Is White Privilege a Myth?

Terence Samuel, on Senator Jim Webb's call to abolish affirmative action, at The Root:

In last Friday's Wall Street Journal, Webb asserted that affirmative action programs, which he and most everyone else now refer to as ''diversity'' programs, have strayed from their original intent and today do more to hurt white Americans and harm the country than they do to redress past racial injustice.

''I have dedicated my political career to bringing fairness to America's economic system and to our work force, regardless of what people look like or where they may worship,'' Webb writes. ''Unfortunately, present-day diversity programs work against that notion, having expanded so far beyond their original purpose that they now favor anyone who does not happen to be white.''

The piece is headlined, ''Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege.'' The notion that white privilege is a myth will surely ignite a backlash among many black Americans, who will say that there is nothing mythical about the advantages that being white bestows in America. Alternately, Webb will be hailed as a hero and a truth-teller among those who see the racial landscape in America so vastly altered in the last 50 years that the idea that whites continue to have any inherent advantage based on race is at least outdated and, more likely, a perverse, intentional corruption of the truth. People will argue that white privilege is a social conceit intended to gain political and economic advantage -- the race card, in common parlance.

So here we are, almost 150 years after monumental disagreements about race led to the outbreak on the Civil War, confronting monumental disagreements about how to deal with the consequences of the last 150 years. Racial injustice has been at the core of the national debate for the entire life of the republic; it has been a blunt-force instrument used to destroy the lives and aspirations of a whole race of people over many generations and with lasting consequences. The remedies, when they've been sought, have never been elegant, largely because the blunt force of racial injustice and discrimination has never allowed for elegant solutions. From the Dred Scott decision to the present-day diversity programs, we have argued consistently about the role of race in the American life. Black people have almost always come out on the losing end of that debate. The length of the debate alone is evidence of how difficult progress has been.

RTWT.

I could write a long rebuttal, but nah. Folks already know pretty much where I stand (or, Jim Webb's right).

Update on Billy Idol...

...Coming tomorrow.

Meanwhile, enjoy some Gen X:

The Only Exception

A little late-night change of pace, from Paramore, "The Only Exception":

I've got a tight grip on reality,
but I can't let go of whats part of me here.
I know you're leaving in the morning, when you wake up,
leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream.

Whooa..

You are the only exception (x8)
And I'm on my way to believing.. (x2)

Republicans React to Secret Democratic Amnesty Memorandum

At Politico:

Republicans are seizing on an internal memo they say is further evidence the Obama administration wants to bypass a gridlocked Congress and use its executive powers to grant “back-door amnesty” to thousands of illegal immigrants. But administration officials tried to downplay the significance of the draft memo Friday, reiterating that they have no plans to grant permanent residency to the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

Written by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials to the agency’s director, the memo discusses ways the administration – facing the reality that immigration reform is all but dead this year – could grant illegal immigrants permanent status, including indefinitely delaying deportation or issuing green cards.

“This memorandum offers administrative relief options to promote family unity, foster economic growth, achieve significant process improvements and reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization,” states the memo, which was addressed to Director Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, USCIS can extend benefits and/or protections to many individuals and groups by issuing new guidance and regulations.”

The 11-page memo provides fresh ammunition to Republican lawmakers who have been questioning the administration for the past month about rumors of a plan allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the country.

“The document provides an additional basis for our concerns that the administration will go to great lengths to circumvent Congress and unilaterally execute a back-door amnesty plan,” Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, said in a statement.

(Source.)

Communist ANSWER Coalition Spearheads Immigration Protests in Phoenix — Special Forum Edition, 'Moments With Fidel'

Griff Jenkins interviews Michael Prysner at the clip below. Folks will remember Prysner as the Iraq war veteran and "Winter Soldier" who leads a program of resistance and revolution against the United States. Turns out that A.N.S.W.E.R. cadres were out in full force for the Phoenix protests against SB 1070. See, "Statement from the ANSWER Coalition: SB 1070 Court Ruling: An 'Important But Partial Victory'":

The ANSWER Coalition has been deeply involved in the organization of today’s and tomorrow’s demonstrations protesting SB 1070 in Phoenix, Arizona, and in all of the earlier demonstrations in Arizona and around the country.

