Here is my first audition file. The sound quality and performance aren’t the best, but I’ve chosen to post it anyway given the weight of the subject matter.
I need to show that I can speak off the cuff about current events, and an opportunity to do so came in the controversy over recent tweets by Maria Chappelle-Nadal.
A transcript appears below.
Continue reading The emperor’s new clothes: False prophecy in the news
I’m going to say some harsh things about some people.
Guideline 1 of Free Speech Handbook remains, “Judge the thought, not the thinker.” Continue reading Nick Cannon’s abrupt turnaround
Bookmarks:
U-Va. students challenge Rolling Stone account of alleged sexual assault • TV experts who aren’t • Fox news affiliate distorts coverage • Vast dogfighting ring in Baltimore, Baltimore County broken up • Monkey heroically rescues its friend • Phylicia Barnes update
Continue reading “Jackie” and The Rolling Stone
Bookmarks:
D.C. leasing winter space in motels for homeless families • G.O.P.-led House panel exonerates CIA on Benghazi • Exceptional horoscopes update 2014-12-15 • Limits of TV realism • Deer Encounters Her Doggy Friend and Dances With Joy • Pope Francis: Doggie Heaven Is Real • More about Stuart Chase • George F. Will is upset about Eric Garner
Continue reading D.C. leasing winter space in motels for homeless families
“[T]he uprising in Ferguson was an inevitable reaction to the institutional racism coursing through the area for decades.” — Jack Kirkland
I’m homeless. At this writing, I’ve been homeless for exactly 3½ years.
When you meet a homeless man for the first time, you won’t notice his skin color. Not first. You’ll notice the condition he’s in. You’ll notice his clothes, his grooming, his conduct. Skin color is so far down the list, it might as well be left off completely.
Some disagree. They seem to think race is the only factor in poverty.
Continue reading “How municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty”
I have no background with Todd Starnes. I am aware of his October 27 column, “School’s Nation of Islam handout paints Founding Fathers as racists,” only because Yahoo! News captured it. He plays fast and loose with the facts, which does not reflect well on him or Fox News & Commentary.
(Disclaimer: In a follow-up column October 28, Starnes reports information from a second parent that confirms some of his suspicions and contradicts statements of the superintendent and the teacher. For other reasons, I have chosen to write this based on the facts as they were known on October 27.)
Sommer Bauer’s third grade son came home from school with a paper that bore an impressive image of Mount Rushmore. The captions made unflattering remarks about the Presidents shown. The source was a Nation of Islam web page.
Continue reading “School’s Nation of Islam handout paints Founding Fathers as racists”
At the risk of copyright violation, I’m reproducing the whole text; from here.
Published August 26, 2014 | O’Reilly Factor | Bill O’Reilly
By Bill O’Reilly
Last night on The Factor, Megyn Kelly and I debated the concept of white privilege whereby some believe that if you are Caucasian you have inherent advantages in America.
Talking Points does not, does not believe in white privilege. However, there is no question that African-Americans have a much harder time succeeding in our society. Even whites do. But the primary reason is not skin color. It’s education and not only book learning. Here are the facts.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for black Americans is 11.4 percent. It’s just over five percent for whites, 4.5 percent for Asians. So, do we have Asian privilege in America? Because the truth is, that Asian American households earn far more money than anyone else. The median income for Asians, close to $69,000 a year; it’s 57,000 for whites’ $33,000 for black — so the question becomes why? And the answer is found in stable homes and in emphasis on education; 88 percent of Asian Americans graduate from high school compared to 86 for whites and just 69 percent for blacks. That means 31 percent of African-Americans have little chance to succeed in the free marketplace because they are uneducated. They are high school dropouts.
Asian Americans also tend to keep their families intact. Just 13 percent of Asian children live in single parent homes compared to a whopping 55 percent for blacks and 21 percent for whites. So, there you go. That is why Asian Americans, who often have to overcome a language barrier, are succeeding far more than African-Americans and even more than white Americans. Their families are intact and education is paramount.
American children must learn not only academics but also civil behavior, right from wrong, as well as how to speak properly and how to act respectfully in public. If African-American children do not learn those things, they will likely fail as adults. They will be poor. They will be angry, and they often will be looking to blame someone else.
One caveat, the Asian American experience historically has not been nearly as tough as the African-American experience. Slavery is unique and it has harmed black Americans to a degree that is still being felt today, but in order to succeed in our competitive society, every American has to overcome the obstacles they face. And here is where the African-American leadership in America is failing.
Instead of preaching a cultural revolution, the leadership provides excuses for failure. The race hustlers blame white privilege, an unfair society, a terrible country. So the message is, it’s not your fault if you abandon your children, if you become a substance abuser, if you are a criminal. No, it’s not your fault; it’s society’s fault.
That is the big lie that is keeping some African-Americans from reaching their full potential. Until personal responsibility and a cultural change takes place. Millions of African-Americans will struggle. And their anger, some of it justified will seethe. The federal government cannot fix this problem. Only a powerful message of responsibility can turn things around. And that’s “The Memo”.
It comes down to this.
I ask anyone the same question I ask myself every day:
What will you do
today
to improve your lot
today?
On the other hand, many people are incapable of responsibility, for reason that they lack any understanding of cause and effect. I will discuss this more in a subsequent post, How municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty, currently scheduled for release November 29.
FOOTNOTE, 2014-10-24: Remark from my diary: “Responsibility presumes ownership of power. But ownership of power is impossible without a grasp of cause and effect.”
(Originally posted 2014-09-13.)
