Happy Birthday Milton Friedman

Today would have been the 98th birthday of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 - November 16, 2006).

The current administration is badly in need of a Milton Friedman.

VDH: Illegal Immigration and the Federal Non-Response

Yesterday on the Pajamas Media Blog, the Classicist, Victor Davis Hanson posted a piece entitled: The Truths We Dare Not Speak About Illegal Immigration.

"We are in revolutionary times when the law is a malleable thing, its validity predicated only on its perceived social utility at any given moment.

This is how nations are lost."

Barney Frank - A Class Act

This is from Boston Herald.Com. Seems the guy who was instrumental in the crash of the housing market, which almost precipitated the crash of our economy, and just recently joined with the other major contributor to that debacle in passing legislation that will do nothing to improve the situation (though it will create tons of new federal jobs) was trying to get away for a little R & R with his boyfriend on a place called Fire Island, when the ferry attendant refused to grant Barney the senior discount of one dollar causing Frank, according to reports, to throw a fit. Funny how those guys who don't blink an eye when spending other people's money (e.g. our taxes) go ballistic when they have to put their hands in their own pockets.

The New York Post describes Fire Island as a “popular gay haunt,” but the Boston Herald, in the below article, gives us the description of Fire Island from the resort's own website:

“There’s no place on earth like Fire Island Pines. It’s a legendary gay playground set on an idyllic island and one of the world’s most beautiful beaches,” it says. “It’s the kind of place gay people dream about, an island where everything is beautiful and possibilities are endless. It’s summer perfected.”

If Sodom and Gomorrah suddenly came to mind, you're not alone.

Senior moment for Barney Frank

Michael Ramirez Cartoon

(Click to enlarge)

"Only little people pay taxes."

The above quote is from Leona Helmsley (remember her?), but it could have come from former presidential contender, U. S. senator, and Vietnam "war hero" John Kerry - the guy who managed to marry two very rich women (one at a time).

The yacht (see above), named Isabel, was paid for by his second very rich wife, the woman who was married to former (and now deceased) Pennsylvania Senator John Heinz, and inherited his vast ketchup fortune. According to newspaper reports, Kerry's second wife, Teresa, paid $7,000,000 for the yacht, which Kerry had built in New Zealand (which didn't do much to help out the starving yacht building industry in his home state of Massachusetts). Not being satisfied by stiffing the yacht building industry at home, though, Kerry decided to dock his new toy in Rhode Island to avoid a fortune in Massachusetts sales and excise taxes. That's quite a guy: always concerned about the welfare of the folks back home. Of course, there is nothing wrong with trying to save on taxes when you can, but this is John Kerry, who has railed against outsourcing and tax avoidance by others. There's a name for such people.

The yacht, by the way, is a 76-foot sloop with two cabins, a pilot house with wet bar, and a cold wine storage (French no doubt), according to published reports.

Several Blogs were upset enough by all this that they took to calling Kerry a hypocrite (imagine that), and you can read a couple of the good ones at the Enterprise Blog and Moonbattery.

Closer to God in a Kayak XI

Taking a Best Friend to the Sea Buoy: A Final Journey

Some people go through life without ever having a best friend. I was blessed with two. Jim Kelly was my best friend from 1954 until he died in 2007; I’ve written about him elsewhere in this opus. Ed Dade became my other best friend when we met in 1965; Ed died in 2006. I miss both my best friends every day.

Ed called me the “Fruit Bat” because of all the fruit I consumed on our last cruise together. We were sailing through the Baltic Sea with Cass and Betty, and I was constantly helping myself to the fresh fruit available almost all day on the ship. My usual nickname from Ed, though, was Maj. I think he first started using that after seeing a TV sitcom called “Major Dad.”

