Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

RACISM, CRT, AND A BLACK MAN'S RESPONSE

 

WHY WOULD CNN LIGHTEN THE SKIN COLOR OF THE WAUKESHA CHRISTMAS PARADE KILLER?

From The Gateway Pundit:

Brooks is a black racist, a Trump-hater, an anti-white radical who barreled through a Christmas Parade on Sunday in Waukesha, Wisconsin.  CNN posted his photo on their website following his arraignment.  They lightened his skin.

Why would they do that?  Any guesses?

KANYE WEST - THE MOST COMPELLING PRO-LIFE ADVOCATE ON THE WORLD STAGE

Note:  A transcript can be found below the video.

From Breitbart.com:

CARLSON: At this moment, the most compelling voice against abortion and Planned Parenthood is not a Republican. The most widely heard Christian evangelist in America is not ordained.

Instead, he is a rapper married to a Kardashian, who by the way, everyone says is crazy. Kanye West is running for President. But that’s not really the headline. The headline is that on core conservative issues, not political issues like legislation before the Congress, but on foundational questions about life and children, and what happens when you die. No one with a national platform has been more honest or sincere or effective than Kanye West has been, maybe in generations.

It’s all pretty shocking, really, talk about an unlikely messenger. But it’s real.

Check out West’s Twitter feed if you haven’t seen it. Not everything he says is conservative, far from it. Not everything he says is even intelligible.

But when West talks about his faith and about the gift of human life, you start to ask yourself, why aren’t there any elected Republicans who sound like that? They say they believe the same things. But if they actually do, why don’t they talk like Kanye West does? And the answer, of course, is because they’re afraid to.

But West is not afraid. He doesn’t have to be. He is too famous. He has made too much money. He sold something like 150 million albums over the past 20 years. And really, it’s hard to cancel a guy like that.

WHY SOME PEOPLE HATE COPS (AN EX-CON EXPLAINS)

I doubt you will find a more illuminating, insightful talk anywhere on the subject of police conduct than this one by David Wood.   Wood grew up on the wrong side of the tracks with barely any family life, was convicted of various felonies, and several times wound up in prison.   His experience taught him that police and correction officers  fall into one of five categories.  The fifth category generates the hatred.  He knows it firsthand.   Some readers may recognize Wood as the man who roomed with  Nabeel Qureshi in college.  As a result of their dialogs, Qureshi wrote the book Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus.    I urge you to take the time to listen.  It will be well worthwhile and you will discover that the minutes fly by!   (Wood's suggestions for needed reform begin at the 48:33 minute mark)

 

HEATHER MACDONALD - "THE DANGER OF THE 'BLACK LIVES MATTER' MOVEMENT"

MacDonald's article offers statistics and facts that we don't usually hear anything about.  This article is important!  I am far better informed for having read it. Highly recommended!

PROSPECTS FOR BLACK AMERICA: THE MOYNIHAN REPORT TURNS 50

Roger Clegg at National Review Online writes:

Last May, the Manhattan Institute sponsored a symposium titled, “Prospects for Black America:  The Moynihan Report Turns 50.” The various panel discussions were videotaped and are available online. I’m working my way through them and just finished watching the third one, “Restoring the Family,” which is a terrific and lively discussion among Ron Haskins, Glenn Loury, and Bob Woodson, moderated by Kay Hymowitz and introduced by Jason Riley. It’s really, really good — and you won’t be tempted to stop watching it once you start, which is a good thing, because the last question from the audience at the end is a fitting finale.

QUICK TAKES

**  Dr. Ben Carson - "the 'Black Lives Matter' Misfire"  

I grew up in neighborhoods most Americans were told to never drive through. I saw bullets, drugs and death in the same places I played tag and ball with my friends. Both of my older cousins died on the streets where I lived. I thought that was my destiny.

But my mother didn't. She changed all of that. She saved my brother and me from being killed on those streets with nothing but a library card.

My mother knew what the problems were and she shielded me and my brother from them. I can tell you she wasn't worried about Socialist senators from tiny rural states. "BlackLivesmatter" could learn from her to focus on the real sources of our hopelessness.

This is where we should march:  [more. . .]

** Jay Nordlinger:

The maker, or makers, of those Planned Parenthood videos? I think they should win every award under the conservative sun. Under the human sun, actually. They’ve done a tremendous service. Harriet Beecher Stowe, with a novel, rocked the conscience of America. These videos should do something similar, if the American conscience is open to rocking.

** Koch blasts Obama-

Charles Koch hit back at criticism of “the Koch brothers” during President Barack Obama’s energy speech in Las Vegas earlier this week, saying he was “flabbergasted” by the attack and charging that Obama made the dig as a favor to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who appeared with him.

“It’s beneath the president, the dignity of the president, to be doing that,” Koch said during a phone interview Tuesday.

**  M.B. Dougherty - The kids are not all right: The bleak future of the millennial generation

Millennials marry much later. Just 26 percent of younger millennials (18-29) are married. At that same age, 36 percent of Gen Xers, 48 percent of Baby Boomers, and 65 percent of the Silent Generation had married. And that's if millennials get married at all. Pew's research suggests that about 25 percent of those between the ages of 25 and 34 will remain unmarried. That's higher than previous generations.

WHOA! O'REILLY ON AMERICA'S RACE PROBLEM

Recently someone sent me the following video.  It apparently dates to August 2014, but don't let that deter you  from watching.  What O'Reilly says is timeless and incontrovertible. 

 

 

OPPRESSION ENVY: WHITE WOMAN PASSES HERSELF OFF AS BLACK

--  (See updates at the end of the post)

You have perhaps heard of the white woman who passed herself off as black?  

Mona Charen comments appositely:  [my bolding]

In the 1950s and before, ”passing” referred to a black person who presented himself to the world as white. So is it progress when a Caucasian flips it? Shall we all celebrate another historic “first”? Rachel Dolezal, the first white to pass as black? There is already a lot of discussion on Twitter about “race and what it means.” There will presumably be a back and forth about attempting to appropriate some other group’s suffering, but let’s face it, the left in general has a huge case of oppression envy. It’s the coin of the realm. Being oppressed, or being a member of a group thought to be oppressed, brings real world benefits like deference, university professorships, and much more. This racial consciousness is an American disease that began as oppression, moved on to guilt, and has now entered the realm of farce.

