A suburbanite returning to his car from a very safe and heavily populated entertainment district of downtown Detroit gets carjacked by four monsters. His response: shoot the bastards. One of them dies, the other three get apprehended by cops... oh, yeah: he parked across the street from police HQ. I guarantee that 90% of the decent residents of Detroit are cheering, including many people related to these monsters.
Update: An off-duty Detroit cop gets car-jacked at his own house, upon parking on his way home, in his driveway. He responded by shooting the bastard. Don't know if these summary killings will deter others suffering from similar retardation, but at least these dead guys won't do this again.
2007-09-28
Hillary: Govt Give Each Baby $5k?
"I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account that will grow over time, so that when that young person turns 18 if they have finished high school they will be able to access it to go to college or maybe they will be able to make that downpayment on their first home," she said.
So, why not make Social Security work the same way? Oh, wait, that would be evil and irresponsible. Remember how Hillary and the lefties reacted to Bush's proposal for just that.
"Clinton said such an account program would help people get back to the tradition of savings that she remembers as a child." How does giving a person money encourage saving?
So, why not make Social Security work the same way? Oh, wait, that would be evil and irresponsible. Remember how Hillary and the lefties reacted to Bush's proposal for just that.
"Clinton said such an account program would help people get back to the tradition of savings that she remembers as a child." How does giving a person money encourage saving?
2007-09-27
Dan Rather Stands By His Story
I think that Dan Rather is correct: George Bush II dodged the Vietnam draft, did it by scoring via his connections a cushy and fun fighter pilot job in a safe place, and violated even those obligations. However, Dan got suckered into accepting a bogus document supporting that contention without authenticating it.
I also believe that John Kerry behaved dishonorably while serving in Vietnam, which while there he attempted to save his skin and feather his resume... sort of like how JFK did.
I also believe that John Kerry behaved dishonorably while serving in Vietnam, which while there he attempted to save his skin and feather his resume... sort of like how JFK did.
2007-09-24
More Jena Six info
This article provides new info that mostly tempers the racism charges, though it also omits many other claims which support the racism charges. Included in this new info:
1. The disputed high school shade tree was always used by both blacks and whites, according to a the two black teachers at the school. But if this is true, why did the black kid ask at an assembly if he could sit there? And why did the nooses get hung?
2. About the nooses: there were only two, not three. And both black and white kids were playing with them.
3. The noose-hangers got expelled for an entire month, confined to an off-campus facility.
4. The Jena Six guy in prison got reported to police by a black neighbor for scratching cars, breaking car windows, and graffiti. The neighbor complains now that police did not respond adequatly to this report (or was it reports?), "but as soon as he had a run-in with a white boy, they came down on him like a hammer."
5. The knocked-out white boy had a concussion.
Omissions in this article:
1. The two incidents wherein white segregationists jump on one of the Jena Sixers prior to the white boy knockout. These two incidents get alluded to, without any details.
2. The knocked-out white boy's relationship to the noose-hangers, and charges that prior to getting attacked he harassed the Jena Sixer who got jumped twice.
1. The disputed high school shade tree was always used by both blacks and whites, according to a the two black teachers at the school. But if this is true, why did the black kid ask at an assembly if he could sit there? And why did the nooses get hung?
2. About the nooses: there were only two, not three. And both black and white kids were playing with them.
3. The noose-hangers got expelled for an entire month, confined to an off-campus facility.
4. The Jena Six guy in prison got reported to police by a black neighbor for scratching cars, breaking car windows, and graffiti. The neighbor complains now that police did not respond adequatly to this report (or was it reports?), "but as soon as he had a run-in with a white boy, they came down on him like a hammer."
5. The knocked-out white boy had a concussion.
Omissions in this article:
1. The two incidents wherein white segregationists jump on one of the Jena Sixers prior to the white boy knockout. These two incidents get alluded to, without any details.
2. The knocked-out white boy's relationship to the noose-hangers, and charges that prior to getting attacked he harassed the Jena Sixer who got jumped twice.