I called him “Gout Man,” a nickname he had bestowed on a fellow passenger (who happened to be much younger than us) who shared our table on a Rhine River Cruise some years before, who constantly whined about his gout problems. It turned out Ed developed his own gout problems a little later and, though he never complained or whined, I bestowed the sobriquet – and he loved it. I also always reminded him that the malady came to him as a just punishment for all the nasty things he had said about our former fellow passenger.

Ed Dade and I met when we were first office agents together in the St. Louis Office of the FBI, in 1965. Cass was pregnant with Tim; Betty with Kreg: “Frick and Frack” as they came to be known by Ed and me. I don’t remember which one was which, but they enjoyed their special names too.

I left St. Louis in August 1965 bound for Monterey, California and Ed left shortly after that for Los Angeles. We managed to get together a couple times during 1965-1966 in Monterey. The Dade and McKenna kids: Kurt, Karin and Kreg got along like siblings with Bob and Tim McKenna, and when Steve came along he fit right in.

In October 1966, we moved into our first home in Bowie, Maryland (I had been transferred to the FBI Washington D.C. Office), and, when the Dades left Los Angeles a year later bound for New York, they stopped in Bowie for a visit along the way. I’ll never forget that. I knew they were anxious to get home to family, but still took the time to stop for a short visit.

Ed and Betty bought a house in Wayne, New Jersey, and stayed there for the rest of Ed’s life. Ed commuted to the New York FBI office five days a week for almost 20 years, and never complained. I could not have done it, but then Ed did lots of things that I could not have done. I’ll never forget the fireplace and chimney he built single-handed. That chimney was three stories high and Ed built it brick by brick with no help. It was that “can do” training he got as a U. S. Navy Seabee. He really could do anything.

There were many visits (all special) both in Bowie and Wayne between 1967 and 1973, when we moved to Florida for the first time. During those days, we vacationed together once on Long Beach Island, and every other year on the Outer Banks of North Carolina at Kitty Hawk. Those were great vacations, and it was on the Outer Banks where my kids will always remember Ed and me standing for hours at the shoreline discussing the world’s problems. The beer koozie had not yet been invented, so to be sure we did not have to tolerate warm beer we always took a supply of Rolling Rock pony bottles on vacation. That way, we could finish the six-ounce bottle before it got warm. Funny the things my kids remember. In 1970, when our Steve was born, Ed and Betty stood as his godparents at St. Pius X church in Bowie.

Sometime during those years, we each bought building sites at Palm Coast, Florida, and had many outstanding vacations at the Sheraton Palm Coast resort. Property owners had an unbelievable deal there: $15.00 per night (it’s still hard to believe), and we took advantage of it every year.

In 1975, we moved back to WDC and found a rental home in McLean, Virginia. Our visits between McLean and Wayne were even more frequent than they had been between Bowie and Wayne. A special remembrance of that time was our ski trip to Bryce Mountain, where we rented an A-Frame chalet, with a loft and a fireplace, on top of the mountain.

In 1977, we moved back to Miami, and our vacations continued at Palm Coast, and eventually moved to Sanibel Island.

We cruised together to Bermuda, the Panama Canal, and the Baltic, but the best cruise of all was our river cruise on the Rhine after visiting son Bob and his family in Holland. We cruised from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland and then went by train to Paris (where we spent five days), then to Brugge, Belgium for a couple days. It was by far the best trip the Dades and McKennas ever made together.

During our cruise on the Baltic in 2005, Ed was not feeling at all well. I remember trying to convince him that he needed exercise, and should spend time every day in the fully equipped exercise room on the ship, but to no avail. He just felt lousy and had a difficult time walking. In spite of his not feeling well, he insisted on accompanying me on a kayak tour in Copenhagen. In retrospect, I don’t know how he was able to do that.

On our return from the Baltic cruise, Ed was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which too quickly spread throughout his body. He was gone within a year. During my penultimate visit with Ed, during his last hospital stay, he asked me to take him (actually his ashes) out to the sea buoy (the buoy that marks the entrance to the St. John’s River and the Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Florida). I told him he shouldn’t be thinking like that and promised he could accompany me to the sea buoy in one of my extra kayaks as soon as he was up to it.

