Sunday, May 18, 2014
Confessions of a Public Defender
Via Jeffery
Still liberal after all these years.
I am a public defender in a large southern metropolitan area. Fewer
than ten percent of the people in the area I serve are black but over 90
per cent of my clients are black. The remaining ten percent are mainly
Hispanics but there are a few whites.
I have no explanation for why this is, but crime has racial patterns. Hispanics usually commit two kinds of crime: sexual assault on children and driving under the influence. Blacks commit many violent crimes but very few sex crimes. The handful of whites I see commit all kinds of crimes. In my many years as a public defender I have represented only three Asians, and one was half black.
As a young lawyer, I believed the official story that blacks are law abiding, intelligent, family-oriented people, but are so poor they must turn to crime to survive. Actual black behavior was a shock to me.
Still liberal after all these years.
I have no explanation for why this is, but crime has racial patterns. Hispanics usually commit two kinds of crime: sexual assault on children and driving under the influence. Blacks commit many violent crimes but very few sex crimes. The handful of whites I see commit all kinds of crimes. In my many years as a public defender I have represented only three Asians, and one was half black.
As a young lawyer, I believed the official story that blacks are law abiding, intelligent, family-oriented people, but are so poor they must turn to crime to survive. Actual black behavior was a shock to me.
More @ American Renaissance
“If I were a Southerner, as I am a Northerner, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I would never lay down my arms – never, never, NEVER!”
Freedom of the press went flying in Bangor in August 1861
*****************************************
Though abolitionists
found much of their strength in New England, Democrats in that region
sided with the South in its determination of be free of the North. After
this editorial of the Bangor Democrat appeared, a pro-Lincoln mob
burned the news offices and printing presses. The editorial was
re-printed in the New York Evening Day-Book of 18 April 1861.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Defense of the Same Sacred Principles of Liberty
“Throughout
the broad land of the fair South, the rising sun is no longer welcomed
with the cheerful song of the husbandman wending his way to the toil of
his peaceful field, but is greeted with the drum-beat that summons to
arms the gathering hosts of war. From Carolina to the Rio Grande all is
hasty preparation for a fearful conflict of arms.
There,
to-day, are no peaceful, happy and quiet homes, for the invader is on
their soil, and the government which was created to protect and defend
them, has ruthlessly turned its guns against their altars and firesides.
Gray-headed
fathers, stout-hearted husbands, and fair-cheeked youths, are taking a
tearful adieu of their wives, their children, their mothers and their
sisters, and buckling on their armor, and hastening away to the
battle-fields from which many, many may never return to gladden their
homes again.
This,
reader, is no fanciful picture; it is a stern reality. To-morrow, in
thousands of homes, wives, mothers, daughters, and little children will
gather in mournful silence around the family board no longer cheered by
the presence of their natural guardians and protectors.
Why is all this?
It
is because that old Tory party, which under a multitude of names and
disguises, first resisted the independence of America, and after its
Government had become an established fact, has been unceasing in its
efforts to get possession of it, and after having gained possession of
it, by hypocritically assuming the garb of freedom, it has undertaken to
convert the Government into an instrument of tyranny, and to use all
its powers to overturn the very bulwarks of liberty itself – the
Sovereignty of the States.
Yes,
Abraham Lincoln, a Tory from his birth, is putting forth all the powers
of government to crush out the spirit of American liberty. Surrounded
by gleaming bayonets at Washington, he sends forth fleets and armies to
overawe and subdue the gallant little State which was the first to raise
its voice and arm against British oppression.
DEMOCRATS
OF MAINE! The loyal sons of the South have gathered around Charleston
as your fathers of old gathered about Boston, in defense of the same
sacred principles of liberty – principles which you have ever upheld and
defended with your vote, your voice and your strong right arm. Your
sympathies are with the defenders of the truth and the right. Those who
have inaugurated this unholy and unjustifiable war are no friend of
yours – no friends of Democratic Liberty. Will you aid them in their
work of subjugation and tyranny?