Me:  It's perhaps of interest that the woman in question, Rachel Dolezal, is a college teacher, more specifically, she serves as "professor of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University, where her research interests include 'the intersection of race, gender and class in the contemporary diaspora with a specific emphasis on black women in visual culture.'”   This information may further the negative opinion now gathering momentum towards what passes as education on college campuses today.  

Update 1:  See video below.  Allahpundit writes:

The first eight minutes show Dolezal rambling on about the mysterious hate crimes committed against her and her kids. The action starts at 7:55, when the interviewer surprises her by asking her to confirm that the black man she claims is her father really is her father. It’s all downhill from there.  [Brief transcript below]

 

“I was wondering if your dad really is an African American man,” Jeff Humphrey of KXLY4 asked Dolezal.

“That’s a very … I mean, I don’t know what you’re implying,” Dolezal said.

“Are you African American?” Humphrey said.

“I don’t understand the question,” Dolezal said. She walked off-camera as Humphrey asked: “Are your parents, are they white?”

Dolezal did not return requests for comment.

Update 2: Among various quotes of the day there is this:

When Rachel applied to Howard University to study art with a portfolio of “exclusively African American portraiture,” the university “took her for a black woman” and gave her a full scholarship.

And this:

She is trans racial. All white people should claim that they are the same. The US will not be able to blame whites anymore.

Update 3: 6/16/15

-

 

REVIEW OF "DON'T MAKE THE BLACK KIDS ANGRY"

Jack Kerwick reviews Colin Flaherty's Don't Make the Black Kids Angry, noting: 

Flaherty frequently cites Marlin Newburn, a prison psychologist who “has been on the front lines of racial violence for 30 years.” According to Newburn, these “predators,” do not reflect “a subculture,” but “a primary part of the black culture [.]” This culture “is one of sadistic and primitive impulse where they [the predators] believe themselves to be 10 feet tall, bulletproof, very smart, good looking, gifted, and tougher than anyone.” These “predators” live “without any sense of personal responsibility or boundaries with others.” Hence, while “assaulting or killing someone, the absence of a conscience is considered among their peers as an indicator of strength and power.” The expression of “joy in the process [of violence] only heightens their street cred.”

When two Muslim thugs shot up Charlie Hebdo, segments of the American media were apoplectic over the number of France’s “No-Go” zones, Islamic neighborhoods that non-Muslims dare not enter. Yet America has had legions of its own No-Go zones for decades: We just call them “inner cities.”

Later in the review:

MISC

(My bolding below)

**  Eric Metaxes, drawing on the book  by Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson, The Paradox of Generosity: Giving We Receive, Grasping We Lose,” notes:

“ What should come as a surprise is how few people actually practice generosity: Notre Dame found that that “only 2.7 percent of Americans give a 10th or more of their income to charity, at least 86.2 percent give away less than 2 percent of their income and nearly half give nothing.”

The book explains that generosity and happiness go hand in hand.  

** John Fund points out:

 President Obama’s approval rating among working-class whites has fallen to 27 percent as evidence that Democrats have forgotten the priorities of their party that made it the majority after the New Deal. Building the middle class has taken a back seat to the special interest agendas of elite liberal constituencies.

** Jay Nordlinger makes several notable observations.  First on the remarkable fact that Al Sharpton retains influence in spite of his past unrepented record:

 I see that President Obama has been conferring with Al Sharpton again. You may remember a little something — Steven Pagones does: Sharpton accused Pagones, then a young assistant DA, of raping a girl named Tawana Brawley. As Pagones held a press conference, Sharpton entered and bellowed, “Your accuser has arrived!” For ten years,Pagones pursued a defamation case against Sharpton — and won. Sharpton, who calls himself a “reverend,” has never apologized for his evil lie.

Second, Nordlinger points out the failure of Havana-based foreign correspondents to do adequate reporting. Instead, we find suppression of negative news coming out of Cuba.   Guillermo Fariñas, the Cuban independent journalist, won the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament.

Last week, he {Farinas] was meeting in his home with some fellow dissidents. An agent of the state broke in and stabbed four of them. Two of the victims — members of the Ladies in White — were seriously injured.  And, as the indispensable Mauricio Claver-Carone tells us, “not one Havana-based foreign journalist has investigated or reported on this violent attack.” Governments around the world have been largely silent, too. As always.  Many years ago, I wrote a piece called “Who Cares about Cuba?” When I raised this issue with Jeane Kirkpatrick, she said that indifference to Cuba is “both a puzzling and a profoundly painful phenomenon of our times.”

**  On the "Ferguson Affair," Jay Nordlinger praises Heather MacDonald for her piece which witheringly excoriates the New York Times' totally wrong-headed editorial.  Nordlinger finds everything MacDonald writes to be magnificent.

The Times cannot bring itself to say one word of condemnation against the savages who self-indulgently destroyed the livelihoods of struggling Ferguson, Mo., entrepreneurs and their employees last week. The real culprit behind the riots, in the Times’ view, is not the actual arsonists and looters but county prosecutor Robert McCulloch.

 Thomas Sowell also weighs in on the Ferguson affair.   He notes that to Attorney General Eric Holder and others, "the truth was offensive, but the lie that it exposed was not."

DR. BEN CARSON - MLK WOULD BE DISHEARTENED BY ASPECTS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE

Dr. Carson, professor emeritus of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University, is always worth listening to.  Here is his take on how he thinks Martin Luther King, Jr. would view American culture 50 years after his "I Have a Dream" speech. 

- Robert L. Woodson, Sr., offers his reflections on today's march on Washington.  Woodson is the founder and president of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. 

THE MOVIE "THE BUTLER" DISTORTS RACE RELATIONS

I'm always bothered when movies rewrite history.  Most moviegoers accept the screen story as accurate.    Richard Epstein tells the true story.