The miracle we were all praying for never materialized (at least not as we had envisioned it), and Ed left us, on September 5, 2006. I took his ashes out to the sea buoy, on August 10, 2007. Although it was one of the most difficult things I have ever done, it felt right. I visit his watery grave as often as I am able, and often feel his presence. I did today, Friday April 11, 2008.

Ed was not only a great husband and father; he was a great friend - a best friend - and I miss him.


(On the way to the buoy with Ed)


(Ed's final resting place) REQUIESCAT IN PACE


(Algernon Charles Swinburne)


Note: Not long after spreading Ed’s ashes at the sea buoy, I went back there to visit the site and something very strange happened on the way. I have seen numerous giant sea turtles on my kayak trips, and can tell you from experience that it is next to impossible to get close to them. I have, on occasion, come upon one from the rear and have been able to very quietly paddle to within a few feet, but as soon as the turtle hears or feels anything getting close, it drops its head and goes vertical - straight down, not to be seen again. On this trip to visit Ed’s grave, I was within a short distance of the buoy when all of a sudden a giant sea turtle surfaced right next to the port side of my kayak, and stared up at me for what seemed a long time. I was totally shocked, and simply sat there and stared back. Though tempted to pat my unexpected visitor on his head, my instincts told me it would be better to return to the beach with both hands attached to my arms. After a few minutes he just drifted off and went vertical. It was one of the strangest things that has happened to me in my kayak, and I have to feel that Ed had something to do with it.


(Click on photos to enlarge)

Harrison Bergeron - A Must Read

Harrison Bergeron is a very short short story by Kurt Vonnegut. A brief background of the piece was posted last Friday on the Blog, Ten Weeks of Summer.

The story is one that should be read by every freedom loving American, who believes in the rights of the individual. It is reminiscent of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, published in 1932.

First published in 1961, the story has been characterized as a dystopian science fiction, and is as clear a repudiation of egalitarianism as will be found anywhere. In a society where trophies are awarded simply for participating, high schools are afraid to name any one student the class valedictorian, girls must receive an equal number of athletic scholarships as boys (even though their sports generate very little revenue for their schools), and female sailors are about to be assigned to submarines, a story such as this has never been more timely.

You can read the whole story in less than 10 minutes, here.

In 1995, a movie based loosely on Harrison Bergeron was produced for cable television, starring Sean Astin and Christopher Plummer (pictured above). Here's a short clip from the movie.

Sundays are for Beauty - The Carpenters

Siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter entertained the world for 14 years, and continue to do so through their recordings and video tapes. They recorded 11 albums, and five of those highlighted top 10 songs. They also made five television specials.


Have a Beautiful Sunday.

Stop the Mosque at Ground Zero

Someone who completely supports the building of the Mosque at Ground Zero is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and he wants to run for President of the United States. He really does.

Obamateurism of the Day by HotAir.Com

ED MORRISSEY of HotAir.Com is posting the best Obamateurism of the day on his Blog. This video of a speech by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is the winner for today. Listen to Obama's advice for those who lost their jobs because of his drilling moratorium; it's at about 1:10 on the tape. Message: he cares.

The President of the United States came down here, met with us in person, and this is what he told us. He said this to me. He said, “Governor, if people lose their jobs because of the moratorium, they can file a BP claim. I said, “Mr. President, with all due respect, what if BP doesn’t pay?” He said, “Don’t worry, Governor, they can file an unemployment claim.”

Good News from Jihad Watch

Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch posted this good news about the decision by the Catholic Church canceling its sale of a Staten Island convent to the Muslim Brotherhood. He quotes Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs), who just received the news.

I just received word that the board voted NO. There will be no mosque in Midland. The Saint Margaret Mary Church will not be converted into a Muslim Brotherhood project.