Without the mobilization of people in the streets throughout the country, the reactionary and racist forces that pushed this law through in Arizona would have succeeded. Moreover, state legislatures throughout the country are watching Arizona with an eye to the outcome of this battle. If this clearly unconstitutional law could take effect in Arizona, racist bigots will eagerly try to pass similar measures in states throughout the country.

And once again, MSM outlets miss the key ingredients to the story, while downplaying the threats. See, " The 'Dangerous' Border: Actually One of America's Safest Places" (via Memeorandum). (Also, Doug Mataconis has more.)

RELATED: "Protesters Raise Mexican Flag Outside Phoenix Jailhouse."

Update on The Post American Presidency

Did you get your copy?

Pamela Geller's in the midst of a whirlwind promotional tour. She works hard at what she does, and she's got unshakable convictions. I'm learning a lot from the book too!

Check it out: The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America.

The 'Moderates' at Ground Zero

The Anti-Defamation League is in the news for condemning bigotry while embracing it?

See Jeffrey Goldberg, "A Terrible Decision by the Anti-Defamation League":

1) The organization behind the project, the Cordoba Initiative, is a moderate group interested in advancing cross-cultural understanding. It is very far from being a Wahhabist organization;

2) This is a strange war we're fighting against Islamist terrorism. We must fight the terrorists with alacrity, but at the same time we must understand that what the terrorists seek is a clash of civilizations. We must do everything possible to avoid giving them propaganda victories in their attempt to create a cosmic war between Judeo-Christian civilization and Muslim civilization. The fight is not between the West and Islam; it is between modernists of all monotheist faiths, on the one hand, and the advocates of a specific strain of medievalist Islam, on the other. If we as a society punish Muslims of good faith, Muslims of good faith will join the other side. It's not that hard to understand. I'm disappointed that the ADL doesn't understand this.

I'm still not convinced that the Mega Mosque builders are all that moderate.

That said, who's stoking whose pain here? The political debate on this is getting ridiculous. It is not racist to oppose the mosque. I have a hard time believing that supporters of the mosque are that quick to dismiss opponents as "racist." It just plays into the left's meme. Whenever a conservative stands up for what they believe they're attacked as bigots. But, hmm ... no such a big outcry when The Divider in Chief slurs blacks as mongrels, etc., etc. It all relates friends. Where's the consistency?

See also, "Imam Feisal and the Ground Zero Mosque."

RELATED: "Anti-Defamation League Opposes Ground Zero Mosque."

RINO Watch — For Starters, Cross Gingrich Off List for 2012

I can see November from my house. (And November 2012's just over the horizon.)

At The Hill, "Gingrich expects Palin to run in 2012." (Via Memeorandum.)

And how many RINOs are among the bunch? ...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Friday that he expects former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) to be among the crowd of GOP presidential candidates in 2012.

Gingrich, himself a potential candidate for president, sized up the field of would-be competitors, detailing which GOP politicians he expects to jump into the race.

The field Gingrich listed included: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Palin, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Sen. John Thune (S.D.), and Rep. Ron Paul (Texas).

"There are going to be lots of Republicans running — Gov. Romney clearly, Gov. Palin, Gov. Huckabee, Gov. Mitch Daniels, Gov. Haley Barbour, Gov. Tim Pawlenty. I think John Thune, the senator from South Dakota, is probably going to get in. Ron Paul's probably going to run again," Gingrich said in an interview with Newsmax, a conservative magazine. "I think it's going to be a lively campaign, there'll be a lot of good candidates."

How about Pawlenty? He's no RINO, right? I like Romney, and Mitch Daniels is intriguing. Other than that, I'm pulling for Sarah ...

Image Credit: American Weasel.

Colin Hay Plays Las Vegas Monte Carlo Tonight

I met Colin Hay in 1982 ('83?) at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. He was hanging out in the lobby before a Dexy's Midnight Runners performance. It was strange. He asked me where I lived. I asked him what he was doing here??!! I called a couple of my friends over to say hello and that was it. Just seemed like the funniest thing. It was the same time that Men at Work were going super big, and here's Hay just hanging out for a couple of drinks with the L.A. locals.

