Response to Stogie at Saberpoint on Southern Heritage and the Confederate Flag

My old friend Stogie disagreed, at the comments, with my earlier post, "Response to Stogie at Saberpoint on Southern Heritage and the Confederate Flag."

Click that link to read my response there, but Stogie's posted a full entry on the debate at his blog, "Note to Confederate Descendants: Don't Back Down on the Confederate Flag #Charleston #Confederate."

Here's the comment I left a little while ago:

Stogie, I've always respected your opinion on this, and I've learned a lot from you.

Honestly, though, I find your take on the Civil War and Southern heritage rather bizarre. Of course, I'm not from the South, so it's not a visceral issue for me. My dad, however, was born in Missouri, a slave state. His grandparents were slaves. How am I supposed be sympathetic to the "heritage" argument when that heritage includes proud support for chattel slavery? I'm sorry you get hatred in your heart when others simply don't agree with the heritage argument. I think the culture is to the point, on the left and right, that it's simply no longer acceptable to revere the heritage and discount the racist slave roots of the Confederacy.

See Jonathan Tobin, "A Flag and the Fatal Intersection of Heritage and Hate":

"For those who plan to respond, as they always do, to discussions about this topic with emails regurgitating neo-Confederate talking points about the Civil War being a conflict about state’s rights rather than slavery, let me state up front that I’m not buying it and neither is any other serious student of history. The Civil War did hinge in part on constitutional questions but the notion that slavery was incidental to the outbreak of the conflict is simply absurd. Without slavery, there would have been no war. The south seceded because it feared limits on the expansion of slavery would eventually doom the institution. To protect a heritage built on the uncompensated labor of slaves and their vast investment in human “property,” the states that formed the Confederacy waged a bloody war that costs hundreds of thousands of American lives and left the south in ruins. It would take a century for the region to recover completely."

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/06/19/confederate-flag/?...

I'm going to leave it at that.

One of the things most interesting to me about this whole debate is how uninvested I am with it. I can live with those who want to understand the Civil War as a "War Between the States," since I believe that's how their ancestors saw it. And it doesn't matter to me if these same folks reject the idea that at base the Civil War was indeed about the issue of slavery. That matter's been settled, on the battlefield, in the Constitution, and in the history books. Frankly, Southern revisionist looks like crackpots sometimes. I think now with this flap over South Carolina Republicans will unequivocally reject any lingering sympathy with the Southern heritage argument. Watch, the South Carolina state legislature is going to come under relentless pressure to repeal the authorizing legislation on hoisting the state flag on statehouse grounds. It's become a divisive side issue for the GOP presidential field --- unfairly, I'd add. But politics ain't beanbag.

Pres Lincoln - REPUBLICAN John Wilkes Booth - DEMOCRAT Raising of flag in SC -DEMOCRAT REMOVAL OF FLAG - REPUBICAN pic.twitter.com/S6kCje5eWj

— Color Me Red (@ColorMeRed) June 22, 2015

In any case, I'm fine to agree to disagree with folks on this. But what I'm not fine with is the continue smearing of "the right" as down with segregation and racism. The Democrats will always be the party of Jim Crow segregation and domestic terrorism. Call me a crazy bigoted Yankee if you will, but that's my piece and I'm sticking with it.

Dylann Roof Planned College Campus Shooting Instead of Church, Says Black Drinking Buddy Christon Scriven

At London's Daily Mail, "Charleston killer planned to shoot up college campus instead of a church, claims black drinking buddy who says they were 'homeboys'."

Yeah, his "drinking buddy" was a black kid, just like all the Southern homeboys hanging out with their black bros.

Stogie at Saberpoint has more, "Sick Freak Murders Nine in Black Charleston Church; Irrational Outpouring of Outrage Ensues."

PREVIOUSLY: "Leftist Flag-Burner Dylann Roof's 'Last Rhodesian' Manifesto Rooted in Democrat Party Ku Klux Klan Racism."

