Why America Invaded Iraq

Outstanding discussion from Professor Andrew Roberts for Prager University (via Instapundit).

Notice how the Democrat Senators --- including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and John Kerry --- all voted for the war authorization in 2002, only later to call President Bush a liar. But Professor Roberts notes the Bush "had no reason to lie." He was only continuing the policies the Bill Clinton administration put in place. And all the major intelligence agencies of course had warned about Saddam Hussein's brutal regime and his relentless pursuit of WMD. Amazing how clear it is today. But of course, the left's lies of the Bush years were so enormous as to turn reality inside out. These deceits are truly unforgivable. Democrats and leftists are genuine traitors to America and its national security. Never forget that. Never.

The Depravity of the Anti-Israeli Left

I read the Lustick commentary at the New York Times, "Two-State Illusion."

But see the outstanding response from Jonathan Marks, at Commentary:

Let me set aside Lustick’s argument against the two-state solution and begin with what is most shocking in his op-ed, his own proposed solution. Lustick argues that the U.S. and others should abandon the two-state solution and let the parties fight it out. The key passage must be quoted at length:

With a status but no role, what remains of the Palestinian authority will disappear. Israel will face the stark challenge of controlling economic and political activity and all land and water resources from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. The stage will be set for ruthless oppression, mass mobilization, riots, brutality, terror, Jewish and Arab emigration and rising tides of international condemnation of Israel (my emphasis).

Lustick makes explicit the nihilism of the anti-Israeli left. He has no strong reason to believe that the bloodbath he wishes on the Israelis and Palestinians will have results favorable to either. But why not break a few eggs if there’s some prospect of an omelette? Like many on the anti-Israeli left, but more explicitly, Lustick is prepared to entertain a morally satisfying position, which costs him nothing but means a blood sacrifice for those whose best interests he professes to have in mind....

Lustick does not really think a two-state solution impossible. Instead, he thinks that when confronted with a choice between two difficult ways forward, one should choose the one that results in the end of the State of Israel. Again, Lustick says out loud what his crowd thinks:

The disappearance of Israel as a Zionist project, through war, cultural exhaustion, or demographic momentum, is at least as plausible as a two state solution.

Lustick’s op-ed should be required reading for anyone who thinks that to stand with the anti-Israeli left is to support of the rights of Palestinians. To stand with the anti-Israeli left is instead to hope for an open conflict that will result in the end of Israel. It is not just friends of Israel who should be disgusted with academics who hope to foment such a conflict, knowing, unless they are complete fools, that in making a poorly thought out, long-odds bet on a one-state solution, they gamble with the lives of Palestinians and Israelis.

One other point: Lustick constantly compares Israel to South Africa, and in so doing reveals not just his anti-Semitism but his ignorance. He's attacking Israel as an "apartheid state" that deserves destruction, while of course saying nothing of the totalitarian pathologies of Islam that form the foundations of the so-called "Palestinian" identity. Behold the core of the left's anti-Israel depravity: The lies and double standard that are handmaidens to evil.

Equally disgusting to me is that Lustick's a political scientist. There are certainly a great many political scientists who are champions of Israel. But it's especially bothersome that there are so many nihilists like the depraved Lustick --- glorified as "experts," there're little more than propagandists for a new Holocaust. Sick.

Time Magazine Yanks U.S. Cover Mocking 'Weak, Waffling' America: 'The World According to Vladimir Putin'

They shoulda ran it.

We are looking weak and waffling. Forty more months of the shit under Obama. 2016 can't come soon enough. Damn. Putin's putting this administration to shame.

At Pat Dollard's, "Time Magazine Scrubbed Gloating Putin U.S Cover."

Here's the cover at Time. And the article, or a stub of it, is here: "The World According to Vladimir Putin."

University of California Paying $9,950 a Month for Napolitano's House

The system works!

Or, well, she's working the system.

At LAT, "UC leases housing at $9,950 a month for president Napolitano."