MARTIN LUTHER KING AND THE MORAL LAW

Martin Luther King appealed to "God's law" which surpassed human law.  His Biblical roots and Biblical perspective are generally overlooked today.  The late Charles Colson sets the record straight:

Listen Now | Download

More than forty years ago, on August 28, 1963, a quarter million people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial. They marched here for the cause of civil rights. And that day they heard Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, a speech in which he challenged America to fulfill her promise.

“I have a dream,” he said, “that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.’ ”

While we know of the speech, most people are unaware that King also penned one of the most eloquent defenses of the moral law: the law that formed the basis for his speech, for the civil rights movement, and for all of the law, for that matter.

In the spring of 1963, King was arrested for leading a series of massive non-violent protests against the segregated lunch counters and discriminatory hiring practices rampant in Birmingham, Alabama. While in jail, King received a letter from eight Alabama ministers. They agreed with his goals, but they thought that he should call off the demonstrations and obey the law.

King explained why he disagreed in his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail. “One might well ask,” he wrote, “how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer “is found in the fact that there are two kinds of laws: just laws … and unjust laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws,” King said, “but conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

How does one determine whether the law is just or unjust? A just law, King wrote, “squares with the moral law of the law of God. An unjust law ... is out of harmony with the moral law.”

Then King quoted Saint Augustine: “An unjust law is no law at all.” He quoted Thomas Aquinas: “An unjust law is a human law not rooted in eternal or natural law.”

This is the great issue today in the public square: Is the law rooted in truth? Is it transcendent, immutable, and morally binding? Or is it, as liberal interpreters argue, simply whatever courts say it is? Do we discover the law, or do we create it?

Many think of King as a liberal firebrand, waging war on traditional values. Nothing could be further from the truth. King was a great conservative on this central issue, and he stood on the shoulders of Augustine and Aquinas, striving to restore our heritage of justice rooted in the law of God.

Were he alive today, I believe he’d be in the vanguard of the pro-life movement. I also believe that he would be horrified at the way in which out of control courts have trampled down the moral truths he advocated.

From the time of Emperor Nero, who declared Christianity illegal, to the days of the American slave trade, from the civil rights struggle of the sixties to our current battles against abortion, euthanasia, cloning, and same-sex “marriage,” Christians have always maintained exactly what King maintained.

King’s dream was to live in harmony with the moral law as God established it. So this Martin Luther King Day, reflect on that dream—for it is worthy of our aspirations, our hard work, and the same commitment Dr. King showed.

Further Reading and Information

Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963.

Read the text of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

Visit the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute website.

St. Augustine, City of God (Penguin Classics reprint, 2003).

Me:  Thank God for all that Martin Luther King did to rectify wrongs towards the Black people of this nation that had been enshrined in law and carried out in practice.  But there remains much work to be done, as Brian Brown (President of the National Organization for Marriage) reminds us.  Citing King's moral stance (as did Colson), Brown applies that same moral stance to other areas today.  He writes:

Marriage is the very type of relationship that Dr. King would no doubt have recognized as just, rooted as it is in the moral law, observed over thousands of years as an eternal law, in perfect harmony with the law of God. It is a profoundly just institution that brings men and women together and provides children with the best opportunity to be raised by a mother and a father.

So many of our laws and policies today are out of harmony with natural law and nature's God. The killing of the preborn innocent in the name of privacy; the euthanizing of the infirm in the name of compassion; the destruction of embryonic humans in the name of advancement; the protection of pornography purveyors and the merchants of violence in Hollywood and the video game industry in the name of free speech; and the restructuring of instutions like marriage to provide emotional satisfaction to politically powerful adults, even as they strip from the law the right of children to a mother and father.

POLITICS AND ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT - HAVE BLACKS MISPLACED PRIORITIES?

Jason L. Riley makes several observations that strike me as noteworth in his Wall Street Journal article titled, "For Blacks, the Pyrrhic Victory of the Obama Era."  He notes: [my emphases]

- When the president assumed office, unemployment was 12.7% for blacks and 7.1% for whites. Today it is 14.3% for blacks and 7% for whites, which means that the black-white employment gap has not merely persisted under Mr. Obama but widened. . .

- But the historical reality for other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. is that political success has not been necessary for economic advancement. Germans were a third of the population in colonial Pennsylvania yet studiously avoided public office. Only after Germans had risen economically did they begin to distinguish themselves in politics. The impoverished Eastern European Jews who began arriving here in large numbers in the 1880s made little impact politically until well after they had established themselves economically. . . .

- Today, Asian-Americans are the nation's best-educated and highest-earning racial group. According to a Pew study released earlier this year, 49% of Asians age 25 and older hold bachelor's degrees, compared with 31% of whites and 18% of blacks. The median household income for Asians is $66,000, which is $12,000 more than white households and double that of black households. As with other groups, political clout has not been a precondition of Asian socioeconomic advancement. . .

- The election of Barack Obama four years ago gave blacks bragging rights, but bragging rights can't close the black-white achievement gap in education or increase black labor-force participation or reduce black incarceration rates. A civil-rights leadership that encourages blacks to look to politicians to solve these problems is doing a disservice to the people they claim to represent.

Asians, for their part, can point to an out-of-wedlock birthrate of just 16%, the lowest of any major group and a significant factor in Asian success. The black illegitimacy rate last year was 72%. Might it be that having a black man in the Oval Office is less important for black advancement than having one in the home?

BLACK PASTORS OPPOSE GAY MARRIAGE

From the Family Research Council:

On the issue of marriage, President Obama may speak for liberals, but he doesn't speak for the black community. That became painfully obvious in North Carolina when 61% of the state, including the majority of African Americans, turned out to protect what Obama had attacked: marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Months later, the President's miscalculation is still costing him, as 18% of African Americans say they are still undecided about which candidate to support.

Thousands of black church leaders continue to speak out against his position, including the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP), which is combating what it sees as a phony civil rights movement. Adding to their frustration, the NAACP has taken to bucking its base and launching its own campaign to support same-sex "marriage" in Maryland. Featuring Julian Bond, the organization's chairman emeritus, the ads insist that the state's "gay and lesbian families share the same values" as the NAACP "and they should share in the right to marry."