Racist Site: Lynch Jena Six
A white racist website urges a lynching of the Jena Six. The above article (and this) reports that the site "essentially called for their lynching," while this article has the site explicitly proclaiming "Lynch the Jena 6." Both articles agree that the site lists phone numbers and addresses for some of the Jena Sixers "in case anybody wants to deliver justice." FBI agents are are deciding if the site violates any federal crimes. It seems to me that either it does, or laws ought to criminalize calls for murder, especially murder that qualifies as terrorism, as is the case here.
Dress Codes Help Students, Rile Parents
The same parents who demand better performance from schools spend time resisting new dress codes in Detroit's struggling school system. Says one administrator: "It has had a strong effect on their behavior, especially in the cafeteria. They're much more relaxed and the noise level is much lower."
But some parents can't see the connection between dress and academic performance, and are taking time to fight the new codes. One father laments: "How can teachers be teaching her anything if they're sitting and watching what she has on? As long as she's decent, that's all I ask."
Hey, dad, your schools are failing. Support this new idea; give it a chance to work. The parents paying several thousands of dollars per year for private schools mostly face this same dress code, which seems to work. I would turn your question on you: "How can your student learn when you are assisting her resistance to a new rule that works so well in more successful schools?"
But some parents can't see the connection between dress and academic performance, and are taking time to fight the new codes. One father laments: "How can teachers be teaching her anything if they're sitting and watching what she has on? As long as she's decent, that's all I ask."
Hey, dad, your schools are failing. Support this new idea; give it a chance to work. The parents paying several thousands of dollars per year for private schools mostly face this same dress code, which seems to work. I would turn your question on you: "How can your student learn when you are assisting her resistance to a new rule that works so well in more successful schools?"
2007-09-22
Dumber Than Bush: His Student Critics
The Rocky Mountain Collegian's seven student editors spent "several hours" trying to articulate how they felt about George Bush II, and the best they could come up with was: "Taser This: Fuck Bush". A caption below said, "this column represents the views of the Collegian's Editorial Board."
And apparently the Editorial Board's intellectual capability. The paper's editors told a local newscast reporter, "I think we could write 250words and ramble on and I don't think anyone would pay attention." That's quite an admission: He and his fellow editors lack the intellectual capacity to articulate and defend an anti-Bush position that rises above "rambling", and the paper lacks an audience interested in reading an editorial comprising a thesis, facts, and logic.
"We felt it illustrated our point about freedom of speech," he said. Well, it certainly did that.
And apparently the Editorial Board's intellectual capability. The paper's editors told a local newscast reporter, "I think we could write 250words and ramble on and I don't think anyone would pay attention." That's quite an admission: He and his fellow editors lack the intellectual capacity to articulate and defend an anti-Bush position that rises above "rambling", and the paper lacks an audience interested in reading an editorial comprising a thesis, facts, and logic.
"We felt it illustrated our point about freedom of speech," he said. Well, it certainly did that.
No Relation Between Nooses & White Boy Beat Down?
That's the conclusion of severely retarded Donald Washington, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana "who reviewed investigations into the incidents." OK, we have his name; let's target him to prove this to us, in the face of the facts, summarized here:
1. Black kids at Jena's only high school ask for, and receive, permission to sit under the whites-only tree.
2. Three do.
3. The next day: three nooses hang from the tree.
4. The white principal identifies three white boys, gets them to confess, and expels them.
5. The school board the same day overturns his decision and assign a three-day in-school suspension.
6. Black kids make a point of sitting under the whites-only tree every day.
7. White boys attack one of the black protesters as he attempts to attend a whites-only party, beating him with beer bottles. Police make no arrest, but eventually charge one of the attackers with simple battery (as a juvenile), and the guy gets probation.
8. The next day this beaten protester runs into one of his attackers, who now pulls a pistol on him. When he wrests-away the pistol, white cops arrive and arrest *HIM*... for stealing a gun.
