by La Shawn on March 31, 2006
in Justice
Ignorance breeds contempt.
I was stunned into eye-rolling disbelief and embarrassed silence the first time I heard a rumor about the Voting Rights Act of 1965. When I began writing columns a few years ago, I’d get e-mails from black people concerned about their voting rights. Some thought that when the Act expired, blacks would lose the right to vote.
This is what happens when people allow hysteria and race-baiting to override common sense.
The Fifteenth Amendment prevented states from denying citizens the right to vote based on race, and whites tried to keep them from voting by a variety of ill-conceived tricks. Such was the “grandfather clause.” One had to descend from citizens who had the right to vote, which meant, in most cases, former slaves and their descendants couldn’t vote. These clauses were unconstitutional, so declared the Supreme Court in Guinn v. United States.
There’s no greater motivation than determination. Some states continued to disenfranchise blacks by requiring literacy tests. As educating slaves was illegal, there was an educational lag between former slaves, their descendants, and everybody else. Literacy tests were a blatant and obvious attempt to further disenfranchise blacks, although it unintentionally did the same to illiterate whites. In the face of this resistance, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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Blogroll — As you can see, my blogroll is very long. At this point, I’m more interested in trimming it than adding to it. On occasion, I surf through the roll, deleting blogs that haven’t been updated in the past month and replacing them with new ones. As I’m very busy these days, I don’t do this as often as I’d like.
If you’ve sent requests for reciprocal links and haven’t received one, don’t take offense. Sometimes I don’t want to link to the blog for various reasons; other times I add the link or intend to add it, but don’t get around to it. That’s the way the blogosphere works sometimes. Fortunately, nobody is obliged to link to anybody, although it’s considered good etiquette to link to a blog you’ve referenced in a post.
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Update II: Illegal Immigration From A Biblical Point of View
One more thing: no matter what you think of Rush Limbaugh, you need to listen to him on this immigration issue. He always, always makes me feel better when I’m this angry. He might do the same for you. Listen online here.
Update (3/30): Michelle Malkin has more info about our “undocumented” workers.
Also see Pro-Enforcement, Not Anti-Immigrant , Illegal Aliens Threated U.S. Health System, FAIR, Internet Pilot Program, and last but most important — one way to discourage idiotic businesses that hire illegal aliens is to sue them under RICO.
Focusing all of our energy on border jumpers won’t solve the problem. We need to put pressure of businesses, report the ones who hire illegal aliens, generate some press - something. Visit We Hire Aliens, and do what you can do.
Also see A Nation of Outlaws, Part I and Part II.
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I’m trying to calm down before I blog about the illegal alien protests. (Leo Jarzomb/Staff photo via Michelle Malkin)
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[Note: Read this story about black couples renewing their vows.]
I’m no expert on marriage (its benefits or detriments) or children or women or black people; my impressions are based on almost four decades of interaction with and observation of marriage and children and women and black people.
This post addresses the well-linked article, Marriage Is for White People indirectly; I won’t go through it and comment on each paragraph. What I have to say encompasses more than one writer’s personal experience or the “marriage is for white people” meme. Besides the assiduous use of the term “African American,” the article rings true on many levels.
Fellow Christian and blogger Independent Conservative takes issue with the writer’s contentions in this must-read post.
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by La Shawn on March 27, 2006
in General
Update II (3/27): From the Townhall.com review of An Army of Davids:
Reynolds provides a wide range of examples how new technologies empower individuals, from helping amateur musicians distribute their online music to the masses without record companies to allowing private citizens to respond to terrorist attacks and disasters better and more efficiently than the government.
New technologies can and are used for nefarious purposes, too. An Army of Davids covers such abuses as terrorists engaging in cyber warfare and the possibility that nanotechnology, (“manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular levelâ€), a topic Reynolds blogs about frequently, could be used as “disease†agents or that nanobots could “hide out in people’s brains.†(hat tip to Michael Crichton!). The positive aspect of nanotechnology is its potential to repair cells damaged by radiation or destroy cancer cells or deliver oxygen to the brain to protect from drowning. The possibilities – and abuses – are endless.