Rev. Bill Owens, who presides over CAAP, had plenty to say about the campaign. "Gay marriage is not a civil right it's a civil wrong, and the NAACP needs to change its name to the National Association for the Advancement of Gay People if it's now spending money not to advance the interest of black people but of the gay community."

Meanwhile, as the race over marriage tightens, the Maryland Marriage Alliance released its first television spot, encouraging voters to oppose Question 6. You can help support that effort by clicking here. Help remind Marylanders that while everyone is entitled to love and respect, no one--not even President Obama--is entitled to redefining marriage.

FRED LUTER, JR. -- NEW PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION

This is a great interview.  Congratulations to the Southern Baptist Convention for electing this fine man President.  From CBN News:

New Orleans pastor Fred Luter, Jr. made history last week when members of the Southern Baptist Convention elected him as their first African- American president. Efrem Graham sat down with him to talk about his vision for the largest protestant denomination in America.

 

SURPRISE TO ME: CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUSUS REMAINS SHOCKINGLY PRO-ABORTION EVEN GIVEN ABORTION'S DECIMATION OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY

I found Jill Stanek's report, "Congressional Black Caucus Holds Meeting to Blast Pro-Lifers," utterly shocking.   With "leaders" like this, the black community is in very deep trouble indeed.  (HT: Weasel Zippers)

Congressional Black Caucus members strongly object to the following billboards:

Stanek reported on a number of presentations, including Nancy Belden's.  Belden is a  partner at Beldon Russonello Strategists.   Stanek wrote,

Beldon handed out  “five key points” to oppose billboard campaigns, how to respond to pro-life messaging. . . .

Belden, pictured left,  said it will be necessary to make sure polling generates the answers they need. She bragged she can make polls say what she wants them to say, that it’s all about asking the right questions, in the right sequence, with certain phrasing.

Belden said it is critical to keep the subject on healthcare, not babies.

She said abortion proponents must also accept the fact that many blacks believe there should be some restrictions on abortion. So, “you move them off the circumstances, which you know are going to lose,” she said. She said to move the conversation to reminding people we can’t possibly know all the health reasons and issues going into a decision to abort. . ..

The four-part generalized message to defend abortion:

• Frame the issue as the need for quality healthcare and education in the black community.
• Site disparities with healthcare and education between the cultures.
• Call for an end to the disparities.
• Express the value of self-determination.

To specifically battle “genocide awareness” billboard campaigns:

• Turn “genocide” around: The killing and endangering of our people is really happening by way of substandard healthcare and lack of good education. That’s really the problem.
• Site historical disparities.
• Call for an end to the disparities.
• Try to switch topics to violence in communities – Trayvon Martin – lack of food, etc. (“What are you doing to help the children already here?”)

To that Jill Stanek wrote:

Takeaways:

1. The pro-life community needs to more heavily invest in billboard campaigns in black communities. Donate today to one or more of the organizations listed on the dossier above, or to the NBPLU.

2. Focusing on the babies, that abortion is calculated genocide of the black community, and that most abortions are committed for reasons of convenience are winning issues.

3. Encourage black pastors to preach more strongly against abortion.

4. A fitting verse comes to mind: “The arrogant godless try to throw me off track,” Psalm 119:85. But we won’t let them.

 Read the whole thing.

WINTLEY PHIPPS: NEGRO SPIRITUALS PLAYED ON THE BLACK KEYS OF THE PIANO

This is fascinating. I never realized before that almost all Negro spirituals can be played exclusively on the black keys of the piano, i.e. using the pentatonic scale. See for example, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Every Time I Feel the Spirit." Nor did I know that the melody of "Amazing Grace" is a slave melody, probably a West African sorrow chant. This all from a Wintley Phipps' 8-minute YouTube clip sent courtesy of a friend.

 

Note:  I first posted this back on April 30, 2007.  I am reposting it today because its showing this morning in church convinces me it deserves another viewing!  Amen. 

HARRY JACKSON: THE CHURCHES OF CAIN AND OBAMA

This article by Bishop Jackson will be an eye-opener for those unfamiliar with theology's powerful influence on economic, political, and social positions.   Jackson writes:

When Herman Cain began singing "Amazing Grace" at the National Press Club on Monday, some believed he was trying to distract attention from the sexual harassment charges that had surfaced against him. But, as he explained, "My faith is a big part of who Herman Cain is." In fact, though he's decided to campaign on his background in business, Mr. Cain is an ordained minister and deeply religious man.

Like President Obama, Mr. Cain belongs to a mostly black congregation with a black pastor. But that is where the similarities end. Stark differences between the political philosophies of these two men may be rooted in their profoundly different theological heritages. The churches both men are (or in the case of Mr. Obama, were) longtime members of are known for liberal activism, but with notable differences in their views of scripture.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD ABORTION CLINICS TARGET BLACK BABIES

From the Family Research Council:

"We do not want word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population." For years, the woman responsible for those words--Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger--was fairly successful at keeping the lid on her organization's mission. Unfortunately for Sanger's successors, "word has gotten out" about the organization's racist agenda, and a growing number of voters from both parties are questioning Congress's investment in a group that was caught on tape gleefully accepting donations earmarked for the abortion of black babies.

One of those voters is GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, who hasn't shied away from what he sees as one of the greatest threats to the African-American community. "You probably don't hear a lot of people talking about this," Cain told a gathering at the Heritage Foundation last March. "When Margaret Sanger--check my history--started Planned Parenthood, the objective was to put these centers in primarily black communities so they could help kill black babies before they came into the world... It's planned genocide." Planned Parenthood is "carrying out its original mission," he explained. "...Talk to some young lady who has gone into some of these centers to see what kind of conversation takes place... There's not any planning other than to abort the baby.'"

HERMAN CAIN TO BLACKS: DIVORCE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Larry Elder wrote a column using the above title and concluded his article saying:

Cain believes what former slave Booker T. Washington wrote a mere 35 years after slavery ended: "When a Negro girl learns to cook, to wash dishes, to sew, to write a book, or a Negro boy learns to groom horses, or to grow sweet potatoes, or to produce butter, or to build a house, or to be able to practise medicine, as well or better than some one else, they will be rewarded regardless of race or colour. In the long run, the world is going to have the best, and any difference in race, religion, or previous history will not long keep the world from what it wants.

