Posted on October 1, 2010

O Tempora, O Mores! (October, 2010)

American Renaissance, October 2010

Rally — Or Else

On August 28, controversial conservative radio and cable television talk show host Glenn Beck held a rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, ostensibly to “restore American honor.” Joining Mr. Beck were former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Alveda King — niece of Martin Luther King — some baseball players, and between 300,000 and 500,000 overwhelmingly white “Tea Party” activists. The rally was on the 47th anniversary of King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, which led to accusations that Mr. Beck was trying to “hijack the legacy.” The event was more of a religious revival than a political rally, with Mr. Beck, an enthusiastic Mormon convert, going out of his way to prove his anti-“racist” credentials by putting one non-white after another behind the podium. During her talk, Alveda King said she hoped “white privilege” would one day become “human privilege,” and that America would soon “repent of the sin of racism” and return to honor. The crowd reportedly cheered.

There was not one word about immigration or race preferences, and scarcely a word about shrinking the size of government. It was, in short a complete waste of time, and proves either that Glenn Beck has no idea what is wrong with the country or has been turned to jelly by the prospect of being accused of “racism.”

Al Sharpton organized a counter protest at the other end of the Mall to “reclaim the dream” and denounce Mr. Beck’s temerity in evoking King. By all accounts, Mr. Sharpton’s counterdemonstration was a shabby affair, drawing just a few thousand people. Many in the crowd were either members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — which bused people in from New Jersey — or employees of the Department of Education. US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, a close associate of President Obama, raised eyebrows by appearing at Mr. Sharpton’s elbow and addressing the sparse crowd. Eyebrows went up further when it came to light that the Department of Education had sent out an e-mail message to its 4,000 employees “inviting” them to the Sharpton event. According to David Boaz of the Cato Institute, such an “invitation,” while not technically illegal, was nonetheless “highly inappropriate.” “It sends a signal that activity on behalf of one side of a political debate is expected within a department.” He pointed out there would have been outrage if a Bush cabinet member urged civil servants to attend a Glenn Beck rally.

Another speaker at the Sharpton rally was SEIU DC-area chapter president Jaime Contreras, who said of the crowd attending the Beck rally: “Shame on them . . . They represent hate-mongering and angry white people. The happy white people are here today. We will not let them stand in the way of the change we voted for!” [Lisa Gartner, Education Secretary Urged His Employees to Attend Sharpton’s Rally, Washington Examiner, Aug. 30, 2010. Jim Hoft, Al Sharpton’s Counter-Freedom Rally Attracts Only 3,000 Supporters, GatewayPundit.com, Aug. 28, 2010.]

Lies Like a Rug

While President Obama and his family vacationed on Martha’s Vinyard at the end of August, a small army of designers and decorators gave the Oval Office a makeover. The centerpiece of the new look is a specially-made wheat- and cream-colored rug, featuring the presidential seal in the center, and with five historical quotations chosen by Mr. Obama around the edge. They are from Presidents Kennedy, Lincoln, and both Roosevelts, with the fifth supposedly from Martin Luther King: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” This is reported to be Mr. Obama’s favorite quotation.

If the White House had bothered to check, it would have discovered that this phrase, long attributed to King, was actually uttered in 1853 by Boston abolitionist and Unitarian minister Theodore Parker, a white man. King, no stranger to lifting the words of others, actually credited Parker for coming up with the phrase, but somehow, over time, it became identified as King’s own.

The White House isn’t revealing how much the redesign cost, saying only that it was consistent with what Presidents Clinton and Bush spent, and that no taxpayer funds were used. [Jamie Stiehm, Oval Office Rug Gets History Wrong, Washington Post, Sept. 4, 2010. Kenneth R. Bazinet, President Obama’s New Oval Office at White House Has Distinct NY Accent, New York Daily News, Sept. 1, 2010.]

Neither Fish Nor Fowl

Thirty years ago, under pressure from the US Department of Justice to ensure blacks had a chance to serve as class officers, the Nettleton, Mississippi, School District established a rule whereby only whites could run for certain school offices one year, and only blacks the next year. As Nettleton, population 2,000, is two thirds white and one third black, the rule benefited black students. This worked smoothly until Brandy Springer’s 12-year-old daughter, who is half American Indian, wanted to run for sixth grade class reporter, only to be told that she couldn’t because the job was reserved for blacks this year. Miss Springer, a white woman who recently moved to Nettleton from Florida, has four mixed-race children, two of them with an Indian, and two more with a black.

An outraged Miss Springer beefed about the policy on a website for mixed race-families, mixedandhappy.com, and soon the media were pestering the school board. Shortly thereafter, the district buckled and said it would do away with the old rules and let anyone run any time. This was too late for Miss Springer, who had already pulled her children out and moved to another district. [Holbrook Mohr, School’s Race Rule Prompts Mom to Pull Kids Out, AP, Aug. 27, 2010.]