And, "Crazy Emo-Prog Dylann Roof Doesn't Fit the Left's 'Right-Wing Racist White Supremacist' Narrative," and "Dylann Roof, Southern Democrat Throwback, is Drug-Addled 'Wannabe Emo Anarchist' with Androgynous Haircut."

Charleston Shooting Reignites Debate About Confederate Flag

I don't care about the Confederate Flag. I think it's a kind of scary emblem when I see it displayed on redneck pickup trucks, and what not. But folks from the South routinely speak about the symbolism and heritage. Stogie at Saberpoint had ancestors who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. He speaks often eloquently about that heritage, but he's no racist. His family is multicultural in fact. So it's an extremely complicated issue.

If you're on the left it's an easy call because the Confederate Flag is supposedly the ultimate symbol of racial oppression. Ta-Nehisi Coates posted an emotional and overwrought harangue against it earlier, at the Atlantic, "Take Down the Confederate Flag — Now." That's just race-bait for the hateful demons of the regressive left's fever swamps.

Still, lots of good black folk down in South Carolina are pained at this image, regular folks, holding down jobs and holding together families. I imagine they'd like to see it go.

In any case, the New York Times reports, FWIW, "Charleston Shooting Reignites Debate About Confederate Flag":

On Thursday, hours after a white gunman killed nine people in a black church in Charleston, S.C., a Confederate flag continued to fly over the grounds of the state’s Capitol.

The Supreme Court ruled the same day that Texas did not violate the First Amendment by refusing to allow the flag on its license plates.

The conflict over the banner of the Confederacy has been raging for decades between those who feel it is a symbol of free speech, and others who see it as a symbol of white supremacy. But with a photo emerging of Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old suspect in the Charleston church shootings, posing in front of a car with Confederate plates, the debate has been reignited on social media and beyond about whether the flag should be displayed, and whether politicians should continue to defend the flag as a symbol of Southern heritage.

Representative Mark Sanford of South Carolina, a Republican, and the state’s Republican governor, Nikki R. Haley, are both drawing criticism for their views on the flag. On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Mr. Sanford called the idea of removing the flag a “Pandora’s box” and a “complex issue within our state.”

Ms. Haley, who on Friday called for Mr. Roof to face the death penalty, was also facing criticism for referring to the flag as a “sensitive issue” but refusing to remove it in the past.

A Haley spokesman told ABC that use of the Confederate flag — seen flying high in the South Carolina capital while other flags flew at half-staff — could not be altered without approval from the state Legislature.

Cornell William Brooks, national president of the N.A.A.C.P., said on Friday that those who said the flag was “merely a symbol of years gone by” had it all wrong. The flag, he said, is an “emblem of hate” that should be banished from public life.

“That symbol has to come down,” he said, speaking at a news conference in Charleston. “That symbol must be removed from our state Capitol.”

Several hashtags, #takedownthatflag, #takeitdown and #ConfederateTakeDown, were also being used Friday on Twitter as an informal campaign to prompt South Carolina politicians to remove the flag.

Elsewhere, writers and academics found fault in the argument that the flag was meant to preserve a Southern way of life. In a post for The Atlantic titled “Take Down the Confederate Flag — Now,” Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote that the argument that the flag preserves a heritage of racist behavior was what motivated Mr. Roof to attack black people.

“More than any individual actor, in recent history, Roof honored his flag in exactly the manner it always demanded — with human sacrifice,” Mr. Coates wrote.

Edward E. Baptist, a professor at Cornell University who specializes in the history of slavery, said in a series of posts on Twitter that the flag had been used as justification for attacks on blacks since the Civil War...

Continue reading.