In any case, he's playing tonight at the Brew Pub at Vegas' Monte Carlo. Sounds fun. Turns out he's toured with Ringo Star's All Star Band, so what in the heck? (And I'm reminded of how enjoyable the flute is sometimes.) ...

Robert Stacy McCain to Slam GOP Congressional Candidate Rocky Raczkowski for Phyllis Schlafly Renunciation?

GOP congressional candiate Andrew (Rocky) Raczkowski backed away from comments made by Phyllis Schlafly over the weekend. The long-time leader of the Eagle Forum noted that:

"Do you know what the second-biggest demographic group that voted for Obama -- obviously the blacks were the biggest demographic group. But do you all know what was the second-biggest? ... "Unmarried women, 70% of unmarried women, voted for Obama, and this is because when you kick your husband out, you've got to have big brother government to be your provider."

This kind of commentary stirs the hackles among hard-lefties, for example, at Daily Kos:

Phyllis Schlafly bashing women is nothing new. After all, the woman made a career out of saying women shouldn't have careers. Or equal rights.

These are stupid allegations, of course. Schlafly's right on, as Robert Stacy McCain points out, "When Phyllis Schlafly Speaks the Truth, Democrats Call It ‘Extremism’" (via Memeorandum):

Phyllis Schlafly is one of conservatism’s great heroines. Both Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter acknowledge Schlafly’s influence as a role model. Forty-six years after her rallying cry for Goldwater, A Choice Not an Echo, and three decades after she led the crusade to stop ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, she’s still driving liberals nuts ...

Check the link. At the end there Robert announces:

I plan to renounce any Republican who renounces Phyllis Schlafly.

Okay, Robert. Your first target should be Rocky Raczkowski, who renounced Schlafly after she spoke at his own campaign event!

The comments caused a furor with Progress Michigan, a liberal activist group that obtained a tape of the event. They called on Raczkowski to denounce Schlafly's words. One of Raczkowski's Republican opponents in the GOP primary -- Paul Welday of Farmington Hills -- echoed the sentiment.

Raczkowski said he was taken aback by the comments, but noted that they didn't reflect his beliefs.

"I will fight vehemently for her to have her beliefs. That's what makes this country so great," he said. "I believe in equality for everyone. I'm color-blind and gender blind."

Hey Rocky ... Dede Scozzafava called. She's got some endorsements lined up from top GOP RINOs.

The Blog Prof, who's on the ground in Michigan, says Raczkowski's gettting worked over from the "feminazi" press. See, "Oakland Press launches liberal hatchet piece against Rocky Raczkowski days before the primary." Okay, but let's see a statement from Rocky clarifying his renunciation of Shlafly's remarks. (I don't see any sign of retraction, which according to The Blog Prof's reporting would be capitulation to the mob, "Women Want Apology from Candidate Rocky Raczkowski.")

RELATED: Taylor Marsh claims to know Phyllis Schlafly intimately: "Phyllis Schlafly, What the Republican Tea Party Really Thinks About Women."

Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Barack Obama

At Hannity's.

She says she separates personality and politics to get along with everyone. A classy lady all around:

Christiane Amanpour Debuts This Sunday at ABC's 'This Week'

I wasn't thrilled with the news last march of Christiane Amanpour's appointment as ABC News' 'This Week'. I like Amanpour. I had a crush on her in the 1990s, around the time of the Gulf War and she was doing hot satellite reports from hot spots around the world. But she's hopelessly leftist. She'll be just one more Democratic Party insider who's now going to report an unbalanced load of "news" on one of the remaining marquee network programs.

Note as well that's she's been criticized for compromising her objectivity in the past. As it notes at her Wikipedia entry:

Following Iraq's occupation of Kuwait in 1990, Amanpour's reports of the Persian Gulf War brought her wide notice while also taking the network to a new level of news coverage. Thereafter, she reported from the Bosnian war and many other conflict zones. Her emotional delivery from Sarajevo during the Siege of Sarajevo led some viewers and critics to question her professional objectivity, claiming that many of her reports were unjustified and favoured the Bosnian Muslims, to which she replied, "There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral you are an accomplice. Objectivity doesn't mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing."