When
the Government at Washington calls for volunteers or recruits to carry
on their work of subjugation and tyranny under the specious phrases of
“enforcing the laws,” “retaking and protecting the public property,” and
“collecting the revenue,” let every Democrat fold his arms and bid the
minions of Tory despotism [to] do a Tory despot’s work. Say to them
fearlessly and boldly in the language of England’s great Lord, the Earl
of Chatham, whose bold words in behalf of the struggling Colonies of
America in the dark hours of the revolution, have enshrined his name in
the heart of every friend of freedom, and immortalized his fame wherever
the name of liberty is known – say in his thrilling language:
“If
I were a Southerner, as I am a Northerner, while a foreign troop was
landed in my country, I would never lay down my arms – never, never,
NEVER!”
One Major Southern Problem--Public Schools
Via Billy
Although I am writing this, frankly, I don't expect very many people will want to pay much attention to it. You see, it will go against the grain of the propaganda they have been fed and ingested for well over the past century or so, and to do something about the problem would involve personal responsibility, and most folks today flee personal responsibility as they would the plague.
The small North Louisiana town I live in thinks the local public schools there are the greatest thing since sliced bread. The possibility that the local public schools there may be brainwashing their children is the last thing they want to hear, and so if you dare to approach the subject they just tune you out. "Don't confuse me with the facts, please." It's so much better to remain ignorant, then I don't have to DO anything. This is the typical attitude in town and cities across the South, and the rest of the country, too.
The public school is sacrosanct. It is the sacred cow. The only time anyone ever dares question it is if their kid wears a Confederate flag tee shirt to school and gets sent home for that. The black kid next to him may have a Malcolm X tee shirt on, but that's okay. It gets an automatic pass, just like the tee shirt with the "gay pride" stuff all over it. These are okay, by public school standards today, but your kid's Confederate flag tee shirt has to come off, immediately if not sooner. If the parents decide to protest this, the result is usually far from satisfactory.
Although I am writing this, frankly, I don't expect very many people will want to pay much attention to it. You see, it will go against the grain of the propaganda they have been fed and ingested for well over the past century or so, and to do something about the problem would involve personal responsibility, and most folks today flee personal responsibility as they would the plague.
The small North Louisiana town I live in thinks the local public schools there are the greatest thing since sliced bread. The possibility that the local public schools there may be brainwashing their children is the last thing they want to hear, and so if you dare to approach the subject they just tune you out. "Don't confuse me with the facts, please." It's so much better to remain ignorant, then I don't have to DO anything. This is the typical attitude in town and cities across the South, and the rest of the country, too.
The public school is sacrosanct. It is the sacred cow. The only time anyone ever dares question it is if their kid wears a Confederate flag tee shirt to school and gets sent home for that. The black kid next to him may have a Malcolm X tee shirt on, but that's okay. It gets an automatic pass, just like the tee shirt with the "gay pride" stuff all over it. These are okay, by public school standards today, but your kid's Confederate flag tee shirt has to come off, immediately if not sooner. If the parents decide to protest this, the result is usually far from satisfactory.
More @ The Copperhead Chronicle
Common Core: Data mining your children
Via avordvet
The NSA has nothing on the ed tech startup known as Knewton.
The data analytics firm has peered into the brains of more than 4 million students across the country.
By monitoring every mouse click, every keystroke, every split-second hesitation as children work through digital textbooks, Knewton is able to find out not just what individual kids know, but how they think. It can tell who has trouble focusing on science before lunch — and who will struggle with fractions next Thursday.
The NSA has nothing on the ed tech startup known as Knewton.
The data analytics firm has peered into the brains of more than 4 million students across the country.
By monitoring every mouse click, every keystroke, every split-second hesitation as children work through digital textbooks, Knewton is able to find out not just what individual kids know, but how they think. It can tell who has trouble focusing on science before lunch — and who will struggle with fractions next Thursday.
More @ Politico
New Moral Code From Washington
Virginia
Governor J. Lindsay Almond and his citizens witnessed the degradation
of education caused by the unconstitutional Brown decision, and the
predictable result of forced school integration in nearby DC.