Image: "The System Worked? Janet Napolitano Flip-Flops on Terror Threat; President Obama, Still Mum on Thwarted Attack, Will Take Golf Break to Address Nation."

Helicopter Evacuates Survivor in Washington #NavyYardShooting

This image was playing over and over on cable news earlier today:



And just now at London's Daily Mail, "REVEALED: Gunman, 34, who murdered TWELVE in Washington Navy Yard rampage claimed he had 'anger issues' after rescuing victims of 9/11 and was kicked out of Navy after 2011 gun charge."

Well, so much for the leftist gun control narrative. Nothing's fitting into the hate-hole the left has assembled to demonize gun owners and patriots.

PREVIOUSLY: "Black Thug Aaron Alexis Identified as Gunman in Washington Navy Yard Shooting."

'Blurred Lines' Hottie Emily Ratajkowski Cast in 'Gone Girl'

She'll play opposite Ben Affleck, via Twitter.

More at Rolling Stone, "'Blurred Lines' Siren Emily Ratajkowski Cast in David Fincher Film," and "10 Things You Don't Know About 'Blurred Lines' Model Emily Ratajkowski."



The "Blurred Lines" video is here.

PREVIOUSLY: "Emily Ratajkowski Rule 5."

PHOTO CREDIT: Emily on Twitter.

Black Thug Aaron Alexis Identified as Gunman in Washington Navy Yard Shooting

Instapundit links to the FBI page from earlier today with the message:

Aaron Alexis, deceased, is believed to be responsible for the shootings at the Washington Navy Yard, in the Southeast area of Washington, DC, around 8:20 a.m. on September 16, 2013. The FBI is asking for the public's assistance with any information regarding Alexis.

Well, I'm sure the image of this man wasn't what the depraved gun-grab leftists were hoping for.

The New York Times has some information on Alexis here, "Gunman and 12 Victims Killed in Shooting at D.C. Navy Yard." And at USA Today, "Aaron Alexis, Navy Yard shooting suspect: Who is he?"

But see Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Aaron Alexis – dead Washington Navy Yard shooter arrested in 2010":

Aaron Alexis a black thug has been identified as the dead Washington Navy Yard shooter. Aaron Alexis was a 34-year-old individual from Fort Worth, Texas. According to NBC Dallas, Alexis recently began working as a civilian contractor. Aaron Alexis also had a criminal history. He was allegedly arrested in Fort Worth back in 2010 for firearms discharge. The Aaron Alexis mugshot is available here.

Maybe this shooting was done ‘for Trayvon.’

And those whiners who want to be politically correct about calling this scum a ‘thug’ it’s too damn bad. This site isn’t and never will be politically correct. He had a criminal record, killed at least 13 Americans for his own reason. Yes, he is a thug just like Jared Loughner, James Holmes and Adam Lanza. Don’t like it? Too bad. Go whine on some leftist blog.

Word.

PREVIOUSLY: "Update on Washington Navy Yard Rampage," and "At Least 12 Dead in Washington Navy Yard Shooting."

Update on Washington Navy Yard Rampage

Here's the Washington Post screencap I took while working at the office this morning:




As noted, I didn't have a lot of time to keep up with the news as it unfolded.

Here's the headline now at the Washington Post, "Gunman identified: Assailant at Navy Yard was a contractor":

At least 13 people are dead and several others were wounded after a gunman opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, police said, spreading fear and chaos across the region as authorities sought to contain the panic.

The incident, in which the death toll rose almost hourly, represents the single worst loss of life in the District since an airliner plunged into the Potomac River in 1982, killing 78.

Continue reading.

More, "Suspect was discharged from Navy in 2011 after shooting incident arrest."

At Least 12 Dead in Washington Navy Yard Shooting

I've been teaching today and my access to news has been sporadic. I saw the initial reports of the Navy Yard shooting after arriving at the office, but I had a lot of prep today and taught two classes. I'm just now back home and tuning into TV news and checking out what's happening online.