Last Refuge

Ethically-challenged Harlem congressman Charlie Rangel, 80, who is facing a Congressional trial on 13 charges stemming from his failure to pay taxes on property he owns in the Dominican Republic and not declaring investments on his tax returns, is facing a strong primary challenge from Adam Clayton Powell. IV, the son of the Adam Clayton Powell Mr. Rangel beat back in 1970. Faced with the end of his lucrative career, Mr. Rangel is doing the desperate-black-man dance, and wrapping himself in the mantle of the “civil rights struggle.” Speaking before a friendly crowd in Harlem on Aug. 29, Mr. Rangel said, “All of you remember that this fight is never, never going to end. I’m just one of the foot soldiers; just one of those [who] fought in the march so that one day our kids [will] be able to say, ‘Do you remember when there was bigotry and prejudice in this country? Do you remember when there wasn’t fairness?’ ” adding, “This is not Charlie Rangel’s struggle. All over this country these things are happening.” [Sally Goldenberg, Desperate Rangel Wraps Self in Civil Rights, New York Post, Aug. 30, 2010.] Perhaps he should have heeded Barack Obama’s advice to “end his career with dignity” by resigning.

Black Jobs

The government tells us that the following are the ten occupations with the largest percentages of blacks:

  1. Barbers — 35.0 percent
  2. Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides — 34.0 percent
  3. Residential advisors — 29.6 percent
  4. Security guards and gaming surveillance officers — 28.6 percent
  5. Postal service clerks — 28.3 percent
  6. Baggage porters, bellhops, and concierges — 27.1 percent
  7. Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators — 26.4 percent
  8. Taxi drivers and chauffeurs — 25.7 percent
  9. Bus drivers — 24.9 percent
  10. Parking lot attendants — 24.4 percent

And the ten occupations with the smallest percentage of blacks:

  1. Artists and related workers — 0.8 percent
  2. Environmental scientists and geoscientists — 1.0 percent
  3. Cost estimators — 1.1 percent
  4. Farmers and ranchers — 1.4 percent
  5. Dentists — 1.4 percent
  6. Surveying and mapping technicians — 1.4 percent
  7. Farm, ranch, and other agricultural managers — 1.5 percent
  8. News analysts, reporters and correspondents — 1.8 percent
  9. Millwrights — 2.1 percent
  10. Miscellaneous physical scientists — 2.1 percent

We suspect that these statistics somehow left out one of the most heavily black categories of all: federal government employee. [US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Characteristics by Race and Ethnicity, 2009.]

Brown Out

The number of American kindergartners has grown since 2000, from 3.8 to 4 million, and the number who are neither white nor black is up sharply. Hispanics make up 25 percent of all 5-year-olds, up from 19 percent in 2000. Hispanic five-year-olds now outnumber blacks by nearly two to one. The percentage of black kindergartners has fallen from 15 percent to 13 percent since 2000, while that of whites has fallen from 59 percent to 53 percent. Asians have seen a one percent rise to five percent, while American Indians remain constant at one percent. The number of mixed-race five-year-olds is also up one percent, and is now three percent of the national total.

In 2000, 81 percent of five-year-olds spoke English at home, but that number is now 78 percent. The number of those who speak Spanish at home increased from 14 to 16 percent. “In some districts, 40 percent of their kids are Latino and 4 percent of their teachers are,” says W. Steven Barnett, co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. “It’s a huge gap.”

White displacement used to happen mostly in cities, but now the most rapid transition is in rural and suburban areas. Lake County, Indiana, a Chicago suburb, saw its under-20 population go from 51.8 percent white in 2000 to 47.1 percent in 2008. In rural Nebraska’s Colfax and Dakota counties, the share of young whites is down from 60 percent in 2000 to about 45 percent in 2008. Kenneth Johnson, demographer at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute, says the shift will only speed up, noting that the number of Hispanic girls entering childbearing years is up 30 percent since 2000. “It’s only the beginning,” he says. [Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg, Kindergartens See More Hispanic, Asian Students, USA Today, Aug. 27, 2010.]

Obama Elementary

A few hundred fortunate students in Upper Marlboro, Maryland (in largely black Prince George’s County, outside of Washington, DC) have the honor of attending Barack Obama Elementary School this fall. The school is the seventh in the nation to be named after the current president. Fifth grader Brianna Hooker is excited. “The president is one of the smartest people . . . you could know,” she says. “I think it would be really exciting to go to a school [named] after someone who’s really smart.”

Prince George’s County Public School Board member Rosalind Johnson is tired of criticism of the decision to name the school after an increasingly unpopular chief executive who’s been in office only 19 months. “The fact that we have an African-American president is historic,” she says. “[Nothing] can change the historic nature of that event, [and] this school provides documentation that that event occurred.”