"I think that the whole future of my race hinges on the question as to whether or not it can make itself of such indispensable value that the people in the town and the state where we reside will feel that our presence is necessary to the happiness and well-being of the community. No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual, and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is long left without proper reward. This is a great human law which cannot be permanently nullified."

Or, as Cain puts it, "I left the Democrat plantation a long time ago."

BLACK CONSERVATIVES LAUNCH "MOVE-ON-UP.ORG"

Thanks to "Gateway Pundit" I learned today of the new African-American social network, "Move-On-Up.org" and their first annual conference in St. Louis, Mo. held August 12-14, 2011.   From the MOU website:

  We will connect the 10% of Black Americans who are voting conservatives, and together we will increase our numbers to affect positive, life affirming outcomes in the Black Community and our nation at large. 

After a half a century of liberal control of Black communities and inner cities, we have rampant poverty; abysmal employment rates, poor educational outcomes and a negative birthrate.  Many are looking to the Federal Government to accept blame for these problems and fix them.  Move On Up says that we must look to ourselves.  The break down of the Black family is the root of all of our societal ills, and if we repair and elevate the Black Family, every other issue becomes manageable, and will eventually  be cured. . . . 

Me:   I love the name "Move-On-Up"!   I wish the movement great success.

ANDREW BREITBART'S 2012 PRESIDENTIAL PICK: ALLEN WEST

From the Daily Beast's interview with Andrew Breitbart:

Q: Out of the current field and the people we expect to jump in for 2012, who are you most likely to support?

A: The idea of an Allen West/Herman Cain all-black conservative ticket would titillate me to the point of secretions coming out of every orifice. It would so upset the politically correct, culturally Marxist paradigm in academia and they’d have to start attacking… And I think it would cause the American people to see how unserious the left is when it comes to issues of claiming to represent the best interests of minorities. They use minorities in order to divide and conquer in this country . . .

Me:  Brillliant

Shushannah Walshe Info

Shushannah Walshe covers politics for The Daily Beast. She is the co-author of Sarah From Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar. She was a reporter and producer at the Fox News Channel from August 2001 until the end of the 2008 presidential campaign.

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Q: Out of the current field and the people we expect to jump in for 2012, who are you most likely to support?

A: The idea of an Allen West/Herman Cain all-black conservative ticket would titillate me to the point of secretions coming out of every orifice. It would so upset the politically correct, culturally Marxist paradigm in academia and they’d have to start attacking… And I think it would cause the American people to see how unserious the left is when it comes to issues of claiming to represent the best interests of minorities. They use minorities in order to divide and conquer in this country, and I would not just want an all-black ticket. I would like an all-minority, all-female; and let’s get rid of all the white eunuchs like John McCain that would craft an entire political career in the latter part of the 20th century and the first part of the 21st century trying to appease the media left.

WALTER WILLIAMS - THE STATE'S DESTRUCTION OF BLACK FAMILIES

Walter Williams, a veteran black economist at George Mason University, has written a new autobiography, "Up from the Projects."  The 75 year-old Williams wasn't always conservative (or libertarian), but facts and evidence took control of his thinking:  "I learned that you have to evaluate the effects of public policy as opposed to intentions."

Jason L. Riley of the Wall Street Journal published an interview with Williams.   

"We lived in the Richard Allen housing projects" in Philadelphia, says Mr. Williams. "My father deserted us when I was three and my sister was two. But we were the only kids who didn't have a mother and father in the house. These were poor black people and a few whites living in a housing project, and it was unusual not to have a mother and father in the house. Today, in the same projects, it would be rare to have a mother and father in the house."

. . . During Reconstruction and up until the 1940s, 75% to 85% of black children lived in two-parent families. Today, more than 70% of black children are born to single women. "The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn't do, what Jim Crow couldn't do, what the harshest racism couldn't do," Mr. Williams says. "And that is to destroy the black family." 

CNN PROGRAM AIRS THURSDAY NIGHT - "ALMIGHTY DEBT: A BLACK IN AMERICA SPECIAL"

Bob Woodson, whom I respect greatly, says of the program:  (my underlining)

At 9 p.m. EST, Thursday evening, October 21, 2010, CNN will air a most important show in its series of specials hosted by Soledad O’Brien. The show, “Almighty Debt, A Black in America Special,” examines economic challenges facing black Americans. But the very fact of its airing could also help to end the virtual gag rule that has stifled exploration of the self-imposed barriers that hinder the progress of blacks in America.

The show’s principal guest is the Reverend DeForest “Buster” Soaries, Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, in Somerset, New Jersey, and former New Jersey Secretary of State. His thesis: “Debt is more harmful to Black America today than racism.” With cameras following two members of his congregation, Pastor Soaries makes the case that they are about to lose to foreclosure the luxury 3,500 square-foot home they built, in part because of the downturn in the economy, but also because of their own excessive accumulation of debt.

A former civil rights worker for Jesse Jackson, Soaries leads his large black church on a quest to help right the wrongs of the past, not by grieving about the evils inflicted on it by racism but through an array of self-help social and community development programs that have become innovative agents of transformation, not only for members of his congregation but as examples for the nation.

THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL AND BLACK CHURCHES

DeForest B. Soaries, Jr. writes:

Recent days have brought multiple allegations of sexual abuse against Atlanta megachurch Bishop Eddie Long. It would be premature to judge the truth of these allegations, but it is not too soon to weigh in on his opulent lifestyle. His fancy cars, expensive clothing and vast estate, all funded on a multimillion-dollar salary, are part of his act—pushing the so-called prosperity gospel on mostly African-Americans. Whatever Mr. Long has done in his personal life, his brand of theology has contributed to a troubling trend among black churches in America.  . . .

In light of today's weak economy, perhaps the prosperity movement should consider focusing on financial literacy, personal discipline and saving for the long term, rather than emphasizing supernatural possibilities. Depending on miracles as a financial strategy is a dangerous way to live. Churches can be effective in teaching people how to convert from a culture of borrowing and spending to a culture of saving and investing.