A lot's been happening, that's for sure.

So, check Memeorandum and Twitchy for updates, as well as Instapundit.

More updates and linkage later.

Meanwhile, here's Emily Miller, "Obama uses Naval Yard shooting to stoke fear, push anti-gun agenda":

Scaring the American public is one of President Obama’s favorite political tactics to get gun control. Just hours after the terrible shooting at the Naval Yard on Monday, Mr. Obama said that even though he didn’t have the facts, “We’re confronting — yet another — mass shooting. And today it happened on a military installation in our nation’s capital.”

Yet another?

The last mass shooting was over nine months ago at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. While we mourn every one of those children and educators lost that day — and today in Washington, D.C. — these events are not a cause for increased alarm.

A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Study (CRS) released in April showed there have been 78 public mass shootings in the last 30 years that claimed 547 lives. That averages to 18 victims a year.

To put that number in context, there were 8,583 murders by firearm in the U.S. in 2011, the most recent year for which we have figures from the FBI. And, there were 851 people accidentally killed by firearms in 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The congressional report concluded that,  “While tragic and shocking, public mass shootings account for few of the murders related to firearms that occur annually in the United States.”

The president also added as the press conference that the horrific crime at the naval building will “be investigating thoroughly what happened — as we do so many of these shootings sadly that have happened and do everything we can to try to prevent them.”

As I wrote in my new book, “Emily Gets Her Gun,” every life is precious. But Mr. Obama never has much to say about the thousands of people murdered every year in individual shootings. You never hear Mr. Obama talk about investigating those killed every day in our cities.

(Well, except for Trayvon Martin, who the president said looked like the son he never had — before the trial of George Zimmerman even started.)

Instead, Mr. Obama focuses on the rare mass shootings because the uncontrollable and random nature of them are more frightening to the public, which is politically helpful for him to push his gun-control agenda.

Typical gun-grabbing politicization.

Continue reading.

Half of Syria's 'Rebels' Are Jihadists or Hardline Islamists

Well, you can't say Obama's been inconsistent in his support for America's enemies. Siding with al Qaeda against Assad really does put a capstone on this administration's terror-coddling policies.

At Telegraph UK, "Syria: nearly half rebel fighters are jihadists or hardline Islamists, says IHS Jane's report":

Nearly half the rebel fighters in Syria are now aligned to jihadist or hardline Islamist groups according to a new analysis of factions in the country's civil war.

Opposition forces battling Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria now number around 100,000 fighters, but after more than two years of fighting they are fragmented into as many as 1,000 bands.

The new study by IHS Jane's, a defence consultancy, estimates there are around 10,000 jihadists - who would include foreign fighters - fighting for powerful factions linked to al-Qaeda.

Another 30,000 to 35,000 are hardline Islamists who share much of the outlook of the jihadists, but are focused purely on the Syrian war rather than a wider international struggle.

There are also at least a further 30,000 moderates belonging to groups that have an Islamic character, meaning only a small minority of the rebels are linked to secular or purely nationalist groups.

The stark assessment, to be published later this week, accords with the view of Western diplomats estimate that less than one third of the opposition forces are "palatable" to Britain, while American envoys put the figure even lower.

More at the link.

And at the video, from CBS News, "The Briefer: Ex-CIA No. 2 on Syria crisis.:

I'm concerned because I fear the breakup of the state of Syria, collapse of the central government, sectarian warfare, opportunity for al Qaeda to have a safe haven in Syria that is not dissimilar to the safe haven that it once enjoyed in Afghanistan and once enjoyed in the FATA [Federally Administered Tribal Areas].

Yay Baracky!

Hirsute Pennant Pursuit in Boston

Beards are pretty much always in with the Red Sox, although this year I'm especially impressed with Mike Napoli's, who was clean shaven for all those years with the Angels.