The school features a glass display case full of newspaper articles describing how Mr. Obama won the Democratic Party nomination and the general election, and photos of his inauguration. [John Henrehan, Barack Obama Elementary School Opens Monday, Fox5 (Washington, DC), Aug. 20, 2010.]

Beat Whitey Night

On Friday, August 20, Des Moines police responded to several reports of assaults outside the Iowa State Fair. Groups of young blacks were beating up whites, including 36-year-old Jammie Carroll, who suffered severe injuries to his eyes, cheekbones, and nose. According to a report filed by one of the officers, there “was a group of 30 to 40 individuals roaming the fairgrounds openly calling it ‘beat whitey night.’” The violence continued over the weekend, and on Sunday evening, blacks beat two police officers as they tried to make arrests. One officer said someone knocked him down while he was trying to cuff a suspect, and several black teenage then started kicking him. He and his partner suffered injuries to their heads, necks and backs.

Some of the thuggery was brazen. Beth Longren, a 25-year-old white woman, was filming the turmoil when a 17-year-old black girl walked up to her and slapped her in the face, right in front of police — who arrested her. Des Moines resident Laurie Christensen said she had never seen such naked hostility. Groups of blacks “have been openly taunting the police — in the street right to their faces,” she says.

Des Moines police and civic leaders are reluctant to admit the obvious, although police spokesman Sgt. Lori Lavorato came close when she told reporters, “It’s all under investigation, but it’s very possible it has racial overtones.” Two weeks later, Des Moines Police Chief Judy Bradshaw replaced Sgt. Lavorato. Chief Bradshaw claims investigators found “no credible evidence” to suggest there were “racial overtones.” Sgt. Lavorato has been reassigned to the traffic unit. [Daniel P. Finney, Police Spokeswoman Moved After Remarks on Fairgrounds Fights, Des Moines Register, Sept. 3, 2010. Tom Alex, Police Say It’s ‘Very Possible’ Attacks Near Fairgrounds had Racial Overtones, Des Moines Register, Aug. 24, 2010.]

Unwanted Immigrant

New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, is an enzyme that makes bacteria resistant to nearly all antibiotics. Medical authorities consider any microbe that has the gene for making NDM-1 a “superbug” and a potential “major global health problem.” Although it originated in India, bacteria that can make NDM-1 have been reported in Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, and the United States. How did it spread? Experts blame medical tourism, in which Westerners travel to India to take advantage of cheap procedures like kidney transplants and cosmetic surgery. The first cases began appearing in Britain in 2008, and have been traced to patients who were in Indian hospitals.

NDM-1 is generally found in E. coli and Klebsiella pneumonia bacteria. Those infected often get urinary-tract infections, pneumonia, or blood infections. If patients get sick in hospitals without good antibiotics they may die, because there are so few treatment options. Timothy Walsh, a professor of medical microbiology and antimicrobial resistance at Cardiff University in Wales, says there is “real concern” about NDM-1 at the global level, adding, “Because of medical tourism and international travel in general, resistance to these types of bacteria has the potential to spread around the world very, very quickly. And there is nothing in the [drug development] pipeline to tackle it.” [Jill Mahoney, Doctors Brace for More Cases as Indian Superbug Hits Canada, Globe and Mail, Aug. 11, 2010.]

Another Hoax

Sang Huynh and his family had not yet settled into their new home in Happy Valley, Oregon, in August when they found a note attached to the front door ordering them to leave, and another reading, “Last warning. We will burn your house down if we have to.” Along with the notes were a pack of matches and a bottle of gasoline. Further investigation revealed that someone had spray painted “chink” and “gook” on the outside of the house. The Huynhs called police, who in turn called the FBI. As support for the Huynhs poured into city hall, Mayor Rob Wheeler called the threats and vandalism “totally unacceptable and disturbing” hate crimes, adding, “This is clearly the work of a disturbed individual or misguided vandals.”

And so it was. The culprit was Sang Huynh’s 16-year-old son. Detectives say the boy was afraid of attending a new school where he didn’t know anybody, and is “very remorseful about his conduct.” He will face no charges. [David Krough, Happy Valley Teen Admits Hate Crime Hoax, KGW-TV (Portland), Sept. 3, 2010. David Krough, Happy Valley Family Threatened With Hate Crimes, KGW-TV (Portland), Sept. 2, 2010.]

Bloody Chicago

Chicago has had a violent summer. In August alone, 59 people were murdered, up from 51 in 2009, and there were seven murders during the first two days of September. Many of the killings are gang-related, which led to a secret meeting on Aug. 17 between police superintendent Jody Weis, federal prosecutors, and local gang leaders. At the meeting, Mr. Weis told the gang bosses that if they did not stop the killing, the police would make their lives miserable, “doing everything from towing their cars for parking violations, to ramping up parole visits, to pulling them over repeatedly for traffic stops.” Mr. Weis also threatened to charge them under the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

Mr. Weis’s intimidation effort failed. One gang member at the meeting dismissed the threats as a “gimmick,” and the next weekend, five people were killed and 25 more wounded in mostly gang-related violence.