The Leftist Scum Betraying Our Country

It's still a great country. California is nearing lost-cause status, but nationally the political order remains vital in many respects. But as I've been saying, conservatives and patriots must keep pressing on toward reform. It's not just about better policies or higher standards of living. It's about the very survival of America as the beacon of freedom in the world. I've learned a lot from reading my good friend Stogie's blog Saberpoint, and I'm glad he's not beating around the bush regarding the nature of the enemy. See, "Communist Revolution: I Never Thought It Would Come to This":

The long march through the institutions was completed some time ago, and both academia and media have a near monopoly on the transmission of biased news, cultural demolition and the ability to affect public attitudes. The "closing of the American mind" is just about complete. Moonbattery blog has an article today called "Brainwashing Works." The author, Dave Blount, points to a sign in NYC's Penn Station where a graffiti artist has penned "Kill All Republicans!" This sentiment is not an isolated occurrence. Twitchy.com reports daily the most vile bile from the left, the unhinged hatred, the desire for violence against Republicans and conservatives. The Democrat Media Complex has created a vast swath of human botnets, which can be set off in mass to launch denial-of-liberty attacks on any and all who oppose the New Progressive Order. Like computer botnets, the human variety is programmed and programmable and act in concert, unhindered by scruples or actual thought.

Lately swarms of human maggots on Twitter have tweeted their joy at the death of General Norman Schwarzkopf yesterday, expressing hope that he died painfully and is now burning in Hell. They have said similar things about former President George H.W. Bush, who is in the hospital with a serious illness, hoping that he dies "in agony." I do not recognize this leftist human scum as fellow citizens, but as traitors, agents of hostile foreign powers and ideologies. With the election of one of their own to the presidency, they are now emboldened to finish off the Republic, and as Blount notes at Moonbattery, are now in a rush to disarm us.

Read the whole thing at the link.

It's not the death wish agitation that's evidence for the left's treason, but if that kind of pure hatred --- the overwhelming desire of progressives to literally kill their political enemies --- is a needed prompt for identifying the enemy for what it is, all the better. For me, I started blogging because I'd learned that the values that I'd once identified with as "liberal" and "progressive" were in fact the very opposite. At that time, in 2006, little did I know just how depraved was the radical left. But once you start to expose these douchebags you're placed in the cross-hairs yourself. There are no misunderstandings by that time. You know intimately that progressives will stop at nothing to destroy barriers to the ideological agenda. This next year will be a time of reorganizing and redoubling efforts among the forces of decency and traditionalism. But conservatives need to abandon the nice-guy mentality that makes them suckers over and over again for the machinations of the left. Don't be fooled by progressives who attempt to befriend you with idle chit-chat. They'll sell you out in the name of the totalitarian agenda faster than you can say Lev Trotsky. And be ready to fight fire with fire. See Nice Deb for more on that, and be sure to check the links: "Hoisting Them on their Own Petards."

PHOTO CREDIT: Moonbattery.

Guns and the Right to Bear Arms at Saberpoint

My friend Stogie at Saberpoint has been posting some excellent material on the gun debate.

See: "The NRA: Target and Scapegoat for the Hyper-Angry Left," and "'An Opinion on Gun Control" Article Goes Viral'." (And more here and here.)

PHOTO: Women with Guns on Tumblr.

Foaming Rabid Union Thug Captures and Exemplifies Today's Progressive Politics

I'm very thankful for some of the praise of my readers, for example, Stogie at Saberpoint and my friend and occasional contributor Norman Gersman from New York. I have other readers as well who correspond by e-mail but would prefer to stay out of the scrum of the left's demonic totalitarianism. I've called out REPSAC = CASPER recently, and I've been requesting that he retire his stalking blog American Nihilist. REPSAC = CASPER is perfectly representative of the demonic progressive left, and I wouldn't be surprised if he logged in anonymously and left this comment at my blog last night:

Anonymous said...

Actually, all Republicans are Satanic Nazi rapist terroristic treasonous child-molesting scumbags, who would rape my two year old niece to death happily, and sell the video on www.gop=666.cum.

Anyone who doesn't agree with this truth, as priven by Scott WalKKKer, Satanic Nazi rapist pig whore governor of WisKKKonsin, let them rape, torture, and brutally murder me - I would rather die than support all of you Satanic Nazi rapist terroristic treasonous child-molesting scumbags.