Bernhard Thuersam
New Moral Code From Washington
“On
January 19, 1959, came the legal rejection of massive resistance that
Governor [J. Lindsay] Almond expected. Both the Virginia Supreme Court
of Appeals and a three-judge federal district court ruled, in separate
cases, that the anti-desegregation statues adopted in 1956 were illegal
and invalid. When the beleaguered governor went on television two days
later to announce his response to the court rulings, his tone was
strident and his message was one of continued defiance. An impassioned
Almond told Virginians:
“To
those in high places or elsewhere who advocate integration for your
children and send their own to private or public segregated schools, to
those who defend or close their eyes to the livid stench of sadism, sex
immorality and juvenile pregnancy infesting the mixed schools of the
District of Columbia and elsewhere; to those who would overthrow the
customs, morals and traditions of a way of life which has endured in
honor and decency for centuries and embrace a new moral code prepared by
nine men in Washington whose moral concepts they know nothing about…to
all these and their confederates, comrades and allies, let me make it
abundantly clear for the record now and hereafter, as governor of this
State, I will not yield to that which I know to be wrong and will
destroy every semblance of education for thousands of the children of
Virginia.”
Nigeria vigilantes kill scores of Islamic militants suspecting of plotting another attack
Via WiscoDave
Villagers in an area of Nigeria where Boko Haram operates have killed
and detained scores of the extremist Islamic militants who were
suspected of planning a fresh attack, the residents and a security
official said.
Locals in Nigeria’s northern states have been forming vigilante groups in various areas to resist the militant group who have held more than 270 schoolgirls captive since last month.
In Kalabalge, a village about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Borno state capital of Maiduguri, residents said they were taking matters into their own hands because the Nigerian military is not doing enough to stem Boko Haram attacks.
Locals in Nigeria’s northern states have been forming vigilante groups in various areas to resist the militant group who have held more than 270 schoolgirls captive since last month.
In Kalabalge, a village about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Borno state capital of Maiduguri, residents said they were taking matters into their own hands because the Nigerian military is not doing enough to stem Boko Haram attacks.
More with video @ New York Daily News
While America Sleeps
Her Heritage is Traded for Gold
Mike Scruggs
At least since the 1986 amnesty, the United States has had an immigration policy that profits illegal immigrants and businesses that hire them but hurts American workers and taxpayers.
Numerous studies have shown what is now becoming obvious. Our immigration policies are steadily making our country more liberal and more Democratic as well as poorer.
Our immigration policy has really been a deliberate failure to enforce immigration policies at the workplace. Securing the border is important, but the real problem is that we have not turned off the job magnet that attracts illegal immigrants. Nearly 50 percent of illegal immigrants do not sneak over the border. It is easy to get temporary tourist, work, or student visas and then overstay their limit. This is sometimes called visa-skipping, and it is becoming more common as people realize that the U.S. has virtually abandoned internal enforcement of its immigration laws. A typical example of visa skipping would be an agricultural worker with a legal H2-A visa, who goes illegal to take a higher paying construction job. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that sealing our borders will only cut illegal immigration by about 25 percent. Squeezing the border end of the illegal immigration balloon without enforcing immigration laws at the employment end, only results in more illegal immigration by visa-skipping. When political leaders emphasize securing the borders as the principal solution to illegal immigration, it is reasonable to conclude that they have either not done their homework on immigration issues, or they do not want to crack down on employers using illegal immigrant labor. They may also favor some kind of amnesty without calling it amnesty.
Since U.S. immigration law is not enforced at the workplace, hiring illegal immigrant labor is cheap, convenient, unlikely to be prosecuted, and very profitable. Some states require verification of a potential employee’s immigration status. This has proved quite successful in reducing illegal immigration into those states. But supporters of low-cost illegal immigrant labor have so far blocked a mandatory national E-Verify law and worked to undermine its applicability and effectiveness. Moreover, the political leadership in some states has bowed to political pressure from state chambers of commerce, state farm bureaus, and powerful lobbying associations of employers using large numbers of illegal immigrants. Their lack of foresight and courage will likely bring many problems and cause their tax base to flee.
