents.

Broad and Third streets are at the heart of Downtown. Thousands of people were walking down these two streets after the fireworks to get back to their cars. Yet, there were no, or embarrassingly few, police officers anywhere to be seen on these streets.

I'm glad the police officers got to see the fireworks and remain safe in numbers, but I wonder if that was the reason we paid them overtime wages for a night's work.

The police officers remained clustered near the waterfront, yet no one had the vision to spread them out along the exit venues of the event to protect the citizens.

Shame on the Columbus Police Division. Red White and Boo.

MICHAEL MEEKS

Blacklick

Trojan Horse

Via Milton Wolf

CBS: Conservatives on Supreme Court feel betrayed

Via Jan Crawford, who previously broke the story about Chief Justice Roberts’ change of mind, comes additional details, Discord at Supreme Court is deep, and personal:

Discord at the Supreme Court is deep and personal after Chief Justice John Roberts’ surprise decision to side with the liberal justices in upholding a large portion of the president’s health care plan. This discord is going to affect this Court for a long time – and no one has any idea how it will be resolved.

Conservatives feel a sense of betrayal. They feel that Roberts changed his mind for the wrong reasons.

If Roberts had been with the liberals from the beginning, sources tell me that would have been one thing; but switching his position – and relatively late in the process – infuriated the conservatives….

It’s not unheard of for the Court to erupt into conflict; Bush v. Gore in 2000 was a famous example. But some people say you would have to go back nearly 70 years to see this kind of tension, and almost bitterness, that now exists among the justices.

More @ Legal Insurrection

Woman killed after confronting men in car about speeding in west Mobile

Via CofCC

Wendy Fisher.jpg

A 40-year-old woman was fatally shot Saturday night after confronting a group of men in a car about speeding through her west Mobile neighborhood, Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich said today.

No one has been arrested. The incident took place in the 5500 block of Racine Avenue in west Mobile about 6:20 p.m.

Mobile police identified the woman as Wendy Fisher, who was shot in the chest by one of several gunshots fired at her, police spokeswoman Ashley Rains said.

Fisher was taken to University of South Alabama Medical Center, where she died, Rains said.

Rains said that an "altercation" took place between Fisher and a group of men who were not known to her. Rich confirmed earlier reports that the confrontation involved speeding on Racine Avenue, a street that connects Overlook Road and Moffett Road and is frequently used as a shortcut by motorists. The shooting scene is located close to the Overlook Road end of Racine.

According to Rains, the car involved was a dark gray or green Honda, Nissan Altima or similarly-styled vehicle occupied by three or possibly four black men. The car sped away from the scene after the shooting, Rains said.

More @ AL.com

Obamacare

Via The Last Refuge

4 Charged in Mob Attack Near Wrigley Field

Via CofCC

4 Charged in Mob Attack Near Wrigley Field

Witnesses told police a group of men jumped out of a white stretch limousine at 2 a.m. Sunday on the 3400 block of North Sheffield, about a block south of the stadium, and began beating passersby while others videotaped the attack from the inside the limo.

Three men, ages 22, 27 and 27, were injured, police said. One of the 27-year-old victims was treated for a broken jaw at Illinois Masonic Hospital. The others sustained minor injuries.

Police said four or five other men, including the person filming the incident, fled in the limo.

Three men, ages 22, 27 and 27, were injured, police said. One of the 27-year-old victims was treated for a broken jaw at Illinois Masonic Hospital. The others sustained minor injuries.

Police said four or five other men, including the person filming the incident, fled in the limo.

Four men were arrested and charged. Corry Simmons, 32, of the 1800 Block of South Ridgeway was charged with breaking a man's jaw. Donald Robinson, Jr., 31, of the 1800 Block of South Ridgeway; Alvin Goffin, 32, of the 3600 Block of South Rhodes Avenue; and Edward Robinson, 31, of the 1800 Block of South Springfield Avenue were all charged with felony mob action.

Simmons, Donald Robinson and Edward Robinson also were charged with felony aggravated battery.

More @ NBC


Perry: Texas won't expand Medicaid

Via mzmadmike



Gov. Rick Perry said Monday that Texas won't establish an online marketplace for patients to shop for insurance or expand Medicaid, two key elements of the federal health care overhaul.

