Lunacy

An editor at a New York Times blog asked me to weigh in on the disgraced Governor Mark Sanford’s faith-talk, particularly his comparing himself to King David of Israel. Although I’m no expert “on faith and religious life,” I submitted a comment.

I don’t know how I ended up on the same “panel” as the incomparable Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries (cool). Check out the post.

Update: Hanging out in SC, Mark Sanford’s domain. I was born and raised here and hadn’t realized how much I missed being called “ma’am” and “hon.” The first time a young man called me “ma’am,” I was not pleased. (Do I look that old?) Now, I dig it. My perspective changed.

Rest easy, everybody.

Dear Republican types who can’t stand black people,

You’re not helping the defeat-Obama-in-2012 cause by e-mailing idiotic junk like this, especially if your name is Sherri Goforth and you’re a legislative aide to Tennessee senator Diane Black:

Guffaw, guffaw, guffaw. Funny stuff. We get it. All the other presidents are white, and Obama’s a spook because he’s half-black. Very original.

Goforth says she sent it to the wrong list. You sure did, honey. Best of luck dealing with the fall-out of your stupendously stupid actions. Get ready for all the venom leftists will heap upon you. They think you’re a racist anyway because you’re a Republican.

Learn a valuable lesson, you will.

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In what I thought was a parody interview, Michael Steele, head the of the Republican National Committee, the same man who failed to challenge a cable show host when he compared white Republicans to Nazis, told GQ magazine this:

Why do you think so few nonwhite Americans support the Republican Party right now?
‘Cause we have offered them nothing! And the impression we’ve created is that we don’t give a damn about them or we just outright don’t like them. And that’s not a healthy thing for a political party. I think the way we’ve talked about immigration, the way we’ve talked about some of the issues that are important to African-Americans, like affirmative action… I mean, you know, having an absolute holier-than-thou attitude about something that’s important to a particular community doesn’t engender confidence in your leadership by that community—or consideration of you for office or other things—because you’ve already given off the vibe that you don’t care. What I’m trying to do now is to say we do give a damn.

Here’s the problem with Steele’s thinking. Forget for a moment that he’s head of the Republican National Committee – a leader, for crying out loud. The offered-them-nothing refrain is why skin color outreach is counterproductive (not to mention useless). To me, it reeks of condescension. Whenever politicians start doing “minority outreach,” they treat people like children. What concerns should black Americans have that are different from everyone else’s? What “black issue” is more important than individual liberty, for instance? What “African American” concern trumps the necessity to uphold traditional values that have served American families and the nation well since its inception? What’s holier-than-thou about stating what you believe and defending your position?

For example, many people believe “affirmative action” (a euphemism for race preferences) is abhorrent, insulting, and immoral. People fought and died to get the government out of the skin color business. That’s what the whole civil rights movement was about! Yet Steele thinks opposing the continued practice of race preferences is to take an “absolute holier-than-thou attitude?” The GOP has got to be regretting Michael Steele’s chairmanship. And I don’t blame them.

But then again, I’m not a Republican, so I don’t have a dog in this fight.

If the “African-American” issues comment weren’t bad enough, Steele’s comments on child killing certainly are. This made me downright queasy:

How much of your pro-life stance, for you, is informed not just by your Catholic faith but by the fact that you were adopted?
Oh, a lot. Absolutely. I see the power of life in that—I mean, and the power of choice! The thing to keep in mind about it… Uh, you know, I think as a country we get off on these misguided conversations that throw around terms that really misrepresent truth.

Explain that.
The choice issue cuts two ways. You can choose life, or you can choose abortion. You know, my mother chose life. So, you know, I think the power of the argument of choice boils down to stating a case for one or the other.

Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?
Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice.

You do?
Yeah. Absolutely.

Michael Steele, Republican, is pro-choice. I didn’t know this. You see, this is why being conservative is more important than being Republican. Being a conservative Christian is even more important. You either believe abortion is wrong, or you don’t. If you think women should be allowed to kill their babies for whatever reason, you’re not pro-life. There is no middle ground.

“I believe abortion is wrong,” some say, “but I support a woman’s right to kill her baby.”

Does that make any sense? It’s a weasel position typically expressed by people who don’t have the guts to call a thing what it is or take the heat for wanting to protect children, regardless of the consequences.

People seem to think it’s enlightened, intelligent, and/or sophisticated to support a woman’s right to choose to kill her baby. To hold the absolute position that child killing, in any case, is always wrong, is to risk being considered ignorant and/or a religious zealot.

Count me among the right-wing religious wackos, then.

The Republican party is in a quandary. You’ve got your first black chairman, but when he talks to mainstream media, he sounds like a liberal…and ashamed to be a “black Republican.” That’s a problem. But you’ve made your proverbial bed. Toss and turn, if you must, but lie in it you will.

Update: According to Politico, Michael Steele backtracked on his child killing stance:

I am pro-life, always have been, always will be.

I tried to present why I am pro life while recognizing that my mother had a “choice” before deciding to put me up for adoption. I thank her every day for supporting life. The strength of the pro life movement lies in choosing life and sharing the wisdom of that choice with those who face difficult circumstances. They did that for my mother and I am here today because they did. In my view Roe vs. Wade was wrongly decided and should be repealed. I realize that there are good people in our party who disagree with me on this issue.