9. This same beaten protester a few days later at school gets taunted by a proud friend of one of the noose-hangers. A few minutes later this white boy finds himself knocked out, the first white and only white person to pay any price in this Jena Six affair.
This article, of course, omits steps 6 & 7, and that the beaten white boy was a proud friend of the noose-hangers, but does address charges that he said something provocative just before getting decked, though without linking that alleged taunt to the black kid who had already been assaulted twice.
Somebody please explain to me how (9) above is "unrelated" to (1). As much as the Duke 3 case, this one cries out for national intervention; the local white folks have proven that they cannot and will not manage justice in Jena, LA. The cops, prosecutors, and judges here are even worse than those involved with the Duke affair, because here they are picking on people who lack the resources (at least until this point) to mount an effective defense. A teenager today is losing his youth to prison, a teen who at worst knocked out some dangerously racist cracker. And if you examine the conflicting facts attending to that seconds-long incident, you cannot even conclude he did that "beyond a reasonable doubt."
1. Black kids at Jena's only high school ask for, and receive, permission to sit under the whites-only tree.
2. Three do.
3. The next day: three nooses hang from the tree.
4. The white principal identifies three white boys, gets them to confess, and expels them.
5. The school board the same day overturns his decision and assign a three-day in-school suspension.
6. Black kids make a point of sitting under the whites-only tree every day.
7. White boys attack one of the black protesters as he attempts to attend a whites-only party, beating him with beer bottles. Police make no arrest, but eventually charge one of the attackers with simple battery (as a juvenile), and the guy gets probation.
8. The next day this beaten protester runs into one of his attackers, who now pulls a pistol on him. When he wrests-away the pistol, white cops arrive and arrest *HIM*... for stealing a gun.
9. This same beaten protester a few days later at school gets taunted by a proud friend of one of the noose-hangers. A few minutes later this white boy finds himself knocked out, the first white and only white person to pay any price in this Jena Six affair.
This article, of course, omits steps 6 & 7, and that the beaten white boy was a proud friend of the noose-hangers, but does address charges that he said something provocative just before getting decked, though without linking that alleged taunt to the black kid who had already been assaulted twice.
Somebody please explain to me how (9) above is "unrelated" to (1). As much as the Duke 3 case, this one cries out for national intervention; the local white folks have proven that they cannot and will not manage justice in Jena, LA. The cops, prosecutors, and judges here are even worse than those involved with the Duke affair, because here they are picking on people who lack the resources (at least until this point) to mount an effective defense. A teenager today is losing his youth to prison, a teen who at worst knocked out some dangerously racist cracker. And if you examine the conflicting facts attending to that seconds-long incident, you cannot even conclude he did that "beyond a reasonable doubt."
More Nooses in Jena
White boys from Jena, LA drove around dangling nooses from the backs of two pickup trucks, taunting home-bound participants in the first (of what I hope will be many) Jena Six rally which had occurred the day before. On this day-after the rally, justice had already received another setback when some obviously criminally racist cracker judge denied bail for the lone (so far) imprisoned Jena Sixer. The noose-dangling white boys pulled their stunt about 40 miles from Jena, in the larger town of Alexandria, which many protesters used as a bus depot and staging area. Local police apprehended one of the pickups, driven by an 18-year-0ld, with a 16-year-old passenger. Both were drunk, and the older boy got arrested for DWI, instigating a riot, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, with these charges expected to get upgraded to hate crimes.
One of the boys has a "KKK" tattoo and proclaims that his entire family belongs to that outfit. Let's hope that the white folks of Alexandria show the world something good: try the younger boy as an adult, deny them both bail, and charge them with attempted murder. I can only imagine the restraint showed by the presumably hundreds of protesters -- who had just learned that the judge had denied bail -- in not dragging these dangerous trachledytes of their trucks and stomping them; they're restraint represents one of what must be many more victories. Imagine how this would have turned out had some provided the reaction sought by the white racists. We need to get that boy out of prison, and protect the other five at all costs, even the cost of letting some nose-breathers escape a much-deserved beatdown. Instead, they are arrested, and provide our side some new ammo.