The teachings of Jesus include many principles that can foster personal success and financial well-being. For instance in Luke 15:28, Jesus is quoted: "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?" This serves as wise counsel for those who live above their means today. In other passages Jesus teaches that giving is superior to receiving, and that serving others was more important to being served ourselves. In Jesus's teachings Christians have sufficient content for financial guidance and prudent approaches to managing money.  [more . .]

QUICK TAKES

Daniel Pipes - "In Europe, Remorse Has Turned to Masochism"  - On the perversity of self-hatred.  Good analysis!

Dennis Prager - "Why We Hear about "White" Tea Parties."  The Left sees the world through the prism of race, gender, and class, rather than through the moral prism of right and wrong.

Thomas Sowell - "Misusing History."   Poisonous distortions in the selective filtering of facts.

HENRY LOUIS GATES JR.: THE DEBATE OVER SLAVERY REPARATIONS IGNORES AFRICANS' ROLE IN SELLING HUMAN BEINGS

This important article helps us see slavery in an enlarged context. (HT: The Corner)  Harvard Professor Gates writes:

... While we are all familiar with the role played by the United States and the European colonial powers like Britain, France, Holland, Portugal and Spain, there is very little discussion of the role Africans themselves played. And that role, it turns out, was a considerable one, especially for the slave-trading kingdoms of western and central Africa. These included the Akan of the kingdom of Asante in what is now Ghana, the Fon of Dahomey (now Benin), the Mbundu of Ndongo in modern Angola and the Kongo of today’s Congo, among several others.

Gates goes on to spell out how the slave trade system worked.  

. . . The historians John Thornton and Linda Heywood of Boston University estimate that 90 percent of those shipped to the New World were enslaved by Africans and then sold to European traders. The sad truth is that without complex business partnerships between African elites and European traders and commercial agents, the slave trade to the New World would have been impossible, at least on the scale it occurred.

I thought it particularly remarkable to read that

In 1999, for instance, President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin astonished an all-black congregation in Baltimore by falling to his knees and begging African-Americans’ forgiveness for the “shameful” and “abominable” role Africans played in the trade. Other African leaders, including Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, followed Mr. Kerekou’s bold example.

Gates asks and answers an important question:

Did these Africans know how harsh slavery was in the New World? Actually, many elite Africans visited Europe in that era, and they did so on slave ships following the prevailing winds through the New World. . .

Read the whole thing.

QUICK TAKES

Ed Morrissey - Amnesty International: Haters of Western Civilization and defenders of Jihad.  Really?  Yes. Right up there with CAIR and Human Rights Watch.

--  Mark Steyn - Shame!  Black Congressmen lie about racial epithets   Breitbart - $100,000 offered for evidence.  No takers

AL SHARPTON'S RACIAL DEMAGOGUERY

Who will expose this charlatan for who he is?  It falls to Michelle Malkin.  If you want to know this man's sordid past behavior (which the oldline, liberal press refuses to talk about), read her column. 

HAS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION "EVOLVED BEYOND RACE" OR THE OPPOSITE?

Victor Davis Hanson says "the opposite" and foresees a probable eventual "polarization we have not seen in generations."   Oh my... !   VDH elucidates:

Did Jones [the black czar who just resigned] or did not Jones in public and in interviews compare the president of the United States to a crack-cocaine addict, assert that white people are polluting the ghetto, that only white students commit mass murders in the public schools, that Republicans are a**holes, and sign a petition calling for an investigation of the Bush administration’s purported role in causing 9/11?

The Jones mess brings up a larger issue. Americans were assured that with the ascendance of Barack Obama we would evolve beyond race. Yet in the last ninth months it is almost as if precisely the opposite has occurred — but with a strange twist. The country has been serially lectured about race from some of the most privileged Americans in the country. Columbia law grad elite Eric Holder accused the country of cowardice for its reluctance to speak about race. Harvard-law alum Barack Obama accused the Cambridge police of profiling and acting stupidly in taking elite Harvard professor Skip Gates down to the station after his screaming

HEATHER MACDONALD ON "RACE RELATIONS" (S0-CALLED)

MacDonald offers politically incorrect observations triggered by the Obama- Gates-Crowley incident.  Excerpts:

 . . . Nothing Obama said on Friday retracts his assertion that it is a “fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently and often time for no cause.” That charge is the real outrage of the president’s reckless entry into Cambridge Burglarygate; the back-and-forth over who dissed whom is a sideshow. Even if Obama announced tomorrow that Sergeant Crowley had in this case acted appropriately, his previous assertion that “we” need to “improve policing techniques so that we’re eliminating potential bias” would still be the takeaway from this surreal episode.

On Friday, Obama declared that he wants to have a “teachable moment” about “relations between police officers and minority communities.” Here’s a good place to start teaching: expose the reality of black crime. It is preposterous to talk about urban policing without talking about crime, yet that is what anti-cop activists, politicians, and reporters have managed to pull off for years. They focus public attention on police-stop and arrest data while keeping crime rates carefully offstage. But

SHELBY STEELE - "WHY THE GOP CAN'T WIN WITH MINORITIES"

To my mind, Shelby Steele has written an article with extraordinary explanatory power.

Heather MacDonald Answers Attorney General Eric Holder - What's Really Cowardly is Racial Dishonesty

MacDonald writes:    (HT: HotAir)

Attorney General Eric Holder. . . recently told his Justice Department employees that the United States was a “nation of cowards” for not talking more about race. “It is an issue we have never been at ease with and, given our nation’s history, this is in some ways understandable,” Holder said. “If we are to make progress in this area, we must feel comfortable enough with one another and tolerant enough of each other to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us.”

To which MacDonald unleashes an energetic, fact-filled response.  Most of us would be hesitant (cowardly?) to respond to Holder's accusation with such boldness and vigor.  But can she be faulted?

Life

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Richard John Neuhaus on Martin Luther King, Jr.

Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) wrote a major essay on Martin Luther King, Jr. for the October, 2002 issue of First Things magazine.  Since the nation celebrates the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. today, I thought it appropriate to post Neuhaus' reflections on the great civil rights leader.  Neuhaus wrote:

I recall rallies when, in the course of his preaching, King would hold forth on the theological and moral foundations of the movement. The klieg lights and cameras shut down, only to be turned on again when he returned to specifically political or programmatic themes. “Watch the lights,” he commented. “They’re not interested in the most important parts.”