At the New York Times, "Bonding With Beards, the Red Sox Repair Their Clubhouse Chemistry":

Happy Friday! #GetBeard http://t.co/PLr3r02dkJ
— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) September 13, 2013

The Boston Red Sox take their craft seriously. Catcher David Ross owns a special comb. First baseman Mike Napoli has reached a level of forestation so impenetrable that a family of squirrels could be living on his face. And pitcher Andrew Miller has stayed true enough to the cause that he said his wife had “given up the battle.”

The Red Sox have done two things exceptionally well this season: play baseball and grow beards.

The team’s fervor for facial hair has become a phenomenon in Boston, where fans have once again embraced a winner. Perched atop the American League East since July 31, the Red Sox left New York on Sunday after taking three of four games from the Yankees.

“The characteristic of this club is to grind all the way through to the end,” Manager John Farrell said.

Part of that has entailed surviving the itchy, scratchy and sweaty quest for the perfect midsummer beard. The Red Sox are fairly conformist with their look: trim along the cheeks with a bulbous bottom, as if a hairy water balloon were swaying in the breeze. For the team, beards have become more than a hobby.

“Baseball players are superstitious,” Miller said, “and it seems to be working.”

In the process, the Red Sox have become high-profile poster boys for the bewhiskered lifestyle. Phil Olsen, the captain of Beard Team USA, which competes at the World Beard and Moustache Championships, praised the players for being stylish and pragmatic.

“Good beardsmanship builds fraternity, camaraderie and friendship,” Olsen said in an e-mail. “My unscientific observation: The Red Sox’ record improves with the length of Dustin Pedroia’s beard.”

More at the link.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



More at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

CARTOON CREDIT: Nate Beeler at Town Hall.

Larry Summers Drops Bid for Fed Chair

He never had a chance.

At LAT, "Larry Summers pulls out of running to be Federal Reserve chairman."

And at the Wall Street Journal, "Victory on Summers Emboldens Liberals as New Fights Loom":

WASHINGTON – Chest-thumping by liberals after Lawrence Summers‘s decision to withdraw from consideration as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve could have broad implications, not just on the central bank but also for how Democrats maneuver during looming budget fights.

A number of Democrats and liberals quickly called Mr. Summers’s move a victory for their cause, and they tried to leverage the decision to pressure President Barack Obama to nominate Fed vice chairman Janet Yellen to the post.

“I applaud Larry Summers for withdrawing his name from consideration,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said late Sunday. Mr. Sanders is one of Congress’s most liberal members. “The truth is that it was unlikely he would have been confirmed by the Senate.”

Some Democrats could also interpret Mr. Summers’s decision, particularly his prediction that if he were nominated it would be “acrimonious,” as a possible thawing of their recently dormant influence with the White House on economic decisions. Instead of polite reaction to Mr. Summers’s move, liberal critics piled on immediately.

“Summers’ decisions to deregulate Wall Street & do the bidding of corporate America has made the lives of millions of Americans acrimonious,” tweeted Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a group that pushes for liberal causes and candidates.

Mr. Green’s characterization of Mr. Summers is popular among liberals, but one that Mr. Summers’s allies say is distorted and unfair.

The White House clearly didn’t appreciate the rebellion against Mr. Summers. Rather, senior members were annoyed at public attacks on someone who hadn’t even been nominated. But the result illustrated how quickly – and effectively – progressive groups can mobilize on particular issues even when they had appeared to lose clout on Capitol Hill.

The larger question is where things go from here...

Where do we go from here? Farther left, of course. These aren't "liberals" who quashed Summers' nomination. They're socialists. Bernie Sanders is a socialist who caucuses with the Democrats, and these so-called progressive organizations --- like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee --- are basically front-groups for far-left movements influenced by Marxist and "social justice" ideologies. They're not "liberals."

Control the language and control the culture. Call these assholes out for what they are: far-left radicals pushing Marxist gender politics and aggressive economic redistributionism.

More at the Washington Times, "Under pressure from some Democrats and feminists, Lawrence Summers withdraws name for Federal Reserve." And at Memeorandum.

