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Ohhhh…White liberal Joe Biden’s gonna catch it for calling Barack “He speaks so well!” Obama “clean.”
It’s not that big a deal really (he probably meant clean as in scandal-free), but unfortunately, people (bloggers?) will jump all over it. Some blacks will be offended because Biden’s statement implies that “articulate” and “clean” (hygienically speaking) blacks are unusual.
Obama has been all over the press. Mainstream media have got him running for the presidency in 2008, and he’s the great black hope of white liberals everywhere. Last year — and in 2004 when he ran for the U.S. Senate — I speculated that white folks were fawning over Obama because he was one of those articulate Negroes. His publicist is also responsible for the hype, I’m sure. Obama recently wrote a second book about his life. If I had the money, I’d hire his publicist. 
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Thursday, February 8: Ward Connerly responds to commenters’ accusations of hypocrisy.
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Note: How could I have forgotten to link to Heather Mac Donald’s must-read article, “Elites to Anti-Affirmative-Action Voters: Drop Dead”? She writes:
After Prop. 209’s passage, UC Berkeley, like the rest of the UC system, “went through a depression figuring out what to do,†says Robert Laird, Berkeley’s pro-preferences admissions director from 1993 to 1999. The system’s despair was understandable. It had relied on wildly unequal double standards to achieve its smattering of “underrepresented minorities,†especially at Berkeley and UCLA, the most competitive campuses. The median SAT score of blacks and Hispanics in Berkeley’s liberal arts programs was 250 points lower (on a 1,600-point scale) than that of whites and Asians. This test-score gap was hard to miss in the classroom. Renowned Berkeley philosophy professor John Searle, who judges affirmative action “a disaster,†recounts that “they admitted people who could barely read.â€
The downward trajectory of those students was inevitable, Searle says. “You’d be delighted to find that your introductory philosophy class looked like the United Nations, but that salt-and-pepper effect was lost after six to eight weeks,†he recalls. “There was a huge dropout rate of affirmative-action admits in my classes by mid-terms. No one had taught them the need to go to class. So we started introducing BS majors, in an effort to make the university ready for them, rather than making them ready for the university.†Searle recalls a black studies class before his that was “as segregated as Mississippi in the 1950s.†One day, Searle recounts, the professor had written on the blackboard that a particular tribe in Africa “wore colorful clothing.â€
Read it all, and applaud measures like Proposition 209 and Proposal 2.
Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity put in a freedom of information request and found out what’s really going on at the government-supported University of Michigan.
Yes! Ban racial profiling…including racial profiling in government hiring and admissions. (Hat tip: Discriminations)
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No More Raid; Roaches Reportedly Happy
Last month I wrote about the federal government’s raid on Swift & Company, a meatpacking business that knowingly hires illegal aliens in violation of the law. It was showy theatrics that made for good photo ops.
The raid was the result of an identity fraud investigation, a new strategy in the “fight†to curb illegal “immigration.†The feds have decided, apparently, since they can’t round up and deport illegal aliens and penalize companies that hire them, going after select illegal aliens for identity theft is the next best thing.
Well, I can’t argue with that. Even if I did, the effort would be pointless. The United States is not interested in expelling its cheap labor force, an underclass that commits a disproportionate share of crimes and dicatates who can come and go in certain neighborhoods in Los Angeles County.
Having your identity stolen is unpleasant, I’m sure, and getting illegal aliens for identity fraud is killing two birds with one stone.
This morning I found out about a new program called “ICE (which stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Mutual Agreement Between Government and Employers” (IMAGE) via an Associated Press story. (Pet peeve: It’s bad form to use abbreviations and acronyms without writing out the entire name first, which the AP neglected to do.)
It seems the feds are “quietly†trying to “persuade†businesses that hire illegal aliens in violation of the law to “spare†themselves from “embarrassing federal raids†by cooperating and voluntarily handing over employee documents, including employees authorized to work in the U.S. An excerpt from the AP:
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Last week I told you about a cool four-disc special edition of the movie The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
I mentioned what was included — two featurettes called “Creating Narnia†and “Creatures, Lands and Legends,†a documentary about the film’s production, a 75-minute documentary on C.S. Lewis, author of the fabulous stories, additional scenes, and a 10-page companion guide — and how much the collection costs: $33. (Last week it was $30.)