Amanpour is also married to top Democratic foreign policy insider Jamie Rubin, who was Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and is a current advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

No surprise then that Amanpour's first broadcast will give top Democrats a platform for their spin. See, "Coming up: TWO EXCLUSIVES: Christiane Amanpour interviews House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Defense Secretary Robert Gates."

Plus, "Christiane Amanpour's 'This Week' Preview":

Midnight Cowboy

Watched it last night, on Cinemax — Rob Thomas was watching too!

Wyalusing State Park, Wisconsin

At Althouse:

Ana de la Reguera

At Esquire's "Women We Love":

Protesters Raise Mexican Flag Outside Phoenix Jailhouse

At The Hot Joints, "Mexican Flag Waving Protesters Gather Outside Arizona Jail":

See also, "Arizona immigration protesters hit the streets," and "Hundreds protest Ariz. immigration law in Phoenix."

Obama Slurs Blacks as 'Mongrels' on 'The View'‎

If you're a black Democratic President of the United States with a slobbering media class and radical blogosphere stifling the opposition, it's totally cool to slur black Americans as "mongrels." Of course, according to Wikipedia, "Among humans, mongrel and mongrelize are derogatory terms for the mixing of "races", known as miscegenation." If any single figure on the right had even remotely implied blacks were "mongrels" in the context of Barack Obama, we'd be having another weeks-long media extravaganza on "racism" in America. Personally, as one who is mixed, like the president, I'm having a hard time finding what's appropriate about his discussion. Yeah, I can see the context, but this isn't a classroom lecture. It's an appearance on a daytime talk show. Most people wouldn't speak of blacks as "all kinds of mixed up" historically. There's simply too many painful connotations for this to be a useful primer on race.

And rightfully, this is the kind of thing that makes folks angry, for example, Bruce at Gay Patriot, "Was Obama Channeling Robert Byrd on The View?"(via Memeorandum):

I initially was going to resist posting on this because I really despise racial politics. But since we are getting some new readership from the Left (and they have no clue about American history), I thought it was important.

Does President Obama have any idea what he just put out there on the table? Perhaps the most incendiary language in American history.

From the article ‘D. W. Griffith and “The Birth of A Monster“‘: [Reference: Who Is D. W. Griffith?]

D.W. Griffith’s 1915 motion picture The Birth of a Nation — originally titled The Clansman — a film which presented a re-writing of the actual history of post Civil War Reconstruction by the same Confederate traitors aginst whom the war had to be fought. It portrayed African-Americans in the post-Civil War South as depraved, lascivious beasts whose rampant lawlessness and alleged domination of the South — through military force and control of the state legislatures — threatened to destroy “Southern civilization” and “mongrelize the races”. The film asserts that this could only be stopped by the glorified lynchings and reign of terror carried out by the “honorable” new, secret order of the “chivalrous” Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

<…>

In most of the Northern cities where the The Birth of a Nation was scheduled to be shown, political fights exploded, and some small riots did occur in Philadelphia and elsewhere where the film was shown. The NAACP and others attempted to seek either a banning of the film completely, or to force the editing-out of the most egregious racist scenes. For the most part, those attempts were futile. Endless hearings were held before mayors, state legislatures, city councils, and state and city censorship boards across the country. The Illinois legislature voted 111-2 to ban the showing in that state, but eventually lost on judicial appeals filed by the film’s promoters.

Those hearings became platforms for the pro-Griffith lobby to pronounce the alleged virtues of eugenics. In New York City, Griffith’s lawyer Martin W. Littleton told Mayor Mitchell that the film was a “protest against the mongrel mixture of black and white.”

It is disgusting and putrid that a President of the United States bring this kind of filth language into the public discourse when our nation has moved so far past it. Laura Ingraham is correct, Obama is not “post-racial” — he is the most racial and divisive President we have ever had.