In a letter sent Monday to US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Perry said both elements "represent brazen intrusions into the sovereignty of our state."

"I will not be party to socializing health care and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government," Perry said in a statement released Monday.

More @ ABC

Mushroom

Via mpopenker

U.N. Proposes Global Taxes to Fund ‘Global Challenges’ Such As Climate Change

Via avordvet

[image]

Prompting warnings of a “global governance” push, the United Nations released a report Thursday proposing mechanisms including a global carbon tax, currency transaction tax and a “billionaire’s tax,” to finance development and global needs such as combating climate change.

The U.N. World Economic and Social Survey (WESS) says such taxes could raise more than $400 billion a year, at a time when donor countries are unwilling or unable – “in the midst of difficult financial times” – to maintain the levels of development aid necessary.

“Donor countries have fallen well short of their aid commitments and development assistance declined last year because of budget cuts, increasing the shortfall to $167 billion,” said survey author Rob Vos in a statement.

“Although donors must meet their commitments, it is time to look for other ways to find resources to finance development needs and address growing global challenges, such as combating climate change,” he said.

“We are suggesting various ways to tap resources through international mechanisms, such as coordinated taxes on carbon emissions, air traffic, and financial and currency transactions.”

The WESS is produced each year by the U.N.’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Voss is director of the department’s Development Policy and Analysis Division.

The proposed mechanisms in this year’s report, entitled “In Search of New Development Finance,” include:

-- Carbon Tax: A tax of $25 a ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted in developed countries would raise an estimated $25 billion a year. The money could be collected by national authorities, but be earmarked for international cooperation. CO2 is the “greenhouse gas” blamed most often for climate change.

Australia’s Labor government on Sunday launched a controversial carbon tax, charging 500 major companies $23 for every ton of CO2 emitted. The conservative opposition has vowed to scrap the measure if it returns to power at the next general election.

-- Currency Transaction Tax: A tax of 0.005 percent on all trading in four major currencies – the U.S. dollar, the euro, the yen and pound sterling – would yield around $40 billion a year for international initiatives. The decades-old idea of levying a small charge on financial transactions is sometimes called a “Robin Hood tax” since it supposedly taxes rich nations to benefit poor ones.

The European Union’s executive Commission has proposed the introduction of such a tax – 0.1 percent for shares and bonds and 0.01 percent for derivatives – in the 27-member union with effect from January 1, 2014, an initiative expected to raise just over $70 billion a year. The WESS says a portion of that could be earmarked for international cooperation.

-- SDRs: Allocation of International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) could yield $100 billion a year to purchase long-term assets that could then be used for development finance. Set up in the 1960s, SDRs are used by governments and some international institutions. It is not itself a currency, but its value is based on a basket of the dollar, euro, pound sterling and yen. Some countries, including Russia, China and Brazil, have been pushing the idea of SDRs replacing the greenback as the world’s reserve currency.

-- Billionaire’s Tax: A tax of around one percent on individual wealth holdings of $1 billion or more, “with the revenue destined to finance internationally agreed global development purposes.” The WESS says this mechanism, which it estimates could raise $50 billion a year, is an option that could be explored but needs further technical elaboration.

“Realizing the potential of these mechanisms will require international agreement and corresponding political will, both to tap sources as well as to ensure allocation of revenues for development,” said Vos.

‘Unaccountable’ taxing authority

More @ CNS News

Man gets 60 days in jail over home Bible studies

Man gets 60 days in jail over home Bible studies
Michael Salman is the owner of Mighty Mike’s Burgers and also an ordained pastor.
Photo Credit:Fox News

The Washington Times
VERBATIM POST

A Phoenix man has been sentenced to 60 days in jail after he refused to stop hosting Bible studies in the privacy of his home – in violation of the city’s building code laws. ...

According to court documents provided to Fox News Radio, Michael Salman was found guilty in the City of Phoenix Court of 67 code violations. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail along with three years probation and a $12,180 fine. He could be jailed as early as next week unless the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals grants an emergency injunction.