One of the boys has a "KKK" tattoo and proclaims that his entire family belongs to that outfit. Let's hope that the white folks of Alexandria show the world something good: try the younger boy as an adult, deny them both bail, and charge them with attempted murder. I can only imagine the restraint showed by the presumably hundreds of protesters -- who had just learned that the judge had denied bail -- in not dragging these dangerous trachledytes of their trucks and stomping them; they're restraint represents one of what must be many more victories. Imagine how this would have turned out had some provided the reaction sought by the white racists. We need to get that boy out of prison, and protect the other five at all costs, even the cost of letting some nose-breathers escape a much-deserved beatdown. Instead, they are arrested, and provide our side some new ammo.
2007-09-21
Jena Six'er Denied Bail, Justice
This gets worse and worse. The day after the big protest, the bail hearing appeared, with a denial. Amazing. Maybe this would have taken the righteous turn had more white people taken a stand; and maybe more whites would have stood up in the absence of all the phony cries of racism (Duke, Imus). We'll never know. But we know for certain: white-on-black racism flourishes in and about Jena, LA; and no presidential candidate from either party gives a damn.
I hope that the ACLU now finally steps in, after carefully (I assume) monitoring this atrocious matter for months. And I hope that the arrested kids get a Duke rape-like civil damages award in the end.
And what now of those who refused to speak out for the Duke 3? Who refused to form an opinion, who were content to "let the legal system" work its course? What now, Nadir? What moral authority may you now join me in calling for federal intervention to seize these proceedings from the clearly racist white judges and prosecutors handling this case? Well, the loud support for INjustice of Jesse and Al vis a vis the Duke 3, and then their eventual loud quite hasn't stopped them from piping up here. But imagine how effective they might be today for the Jena Six had they joined with, instead of against, the Duke Three.
I hope that the ACLU now finally steps in, after carefully (I assume) monitoring this atrocious matter for months. And I hope that the arrested kids get a Duke rape-like civil damages award in the end.
And what now of those who refused to speak out for the Duke 3? Who refused to form an opinion, who were content to "let the legal system" work its course? What now, Nadir? What moral authority may you now join me in calling for federal intervention to seize these proceedings from the clearly racist white judges and prosecutors handling this case? Well, the loud support for INjustice of Jesse and Al vis a vis the Duke 3, and then their eventual loud quite hasn't stopped them from piping up here. But imagine how effective they might be today for the Jena Six had they joined with, instead of against, the Duke Three.
Tyrant to Speak at Columbia
FREE SPEECH ALERT! Here we go again. A university has invited as speaker a person that many people consider to be horrible. In this case, the medieval islamic theocrat, Iranian president with the impossible-to-pronounce name, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As expected:
1. The people on campus who want him banned are the same people who had previously demanded "free speech" for the founder of the Minute Men, when student protests a while back killed that scheduled event.
2. The people on campus who demand "free speech" for Ahmadinejad are the same people who previously (and successfully) demanded a zipped lip for scheduled Minute Men founder.
Am I the USA's only advocate of free speech? Let both these guys speak. And don't interrupt them, even with long-winded diatribes during the Q and A. Just let 'em speak, ask some real questions, then decide for yourself. And remember: the guy speaking today that you detest makes it possible tomorrow for a speaker that others detest.
1. The people on campus who want him banned are the same people who had previously demanded "free speech" for the founder of the Minute Men, when student protests a while back killed that scheduled event.
2. The people on campus who demand "free speech" for Ahmadinejad are the same people who previously (and successfully) demanded a zipped lip for scheduled Minute Men founder.
Am I the USA's only advocate of free speech? Let both these guys speak. And don't interrupt them, even with long-winded diatribes during the Q and A. Just let 'em speak, ask some real questions, then decide for yourself. And remember: the guy speaking today that you detest makes it possible tomorrow for a speaker that others detest.