FLASHBACK: At VDare, "The Larry Summers Show Trial."

Peggy Noonan on Vladimir Putin's Power Play

Here's Noonan yesterday, "Putin’s Audience":

Why would Vladimir Putin take such an aggressive tone in parts of a piece supposedly addressed to Americans and supposedly explaining his views on Syria and, more largely, U.S. foreign policy? Suddenly I realized: because he’s not really writing to America. That’s not who he’s talking to. He chose as a venue a major American newspaper, but he’s writing to the world. He is telling the world he knows how to correct America, tell it off, criticize it for its conceit. And he does it right to their faces, not in a Moscow interview or a St. Petersburg speech. He is rubbing America’s nose in it for the delectation of its friends, occasional friends, foes and occasional foes. He wasn’t writing to us at all. He’s attempting to show the world he’s its reliable voice, its real leader, not those other guys. Would he have done this in the past? No. A truly historic level of foreign policy incompetence on the part of the White House got us to this point.

And her longer piece yesterday is available at the Patriot Post, "Vladimir Putin Takes Exception."

HAT TIP: Carl in Jerusalem, "A truly historic level of foreign policy incompetence on the part of the White House got us to this point."

PETA Slams Katy Perry Over 'Roar' Music Video

Yeah, well, PETA is PETA.

At Variety:

Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently slammed the use of animals in Perry’s video, which features the 28 year-old singer hanging out with monkeys, elephants and tigers.

“Animals used for entertainment endure horrific cruelty and suffer from extreme confinement and violent training methods,” a PETA spokesman said in a statement. “They often become stressed and anxious when hauled around and forced into unfamiliar or frightening situations.”

Oh goodness.

I'm sure Ms. Perry's crew treated the animals well. Can't folks have a little fun savagery these days?



HAT TIP: Film Ladd on Twitter.

RELATED: At BuzzFeed, "17 Completely Absurd Moments From Katy Perry’s “Roar” Video."

Glendale Hoover High Monitors Students' Social Media

It's for the children!

At LAT:

Glendale district's monitoring of students on social media causes a stir http://t.co/7H09nvfP5c

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) September 15, 2013

More at Popehat, "Glendale Unified School District, Concerned About Social Media, Pays Money to Be Creepy."

Hot for Tennessee Vols

On Twitter.

Not sure if those breasts belong to Ms. Elise, although they're certainly spectacular.



HAT TIP: Glenn Reynolds, who apparently loves hims some college boobs!

President Barack Obama Interview on 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos'

What to say?

Obama just talks babbles over key questions from Stephanopoulos, and the latter routinely fails to follow-up those questions and press the issues. U.S. policy under this administration has shifted from the two-year-long demand the Assad must step aside --- ASSAD MUST GO! --- to the position of reaching a Russian-brokered international accord allowing U.N. inspectors into Syria on a wish and a prayer? What could go wrong? Seriously.

The best thing for Obama is that the Syria crisis may now be finally coming to a much-needed conclusion, which allows foreign policy to move out of the constant 24-hour news cycle.

Idiot leftists are lamely trying to spin this interview as some kinda game-changer. See, for example, the partisan hacks at PoliticusUSA, "Obama Obliterates The Republican Myth That Putin Saved Him on Syria." (The blog's down at the moment, although that headline at Memeoandum is plenty lulz right there.)

Meanwhile, Margaret Wente nails the headline at Toronto's Globe and Mail (and you can click through and read this one), "Barack Obama, the 98-pound weakling":

So, let me get this straight. Some red lines cannot be crossed, and gassing Syrian children is one of them. That’s what Barack Obama told us Tuesday evening. “The images from this massacre are sickening,” he said. “Men, women, children lying in rows, killed by poison gas, others foaming at the mouth, gasping for breath. A father clutching his dead children, imploring them to get up and walk.”