“They’re cracking down on religious activities and religious use,” Salman told Fox News Radio. “They’re attacking what I as a Christian do in the privacy of my home.”

Oppose U.S. Signing and Ratification of the UN Arms Trade Treaty


After several years of preparatory meetings the UN is holding a conference in New York City July 2-27, 2012, to draft a final version of a UN Arms Trade Treaty.

The official UN website for the conference states: "From 2-27 July, all countries of the world will come together in New York to negotiate what is seen as the most important initiative ever regarding conventional arms regulation within the United Nations."

According to an article posted by the NRA on June 29, 2012:

"Last year, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kans.) and 57 other senators signed a letter to President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reminding them that the Senate has final say on treaties, and stating their unequivocal opposition to any treaty that would affect civilian ownership of firearms, challenge the authority of Congress to regulate firearms within the United States, or call for an international gun registry."

Furthermore, 130 congressmen sent a letter dated June 29, 2012, to President Obama stating:

"We write to express our concerns regarding the negotiation of the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the text of which is expected to be finalized at a conference to be held in New York during the month of July.... The U.S. must not accept an ATT that infringes on our constitutional rights, particularly the fundamental, individual right to keep and to bear arms that is protected by the Second Amendment, as well as the the right of personal self-defense on which the the Second Amendment is based.... Should the final ATT text run counter to these principles or otherwise undermine our rights and our interests, we urge this Administration to break consensus and reject the treaty in New York...."

The NRA is warning that "The 'United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty' is one of the most serious threats to American gun owners in decades.... The U.N. has denied that the ATT will affect domestic gun ownership, but its latest pre-conference position paper ('The Impact of Poorly Regulated Arms Transfers on the Work of the U.N.') calls for exactly that."

Unfortunately, that pre-conference position paper is not available online. However, some quotes from the paper have been included in "The U.N. Speaks: The Arms Trade Treaty Will Affect 'Legally Owned Weapons'" by Ted R. Bromund, a Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Bromund states:

After proclaiming that the ATT [UN Arms Trade Treaty] “does not aim to impede or interfere with the lawful ownership and use of weapons,” the CASA [the UN's Coordinating Action on Small Arms] paper ['The Impact of Poorly Regulated Arms Transfers on the Work of the U.N.'] goes on to say that “United Nations agencies have come across many situations in which various types of conventional weapons have been … misused by lawful owners” and that the “arms trade must therefore be regulated in ways that would … minimize the risk of misuse of legally owned weapons.”

How, exactly, would the ATT do that if it doesn’t “impede” or “interfere” with lawful ownership? The U.N. would have a lot more credibility on the ATT if it didn’t imply so regularly that the problem is as much lawful ownership as it is the international arms trade.

Of course, CASA isn’t just concerned with lawful ownership; it’s also campaigning against “community attitudes” that “contribute to the powerful cultural conditioning that equates masculinity with owning and using a gun, and regards gun misuse by men as acceptable.”

All this just goes to show that the U.N. regards gun ownership — even under national constitutional protection and for lawful activities — as a cultural failure that it needs to redress and that it has no patience at all with the idea that self-defense is an inherent right.

In light of the virtual certainty that the final UN Arms Trade Treaty would infringe on our right to own and bear firearms, please contact your representative and senators and ask them to use their influence to help persuade President Obama not to sign the treaty and the Senate not to ratify the treaty.

Thanks.

Your Friends at The John Birch Society

Urgent Calls Needed: Senate Committee to hold Hearing on Dangerous UN Treaty

William A. Estrada, Esq.
Director of Federal Relations

The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is scheduled to hold a hearing on the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on Thursday, July 12. Phone calls are needed to your two U.S. senators to urge them to oppose this dangerous treaty.

HSLDA Founder and Chairman Mike Farris has written a short memo on the dangers to U.S. sovereignty, family freedom, and homeschooling if the U.S. Senate votes to ratify the CRPD. You can read his memo online.

We urge you to do two things: first, please contact your two U.S. senators by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or by using HSLDA’s Legislative Toolbox. Second, please call the White House and urge President Obama to withdraw the CRPD from Senate ratification. The White House Switchboard is 202-456-1414. Please note that Congress and the White House will be closed on Wednesday, July 4, in celebration of Independence Day.