2007-09-20
Jena Six Horrible Press Coverage
These articles constantly miss the point; they constantly compare the arrest of the Jena Six black kids for assaulting a white boy, to the failure of police to arrest the three white boys who hung the three nooses. As best I can tell, no supporters of the Jena Six are mad because the three white noose hangers didn't get arrested. The are mad that:
1. The noose hanging white boys got only suspended, rather than expelled. The white school principal expelled them, but the white (all-white?) school board overturned that.
2. White boys beat one of the future Jena Six guys simply for attempting to attend a white house party; they beat him with beer bottles. Only one of those white boys got charged, and only with simple assault, resulting in only probation.
3. That same future Jena Six guy got assaulted a second time by another white boy, one wielding a pistol. The Jena Six guy wrested away the gun. The police response? The Jena Six dude got arrested for stealing a gun.
4. Now comes the Jena Six incident. The press accounts constantly omit the two previous white-on-black assaults, and the fact that the white boy who got attacked here is (1) a self-described friend of the three noose-hangers, and (2) he (according to the black kids) had minutes before taunted the Jena Six dude who had already been assaulted twice.
This is some of the worst reporting I've ever seen, much worse even than the usual reporting. All sorts of obvious questions never addressed (what role had the attacked white boy previously play?), and preposterous claims made (black kids demanding arrest of white kids for hanging nooses).
Here the LA Times also screws it up. This article jumps from the three white boys hanging nooses to the six black guys beating the white boy without provokation. The article skips the two white-on-black assaults on the future Jena Six guy, and the white boy's affiliation with the three who hung the noose, and his taunting (allegedly) of the Jena Six guy who had been previously assaulted.
The reporting is a disgrace.
1. The noose hanging white boys got only suspended, rather than expelled. The white school principal expelled them, but the white (all-white?) school board overturned that.
2. White boys beat one of the future Jena Six guys simply for attempting to attend a white house party; they beat him with beer bottles. Only one of those white boys got charged, and only with simple assault, resulting in only probation.
3. That same future Jena Six guy got assaulted a second time by another white boy, one wielding a pistol. The Jena Six guy wrested away the gun. The police response? The Jena Six dude got arrested for stealing a gun.
4. Now comes the Jena Six incident. The press accounts constantly omit the two previous white-on-black assaults, and the fact that the white boy who got attacked here is (1) a self-described friend of the three noose-hangers, and (2) he (according to the black kids) had minutes before taunted the Jena Six dude who had already been assaulted twice.
This is some of the worst reporting I've ever seen, much worse even than the usual reporting. All sorts of obvious questions never addressed (what role had the attacked white boy previously play?), and preposterous claims made (black kids demanding arrest of white kids for hanging nooses).
Here the LA Times also screws it up. This article jumps from the three white boys hanging nooses to the six black guys beating the white boy without provokation. The article skips the two white-on-black assaults on the future Jena Six guy, and the white boy's affiliation with the three who hung the noose, and his taunting (allegedly) of the Jena Six guy who had been previously assaulted.
The reporting is a disgrace.
Jena Six Chronology of Events Proves Racism
Why haven't any major news outlets posted a chronology? Here I present one, taken from a News week article (I will update as new data and insights occur). Only severe white-on-black racism can explain this, and no black kids here deserve to be arrested for anything. If local Jena officials had acted properly, the Jena Six violence would never have occurred.
1. At a back-to-school assembly in Sept 2006, a black junior, Kenneth Purvis, asks the white vice-principal on stage taking questions if he (Purvis) and other blacks can sit under the school shade tree during lunch, issuing an open challenge to the known unwritten rule that only white kids can do so. "Sit wherever you like", the white vice-principal answered.
2. A few days later this kid and some black friends sat there during lunch, commiserating with some of their white friends.
3. The next day three nooses appeared hanging from the tree.
4. The white principal responded diligently, got three white boys to confess, and he expelled them for the rest of the year.
5. Days later (still Sept 2006) the (all-white?) school board overturned the expulsion, and the three white boys returned to school, having served merely a suspension.
6. Black kids start making a point of hanging out under the forbidden tree. "We didn't call it a protest," says Robert Bailey Jr., a student who participated in this, and who would become one of the Jena Six.