Disney will discontinue the four-disc special on January 31, 2007, but Amazon and other retailers will continue selling it while supplies last. Don’t miss out! (Am I subtle or what? Disney isn’t paying me [wish it were], but I am an Amazon Associate.)
For more info about the movie, see the post “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Four-Disc Special Edition.”
by La Shawn on January 29, 2007
in Liberals
*** As usual, questions below the fold. Keep reading! ***
According to Marin County, California, developers must include “affordable housing” in any development plan with two or more “market-rate” houses.
Residents of Strawberry, an affluent community in Marin County, oppose the requirement. Specifically, they oppose the local Habitat for Humanity’s (a “Christian” organization? Yeah, right…) efforts to build so-called low-income housing in their neighborhood. (Source)
[Clarification: Habitat for Humanity's work is admirable. Don't misunderstand me. The issue isn't what the charitable organziation does. It's the county's affordable housing requirement.]
Reasons cited: traffic congestion, parking issues, and concern about lowered property values. The unspoken reason is this one: We don’t want those people in the neighborhood.
If I lived in an affluent neighborhood, I’d feel the same way. This is an issue of class, not color.
Before I continue, let me say this up front and get it out of the way: I’m speaking in generalities. I recognize that there are exceptions to every rule, but the exception doesn’t disprove or negate the rule.
Generally speaking, people who work to save money to buy a house (and work hard to buy a nice house) appreciate it and the neighborhood in ways that people who don’t work to save money to buy a house don’t. It’s the difference between having a long-term outlook and a willingness to delay gratification, and an in-the-moment view of life and a focus on short-term pleasures. Saving money requires discipline and good financial planning. These qualities are correlated with other qualities you’d want in a neighbor.
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Tuesday, January 30: This post is closed to commenting. Continue the discussion at Has “White Guilt” Run Its Course?
Update II: Affirmative action for pastors?
Update: Commenter Michael Burrow writes:
“If we want to keep AA [t]hen it should go full circle. I want to see the rough percentages of our population on all the sports teams, both professional and college. That way nobody is left out. It’s not my fault that I was born a slow white man with no athletic talent.” 
Later…In response to Proposal 2, the law that bars race and sex preferences in government hiring and admissions, the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, created the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise. It’s a way to get around the law, but it will have unintended consequences. An administrator at the Equal Opportunity Office said the designation disadvantaged could refer to any business, without regard to the color of the owner’s skin.
Writes John Rosenberg, “Imagine that! The ‘Equal Opportunity Office’ has discovered that equal opportunity can be promoted without racial discrimination!”
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Friday, February 2: Post is closed to commenting. Resume discussion at the latest post.
(Update: If it wasn’t clear before, it should be clear now: Mike Nifong, disgraced Durham County district attorney, is in serious trouble. Also, in addition to James Waller [pictured with lawyer Barry Scheck], I should have mentioned Cory Maye. A few bloggers on “the right” have covered his case, including The Volokh Conspiracy and libertarian Radley Balko.
Later…Linwood Wilson, Nifong’s investigator, is quite a character. He’s the subject of ethics complaints, too. Some team Nifong had.
A few months back, Wilson publicly challenged a statement made by the defense, and all it did was reveal his own ignorance. He was unfamiliar with the case files, and had the nerve to publicly criticize someone quite familiar with them. What a dope. More blog stuff here.)
Columnist David Hawpe makes a good point in his latest column about the Duke case, “On wrongful prosecutions, the right engages in selective outrage.” He wonders why “the right” isn’t just as vocal or as outraged when blacks are falsely accused of obviously phony crimes. He calls our outrage selective.
Is he correct? Is there a bit of unnatural selection going on?
Before I deal with the substance of the piece, allow me to point out to Mr. Hawpe that his column’s title just as easily could have been, “On wrongful prosecutions, the left engages in selective support and reverence for prosecutors and the police.” But tit-for-tat doesn’t get us very far.
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by La Shawn on January 24, 2007
in General
Secession.