It is not necessary to identify yourself as a homeschooler. Your message can be as simple as the following:

“Please oppose ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As our nation gathers to celebrate Independence Day, it is outrageous that U.S. senators would support a treaty that surrenders U.S. sovereignty to unelected UN bureaucrats. Our nation already has laws to protect disabled Americans. This treaty is unnecessary and will hurt families.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed by Congress to specifically protect disabled Americans. There is no need for the Senate to ratify the CRPD, as our nation’s state and federal laws already protect these precious citizens. Sadly, this treaty—if ratified by the Senate—would do great harm to disabled children and adults by subjecting parents, families, and caregivers to UN oversight, regulation, and control. For specific harm to homeschool families, you can read our additional research paper.

In addition to calling your two U.S. senators, we urge you to visit their Facebook pages and leave your comments about this treaty. Please also forward this email to your family and friends and encourage them to oppose this treaty. Families, not the United Nations, are best suited to care for their loved ones with disabilities. We don’t need unelected international bureaucrats to tell us how to do that.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Danger to Homeschool Families

Obama Spends Record $12 Billion To Keep Documents Secret



Breitbart
VERBATIM POST

President Barack Obama has said his administration is the most most transparent administration in the modern era.

But a new report by the Information Security Oversight Committee found that in 2011, the Obama Administration spent a record $12 billion to keep documents secret, a 12 percent increase over last year's classification costs.

As Asawin Suebsaeng of the liberal Mother Jones publication puts it, "It's safe to say that it is long past due to officially declare the Obama era a transparency #fail."

The Current Cowardly Church Needs a Mega Dose of the Rebel Spirit

Whenever the ends of Government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the People may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new Government; the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind. –Declaration of Rights, Maryland

Unlike America’s original rebel Christians who dumped the Brits’ taxed tea into Boston Harbor and told King George that he could kiss their King George, today’s evangelicals, I believe—especially the dandy ministers who love to be loved—would have folded like one-ply toilet paper before British oppression. We’re a timid tufted titmouse compared to our rowdy founding forefathers.

Here are four reasons why I believe today’s evangelicals would have melted like little bon-bons during the American Revolution:

1. Some dainty saints of today think rebellion against tyrants is disobedience to God, when the converse is actually true. Yep, these stooges of the machine believe that Yahweh wants Christians to be the corralled cattle of corrupt politicians and policies. Indeed, a lot of pop evangelicals have become nicer than God. Our current craven “faithful” think it’s sinful to say bad stuff about bad elected leadership. Many somehow think it’s righteous to go in an unrighteous national direction. And we’ve got stacks of do-gooders who are turning the other cheek to political abuse and generational theft so fast that they make Shakira look arthritic.

2.

More @ Townhall

Global Warming Fruitcakes Cancel Planned Ice Sculpture Protest After Realizing It Would Not Have Melted Fast Enough…

FILE - This undated file photo released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a sow polar bear resting with her cubs on the pack ice in the Beaufort Sea in northern Alaska. A federal judge on Monday, Oct. 17, 2011, threw out a key section of an Interior Department rule that declared global warming is threatening the survival of the polar bear. (AP Photo/U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service, Steve Amstrup, FILE)

In the sweltering, triple-digit Washington, D.C. heat, the climate change group 350.org planned to mock global warming skeptics on Capitol Hill Saturday morning by melting an ice sculpture shaped into the word “Hoax?”

Early Saturday, however, group founder and “Fight Global Warming Now” author Bill McKibben sent a cancellation notice to participants, claiming he was calling off the stunt out of sensitivity to those suffering in the heat wave — especially people in West Virginia.

“I think I screwed up,” McKibben began, explaining that while melting a statue was a good way to draw attention to global warming, it could also have offended those suffering in tough times.

“The idea was simple enough: if this epic heatwave gripping the nation has one small silver lining, it’s that its reminding people that global warming is very very real,” he wrote. “And the response was strong — we raised the $5000 it would have taken to pull off the event, and far more than that for relief efforts.”