Geert Wilders Dissects Islam

Geert Wilders is a Dutch politician and leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), the third leading political party in the Netherlands. He was raised as a Roman Catholic, but left the Church some time ago. He attributes his politics to his support for what he calls 'Judeo-Christian values'. He was interviewed recently by MuslimDebate.Com. He was asked "why he became anti-Islam and what is his message to the Muslims?" His answer was published by Jihadwatch.org.

Here is Wilders being interviewed by Fox News about his controversial film, "Fitna," which is a condemnation of radical Islam.



Finally, here is part of his film, "Fitna." Needless to say, Wilders can go nowhere without a security detail.

Planned Parenthood Baby Killers Are Also Liars

This undercover video was made by Live Action Films and Lila Rose as part of their Rosa Acuna Project. It was made at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Indianapolis, Indiana last September, and was posted on the HotAir.Com website yesterday along with some background on the undercover project. Please share it with friends.

Atlas Shrugs: Ground Zero Mosque is SECOND Mosque Being Built on 9/11 Site

This is a blogburst from Alec Rawls of Error Theory Blog. He and Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs) are leading the fight against the building of mosques on 9/11 sites in New York and Pennsylvania.


Flight 93 father: ground zero mosque is the SECOND mosque being built on a 9/11 site

Pamela Geller, who is leading the fight against the ground zero mosque in New York, has posted the following letter from Tom Burnett Senior.


To our fellow 9/11 families and to all who are concerned about the Ground Zero mega-mosque in New York:

We want everyone to know that the Park Service is right now building an even larger Islamic victory mosque atop the Flight 93 crash site. Many of you were outraged in 2005 when the Crescent of Embrace design was unveiled to be a half-mile wide Islamic shaped crescent:


Left: 2005 publicity shot of the Crescent of Embrace design. Right: typical Islamic crescent and star, viewed from a similar angle.

Few people know that this giant crescent actually points to Mecca, or understand the religious significance of this orientation. A crescent that points the direction to Mecca is a very familiar construct in the Islamic world. Because Muslims face Mecca for prayer, every mosque is built around a Mecca direction indicator called a mihrab. The classic mihrab is crescent shaped. Here are the two most famous mihrabs in the world:


Left: the Mihrab of the Prophet, at the Prophet's mosque in Medina. Right: the mihrab of the Great Mosque in Cordoba Spain.


Face into the crescent to face Mecca

As with the Medina and Cordoba mihrabs, a person facing into the Crescent of Embrace will be facing Mecca. In the image below, superimposed red lines show the orientation of the Flight 93 crescent. The green qibla circle is from an online Mecca-direction calculator:


A person standing between the tips of the crescent and facing into the center of the crescent (red arrow) will be facing almost exactly in "qibla" direction (the Muslim prayer direction). You can verify the qibla direction from Somerset PA using any number of on-line Mecca-direction calculators.

To be precise, the Crescent of Embrace points 1.8° north of Mecca, ± a tenth of a degree. The final construction drawings alter this orientation slightly, so that instead of pointing a little less than two degrees north of Mecca, the actual crescent will point less than three degrees south of Mecca. Such small deviations from Mecca are insignificant by Islamic standards, which developed over a period of more than a thousand years during which far flung Muslims had no accurate way to determine the direction to Mecca.

The Park Service does not call the Crescent of Embrace a crescent anymore. Now they call it Circle of Embrace, but the only actual change was to add an extra arc of trees (planted to the rear of a person facing into the giant crescent) that explicitly represents a broken off part of the circle. The unbroken part of the circle, what symbolically remains standing in the wake of 9/11, is just the original Crescent of Embrace. It is still a giant Islamic shaped crescent, still pointing at Mecca.

This is the Park Service's official explanation for the design: the terrorist attacks are depicted as smashing our peaceful circle and turning it into a giant crescent. A clearer depiction of Islamic victory is hard to imagine, so no one should be too surprised that the damned thing points to Mecca, and actually turns out to be a mosque.