7. Tensions mount at the school to the point where the principal in early Sept (only a few days have passed since the nooses) convenes an assembly of the entire school, and gets the local DA, a white man named Reed Walters -- flanked by cops (all white?) -- to address the students: "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy," he told students, warning them to settle down. "With a stroke of my pen, I can make your lives disappear." Does he mean this warning to all students, or just the black students? The answer will become clear.
8. Over Thanksgiving break 2006, arson erupts at the school, destroying an entire wing. No data so far indicates who did this or why.
9. The day after the Thanksgiving arson, Bailey (black guy who'll become a Jena 6 dude) arrives at a white high school house party (he apparently has some white friends). He was "punched and beaten with beer bottles when he tried to enter... The white kid who threw the first punch was later charged with simple battery and given probation." Lesson to the black kids: the DA Reed Walters considers it "simple assault" unworthy of jail time for assailants who use fists and beer bottles. So much for "making your life disappear with pen" if you behave violently in this matter, at least when it comes to white kids assaulting black kids.
10. The day after Baily got beaten by fists and beer bottles, he "ran into a young white man who was at the party. Bailey and parents of the Jena Six say that when the man pulled a gun on him, he tangled with him and stripped it away. He was later charged with theft of a firearm." Lesson to the black kids: even if the white segregationists attack you, if you defend yourself, DA Reed Walters and the police will charge you with a crime -- specifically, a preposterous crime (disarming a gunman about to shoot you = gun theft) -- just like back in the Jim Crow days. Again DA Walters fails to make good on his promise to "make your life disappear" for those who escalate this situations... at least white kids who do so.
11. Finally we get to the the white boy, Justin Barker, who got sucker-punched in the Jena Six incident: "The tension culminated back at school the following Monday. Justin Barker, a white student who says he is friends with the kids who hung the nooses, reportedly taunted Bailey at lunch (Barker denies this). A while later, an African-American student allegedly punched Barker from behind, knocking him unconscious. Then, say white witnesses, a group of black students that included Bailey continued to assault Barker, kicking and stomping on him. (Jena High student Justin Purvis and other black witnesses dispute this.) Barker, who was treated for injuries at a nearby hospital, was released later that day, apparently in strong enough shape to attend a class-ring ceremony that evening." The charges here -- from white DA Reed Walters -- include the use of tennis shoes (from kicking) as "deadly weapons."
So, the same "justice system", including the DA Walters, that regards white-on-black beating with beer bottles as worthy only of assault with no jail time, the same "justice system" that arrested for Bailey for "stealing a gun" from a white kid who pulled it on him unprovoked, now wants to imprison Bailey and five others -- to make good on his threat to "make their lives disappear" -- for beating one of those white bastards who actively worked to keep black kids away from the school shade tree.
Shame on the Duke lacrosse team -- and specifically those falsely accused -- for not making this trip to support the the Jena 6. Shame on any presidential candidate who has not taken as much interest as me in digesting this story, and any who have who are not down there today at the protest.
1. At a back-to-school assembly in Sept 2006, a black junior, Kenneth Purvis, asks the white vice-principal on stage taking questions if he (Purvis) and other blacks can sit under the school shade tree during lunch, issuing an open challenge to the known unwritten rule that only white kids can do so. "Sit wherever you like", the white vice-principal answered.
2. A few days later this kid and some black friends sat there during lunch, commiserating with some of their white friends.
3. The next day three nooses appeared hanging from the tree.
4. The white principal responded diligently, got three white boys to confess, and he expelled them for the rest of the year.
5. Days later (still Sept 2006) the (all-white?) school board overturned the expulsion, and the three white boys returned to school, having served merely a suspension.
6. Black kids start making a point of hanging out under the forbidden tree. "We didn't call it a protest," says Robert Bailey Jr., a student who participated in this, and who would become one of the Jena Six.