“But we also heard from old friends, especially in nearby West Virginia, who asked us not to do it. The sight of ice melting while they sweltered would be too hard to take; their region, they pointed out, is as hard hit as any in the country by the heat wave, and it would make people feel like their plight wasn’t being taken seriously.”

Others are not so sure McKibben’s explanation holds water.

Former meteorologist and climate change skeptic Anthony Watts pointed out that the stunt would have backfired, given the slow rate at which the ice was likely to melt.

Daughters United For Change

Via Pam



More @ Facebook

Obama Foreign Policy Repeating the Mistakes of History


Mike Scruggs


Both Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon thought that the biggest mistake of the Vietnam War was President Kennedy’s involvement in the overthrow of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in November 1963. Diem became the first president of South Vietnam in 1955 following the petition of Vietnam into a Communist North Vietnam and the Republic of (South) Vietnam after the French withdrawal from Indochina in 1954.

North Vietnamese dictator Ho Chi Minh immediately commenced a reign of terror in North Vietnam, killing 50,000 of his nationalist political competitors. Religious persecution of Christians, mostly Roman Catholics, also became intense. Nearly one million people fled the despotism and persecution in Communist North Vietnam across the 17th parallel into the Republic of Vietnam. Among the refugees, however, were a cadre of about 10,000 trained Communist agitators and guerillas that would form the core of the National Liberation Front (NLF)—formed by the Communist Party in North Vietnam to overthrow South Vietnam—and their military arm, the Viet Cong (VC). North Vietnam continued to infiltrate agitators, guerilla organizers, and weapons into South Vietnam with the object of uniting the two countries into a single Communist state. By late 1959, U.S. and Allied intelligence agencies had unequivocally established that North Vietnam’s increasingly aggressive actions in South Vietnam were being supported, financed, advised, and approved step by step by Soviet leaders in Moscow.

Despite North Vietnam’s continuous agitation and guerilla warfare to overthrow the South Vietnamese government in Saigon, Diem managed to bring considerable stability to South Vietnam. In 1963, Viet Cong attacks were becoming fewer, and his Strategic Hamlet Program had secured most areas from the threat of Communist terrorism and assassinations. New schools, bridges, and foreign investments were providing more jobs and prosperity than ever before. Rice production reached its highest level ever.

However, South Vietnam was still engaged in both political and guerilla warfare with Hanoi’s front organizations: the NLF and their VC assassins and bullies. Diem knew that the first task of government is to establish order. He thus developed a firm leadership style that was little understood or appreciated by Western journalists. When then Vice-President Richard Nixon visited him in 1956, Diem defended his autocratic leadership style by pointing out that he was dealing with Communist terrorism, assassinations, and armed insurrections that could not be handled according to normal peacetime rules. He told Nixon, “We are at war and in war it is necessary to use wartime measures.”

Beginning in May of 1963, a Buddhist protest arose in South Vietnam over alleged Diem administration discrimination against Buddhists. This was a total fabrication, but a protest movement was organized by a small band of Hanoi-connected Buddhist monks with sympathies for a Communist oriented Buddhism. They managed to recruit a young monk to douse himself with gasoline and ignited him for one of the most famous protest scenes in world history, as they passed out anti-Diem leaflets. They had tipped off American reporters in Saigon ahead of time, and the memorable photograph of a blazing monk kneeling in prayer filled the newspapers of the world the next day.

Thus the liberal press, including especially the New York Times, Time Magazine, and Associated Press reporters, made Diem a world-class villain. John F. Kennedy was strongly anti-Communist, but his political strength was in the liberal media. He and his close advisors decided that Saigon must have a regime change or the American mission in South Vietnam was in jeopardy. To their credit, this regime change was opposed by Vice-President Johnson and CIA Director John McCone.

Nonetheless, on November 1, 1963, Kennedy, assisted by Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, arranged for Diem’s overthrow by a military coup headed by Duong Van “Big” Minh. Unexpectedly, Minh had Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu, Diem’s chief advisor and brother, killed in the process. Ironically, Kennedy was himself assassinated three weeks later. The result of the Kennedy-backed regime change in Saigon was a revolving door of ten more regime changes, destabilizing the South Vietnamese government and military for two years. The Communists could hardly believe their good luck. North Vietnam put in 48,000 more troops, and more kept coming. South Vietnam was in danger of falling. Unwilling to use American airpower effectively, Johnson reacted with a massive buildup of American ground troops in South Vietnam.