What a loaded word. Its soothing sibilant sounds mask a rebellious meaning, almost diverting attention from its unequivocal connotations: separate, disassociate, abandon…
Whenever I hear the word secession, I think of my home state of South Carolina, the first to secede from the Union back in the day. Disenchanted with the federal government over slavery, taxes, free trade, state’s rights — whichever you prefer — South Carolina withdrew from the United States. When the South lost the war and slavery was abolished, old SC had to concede.
Secession will always be associated with race in our minds.
Have you heard the news? Some residents of Fulton County, Georgia, want to secede and become a separate county. As it turns out, the side that wants to split is “predominantly white†and “affluent.â€
A secession of the wealthier part of Fulton County would leave the rest without its significant tax base, and poor black neighborhoods likely would suffer. Secessionists say Fulton County is “too large, and certainly too dysfunctional.†It’s about money. Twenty-nine percent of the population pays 42 percent of its property taxes to run the local government, and if residents get their wish, the country stands to lose a wad of cash.
The people paying the most taxes want true representation in their government. Nothing wrong with that. They’re tired of the huge transfer of wealth, a redistribution of their hard-earned money to a myriad of social programs and services they don’t use or need. They’re fed up with a government unresponsive to their needs. But the debate to secede will be tinged with race, unfortunately.
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What a race conscious bunch we are!
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was supposed to end government-mandated discrimination based on attributes like race and sex, but in subsequent years since the Act’s passage, policies like race preferences slithered in.
Despite the plain language of the law, government agencies, including the one charged with carrying out the Act’s directives, practice discrimination in hiring based on race.
But who cares about those fussy details?
I’m waiting for some white lawmaker, preferably a liberal one, to take race-based congressional caucuses to task. Publicly. I doubt it’ll happened, but one can hope.
I was surprised to see a headline like “Black Caucus: Whites Not Allowed.” Then I realized the story appeared in a new publication called The Politico, which covers Capitol Hill. The Politico isn’t what you’d call mainstream, but as a new creature on the block, its agenda is yet to be known. It probably leans more to the left than right, but one can hope.
The article is a brief write-up about white Congressman Stephen I. Cohen’s futile attempt to join the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). I haven’t done any research on the particulars, but I doubt very seriously that the CBC or any other race-focused, taxpayer-supported committee can exclude members based on the color of their skin. An excerpt of the article:
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Update III (1/23 @ 4:43 p.m.): I spent the day with a client, a lawyer who does pro bono work on right to life cases. She represents patients whose doctors are about to pull the plug, and she’s in D.C. to speak at an event sponsored by National Right to Life (NRLC).
Bobby Schindler (Terri Schiavo’s brother) is also a guest speaker. We stopped by the NRLC office this afternoon and met Terri’s sister Suzanne Carr, who’s in town for the event. Suzanne and Bobby travel the country talking about pro-life issues and helping families deal with the same problem they faced with Terri.
I need to get more involved with the right to life movement. There are so many people out there doing so much good work, but you don’t hear much about it. For instance, if your family member is in the hospital facing withdrawal of treatment, National Right to Life can put you in touch with lawyers in your state to help extend plug-pulling deadlines so you can transfer your loved one to a different facility.
Check out blogger Barbara Curtis’s photos from yesterday’s March for Life rally. More rally pics at Human Events.
I forgot to mention yesterday that Ramesh Ponnuru, author of The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life, spoke at the Family Research Council’s March for Life conference. I heard only the last part of his presentation (good sense of humor, given the seriousness of the subject matter) and didn’t get to meet him.
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Update II (1/20): I discovered a blog about the “lost genre” of Christian speculative fiction. Check it out.
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I rarely push products at LBC, but I’m making an exception today. If you’re a fan of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia and the movie, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” you’ll want to know all about this piece of news.
I’m glad I resisted the temptation to buy the DVD of The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe last year. When it came out, I rented it from Blockbuster Online to see what else was on it. There were the usual commentaries, and the blooper reel alone was worth the price.
But I held out. I’m glad I did.
Last month, Disney issued a four-disc special edition collection of the
The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which it will discontinue on January 31, 2007.
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Now that Democrats are back in control of Congress, for however brief a time, they’re ready to use government intrusion to ride the coattails of conservative talk radio.