Again, writing on the theological substance of King, Neuhaus noted:

A few days after the assassination, I took part in a huge memorial service in Harlem. The service was reported on the evening news. The reporter, microphone in hand, stood

DENNIS PRAGER - "GAY MARRIAGE IS THE NEW BLACK?"

Once again Prager clears the air with a superb article dissecting the argument the gay-rights movement makes seeking to equate the struggle for same-sex marriage with the Black civil rights struggle.  If people would read Prager's article, Proposition-8 activists would lose credibility and their movement would fizzle in short order.  It should be noted that Prager is a generous man, not in the least hateful or mean spirited.  Read the article.

Victor Davis Hanson on Affirmative Action

VDH concludes an enlightening blog post with these words:

In short, the entire Affirmative Action industry, however well-intended its origins, has gone the way of the Soviet bureaucracy as a sort of arbitrary racial nomenklatura that benefits mostly elites — self-contradictory, hypocritical, illogical, and finally unworkable.

Read the whole thing.

QUICK TAKES

1) Mark Krikorian - "The chief point of Dr. Bostom's The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism (reviewed here and here) is the same as his earlier Legacy of Jihad book — the problematic aspects of Islam, namely the sacralization of jihad war and of Jew-hatred, are not modern alien viruses but instead are integral to the faith."  See also Andy McCarthy's post (page 2)

2) Theodore Dalrymple -

And as is now well-known, a disturbing number of British Muslims have proved susceptible to the ideology of Islamism. A recent survey found that 40 percent of British Muslims under 24 wanted to live under sharia; 36 percent supported the death penalty for apostasy. Significantly, the figures for older Muslims were considerably lower. Another poll found that a fifth of all British Muslims had sympathy with the “feelings and motives” of the London suicide bombers. Only a third of British Muslims, a Guardian survey found, want more integration into British culture.

 … Pew Center research shows that six times as many Muslims in France as in Britain consider their national identity more important than their religious one: 42 percent versus 7 percent.

3) Thomas Sowell writes on the Left using Blacks as trophies or mascots.

Reverend Jeremiah Wright in Context: No Better

Hugh Hewitt has audio and transcripts of Jeremiah Wright's past sermons.  His defense that the video clips shown on TV were "taken out of context" is now proven indisputably false.  Does that make Rev. Wright a liar?  Quite.

Victor Davis Hanson says the 2008 primary has set back racial relations a generation:

Again, the Obama campaign and its appendages have set back racial relations a generation. Just ten years ago, any candidate, black or white, would have rejected Wright making a speech about genetic differences in respective black and white brains. Now it's given to civil rights organizations by the possible next President's pastor and spiritual advisor — and done to wild applause for an organization founded on the idea that we are innately the same, while being gushed over by ignorant "commentators."

Read all of VDH's comments.  They're important.  See the following:

IT'S SAFE TO SAY MICHELLE MALKIN HAS NO USE FOR AL SHARPTON

She reminds everyone of Sharpton's antics in the past, plus a whole lot more.

Shame on every enabler who has aided and abetted Al Sharpton’s campaign to mainstream, enrich, and advance himself as a “civil rights leader” for decades despite his lying, poisonous, police-hating, crime-coddling, race-hustling agenda. 

Read the rest of what Malkin has to say.   It's important.

John Leo - "The Hazards of Telling the Truth" - on Mary Lefkowitz's Demolishing of Afrocentric Baloney

Update 5/7/08 - John J. Miller posts an audio interview with Mary Lefkowitz.

- At a local college some years ago, I heard a guest lecture by Mary Lefkowitz, classicist at Wellesley College (now retired).  I recognized that she grounded her lecture in established fact and that she was a woman of uncommon courage in her willingness to confront Afrocentric nonsense.  What is Afrocentrism?  John Leo's column explains and at the same time spotlights Lefkowitz's most recent book, History Lesson: A Race Odyssey, "a personal account of what she experienced as a result of questioning the veracity of Afrocentrism and the motives of its advocates. She has advanced the intellectual case against Afrocentrism before, in "Not Out of Africa:How Afrocentrism Became An Excuse to Teach Myth as History (1997); here she takes a more personal approach..."

I am so glad I came across John Leo's article, published today in the Wall Street Journal.  Read it for background into the controversy and weep over the "kind of affirmative action program for the re-writing of history" that is Afrocentrism.  (continued on page 2)

JUAN WILLIAMS COMPARES OBAMA AND MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR

I found Juan Williams' recent article in the Wall Street Journal perceptive. 

MORE PLANNED PARENTHOOD RACIST CLINICS EXPOSED

Michelle Malkin writes:

I’ve written several times before about Lila Rose’s pioneering undercover journalism. If left-wing reporters are going to use their positions to engineer bigotry stings, then there’s most certainly room for independent journalists to expose racism where the Left doesn’t want to go. In February, Rose released undercover tapes of her discussion with an Idaho Planned Parenthood official eager to accept money from a racist donor who supported aborting black babies. Now, Rose is back with new video of PP clinic officials in New Mexico and Oklahoma willing to take money from a blatantly racist donor. One PP staffer openly admits that “for whatever reason, we’ll accept the money.”

Sympathy for eugenics isn’t just an aberrent occurrence. It’s embedded in the historical DNA of Planned Parenthood. Margaret Sanger would be so proud.

Click through to see the video Michelle Malkin refers to above.  See also my previous post, Slimy Planned Parenthood.

IS REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT (OBAMA'S PASTOR) A PROPHET?

After listing quote after quote, and newspaper after newspaper casting the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a prophet, Dennis Prager strongly demurs saying:

The essence of the real prophets was not that they said things that disturbed people; the moral essence of the prophets was their moral clarity. They knew the difference between good and evil. "Woe unto those who call good 'evil' and call evil 'good,'" said the Prophet Isaiah.