The moral imperative is clear, he argued. We cannot let dictators get away with this. On the other hand, the United States can’t be expected to solve all the world’s problems, either. Therefore, the way ahead is to outsource U.S. foreign policy on Syria to … Vladimir Putin!

So much for the credibility of the world’s only superpower. Mr. Obama’s staff have been tweeting that this delaying tactic is an incredible display of smart diplomacy. But to most of us, it just makes him look gullible. The President has allowed himself to be hog-tied and hornswoggled by Lilliputians. He was determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past, when a blundering giant threw its weight around and only wound up showing the world how incompetent it is. But if there’s one thing worse than being a blundering giant, it’s being a 98-pound weakling.

On Thursday, Mr. Putin kicked more sand in his face. On the op-ed page of The New York Times no less, he lectured Mr. Obama on diplomacy and peace. “From the outset, Russia has advocated peaceful dialogue enabling Syrians to develop a compromise plan for their own future,” he said with a straight face. “We are not protecting the Syrian government, but international law.”

This from the guy who has been arming Bashar al-Assad to the teeth and blocking the United Nations from doing anything about it. Mr. al-Assad has been using Russian weapons to slaughter his own people.

I guess it’s always possible that the Syrian dictator (memorably likened to a “human toothbrush” by Christopher Hitchens) will immediately surrender his stockpiles of chemical weapons (which he has claimed he doesn’t have), welcome UN weapons inspectors with open arms and give armed protection to the squads of experts who will be necessary to decommission and destroy his various caches of nerve gas, who will somehow do their jobs in the midst of a the bloody civil war that has already destroyed half the country. Or maybe the UN can send in peacekeepers to put it under international control. Or maybe the Easter Bunny will intervene.

More likely is that Mr. al-Assad will use the newly opened diplomatic track to obfuscate, delay, prevaricate and continue killing people, while tying up the process in endless procedural knots. He has now promised to sign the UN Chemical Weapons Treaty – just not quite yet, and only if the U.S. stops arming the rebels, and only if Israel ratifies it first.

Ouch.

Continue reading after you remove your forehead from the furniture on which it just came crashing down.

And then check Janet Daly, at Telegraph UK, "Poker-face Putin holds all the cards":

At one point last week in the charade known as “the Syria peace negotiations”, John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, announced solemnly, “This is not a game”. Well, he was wrong there. This certainly is a game: the trouble is that Barack Obama is trying to pretend that it’s chess, while Vladimir Putin plays hard-faced poker. The absurd story that the White House has been concocting off the top of its head – in which the stage we have reached was actually the American goal all along – is desperate. We can expect the talks between the US and Russia to be punctuated by repeated announcements of “agreement” like the one we had yesterday, to make this seem credible.

So this was always the plan, plotted three moves ahead by the clever American president, who was only pretending to be indecisive, quixotic and out of his depth. By sort-of threatening military intervention and then appearing to back down at the last minute, the US was not dithering or tripping over its own feet on the world stage. Oh no. It was creating the necessary conditions for Bashar al-Assad and his Russian mentors to come to the table and begin the process of submitting themselves to international standards on chemical weapons. Of course, if we pursue the chess analogy, then the first clever move was really Assad’s. By using chemical weapons, he created the necessary conditions by which the US would be forced to engage in these negotiations, which will almost certainly protect his regime from removal by the West, and will guarantee his Russian friends a place on the highest global platform.

Assad the war criminal, presiding over his little tinpot dictatorship, can now present his demands (for no more threats of military intervention, and no help to Syria’s rebels) to the world’s only remaining superpower in return for handing over weapons that are illegal anyway. The man who holds an illicit armoury can use that cache of arms as a bargaining chip to protect his own future. And Putin, the ex-KGB autocrat presiding over a country with a dying population, a failing economy and a defunct military – who was once cast by Obama as beyond the pale because of his unacceptable human-rights record – can bluster and preen as he delivers peace in our time. Yes indeed, it’s all going according to plan.