Other mosque features

Mosque design is based on a dozen typical mosque features, every one of which is realized in the Crescent/Circle design, all on the same epic scale as the half mile wide crescent-mihrab. Note, for instance, that the 93 foot tall minaret-like Tower of Voices is topped with another Islamic-shaped crescent, akin to the crescent-topped minarets seen in many Islamic countries:


An Islamic shaped crescent, soaring in the sky above the symbolic lives of the 40 heroes, which literally dangle down below. In Islam, there is only heaven and hell. Symbolic damnation?

The Flight 93 mosque needs to be stopped, along with the Islamic victory mosque at ground zero in Manhattan. May the fight against these two desecrations strengthen each other.

Sincerely,

Tom Burnett Senior
Loving father of Flight 93 hero Tom Burnett Junior


Pamela's Atlas Shrugs post includes a second letter from Mr. Burnett, thanking her for her help and passing on some information about the design selection process. (The vote for was 9 to 6 from a judging panel where family members were outnumbered 8-7 by left wing design professionals.)


Want to join our blogburst against the crescent mosque?

Just send your blog's url.

There is also an online petition that people can sign.

Contact information for the Flight 93 Memorial Project here.

Closer to God in a Kayak X

The Third Whale Encounter

My third experience at sighting a whale occurred, on January 10, 2008, just after returning from my first deployment as an adjunct English instructor with Central Texas College (Navy College) aboard the USS Kearsarge in the Middle East. It was my second day out on the water since returning home, and once again the prevailing winds and currents forced me to go south into both so the trip home would be less grueling. The strong wind was actually blowing slightly southwest. Whenever the wind is over 15 knots out of the west or almost west, it's a good idea to stay fairly close to shore to avoid paddling into a strong wind on the return trip to my beach. This was one of those days. It is not unusual on such days heading south to find myself more than three miles out to sea before paddling three miles south.

On this particular day, I had managed to stray only about two miles off the beach before reaching the three-mile mark south of my beach. The three-mile mark is the old Holiday Inn in Jacksonville Beach (which is now a Marriott Courtyard). Approaching the mark, I noticed something very unusual off to my left front, and it was not long before the possibility occurred to me that it could be a Right whale. The long black figure toward which I paddled as quickly as possible soon became two black figures: one on top of the other. My thought at the time was that I had arrived on the scene moments after a large female Right whale had given birth to a beautiful calf, which she was carrying on her back upon my arrival. It was magnificent. Mother and calf swam south, then north, then south again, with the calf occasionally slipping off the mother’s back only to be helped back up again by the mother.

I sat right there for about an hour and twenty minutes, enjoying a show that few people have the luck to witness in the wild, and enjoyed every minute of it. A couple Navy helicopters that circled overhead, no doubt as amazed as I by what they were seeing below them, disturbed my private show, but only temporarily. After a few minutes, they flew off to finish their missions. Shortly after the copters departed, though, a fixed-wing Cessna (push – puller) appeared above me and circled for quite a while. I did not realize at the time that that Cessna belonged to a Right whale research team from the New England Aquarium, and flew over the calving grounds between Georgia and Florida regularly during the calving season. I found this photo of the plane on the website for the New England Aquarium.


A little more investigation, using E-Mail, determined that the researcher from the New England Aquarium, Monica Zani, who was aboard that Cessna, had alerted the Marine Patrol of my presence in the near (too near) vicinity of the whale. Here's a photo of Monica from the same website.