But the Republican Party is and will continue to be the party of life. I support our platform and its call for a Human Life Amendment. It is important that we stand up for the defenseless and that we continue to work to change the hearts and minds of our fellow countrymen so that we can welcome all children and protect them under the law.

Why didn’t Steele say all that to the GQ reporter? It’s possible he said something similar, but the reporter left it out.

When talking to reporters, you’ve got to remember that they have an agenda, which is the story’s angle. If you hold a controversial position, you’ve must speak in black and white terms. Talking to reporter is no time to be wishy-washy. Say what you believe, and don’t allow the reporter to get you to qualify your answer. This attitude probably is why mainstream news reporters conveniently exclude my quotes. I won’t compromise just to see my name in a news story.

Unsolicited advice for Steele: Stay out of the spotlight and get to work!

Oh, how I wish I’d blogged about the latest literary hoax last week before the publisher canceled the contract! Feet-dragging is a bad habit, boys and girls.

The air’s out of the balloon now. A man named Herman Rosenblat claimed that while he was in a concentration camp, a Jewish girl whose family was pretending to be Christian gave him apples over a fence. One day he asked her not to come back because he had an “appointment” with the gas chamber. He wasn’t killed; he was transferred to another camp.

Years later, he went on a blind date with a woman who turned out to be the girl who’d given him apples lo those many years ago.

Critics cried foul. First, the concentration camp where Rosenblat said he was detained didn’t have gas chambers. Second, the Nazi’s didn’t tell prisoners when they were going to the gas chamber. The point was to trick them into going. Third, there’s no way Herman or Roma could have gotten close to the fence without the guards seeing them. Fourth, it was highly unlikely that a Jewish family who feared the Nazi’s wouldn’t know about their nine-year-old daughter’s daily visits to a concentration camp fence, for crying out loud, or would allow her to continue once they found out. And on and on.

Herman Rosenblat and his wife Roma ended up on Oprah, and Berkley Books offered him a deal for his memoirs, Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived. And you know Hollywood is partial to Holocaust stories. The book is set to be made into a movie.

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Unless you’re running for lives, there is no reason to “stampede” anywhere.

May I be blunt? Anybody who stampedes a store trying to get to sales items is an idiot, a complete and total idiot. If you stampeded or plan to stampede a store today, you’re an idiot, a complete and total idiot.

Must I really explain why?

In a story ABC News is trying to report as a mere burglary* gone bad, four black Marines brutally murdered an interracial couple. Marine Sgt. Jan Pawel Pietrzak and his wife Quiana Jenkins-Pietrzak were bound and gagged, tortured (the wife raped), and both shot in the head.

Two of the thugs were under the husband’s command. More about the story here and here.

You don’t need a high IQ to figure out what happened based on the reported facts. The animals murdered the couple because they resented Pietrzak for a number of obvious reasons, which I don’t need to state here. I believe the intent was to violate the woman and kill both. Ransacking the place for valuables was an afterthought.

Speaking of IQ, how did these imbeciles get into the Marine Corps? They murdered two people, took some stuff, and hid it in their barracks. And they thought they’d get away with it? Their seething resentment and envy apparently was strong enough to overwhelm common sense. Now, they’re going to die (hopefully!) or spend their lives locked up. Was it worth it?

I hope all four are found guilty and sentenced to death. Poison in the veins, frying, hanging – whatever they do to enlisted men who murder. It is my wish that before the state executes them, some of their fellow thug-prisoners bound, gag, and torture them in the same manner the men appeal to God for forgiveness.

(Hat tip: Vdare)

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*Let's lay it on the table and acknowledge it. If the husband and wife were both black and the murderers white, ABC News and other news outlets would have cried "hate crime," regardless of what the police or the suspects claimed.

Just like Susan Smith. Except without children or a carjacking story. Or murder. Or…oh, you get the point.

In 1994, Susan Smith of Union, South Carolina, claimed a black man forced her out of her car, refused to let her retrieve her two sons in the back seat, and drove off. On many levels it didn’t ring true, especially the part about the man refusing to let her get the children. (For reasons obvious to “insiders.”)

We (family and friends) thought she and a boyfriend hid the kids from her ex-husband for revenge and made up a carjacking story. We were half right. She made up the carjacking story, and she hid those precious kids, alright: at the bottom of John D. Long Lake. Smith is serving a life sentence. The jury didn’t have the guts to send her to Old Sparky.

(There was something sketchy about that sketch, too. My brother saw it before I did, and he said it reminded him of a caricature from the minstrel show-era. Once I saw it, I agreed.)

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Apparently, a record-free police recruit is hard to find.

More than one third of recent graduates of the Atlanta Police Academy has been arrested or “cited.” Crimes range from shoplifting to assault. (Source)

Strange to know the gun-equipped cop pulling you over may have a record of violent crimes. Nice.

“We would like, in an ideal world, to see every applicant with a clean record, but obviously that’s not reality,” whined Lt. Elder Dancy. “I don’t think you’ll find any departments who hire only applicants with squeaky-clean records.”

So, why is a cop with a criminal record more common today than “three decades ago”? Let’s speculate. Lowering standards for whatever reason (to redress past wrongs, to increase skin-deep diversity, etc.) in one institution reverberates throughout others. The dumbing-down tendency is pathological and irreversible. If I were a betting woman, I’d wager that the percentage of cops with criminal records and the department’s “diversity” goals are correlated.

But since I’m not, I won’t.