The gang bosses are fighting back in the press. Several held a news conference in early September to denounce “police harassment.” Vice Lords member Jim Allen said it was unfair for Mr. Weis to hold leaders responsible for the actions of individual gang members. Former gang member and self-styled community activist Mark Carter asked, “Is the mayor going to be held accountable for the corruption that takes place under his watch?” adding, “[T]he biggest gang in the city of Chicago is the Chicago police department.” [Chicago Gang Members Criticize ‘Gang Summit,’AP, Sept. 8, 2010. Tracy Swartz, Tracking Homicides in Chicago, RedEyeChicago.com, Sept. 2, 2010. Darrell McKinney, 15, Killed In Gang Crossfire: 4 Others Slain, Huffington Post, Aug. 30, 2010. Chicago Warns Gang Leaders to Stop Violence, AP, Aug. 30, 2010.]

Sweden Sours

Since the beginning of the Iraq War, Sweden has accepted tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees, far more than any other European Union country. Foreigners now make up more than ten percent of the population, with Iraqis the single largest group. In 2007, 18,559 Iraqis sought asylum in Sweden, three fourths of whom were let in. Many Swedes are tired of their country being used as a dumping ground, and in 2008, a Swedish court ruled that refugees had to start showing that their lives were actually in danger in their home countries. As a result, only 2,297 Iraqi refugees applied for asylum last year, with fewer than 25 percent getting in. [Andrew Ward, Sweden Loses Patience With Refugee Champion Role, Financial Times, Aug. 18, 2010.]

Immigration is an issue in upcoming parliamentary elections, with polls showing that the “far-right” Sweden Democrats could win their first seat. So frightened are the media that they are refusing to air the party’s anti-immigration ads. A television ad that did not run was of a race between an elderly white woman and several women in burqas pushing strollers. The message was that the Sweden Democrats would keep pension funding at the expense of immigration. The TV4 television network rejected the ad, saying it violated Swedish laws banning messages that promote racial or religious “hatred.” Meanwhile radio network SBS refused to broadcast an ad that told voters “on September 19, you can choose between hitting the breaks on immigration instead of hitting the breaks on pensions. Vote for the Sweden Democrats.” Party leader Jimmie Åkesson says, “That media representatives in this way would take on the role as censors and filter the message voters receive before the election is nothing less than a threat to democracy.”

A party must get 4 percent of the vote to win a seat in the Swedish parliament. At the end of August, the Swedish Democrats were polling 4.6 percent. [Sweden’s Far-Right Furious: ‘Democracy in Danger,’ Swedish Wire, Aug. 30, 2010.]

Camp of the Saints, 2010

In Jean Raspail’s dystopian 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints, Europe falls to an unarmed invasion of impoverished Indians who arrive in a vast fleet of ramshackle freighters. In August, Canada got a taste of dystopia when the tramp steamer Sun Sea, loaded with 492 Tamils from Sri Lanka, appeared off the coast of British Columbia after a three-month voyage. The Tamils are a minority ethnic group who claim to be persecuted by the majority Sinhalese. The Tamil Tigers fought for independence for their part of the island but the Sri Lankan government defeated them in 2009 after 25 years of bloodshed. Canadian authorities fear that the Tigers put militants aboard the Sun Sea in an attempt to reconstitute themselves in Canada, which is home to the third largest community of Tamils in the world, after Sri Lanka and India. During the war, the Canadian Tamil Congress sent lots of money to the Tigers, which the Canadian government considers a terrorist organization.

The “refugees” are now in two jails. The government thinks the Tigers are watching the outcome and may send more of their men. There are thought to be several more ships crammed with Tamils in Asian waters that may be en route to Canada. “Refugees” were encouraged by the success of 76 Tamils who shipped in last October. They were all let in while authorities process their claims — which can take years.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is worried that Canada is getting a reputation as a soft touch for asylum claims. “I think Canadians are pretty concerned when a whole boat of people comes — not through any normal application process, not through any normal arrival channel — and just simply lands,” he says. By a margin of five to one, Canadian citizens want the Tamils booted out. [Kathryn Blaze Carlson, Harper Mulls Law Change to Block Boatloads of Asylum-seekers, National Post, Aug. 17, 2010. John Ibbitson and Marten Youssef, Boatload of Migrants a Wake-up Call for Canada, Globe and Mail, Aug. 12, 2010. Brian Lilley, Send Tamil Migrants Home: Poll, Ottawa Sun, August 20, 2010.]