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I’m out the door and will be on the Treo for most of the day. While I’m gone, turn your attention to these book reviews:
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by La Shawn on March 23, 2006
in Faith
Update IV (3/27): If you’ve never visited IMAO, you must stop by. Frank J. and his contributors are hilarious. (And their podcast provides much-needed comic relief, too.) Frank lightens the mood with this funny and spot-on “editorial” about Christianity.
Update (3/26) III: On this Lord’s day, Abdul Rahman’s life is spared. A giant step toward civilized society for Islam. Even so, Christ said:
“Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
…
“So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. (Matthew 10: 17-23; 26-28)
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by La Shawn on March 22, 2006
in Liberals
People work hard, save money, make sacrifices, and buy houses (for a premium) in safe, clean neighborhoods, and a gaggle of liberal lawyers ask a judge to dictate social policy and ship in people who didn’t do those things, people dependent on the government.
“Good schools” is one of the reasons cited. Does anybody want to guess why the schools are good? Never mind. The question’s rhetorical.
You maintain and care for something you own much better than something you rent. And when the government (taxpayers) pays a large portion of the rent, you care even less about it. It’s not yours. We all know how it works.
If this goes through, property values will drop (partly because of Section 8 housing), crime will increase, and the tax base will shrink (adversely affecting those “good schools”) because the better-off who work to pay for the schools will move again. And again. And again. At least for now, people are still free to live where they want to live in this country, government social experiments notwithstanding.
There ought to be a law…
Related posts:
by La Shawn on March 21, 2006
in General
I’ve thought about writing articles (and maybe a book) in defense of the Southern Strategy, and I’m similarly inclined to write an op-ed opposing the idea of pardoning people who violated segregation laws (also see this story) back in the day.
Maybe this is why I get hate mail. After all, such ideas are “dangerous.” Whites with sinister motives may use such op-eds and blog posts as material to support their “racist” positions, so I’m told.
Back in the day, whites were afraid that slaves would be exposed to “dangerous” ideas, too, like dignity, humanity, the pursuit of knowledge, and…freedom. Radical. The freedom to think critically and for oneself can be as radical. It may result in an epidemic of knowledge and reasoned debate, and we all know how dangerous that would be. 
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Watch this cool video about the future of the Internet to 2015. The speculations are pretty close to the mark and entirely probable.
The video references Reason Magazine, which sent subscribers an issue with a satellite image of their houses/apartment buildings (with the address listed) on the cover. I was a subscriber at the time (I once flirted with libertarianism), and it threw me for a loop because I had no idea what was going on. It was bizarre.
The video producers predict, among other things, that Google will merge with Amazon to become “Googlezon.” The power of Google’s search engine, combined with Amazon’s personal recommendations software, will personalize and deliver news to the point where the New York Times will cease its online edition. Bold. With tools like RSS, it could happen.
Based on the online revolution in general and paradigm-shifting changes wrought by social/new media (digital news, blogs [including rants and original reporting], podcasts, RSS, etc.), what are your predictions for the future of communication?
(Hat tip: The Blog Herald)
(Image from An Atlas of Cyberspaces)
Addendum: The video can be interpreted a few different ways. To me, it’s a prediction about the decline of mainstream media and rise of credible participatory journalism (a good thing). For someone else, it may portend the world domination of Google (a bad thing?) and participatory journalism without fact-checks and balances.
The video has been around for a while. I read this funny article about Google in The Onion (satire) last year. Still funny?
Another Addendum: I had the nagging feeling the video was a “mockumentary,” so I e-mailed the producers. I said I liked the video and wondered if it was “serious.” Matt Thompson replied:
Hi La Shawn,
Thanks for your compliment. EPIC may be provocative, but it’s definitely not serious. We talk a little more about its creation here…
Read the story at Poynter Online. I still think it’s clever and worth discussing. 
by La Shawn on March 20, 2006
in Faith
Update II: Mark Tapscott:
It is true that the Church has grown most intensely from ground watered with the blood of martyrs, especially during the Roman persecutions and during the Reformation, as detailed in John Foxe’s classic “Book of Martyrs.”
Bloggers like Malkin and Barber have been all over this story, but President Bush said nothing about Rahman during his news conference this morning. But then none of the mainstream media reporters there asked him about it, either.
Update (3/21): Call the White House at 202-456-1111.
Brian Mattson has put together a petition. Michelle Malkin has more info here and here.