My happiness at being a witness to this special event was spoiled by the arrival of a Florida Marine Patrol boat that sped up behind me. One of the young officers aboard leaned over his large boat and asked if I were aware that according to law nobody could be within 500 yards of a Right whale. I said I apparently was not aware of that law, as I was within about 40 yards of two of them at the moment. Luckily neither officer had ever seen a Right whale, and the excitement of the moment must have made them less inclined to make me pay for having caused their good fortune (had they not been alerted by the Cessna of my lawbreaking, they would still be waiting to see their first Right whale – thanks, Monica Zani). It didn't hurt that one of the officers was retired Navy, and was interested to hear about my teaching stint aboard the USS Kearsarge. I got away with only a warning citation from the Marine Patrol officers, and they and I left the area. It was a great day, and I was now in possession of my second warning citation from the Florida Marine Patrol. For anyone counting, my third whale encounter had allowed me to be up close and personal with a total of five whales: three adults and two calves. Wow! Either my luck is running extremely high, or God is planning on using me in a sequel to the Jonah story.

Monica Zani, the New England Aquarium researcher who threw me under the bus, has become a friend, and she sent me this photo of the whale and calf taken by her from the plane that day. The Mother is named "Arpeggio." She gave birth, on December 20, 2007, so the unnamed calf was less than a month old on the day we met.

Repeal Obamacare: Center for Freedom and Prosperity

(Click bottom right to watch on You Tube)

Dan Mitchell at Big Government.Com posted this video yesterday along with an explanation of it. You can read the post here. Repeal, as we know, is just the first step.

The ultimate lesson to be learned from this issue is that more government is not the way to solve problems caused by government. Every time politicians intervene in the healthcare market, they pass some law that makes the system worse. They then say that the resulting problems require even more government intervention.

(Sounds a lot like Thomas Sowell).

Sundays are for Beauty - Eric Genuis

Eric Genuis performs "Valor" as a guest on the show, Life on the Rock.

Life on the Rock is a presentation of the Eternal Word Network (EWTN).

Have a Beautiful Sunday.


H/T: Txmcks

The NPP Case: A scarcely reported scandal

It looks like the U. S. Civil Rights Commission, unlike the U. S. Department of Justice believes that the enforcement of civil rights laws should be race neutral. Imagine that. The story was reported, believe it or not, by CBS News.

In a sharply worded letter to senior Justice Department official Thomas Perez, who heads the Civil Rights Division, the commission said it had evidence raising "serious concerns" about whether the department's policies "are being pursued in a race-neutral fashion."

The story came to light when Megyn Kelly of Fox News interviewed former justice department career prosecutor, J. Christian Adams, earlier this month.

Angelo Codevilla: THEM vs US

Angelo Codevilla, professor emeritus of international relations at Boston University, writing in the current issue of The American Spectator, discusses the differences between America's Ruling Class and her Country Class, and the "Perils of Revolution."

This is a long article but well worth the time to read and digest as it makes clear the distinction between those who consider themselves our betters (think Gore, Kerry, Obama, Pelosi et al.) and those of us who believe in God, family, and the America created by our Founding Fathers. Codevilla even outlines the steps necessary to rescue the America loved and honored by her Country Class.

Heritage: Remember the Gulf

This video comes to us from The Heritage Foundation. Rory Cooper, director of strategic communications at the Heritage Foundation, just spent a week in the Gulf on what Heritage is calling a fact-finding mission. On Tuesday, he was interviewed by Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of National Review Online, and discussed what he found.

Here's a clip:

LOPEZ: What is the federal government’s role today?

COOPER: The federal government needs to stop the leak, first and foremost. But its other #1 priority, side-by-side, is to clean the oil that has already spilled. While BP is paying for the effort, the government has the sole obligation to lead it. But in reality, the role they are playing is one of delays, bureaucracy and red tape. The federal effort so far is a catastrophic failure.


LOPEZ: Has it missed opportunities?

COOPER: Of course. The federal government let weeks and months slip by while ignoring international offers of assistance; they failed to deploy skimmers when necessary and are still not transparent about what skimming capabilities they have; their delays on permitting rock jetties and sand berms have hampered state and local efforts to protect the environment and surely caused irreversible damage to the Louisiana ecosystem.


