Full Circle

I guess if you live long enough, you will see most everything. After the civil war racists found ways to substitute segregation for slavery ... separate schools, separate drinking fountains, even "Colored only" waiting rooms. It took over a hundred years to roll back these Jim Crow laws. Can we all sigh in relief that this discrimination has been mostly driven out of our town square and school rooms?

Hold on there Pilgrim! It appears that millennial snowflakes are trying to roll back the clock! University of Michigan students are now trying to get their administration to establish black-only enclaves at their school where people of color are protected from the exigencies of our "white  privilege" society ... see: The College Fix Story.

How is this any different from "Colored Only" waiting rooms?

Our Redemptions

It seems to this political observer that the United States has been wallowing in political redemptions for quite some time:

We elected a sex-crazed, Addison-inflicted Irishman as president to prove that we were really really sorry for how we had treated Catholics during their great migrations here.

We elected a fuzzy-thinking peanut farmer as president to prove that we were really really sorry for the mistakes we made in Vietnam and for that crooked leader we had recently ousted.

We elected a former alcoholic, born-again Christian as president to prove that we were really really sorry for the lascivious antics of our previous White House resident

We elected an unvetted Muslim-leaning mulatto as president to prove that we were really really sorry for our slavery past and for tolerating Jim Crow laws.

Now we are poised to elect a blatantly dishonest, money-grubbing lesbian as president to prove that we are really really sorry that it took so long for us to treat women as equals and "not that there is anything wrong with that."

What can possibly be next for our country to redeem with our presidency?

His High Horse

Our puke of a president spoke at the annual National Prayer Breakfast this morning and I think that I am again agast by how un-presidential he always is. Here is an excerpt from the apologia he gave to this religious crowd:

And, first, we should start with some basic humility. I believe that the starting point of faith is some doubt -- not being so full of yourself and so confident that you are right and that God speaks only to us, and doesn't speak to others, that God only cares about us and doesn't care about others, that somehow we alone are in possession of the truth.

Him? Humility? Not full of himself? I have yet to see one iota of humility in this man … he who claims he can make the seas recede and our planet heal. To me it’s a wonder that his head didn’t explode as he spoke these pious words! But. the heavens didn’t part and lightning didn’t strike him down, so he was able then to pontificate further:

Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history [those who seek to hijack religions for their own murderous ends]. And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was [sic] justified in the name of Christ.

A little reading of history will reveal that the crusades were 800 years ago and were meant to recapture Christians’ most holy places from the Muslims … and the Inquisitions, however shameful, were 500 years ago during the time that Spain was retaking its land from the Muslims. And those who even know a smidgen of slavery’s shameful past will recall that Muslims were the primary slave traders in Africa. And, in the meantime, Christianity has experienced a fundamental reformation, slaves in this country were emancipated 150 years ago and Jim Crow laws were overturned 50 years ago. But, brutal slavery is still a widespread and evil blot practiced in the Muslim world.

And ISIS, in the name of Islam, is committing heinous acts on a daily basis! Not 800 years ago … not 500 years ago … not 150 years ago … not 50 years ago … but NOW! And it would, I think, have been very appropriate, nay necessary, for President Obama to have augmented his idiotic moral equivalencies with a call for a reformation within Islam. But he won’t praise or even acknowledge to the slightest those Muslims who have so advocated recently … see: A Modern Crusade.

If you wish to read the entire transcript of this Reverend Jeremiah Wright's protégée’s pap pronouncements please go to: Christian Post Article. 

But first take a healthy dose of Pepto Bismol.

Afterward: For more strong words on this matter from John Hinderaker see: Powerline Blog.

Liberal Solutions

Why is it that so many liberal solutions to societal problems don't work? Now liberals generally are not stupid ... nor are they, I assume, trying to make matters worse. But all too often their well-meaning solutions to imbalances in our society end up costing a fortune and destroying an existing working mechanism. What is that old saying ... if it ain't broke, don't fix it?

It isn't difficult to come up with examples of these liberal failings here in the United States  How about their insisting on dealing with terrorists inside of our criminal justice system? How about their not enforcing many of our immigration policies (George W. Bush included)? How about their continued diminishing of our military hegemony? How about their expansion of our welfare system beyond reason? How about their creating of mechanisms that encourage voter fraud? How about their self-serving roiling of race and gender relations? How about their attempts to overthrow our gun freedoms? How about their penchant for deficit spending (ditto George W. Bush)? How about even their continued attempts to centralize powers away from the people?

To be fair, there are occasional liberal ideas that do work ... at least for a time ... like social security, and some reasonable welfare benefits. (Many might also claim that the roll-back of slavery and the Jim Crow laws were liberal wins ... but it was just the opposite.) But, when such successes are accomplished, liberals double down, triple down, and even quadruple down until such benefits are crushed under their inherent weaknesses.

The Race Card

Let me see … the United States freed the slaves about 150 years ago and, in the process, sacrificed over 600,000 of our young men. It also stopped school segregation and Jim Crow laws about 60 years ago. And, as an act of atonement, it has long encouraged racial preferences to be used in employment and education. It has had two black Supreme Court justices, two black Secretaries of State, one black Attorney General and multiple black Presidential cabinet secretaries and top-level advisers, many black Senators, Representatives, state Governors and city Mayors, and numerous black corporate CEOs, university Presidents, sports personalities, movie/music stars, TV poobahs, and other millionaire glitterati … and now the U.S. has a black in the highest office in the land … its President … all elected, appointed or appreciated by a population which is, by its majority, not black.

One would think that these many enlightened accomplishments might begin to remove the stain of slavery from the American psyche (our original sin as so aptly described by Condoleezza Rice.)  But no … we are still racists. Not only are whites racists, but we are often compared to the Klu Klux Klan … itching to scare the black man into submission with a burning cross. We are an unrecoverable and vile form of humanity who cannot be reformed or forgiven for the sins of our forebearers … even beyond the seventh generation (the seeming Biblical limit of sin’s legacy.)

Recently, Michelle Obama, in a high-school graduation address, told her starry-eyed audience that they still hold secret prejudice against the likes of her … see: here. And Attorney General, Eric Holder has let go with both barrels. First saying that anyone who opposes President Obama’s policies is guilty of “quiet prejudice” … see: here. And then, paradoxically suggested that colorblindness is not the way to end discrimination … see: here.

I guess playing the race card in politics has become second nature to many on the left … particularly when your pile of accomplishment chips is so diminished. But, I for one am more than ready to call the left's bluff.

Continued winning at political poker requires a lot more than just bluster … and a race card.