Bryan Preston:
Prior to the Reformation, popes and kings interpreted the Bible for their predominantly illiterate followers, and they misused that power to drum up sectarian and ethnic wars. The Reformation brought Christianity closer to its founding text, and the printing press spread literacy. The Bible and especially the New Testament isn’t militaristic universally across time—in fact, it’s often argued (incorrectly) that the New Testament is pacifist. Christ Himself never wielded a sword against anyone, and did heal a man that one of His own followers wounded—and this, the night before His crucifixion. The New Testament is neither militaristic nor pacifist; one of the first Gentile converts was a soldier in the Roman army and he was not commanded to quit his job. The plain text recognizes the occassional need for military force, but never ever preaches conversion by the sword.
A good grasp on what the Bible actually teaches is a blessing in and of itself. Read the whole post.
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by La Shawn on March 18, 2006
in Faith
Nine years ago today, I broke a destructive drinking habit. There was a time I couldn’t imagine going a day without drinking. Life just didn’t seem worth living if I couldn’t drown my thoughts and drink myself into oblivion every day.
When the shame of being a drunk became overwhelming, I decided to stop. It was scary. I was giving up my crutch, ready to face the cold, cruel reality of sobriety. No more excuses.
My sobriety is one of the main reasons I’m always harping on “personal responsibility.” It seems that too many people get away with making excuses these days, and I have no patience for excuses. And this is where I have to be careful. We all have weaknesses and vices, and at one time or another, we all need compassion.
Too much moralizing can lead to too little compassion. As I listen to people make excuses for their weaknesses (alcoholism, drug addiction, bad decisions, dumb choices, whatever), I think, If I could overcome it, why can’t you? Stop wallowing! But I didn’t overcome alcoholism without help. Although I chose to attempt it without a support group, I didn’t do it alone. I had a compassionate and merciful Creator on my side.
There, but for God’s grace, go I.
Christians know that although we choose to do stupid things, we can’t thwart God’s plan. With every decision we make, God can and does achieve his purpose for our lives and the whole world. The decision to take that first sip was the continuation of a plan God had foreordained for me before the foundation of the world.
Each believer was drawn to God in his/her own unique way. This is what Christians call our testimony. We give evidence, so to speak, of how God saved us. Imagine yourself on the witness stand, sworn to tell the truth. Spectators listen as you talk about where you once were, where you are now, and how you got there. As Christians, we’re to tell our personal story of redemption, and then share the “good news”: you, too, can be redeemed, forgiven, and made whole.
Through my savior Jesus Christ, God has forgiven me. Whenever I get the urge to sit in judgment of others, I must always remember that a compassionate and loving God showed me grace. If a perfect, just, and holy God can do that for me, how can I, a fallen creature, withhold it from others?
Update (12:10 p.m.): I’ll appear on Tammy Bruce’s radio show at 1:30 p.m. EST to talk about the series.
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I reviewed FX’s new reality show, “Black. White.”, which runs for six episodes Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. I don’t watch much TV, and I never watch reality shows, but I’m a writer, right? I do what I must for my craft!
Check it out.
The two families lived together for six weeks and switched races. High concept. The families: the Sparkes, a black family from Atlanta, are Brian, a 41-year-old contractor; his wife Renee, a 38-year-old office manager; and their son Nick, 17. The Marcotulli-Wurgels from California are Carmen, a 47-year-old location scout; her shack-up boyfriend, Bruno Marcotulli, a 47-year-old teacher; and her 17-year-old daughter Rose.
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by La Shawn on March 14, 2006
in Faith
Read my amateur, rabble-rousing, “ignorant,” and hate e-mail-generating opinions on Beliefnet! 
Related: Intelligent Design, the Cab Driver, and Christmas
Update (3/15): In an uncharacteristically delayed reaction, dissenters of the homosexual post, apparently afraid to use their real names, are sending me “tolerant” and “open-minded” missives. I count it all joy.
I’m joyful about it because the more people forward the link, the more people will see the post. Sometimes I’m intentionally provocative just for the sake of being provocative; other times I simply tell the truth, which can be provocative in its own right. If I’m wrong about what I blog, God will deal with me, just as he’ll deal with each of us on that day called Judgment.
I look forward to Christ’s return. Do you?