Well, maybe it is going according to plan, if that plan is to destroy America's power, influence, and credibility in the world. The problem with that hypothesis is that of course the president denies it. He's arguing that his diplomacy is strengthening U.S. interests and standing.

In any case, Ms. Daly continues at the link.

The Los Angeles Times has the straight news angle, "Obama defends deal with Russia on Syria, says it could end war."

And still more at Memeorandum.

'The Battle for Busing'

Here's a report on the legacy of school desegregation efforts at the New York Times, "Desegregation and the Public Schools."

There's a video at the report:

This week’s Retro Report video, “The Battle for Busing,” follows the story of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district, which became a national model for racial integration for 30 years only to resegregate about a decade ago, after a court ruling lifted the mandatory integration plan.

When the Charlotte busing plan began in 1971, there were whites who threatened to go to jail before they would let their children attend schools with blacks. The open racism voiced by whites in the Retro Report’s archival footage is vicious and ugly; students were injured when fistfights broke out between whites and blacks.

But by 1974, the district was being singled out in the news media as a national model, particularly West Charlotte High, which had previously been all black. The impact of integration was visible almost immediately at the school. When whites arrived, the facilities were upgraded, said a former chairman of the school board, Arthur Griffin. A gravel parking lot was paved, and the football stadium and the gymnasium were renovated.

Over the years, researchers like Prof. Roslyn Mickelson at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, conducted studies concluding that children of any race who attended diverse schools were more likely to succeed, in areas like graduating, avoiding crime and attending college.

But in the end, the same federal courts that had ushered in integration helped kill it. In the late 1990s, Judge Robert D. Potter of Federal District Court essentially said that the Charlotte district had met its constitutional duty by successfully creating a single school system serving all children regardless of race and that no more need be done.

Frankly, it's a strange report, almost like a time warp.

People aren't concerned with school busing these days, a program that epitomized big-government approaches to public policy. The statistics are jarring and cautionary, however, especially the data showing that in urban schools today the student demographic is 90 percent black and Hispanic. More than anything, parents need a way to get their kids away from that social disorganization, and that way is school vouchers. These would provide real choice to families who've borne the brunt of genuine patterns of racism and government indifference for decades.

But beyond that, of course, is the culture of black and minority student underachievement, which stems from cultural factors endemic to those demographics and which even school choice won't fix. I could go on about it, but the glorification of the thug culture, the delegitimization of book learning, and the generalized decline of the historical work ethic in many parts of the society account for a lot of the failures in the schools. Newfangled attempts at desegregation won't do jack to fix those problems. Indeed, the most likely outcome decades from now is more of what we're seeing today. What will bring change will be the destruction of the public school union monopoly on power and the freeing and redirecting of resources channeled to state bureaucrats to families themselves. I suspect things like this are happening in key pockets, but not fast enough for the great majority of disadvantaged students.

It's a depressing state of affairs that people aren't serious about fixing, especially Democrats, from the president on down.

'Building a Mystery'

Sarah McLachlan.

I love her voice. Just cherish it.

You come out at night
that's when the energy comes
and the dark side's light
and the vampires roam
you strut your rasta wear
and your suicide poem
and a cross from a faith
that died before Jesus came
you're building a mystery

You live in a church
where you sleep with voodoo dolls
and you won't give up the search
for the ghosts in the halls
you wear sandals in the snow
and a smile that won't wash away
can you look out the window
without your shadow getting in the way
you're so beautiful
with an edge and a charm
but so careful
when I'm in your arms

CHORUS
'Cause you're working
building a mystery
holding on and holding it in
yeah you're working
building a mystery
and choosing so carefully

You woke up screaming aloud
a prayer from your secret god
you feed off our fears
and hold back your tears oh

Give us a tantrum
and a know it all grin
just when we need one
when the evening's thin

Oh you're a beautiful
a beautiful fucked up man
you're setting up your
razor wire shrine

CHORUS

REPEAT CHORUS