Farrakhan Fantasies

As clearly as the helpless and dependent residents of New Orleans were a perfect example of what the welfare state can create, so is Louis Farrakhan's insane charge of levee destruction a sterling example of black bigotry and hatred. In Farrakhan's world, where many blacks live, the evil white man is behind every bad thing that might befall a black person. Never mind that many blacks have been ruined by their addiction to government social services, or that black men abandon their families at staggering rates, or that black culture mocks education and assimilation as "Uncle Tom", or that blacks kill blacks far more often than whites kill blacks. But Farrkhan is a master at nailing his audience, and with the liberal media doing it's best to whip blacks into a frenzy against President Bush, who can blame him for attempting to recruit a few more disciples for the Mother Ship?

South African Law Yes. The Bible, No

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says that she will continue to use foreign law when making decisions from the bench, and that she will "take enlightenment wherever I can get it."

That, of course, excludes the Bible.

Ted Rall, Idiot

With his latest nutty criticism of those who give to charities, Ted Rall has once again placed himself in the unenviable position of being the biggest idiot in the world of commentary. That is a place of dishonor hard to fathom, what with the level of Democratic idiocy in contention, but Rall makes it seem effortless.

Rall writes that charities, and those who contribute to them, are simply enabling the federal government to abdicate its responsibilities in providing services to those in need, most recently the foolish and hopelessly dependent "victims" of flooding in New Orleans. He labels the givers "suckers", and calls for the end to charities. In his twisted little world of petty criticisms and grandiose conspiracy theories, every dollar spent by private organizations is a dollar that allows the federal government to drop another bomb on an innocent Iraqi, or stuff the pockets of Halliburton executives. Only the federal government should pay for disaster relief, says Rall, because after all, the government has more than enough money to take care of everybody.

His argument is so riddled with fallacies and ignorance, it is hard to know where to start. Rall must be the product of public school education, because he has neither the intellectual capacity nor the historical perspective to recognize the staggering stupidity of his own words and beliefs, and it is hard to believe that anyone could take him seriously. But to Rall and other fever-swamp liberals, the government is both nanny and daddy to us all, and should take from the citizens all the money it needs to fulfill that role. There is no such thing as personal accountability or responsibility, or free will. Bad life decisions and poor personal planning should be mitigated by the tax-payer, and no one should ever have to suffer the consequences of their actions. The Red Cross and Catholic Charities, which provide billions to the needy through private funding, are simply impediments to the social state.

Of course Rall would have no objections to non-profits that collect money to promote and defend abortion, save an insect, prevent Walmart construction, or protest the war against Islamic terrorism. Nor would he have ever criticized charitable giving during the golden years of the Clinton administration, when social spending was less than it is today, because everyone knows Bill Clinton cared more than George Bush. And that, after all, is what really counts.

But if Rall had any interest in the truth, he would soon discover that for most of our nation's long and glorious history, people were expected to take care of themselves, and that private organizations were most often expected to help those who temporarily needed help. Although a few instances of tax-payer largesse can be found prior to the 20th century, only after the debacle of Roosevelt's New Deal did Americans begin expecting monetary help from Washington. Before that churches, private charities, and local governments were rightly expected to provide assistance to individuals, and were most often in the position to identify those who truly needed, and deserved, such help.

Rall is like most other liberals: incapable of recognizing America's greatness and goodness. To Rall, the benevolence of millions of Americans willing to part with hard-earned cash to help those who they will never meet, and who may not even be deserving, is a foolish waste.

The Stink in the Streets

When the body count is finally taken in New Orleans, don't believe for a minute that every bloated corpse that floats to the surface is the result of the hurricane. We already know that the walk-in freezer at the Superdome is stuffed with murder victims, many elderly, and including a five year old gang-rape victim. With a relatively small sports arena crawling with scum that could commit such acts, how creative does one have to be to imagine the opportunities on a much wider scale presented by the social chaos during the storm. New Orleans in general, and the 9th Ward in particular, is an often ruthless, lawless ghetto town, even under the best of conditions. How many vendetta killings, gang hits, payback homicides, and rape/murders occurred as the streets flooded with putrid water?

In these neighborhoods, filled with contemptible people so dependent on the government that they cannot muster enough personal accountability to evacuate a doomed city and save their own lives, there exists the perfect opportunity for the wolves to eat the sheep, and the sheep have no common sense of personal preservation, having lived so long on the largesse of others. Even the police abandoned these people after the storm, pulled back by their own chief who said it was "too dangerous" for search and rescue and law enforcement. Up to a third of New Orleans officers simply quit, refusing to report for duty, or stole squad cars to run away. Where else, at any other time in America's modern history, have we heard of such a thing? But New Orleans, and other urban black areas, are uniquely un-American, festering in a destructive culture of dependency, resentment, selfishness and instant gratification that has ruined them, and many are not worth protecting. Even the New Orleans police know it. Even the black New Orleans police officers know it.