Whenever things aren’t going well for liberals, they fall back on the only thing at their disposal: Big Government. When outgunned and outmanned, they create more government regulations to inhibit the success and progress of their conservative betters. One way they intend to do this is by resurrecting the so-called Fairness Doctrine.
The Fairness Doctrine was a Federal Communications Commission regulation enforced from 1949 to 1987 that required broadcast licensees to present both sides of a controversial issue. In 1969, the Supreme Court ruled the practice constitutional, contending that there was “nothing in the First Amendment which prevents the Government from requiring a licensee to share his frequency with others.”
During the era of deregulation under President Ronald Reagan, the practice was dropped in 1987. In the absence of the archaic regulation, conservative talk radio flourished. But liberals are eager to exercise their new power and leech off the success of conservative markets. Led by busybodies with too little important work to do like Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Senator Bernie Sanders, Democrats want to chill conservative speech and what they consider to be attacks against liberals.
In practice, the Fairness Doctrine is impractical. A conservative broadcaster seeking to establish his solo show probably wouldn’t include a liberal in the format to argue for the “other side,†and a conservative host wouldn’t be conservative if he constantly discussed “contrasting points of view.†Under a Fairness Doctrine law, he’d be fined for his one-sided show.
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Wednesday, January 24: Hello fellow, Duke case followers. This post is closed to commenting. Resume the discussion at the latest post, Unnatural Selection on Both Sides?
Thursday, January 18: I’m not a big fan of John Podhoretz, but I recommend “Orwell University Duke Profs’ P.C. Travesty.”
Update (1/17 @ 6:12 p.m.): I’ll respond to provost Peter Lange’s statement about the Group of 88 later.
My surface-level reaction: Mr. Lange, vent some of your “free speech” concerns on Mike Nifong, who race-baited his way into a weak case and, hopefully, out of a job.
People are fired up, angry (for the record, I certainly don’t endorse sending people ad hominem-laced e-mail; it’s a shame that some professors are being personally attacked, but that, as I’ve been told, is life), and it’s on Nifong’s head. But bloggers are the ideal scapegoat for Duke’s “African American” professors who endorsed that idiotic and embarrassingly ignorant ad.
That act has consequences. Get it? Deal with it.
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by La Shawn on January 17, 2007
in Bloggers
Unbelievable.
Despite having been snubbed by “big bloggers” for the past few months, my blog managed to creep up The Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem (TTLB) anyway.
A couple of months ago, I removed the TTLB code from my sidebar because I’d become too preoccupied with checking my ranking. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Well, sort of. I haven’t checked it since…October? Can’t remember. But curiosity wrestled with me this morning and won. Last time I looked, I was at #28 or #29, and that was after a few “big” links. I thought I’d be among the Playful Primates by now. I’ve had no big links in the past several months, but I managed to rise to #24. Still the top-rated black woman Christian conservative blogger. (I bet if I were the top-rated black woman agnostic liberal blogger, I’d get mucho press.)
I owe that to the long tail of the blogosphere, smaller and/or less well-known bloggers linking to LBC. Thanks, kids.
But as I said, I don’t focus on such things anymore.
By the way, this is not a repeat of this. Just thinking out loud…
Wednesday, October 10: Welcome to LBC, StumbleUpon visitors! After reading this post, visit the home page and bookmark the blog for future reference.
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Update (1/16 @ 5:38 p.m.): What? I hope Tom Tancredo decides to run for president. The pro-enforcement, pro-life politician definitely would get my vote. I met him briefly at this event. He was swarmed by the media.
Related post: Lame Duck, Straw Men, and Cosmetics
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Evangelical Christians say the issue of illegal aliens in the United States often creates a conflict between their allegiance to the Gospels and their loyalty to the government. - from “Christian groups torn over illegals,” Washington Times
George Bush wants amnesty for illegal aliens, and now he’s got the Congress he needs to make it so. But I don’t want to talk about him. I want to discuss Christian “compassion,” illegal aliens, and illegal aliens who call themselves Christians.
Some people make the ludicrous argument that I can’t speak out against illegal “immigration” because I am a Christian. I expect such ignorance from unbelievers, but it’s 10 times as irritating when Christians say it. “Ministering to all people” and spreading the Gospel are not in conflict with my opposition to giving criminal aliens the gift of American citizenship.
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