7. Tensions mount at the school to the point where the principal in early Sept (only a few days have passed since the nooses) convenes an assembly of the entire school, and gets the local DA, a white man named Reed Walters -- flanked by cops (all white?) -- to address the students: "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy," he told students, warning them to settle down. "With a stroke of my pen, I can make your lives disappear." Does he mean this warning to all students, or just the black students? The answer will become clear.
8. Over Thanksgiving break 2006, arson erupts at the school, destroying an entire wing. No data so far indicates who did this or why.
9. The day after the Thanksgiving arson, Bailey (black guy who'll become a Jena 6 dude) arrives at a white high school house party (he apparently has some white friends). He was "punched and beaten with beer bottles when he tried to enter... The white kid who threw the first punch was later charged with simple battery and given probation." Lesson to the black kids: the DA Reed Walters considers it "simple assault" unworthy of jail time for assailants who use fists and beer bottles. So much for "making your life disappear with pen" if you behave violently in this matter, at least when it comes to white kids assaulting black kids.
10. The day after Baily got beaten by fists and beer bottles, he "ran into a young white man who was at the party. Bailey and parents of the Jena Six say that when the man pulled a gun on him, he tangled with him and stripped it away. He was later charged with theft of a firearm." Lesson to the black kids: even if the white segregationists attack you, if you defend yourself, DA Reed Walters and the police will charge you with a crime -- specifically, a preposterous crime (disarming a gunman about to shoot you = gun theft) -- just like back in the Jim Crow days. Again DA Walters fails to make good on his promise to "make your life disappear" for those who escalate this situations... at least white kids who do so.
11. Finally we get to the the white boy, Justin Barker, who got sucker-punched in the Jena Six incident: "The tension culminated back at school the following Monday. Justin Barker, a white student who says he is friends with the kids who hung the nooses, reportedly taunted Bailey at lunch (Barker denies this). A while later, an African-American student allegedly punched Barker from behind, knocking him unconscious. Then, say white witnesses, a group of black students that included Bailey continued to assault Barker, kicking and stomping on him. (Jena High student Justin Purvis and other black witnesses dispute this.) Barker, who was treated for injuries at a nearby hospital, was released later that day, apparently in strong enough shape to attend a class-ring ceremony that evening." The charges here -- from white DA Reed Walters -- include the use of tennis shoes (from kicking) as "deadly weapons."
So, the same "justice system", including the DA Walters, that regards white-on-black beating with beer bottles as worthy only of assault with no jail time, the same "justice system" that arrested for Bailey for "stealing a gun" from a white kid who pulled it on him unprovoked, now wants to imprison Bailey and five others -- to make good on his threat to "make their lives disappear" -- for beating one of those white bastards who actively worked to keep black kids away from the school shade tree.
Shame on the Duke lacrosse team -- and specifically those falsely accused -- for not making this trip to support the the Jena 6. Shame on any presidential candidate who has not taken as much interest as me in digesting this story, and any who have who are not down there today at the protest.
2007-09-19
Jena, LA Racial Injustice Gains National Reaction
I support those black teens in Jena, LA who are getting severely prosecuted for fist-fights resulting from a nasty act of white-on-black racism at that city's (only?) high school, which is integrated, as reported here before. Too bad that so many previous cries of racism have undermined this needs here, either from phoney racism (the Dukesbobo Boys) or from meaningless racism (the Imus affair).
And where in the hell are the Dukesboro Boys? I thought that those rich crackers were going to help non-rich people, in particular po' black folks, unjustly prosecuted? On the one hand I blame them outright for not jumping in here and leading their supporters into helping the Jena 6. But I also wonder how much more likely they would help here had the leaders of the Jena 6 (Jesse, Al, black college students, etc.) not acted against them, and then failed to reverse their course. In any case, I ultimately fault the Duke 3 for not stepping forward here and being bigger than Jesse, Al, and those screaming in-dignitaries at NC Central, which would have a good chance of bringing all these people together, reducing perhaps the chance of future false cries of racism, by working here on a real one.