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter made much the same error by withdrawing support for the Shaw of Iran because of autocratic measures against political unrest. The Shaw had to flee in 1979, and was replaced by Ayatollah Khomeini, who founded a new Islamic Republic, making Iran a formidable enemy instead of an ally.

President Hosmi Mubarak of Egypt was a strong American ally and defender of the vitally important Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty for 20 years until organized protests against his sometimes stern handling of potential threats to his government persuaded President Obama to encourage his departure from office. However, the democratic revolutions in the Islamic world—much encouraged and praised by the liberal media—are turning out to be the means of Muslim Brotherhood takeover and implementation of radical Islamic Law (Sharia). Now the militant Muslim Brotherhood controls the Egyptian Parliament and their candidate, Mohammed Morsi, is President of Egypt. The threat to Israel and the West is grave. Obama is on track for repeating many liberal foreign policy mistakes of the past, and we are living in a much more dangerous world.

NEVER tolerate anyone who won’t tolerate you. (& back it up with all you're carrying)

The Nagging Persistence of Tribalism

Taki's
by Jim Goad
VERBATIM POST

Last week in rural western Alabama, members of the Christian Identity movement teamed up with Klansmen to host a three-day shindig that ended on Friday with a cross burning. The event gained national attention after local residents complained about a flyer that specified “All White Christians Invited.”

Without a dandelion petal’s worth of irony among them, News One for Black America and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People condemned the blasphemous idea of an event designed exclusively for whites. On the other side of Alabama, the preposterously well-funded Southern Poverty Law Center, helmed disproportionately by members of a group who deem themselves “God’s chosen people,” have condemned the Christian Identity movement as a hate group for daring to deem themselves “God’s chosen people.”

Other critics used this isolated event, which even provoked considerable local criticism, to issue blanket condemnations of whites, Christianity, Republicans, and, of course, “the South,” although the South has always been America’s blackest region.

Predictably, the event’s attendees were scorned by “humanists” as stupid, repellent, and genetically retrograde subhumans who crawled out from under a rock. These “racist” throwbacks are to be despised, shunned, spat upon, and deserve violent retaliation—which, through no coincidence whatsoever, is precisely the sort of stereotyping they self-righteously condemn in “racists.”

“You should tolerate whomever you like, avoid whomever you dislike, but NEVER tolerate anyone who won’t tolerate you.”

No matter the tribe, that’s how all tribes act—they seek to dehumanize and eradicate non-members. Why, it’s almost like they act that way without even thinking.

No cultural group on Earth seems capable of existing without demonizing and targeting a cultural “other.” Whether it’s manifested through blood (race and ethnicity) or water (religion and ideology), tribal behavior seems indelibly identical. Groups can’t seem to exist, much less thrive, without a designated scapegoad scapegoat.

Despite all the efforts to “get past” racism and “erace” it, all human social groups seem incapable of getting past the same sort of ingroup/outgroup, good guys/bad guys, devils/angels binary thinking for which they condemn those pesky, incestuous, snaggletoothed “racists”—who, as luck would have it, always seem to belong to the same race, even though, well, um, race doesn’t exist.

If “racism” is merely a dishonestly dirty word to describe white tribalism, it may cut deeper and ultimately be more ineradicable than relative trifles such as ideological and religious schisms. If it’s a natural instinct that can’t be eliminated without ceaseless Maoist-style propaganda, shaming, and coercion, then political measures to counter it must inevitably become totalitarian. I call it “egalitotalitarianism.”

If you want to get conspiratorial—or at least acknowledge the fact that “divide and conquer” is the oldest trick in the political playbook—stuffing a nation full of people who are bound to have tribal differences is a good way to keep them at each other’s throats rather than focused on the power mechanisms that control them.