Those who cannot see the monumental moral gulf between America and the unspeakably evil jihadists America is fighting in Iraq and elsewhere are not prophets. Those who think Americans got what they deserved on 9/11 are not prophets. Those who think the Russian people were better off under Communism are not prophets. Those who think America developed AIDS and infected people of color with it are not prophets. Those who think America is more worthy of damnation than of blessing are not prophets. They are fools.

I have posted previously on Rev. Jeremiah Wright here and here.

Quick Takes

** Stanley Kurtz writes on Dr.James Cone, a leading advocate of Black Liberation theology, and the mentor of Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

** Victor Davis Hanson takes a look at Rev. Jeremiah Wright's successor, Rev. Moss who "likens the media storm over Jeremiah Wright's racist and anti-American remarks to a lynching and crucifixion."

Rev. Moss’s interviews and sermons concerning Wright suggest that he is in complete agreement with his former pastor’s views, and will continue to promulgate them, albeit perhaps with less profanity and slander.

** Turkish ruling party cracks down on a free press 

** Andrew G. Bostom on our inability to stand tall for human rights

** Stephen Brown writes on Dutch MP Geert Wilders (filmaker) - "The Islamists' Nemesis"   Update 3/28/08 - Here's the link to the Geert Wilders movie

REACTIONS TO OBAMA'S SPEECH

Michele Malkin has lots to say and she, in turn, considers Allahpundit's "the best takedown of Obamamessiah of the day."  John Derbyshire is developing a growing dislike for Obama. "The speech is slippery, evasive, dishonest, and sometimes insulting."  I always find Stanley Kurtz uncommonly thoughtful and his published reactions today continue that tradition.  Charles Murray is dazzled by the speech's brilliance.  (Update: he expands here.) Victor Davis Hanson calls it "an elegant farce."  Rush Limbaugh offered his analysis here

Thomas Sowell wrote before Obama's speech,

The fact that Obama talks differently than Jeremiah Wright does not mean that his track record is different. Barack Obama’s voting record in the Senate is perfectly consistent with the far-left ideology and the grievance culture, just as his wife’s statement that she was never proud of her country before is consistent with that ideology.. .   

Shelby Steele published his perspective before the speech.

Update 3/19/08 - Thomas Sowell gives his opinion after hearing the speech.  The National Review Editors opine here.  (Well worth reading).  Michael Gerson calls it "A Speech That Fell Short" (a very probing, insighful review).  Michael Graham opines in the Boston Herald.  See VDH on next page.  Important.

MORE ON OBAMA'S PASTOR, REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT

Update 3/17/08 - Spengler on Rev. Wright and black liberation theology.  His  article appears in the Asian Times Online.  (HT: The Corner)

Update 3/16/08 - VDH analyzes the Obama/Democratic spin.

Update 3/15/08: Last night Barack Obama appeared on television to respond to his crisis, and crisis it is.  Michelle Malkin comments   and links to  other evaluations.

**
Victor Davis Hanson explains the utter seriousness of Obama's close association with his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  (Note my previous posts on Rev. Jeremiah Wright here and here.)

Betrayed?

The problems with Rev. Wright and Sen. Obama are fivefold. They won’t go away, but they will raise dilemmas for him that have no analogy, no parallel with other religious leaders of dubious past declamations who have supported the other candidates:

1) The Obamas were not merely endorsed by, or attended the church of, Rev. Wright, but subsidized his hatred with generous donations [in 2006 Obama gave $22,500 to the church], were married by him, and had their children baptized by this venomous preacher; there is nothing quite comparable in the case of Sens. Clinton and McCain.

2) Rev. Wright’s invective is not insensitive or hyperbolic alone, but in the end disgusting. And when listened to rather than read, the level of emotion and fury only compound the racism and hatred, whether in its attack on the Clintons, or profanity-laced slander of the United States and its history, or in gratuitous references to other races. Its reactionary Afrocentrism, conspiracy-theory, and illiberal racial separatism take us back to the 1970s, and compare with the worst of the fossilized Farrakhan—and have no remote parallel in the present campaign.

"GOD DAMN AMERICA" SAYS OBAMA'S PASTOR, THE REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT

Note updates at the end of the post

**

From ABC News.com via Kathryn Lopez:

Sen. Barack Obama's pastor says blacks should not sing "God Bless America" but "God damn America."

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side, has a long history of what even Obama's campaign aides concede is "inflammatory rhetoric," including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own "terrorism."

In a campaign appearance earlier this month, Sen. Obama said, "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial." He said Rev. Wright "is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with," telling a Jewish group that everyone has someone like that in their family.

Rev. Wright married Obama and his wife Michelle, baptized their two daughters and is credited by Obama for the title of his book, "The Audacity of Hope."

An ABC News review of dozens of Rev. Wright's sermons, offered for sale by the church, found repeated denunciations of the U.S. based on what he described as his reading of the Gospels and the treatment of black Americans.

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda's attacks because of its own terrorism.

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.

"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost," he told his congregation.
Sen. Obama told the New York Times he was not at the church on the day of Rev. Wright's 9/11 sermon. "The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and without justification," Obama said in a recent interview. "It sounds like he was trying to be provocative," Obama told the paper.

Rev. Wright, who announced his retirement last month, has built a large and loyal following at his church with his mesmerizing sermons, mixing traditional spiritual content and his views on contemporary issues.

"I wouldn't call it radical. I call it being black in America," said one congregation member outside the church last Sunday.

Me: What does it say about a person (Obama) who has willingly sat under a man preaching such views for such a long time?  And who has furthermore called him a friend and mentor and guide?  To me it says a lot.  Spooky.  Note: I previously blogged about Obama's pastor here.  - For Victor Davis Hanson's comments, keep reading.
 

BARACK OBAMA'S PASTOR

Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. last month honored Louis Farrakhan for lifetime achievement.  For more on Rev. Wright and Obama's relationship to him, read Ronald Kessler's article published today.

** Update 2/4/08 - See also this major  article by John Perazzo

** Update 1/16/08 - Investor's Business Daily issued a hard-hitting editorial:

. . . In 1991, when Obama joined the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, he pledged allegiance to something called the Black Value System, which is a code of non-Biblical ethics written by blacks, for blacks.

It encourages blacks to group together and separate from the larger American society by pooling their money, patronizing black-only businesses and