And where in the hell are the Dukesboro Boys? I thought that those rich crackers were going to help non-rich people, in particular po' black folks, unjustly prosecuted? On the one hand I blame them outright for not jumping in here and leading their supporters into helping the Jena 6. But I also wonder how much more likely they would help here had the leaders of the Jena 6 (Jesse, Al, black college students, etc.) not acted against them, and then failed to reverse their course. In any case, I ultimately fault the Duke 3 for not stepping forward here and being bigger than Jesse, Al, and those screaming in-dignitaries at NC Central, which would have a good chance of bringing all these people together, reducing perhaps the chance of future false cries of racism, by working here on a real one.
2007-09-18
Michigan to Learn Very Taxing Lesson
Michigan lawmakers, including Republicans, seem poised to attempt a tax revenue boost by boosting their state's already high taxes. Prediction: tax revenues will further erode. Michigan business owners will now fear this tax increase, and worse: a state government that addresses budget problems with tax increases. Outside businesses considering Michigan now have a new reason to stay away.
Michigan legislators should all read some economics textbooks and learn how highly taxed localities can increase tax revenue: cut tax rates! Get the interstate commerce boosted, attract new businesses, hang-on to home businesses considering a move to lower taxed states.
Michigan legislators should all read some economics textbooks and learn how highly taxed localities can increase tax revenue: cut tax rates! Get the interstate commerce boosted, attract new businesses, hang-on to home businesses considering a move to lower taxed states.
White Cops Abuse White Student at Kerry Speech
I agree that the cops abused this guy (and that the guy was disruptive to the event, and uncooperative with the cops who wanted to remove him so that the event could continue). But if this victim of police brutality had been black we would today have a much more huge protest, all insisting that this only happened because the guy was black, and that no white guy in a similar situation would get treated this way.
The only good thing I can say about cops in the US is that they are much less cruel and brutal than those in just about every other nation on earth (and any nation outside of functioning modern civilizations), and better today than in previous generations.
The only good thing I can say about cops in the US is that they are much less cruel and brutal than those in just about every other nation on earth (and any nation outside of functioning modern civilizations), and better today than in previous generations.
2007-09-17
Bush Right to Dismantle Hussein's Army
Of all the mistakes Bush made with his Iraqi adventure, I never counted on this list his dismantling of the awful army constructed by Saddam Hussein. I agree with Hitchens here that Bush's devoted critics who claim 100% certainty that this was an obvious mistake would have just as certainly claimed the same had Bush kept together that crew of brutes. To this I would add that these critics did not raise their objections to the dismantling of that gangster outfit until things started going wrong; only then did they state as obvious (the wrong-headedness of sending home the Iraqi soldiers) what they had at the time of the decision kept mum about. I doubt that these critics at the time had any view at all on that topic.
2007-09-04
Large Schools a "Disaster"
Public school officials in England are finally realizing that not only does reducing class sizes help boost academic performance, so does (and perhaps more so) reducing school size. Here one admin labels large schools a "disaster". I find only the following advantages for having large schools:
1. A larger pool of recruits from which to draw interscholastic school teams.
2. More students available to divide into more "elective" courses, which almost always means courses of far less rigor and intellectual heft than the core basics of scholarship.
3. More power for school admins; many super-sized schools have "vice-principles" working under the principle, who also gets to boast of managing a vast corps of teachers.
Small schools undermine the quality of sports teams, the capacity to field multiple electives, and the bragging rights of admins who value quantity over quality. Meanwhile, small schools only assist principals content to boast of just a few teachers and students who produce high test scores.
1. A larger pool of recruits from which to draw interscholastic school teams.
2. More students available to divide into more "elective" courses, which almost always means courses of far less rigor and intellectual heft than the core basics of scholarship.
3. More power for school admins; many super-sized schools have "vice-principles" working under the principle, who also gets to boast of managing a vast corps of teachers.
Small schools undermine the quality of sports teams, the capacity to field multiple electives, and the bragging rights of admins who value quantity over quality. Meanwhile, small schools only assist principals content to boast of just a few teachers and students who produce high test scores.
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