Importing millions of poorly educated, low-skilled workers who pay little tax and make disproportionate use of government assistance programs is much more likely to bankrupt rather than enrich a nation. Furthermore, many American workers are displaced and pushed to government assistance. The greatest impact on American workers, however, is downward pressure on wages caused by an oversupply of cheaper foreign labor. Harvard labor economist George Borjas and others have estimated that although foreign-born labor in the U.S. accounts for $1.6 trillion or 11 percent of the annual GNP, the net economic effect after increased fiscal expenditures for education, social welfare and healthcare, and law enforcement is actually negative. The real effect is an annual transfer of about $400 billion of wealth from American workers to the employers of foreign workers, many of whom are here illegally and using stolen or falsified social security numbers. Those 25 percent who are not guilty of identity theft or social security fraud are probably guilty of tax evasion. The Heritage foundation estimates that illegal immigrant households use $14,387 more per year in government benefits and services than they pay in taxes. Legalizing unlawful immigrants does not make them cheaper. Social Security and other entitlement increases offset by very little additional tax revenues run their annual cost up to $18,980 per household.
Yet the Republican leaders in the U.S. House--John Boehner, Eric Cantor, John Goodlatte, and Paul Ryan--have deserted their conservative voting base and the substantial majority of conservative Republicans in the House and are trying to deliver a Republican surrender on amnesty to President Obama, Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democrat Senate leader Harry Reid, and the Gang-of-Eight sponsors of the Schumer-Rubio Senate amnesty bill, S.744, which would also bring another 30 to 35 million legal immigrant workers into the U.S. over the next decade. This is when we have 20 million Americans who want a full time job and cannot find one.
Depressed American wages from flooding the labor market with lower paid foreign workers is not limited to lower levels of education and wages. Salaries of computer science graduates fell 2.5 percent from 2012 to 2013, and the overall average of tech worker wages has been stagnant for 15 years. There is NO shortage of American STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) workers or graduates. In fact, two-thirds of U.S. STEM graduates are unable to find work in STEM fields.
Senate Republican sponsors of S.744, Lindsey Graham (SC) and John McCain (AZ), are now in their third attempt to pass an amnesty and massive foreign labor import program that would devastate American workers, escalate federal welfare and healthcare spending, and substantially increase the number of liberal Democratic voters and office holders. This is virtual suicide for the Republican Party and with that suicide will come the burial of every conservative issue including gun-rights, the protection of marriage, right to life, fiscal responsibility, and military preparedness. Why are they doing it?
Are Boehner, Cantor, Lindsey Graham, McCain, and others being bought for campaign donations and favorable TV ads by the U.S. Chamber, the Koch Brothers, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and other powerful special interest profiteers? Follow the money. The ideology of these people is not free enterprise; it is global profiteering unrestrained by social or patriotic concerns, especially not jobs for American workers.
By advancing Congress to an unprecedented betrayal of American workers, taxpayers, and the hopes and traditions of the American people, Boehner is diverting his party from probable victory to ignominious defeat In November. Can America survive Obama and Republican insanity?
A Troublesome Inheritance
Apparently like everybody who can read, still a probable majority in the US, I have just finished Nicholas Wade’s A Troublesome Inheritance, which deals with the genetics of human behavior, race, intelligence, how they came about, and related things about which one must never, ever state the obvious. It is a fine book: cogent, well informed, devoid of political propaganda. Anyone interested in the foregoing matters should read it. If you are a Democrat, have it shipped in a package marked Weird Sex Books to protect your reputation.
It is creating a great disturbance among professors, the right-thinking press, those college students who have heard of it, race panders, and related herbivores. This is curious. Reduced to a sentence, Wade says that genetics has a lot to do with human outcomes. Its major conclusions have been accepted or suspected forever in every blue-collar bar in the country. Yet they are a shock in faculty lounges. It is interesting to consider the pattern of views:
More @ Fred On Everything