Angry black commentators and despicable black legislators who insist that more government intervention would have prevented the violent outbreaks of jungle law are simply and desperately attempting to deflect and camouflage what they cannot dare allow the world to see: an entire city, devoid of American values, hopelessly dependent, purposefully ignorant, unrepentantly self-centered and ethnocentric, unwilling to integrate into mainstream culture, and dangerously reminiscent of other third-world communities on the verge of constant anarchy. And black leaders do nothing to change any of this.

I certainly hope Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson Lee, and every other liberal black-enabler are proud of what they have wrought. Some of the stink in the streets of New Orleans is because of them.

Culture, New Orleans Style

Political correctness and cultural "sensitivity" will prevent an accurate and truthful examination of what is really going on in the hurricane destruction zone, especially in the New Orleans area. But news reports of lawlessness, looting, violence and vandalism might lead some to call into question the apparently razor thin veneer of civilization that exists in black communities throughout America, a veneer that tends to evaporate everytime social services are not available to placate the residents.

As black residents ransack abandoned homes and businesses, shoot at rescue helicopters and fire fighters, threaten police and National Guard troops simply trying to help, and blame the government and President Bush for what really amounts to their own bad life choices and disaster planning, comparisons to similar disasters in other parts of the country should be made. For example, why did we not see such wholesale societal breakdown ten years ago, when Hurricane Andrew decimated Homestead, and other cities in Southeast Florida?

The answer is certainly not poverty. Median income for a family in New Orleans is $32,338 compared to Homestead's median family income level of $26,409. In fact, the per capita income for New Orleans is significantly greater than Homestead as well, $17, 258 vs. $11,357. In Homestead, 31.8% of the population are below the poverty line, while only 27.9% of the population in New Orleans fall below the poverty line. More children live under the poverty line in Homestead than in New Orleans, 43.9% compared to 40.3%.

What about family structure? Not likely, since 22.4% of the families in Homestead have a female householder with no husband present, as compared to 24.5% in New Orleans.

What about level of devastation? Certainly, New Orleans, being below sea level, is mired in muck and mud, electricity and water services are non-existent at this time, and hundreds may be dead. But many of those killed in New Orleans ignored common sense warnings to evacuate for days, and chose voluntarily to stay. However, Homestead was without power and water for weeks and much of the city was razed by the force of Andrew, which killed 23 people and caused nearly $30 billion in damages. Even two years later, the devastation was obvious, and there were still relocation centers inhabited by people who had lost homes.

While reports from Homestead described neighbor helping neighbor, and a shaky but calm attempt to restore services and civilization, there were few incidents of looting and violence. The situation in New Orleans is just the opposite. There, the law of the jungle prevails. Unlike Homestead, where National Guard troops were sent primarily to render aid and comfort, the National Guard is being sent to New Orleans to restore order from societal chaos, and take back a city under rampage.

Is there any demographic difference which might explain why two similar situations result in two very different outcomes? There is.

Homestead, like most of the area destroyed by Andrew in 1992, is 2/3 white. New Orleans and the surrounding area is 2/3 black.

No one ever wants to admit that all cultures, even sub-cultures within our own country, are equally positive, or equally valuable. While it has not always been true, much of American black culture today is violent, angry, dependent, resentful and destructive. Black culture rejects education, the American Dream, parental responsibility, and earned respect. It embraces foul rap music, easy money, misogyny, the welfare state, and respect from the end of a gun or through other violent means. Black culture labels a successful mainstream black man an Oreo, and an integrated black man an Uncle Tom. Black culture believes that even now, a century and a half after slavery, white people owe them everything. And they will burn their own neighborhoods down if they don't get it: Watts, 1966. Newark and Detroit, 1967. Miami, 1980/82/89. Los Angeles, 1992. Benton Harbor, 2003.

Any questions?

Public Breakdown

With President Bush having left his ranch in Crawford, TX to lead the hurricane recovery efforts in the Gulf States area, Cindy Sheehan and her liberal freak show have taken down the tents and headed for Washington, DC. While she disgraced herself with proclamations that became increasingly bizarre and conspiratorial (and anti-Jewish), the shameless left was able to wring every ounce of Bush-hatred from the "event". In the end, we were simply watching Sheehan's hysterical nervous breakdown take place on national television, and the old-school media and radical left organizers were thrilled to promote her.
Under normal circumstances, most Americans would have felt pity and sympathy for a woman who had lost her son, but Sheehan is not pitiable. She has become, and probably always was, a raving lunatic transformed not by grief for her lost son, but by seething Bush-rage, and is most likely a danger to herself and those around her. While there is nothing that can tarnish the memory and ultimate sacrifice of her boy, a soldier who did his duty, it is hard to understand how such honor and integrity could spring from such a disgrace.
Casey must have taken after his father.