H/T: bkmck

The Most Dangerous Man in America

That's Dr. Donald Berwick, the man President Obama placed, by recess appointment, in charge of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). That agency just happens to have a larger budget than our department of defense, and Berwick will not be subject to a public hearing and senate confirmation. It is difficult to establish, among the myriad and daily scandals of this administration, one as being the most egregious, but this is probably it.

Daniel Henninger, deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page penned a MUST READ column on this "beyond outrageous" appointment.

Here are some quotes from Dr. Death himself. Wouldn't you have liked to hear him answer for these thoughts before a senate committee in public hearings? Obviously, Obama didn't want to put him through that.

"I cannot believe that the individual health care consumer can enforce through choice the proper configurations of a system as massive and complex as health care. That is for leaders to do."

"Please don't put your faith in market forces. It's a popular idea: that Adam Smith's invisible hand would do a better job of designing care than leaders with plans can."

"A progressive policy regime will control and rationalize financing—control supply."

If these quotes and others in the Henninger article don't bother you, congratulations: you're a socialist.

Abigail Thernstrom: Amnesia at the NAACP

This is from The Corner on National Review Online yesterday. Abigail Thernstrom, along with her husband Stephan, has written extensively on "race," and manifestly knows more about the history of the NAACP than the association's current leaders.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Amnesia at the NAACP [Abigail Thernstrom]
The president of the NAACP, Ben Jealous, has demanded that tea-party supporters “expel racists from the ranks.” In an interview with ABC News, he claimed that the organization had, “for more than a year” been watching “as tea-party members have called congressmen the N-word, have called congressmen the F-word. We see them carry racist signs and whenever it happens; the membership tries to shirk responsibility.”

Tea-party “members”: Is there a membership list so that individuals who are alleged to have engaged in very ugly language can be properly identified and expelled or at least denounced? Of course not. And where is the taped evidence supporting the charges?

These are questions to which the NAACP should be particularly sensitive. In the 1950s, southern whites viewed its members as “outsiders” with subversive aims that deprived them of constitutional protection. The organization was blamed for the decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the general assertiveness of the “new Negro,” and southern state officials sought to force the organization to turn over its membership lists; compliance would have invited reprisals from the White Citizens’ Councils.

Half a century ago, in other words, the NAACP understood that American democracy depended on the freedom of citizens to form voluntary associations and petition their government for a redress of grievances. Need it be said? The fluid “tea party” is made up of precisely such voluntary associations, petitioning our government. The membership is more heavily white than the general population, but more racist? That is not the finding of a Washington Post/ABC poll taken in April 2010 — the best evidence we have on the question.

— Abigail Thernstrom is the author, most recently, of Voting Rights — and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections. She is an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and vice chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

A Primer for High School Principals

Dennis Prager, radio talk show host, offered a primer for the nation's high school principals on National Review Online. Now if a good number of them will have the courage to ignore political correctness and address the students on the first day of school using the words offered by Prager, or similar words, it will be a good start toward the return of sanity in our schools.

Real Education - Dennis Prager - National Review Online


H/T: bkmck

General James Mattis Moves To Centcom

That's "Mad Dog" Mattis, USMC, who has been nominated by the president to be the next Commander of the U. S. Central Command, replacing General David Petraeus, who replaced General Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan, so Mattis will be Petraeus's boss. Most of the media are calling Mattis "controversial" in part because of the following quote from a speech he gave at a leadership seminar in 2005. Here's the quote:

“Actually, it’s a lot of fun to fight. You know it’s a helluva hoot. I’ll be right up front with you. I like brawling. You go into Afghanistan, you get guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil … guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.”

So what's so controversial about that? According to Mackubin Thomas Owens, in the below linked article from National Review Online, General Mattis is probably the finest Marine combat leader since the legendary Chesty Puller. That is, indeed, saying something. Owens is a professor at The Naval War College and a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War.

General Mattis Moves to CENTCOM - Mackubin Thomas Owens - National Review Online

SEMPER FI!