I’m a rare bird in that I’m not seduced by any tribal drumbeat, whether ethnic, religious, or ideological. Yet by default, I belong to one of the world’s most persistently persecuted minorities in that I believe human history and social conflict are best viewed through the cold microscope of facts and logic rather than the dim prism of moralistic mystical groupthink. So when I approach the radioactive and comically stigmatized concept of “racism,” my first question isn’t “How do we stop it?”, it’s “Why does it exist in the first place?”

Modern social scientists, who are little more than unscientific socialists, variously view racism as a cancer, a sin, an aberration, and a mental illness rather than a natural and ubiquitous phenomenon. Ignoring the fact that every culture throughout human history has been ethnocentric, they frame racism as an exclusive product of white supremacy, European colonialism, and predatory palefaced capitalism. They also shellac it with a thick gloppy glaze of moralistic condemnation, depicting it as the worst and most destructive of all possible human instincts. The psychological establishment is well on its way to depicting “sociobiological” as personality disorders rather than natural drives toward self-preservation, which in a bygone era were seen as the epitome of mental health.

And they blame it all on “culture” rather than biology, oblivious to the idea that it is most likely sociobiological forces that dictate and generate culture.

Without devolving into the predictable orgy of cuss words and finger-pointing and crudely painted devil puppets and endlessly unspooling bloody-rag hysteria, a simple sociobiological explanation for the tribal instinct that’s known as “racism” would account for its ubiquity. It would also explain its nagging persistence despite the relentless and increasingly iron-fisted attempts to eradicate it. Maybe it’s merely a natural group survival instinct—neither innately “good” or “bad,” which are subjective value judgments—but objectively natural, so maybe you should all calm the hell down.

There’s a recurrent leftist tendency to mistake thought for reality and reality for thought. Accordingly, the mass-culture witch doctors known as social scientists, almost all of whom are balls-deep in cultural Marxism, have it upside down and ass-backwards—race is real, while “racism” is a social construct. They insist there’s no such thing as “whiteness,” yet they blame “white people” for everything. They stomp their size-5 ballerina shoes and insist we need new double standards to counteract old double standards rather than, oh, doing the sensible thing and eliminating double standards.

Ever notice how no one on Earth seems more race-obsessed than so-called anti-racists? It must be exhausting to constantly have to stamp out all these fires that seem to keep lighting themselves. Unless an ocean of compelling evidence convinces me otherwise, I think the reason “we” can’t “get past” what’s known as “racism” is because tribalism is an evolutionary instinct. You see how much luck Victorian England had in squashing the sex instinct—it only yielded Jack the Ripper. I think the country is so psychotically perverse about race for similar reasons. Natural tribal instincts are being suppressed, yielding legions of tight-assed, insufferable weirdos.

Ethnic pride abhors a vacuum. The main problem with “cultural affirmative action”—or whatever you want to call the double standard that tolerates groups with “Black” or “Jewish” or “Hispanic” or “Asian” in their name but forbids it to whites—is that no one has defined exactly when “social justice” and “equality” are going to be achieved. Will it be when everyone scores exactly the same on intelligence tests and makes exactly the same income? Yeah, good luck with that project, Cap’n. What if that’s impossible without constantly imposing unfair rules—i.e., severely tilting the playing field you disingenuously claim you want to level?

For the longest time I was down with the whole “anti-racism” project until I realized one of its main platforms was continuing to allow people who didn’t share my biological ancestry to hate me for my skin. I thought the deal was that we were all supposed to drop the whole racial-pride thing. Instead, I wound up on my derriere in a game of Racial Musical Chairs. Not only did the other players refuse to abandon their ethnocentrism, they intensified it. Then I began to believe it wasn’t about fairness at all, it was merely a cleverly backhanded way of seizing power in a zero-sum Genetic World Series.

Conflict seems inevitable in human interactions. The term “the human race” would only acquire practical meaning if we were attacked by Martians. And if the only two humans left on Earth were identical twins, they’d find a way to somehow make it racial.

The sanest route would be to treat everyone fairly while conceding that life is unfair. Presume that anyone who ignores nature and thinks everything is 100% nurture is a natural-born idiot. And you should tolerate whomever you like, avoid whomever you dislike, but NEVER tolerate anyone who won’t tolerate you.