Scott Eric Kaufman — An English Professor Who Doesn't Know Sh*t About English

One of the most interesting things about Scott Eric Kaufman is that he doesn't seem to know anything about the things in which he writes. Oh sure, the prick's good at laying down the demonic snark while surfing the conservative 'sphere for tidbits of attack material, but when it actually comes to writing quality content ... well, the guy's pure fail. I was already thinking about this when I noticed SEK's stuffy mini-"review" of Leo DiCaprio's Inception — the most noteworthy thing of which is that SEK and his wife actually walked out on the film. I'm planning to see the movie this weekend, so I wasn't going to offer my comments on whether it merited that kind of antipathy, although I was tempted to just post a snarky piece hammering Scott Erik Kaufman for his hopelessly effete left-wing university-ish elitism.

But now I'm glad I held off. It turns out SEK's initial review didn't go over so well with some like-minded effete types, and he's written an update, "Bit more on Inception." And while I might be persuaded that one of SEK's critics is on the money when he implies that Scott's an unsympathetic childless asshole, I'm content to simply indicate SEK's non-typo completely FUBAR ignorance of the word "flak."

As you can see at the first sentence of the post: "I’ve taken a lot of interesting flack for my non-review of Inception ..."

Actually, SEK means to say, "flak." It's a word that leftists apparently have a hard time using, which is easy to explain, given the left's ideological hostility to the military. In context, you might say I'm "giving him a lot of flak" for his stupidity — and boomerang smears, since he likes to attack opponents as "functionally illiterate." It's too good, really, for nearly every time SEK's trolled my site for some jollies, he's ended up making himself look lame with massive errors at the original post. And like clockwork he always comes back with some lame excuse for why an English professor shouldn't actually be required to write proper English, but in the case of "flack" I imagine he'll just have to take his lumps. And since Ann Althouse is a frequent target of SEK's idiotic trolling, I'll let her take him to the woodshed.

See, "Flak" (where Ann hammers Josh Marshall, another Ph.D. know-it-all, who misused "flack" in 2007):

From me, you're going to first catch flak for writing "catch flack."

“Flak” is WW II airman’s slang for shells being fired at you in the air, so to catch a lot of flak is to feel in danger of being shot down. However, most civilians these days have never heard of “flak,” so they use “flack” instead, which originally meant “salesman” or “huckster.” You need to worry about this only if you’re among old-time veterans.

When you're showing off your expertise about fighting a war, you ought to get your war imagery right. A flack is a press agent. Hacks -- "writer[s] hired to produce routine or commercial writing" -- know more about flacks and not so much about flak, but they need to try not to let it show.

Gotta love it. A law professor schooling a history Ph.D.

But even better is schooling an alleged professor of English on English language usage. Can you say epic fail? And the references to teaching "English" are quite loose, since SEK's apparently teaching courses on "Manga" and the literary origins of films like The Last Airbender. My kids could probably lecture on that stuff, although they aren't stuffy Ph.D.s who write half-baked movie reviews on films on which they've walked out on.

Well, at least SEK's no longer claiming to have a "Doctorate of Philosophy of English."

RELATED: "Scott Eric Kaufman, Self-Hating Skankwad, Does It Again!"

Eyes Without a Face

Billy Idol plays the Hollywood Palladium on August 14th. I'm not going, LOL!

I saw Idol in concert twice at The Roxy in Hollywood, circa 1981. In any case, Triple Play Thursday played Idol this morning, so enjoy "Eyes Without a Face":

I'm all out of hope
One more bad break
could bring a fall
When I'm far from home
Don't call me on the phone
To tell me your alone
It's easy to deceive
It's easy to tease
But hard to get release
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Got no human grace your eyes without a face.
I spend so much time
Believing all the lies
To keep the dream alive
Now it makes me sad
It makes me mad at truth
For lovin' what was you.
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Les yeux sans visage eyes without a face
Got no human grace your eyes without a face ...

Erin Andrews Vanity Fair Photo Shoot

Some midweek hotness with Erin Andrews.

PREVIOUSLY: "Erin Andrews in the News."

BONUS: Looking forward to some FMRA at The Other McCain this weekend. Bob Belvedere wasn't waiting, however: "A Little Hump Day Rule 5: Margaret Nolan." And at Washington Rebel: "Irreverent?"