February 26, 2011 9:27 PM

Hey, words fail, but how about this, from Rebel Pundit, "Exclusive: Rabid Union Thug Foams at the Mouth $1Mil bet GOP Hearts KKK.. “Wussy MotherFxxkers, I’ll make you pay, Tea Baggers”" (via Lonely Conservative and Memeorandum):

Behold today's Democrat Party progressive left. When conservatives stand up for values, they're standing up for right and goodness in the world. The opposite of right is found in the left's relentless campaigns against truth, decency, and the individual in society. The hatred at websites such as REPSAC = CASPER's --- and in the comments cited here, and in endless attacks by union thugs --- are perfect examples of the new neo-communist totalitarianism. What's sad is that the lamestream press is totally in the tank, so again that's all the more reason for folks of God and decency to stand up.

Hmm ... The Civil War Was Never Really About Slavery?

A very interesting piece at NYT, "Celebrating Secession Without the Slaves."

Immediately upon seeing this I figured I'd clicked over to Little Green Footballs, and what do you know?

"For Civil War 150th, Neo-Confederates Consign Slavery to the Memory Hole."

I don't really see a passage worth quoting at the Times, although one paragraph comes awfully close to merging the Sons of Confederate Veterans with the tea parties. And then of course there's the obligatory quotation from Mark Potok, who's cited as "the director of intelligence at the Southern Poverty Law Center." I used to trust the SPLC, mainly because I don't discount the lingering existence Jim Crow racism, however residual. But whatever amount of that there is in fact, it's been superceded by the more problematic race-baiting industry that's killing free speech in America. William Jacobson's written on this quite a bit recently. See, "Southern Poverty Law Center Completes Its Descent Into Madness," and "SPLC Demonizes Supporters of Traditional Marriage." Moreover, my knowledge of the South is based on textbook learning, which is fairly deep as far as 20th century civil rights goes. Less so on the Civil War however. But Robert Stacy McCain and Stogie at Saberpoint are very good friends of mine, and both had ancesters who fought for the Confedracy. You learn a lot from people with direct experience, and these interactions blow away the rank stereotypes that are used to brand and destroy people. This is Charles Johnson's stock-in-trade nowadays, and look how that's turned out.

In any case, I skimmed over Jefferson Davis' Wikipedia entry as I was looking around for a picture to go with this post. He doesn't seem that impressive of a guy, but his reputation after the war was rehabilitated, and today he represents some of the more noble sentiments of the Old South. I know lots of folks on the left will reject the possibility of anything noble about that Anti-Bellum society, but I'd suggest that people keep an open mind on these things, lest they be poisoned by the likes of SPLC and their race-baiting brethren.

One is the Loneliest Number

From Carolyn Tackett, "Help a Friend."

And previously, "The Recession Hits Stogie at Saberpoint." Stogie's blog is here.

The Recession Hits Stogie at Saberpoint

It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job. It's a depression when you lose yours, or at least that's what they say. All I know is it's a heartbreak when your friends are losing their home. Stogie at Saberpoint's been a blog buddy of mine for roughly four years. A good guy and great patriot, facing financial hardship:

It's just a matter of weeks before I lose my home. I never, ever thought I'd be in such a predicament. This happened to other people, sure, but not to me. I am a college graduate and a CPA. Accountants were supposed to be immune from unemployment. Not any more. The fact that I am well past 50 doesn't help. Seniors and new grads are the hardest hit.

I am not feeling sorry for myself. I am pissed, but have entered a phase of my life where nothing surprises me anymore. If one could get jaded to bad news, political malfeasance and power-grabbing, I am about there. No outrage now seems to surprise me. The neo-Marxists now running the country are capable of the most outrageous usurpations of the Constitution, which in effect, is no longer the law of the land. It is merely a quaint old parchment kept under glass in the museum of history, for people to gawk at. The economy is being destroyed by fools, mostly Democrat fools, but with the assistance of RINO Republicans who haven't the sense or the gonads to resist.

Hit Stogie's tip jar if you're able.

Light My Fire

At Saberpoint, from last week, featuring this clip of The Doors: "Jim Morrison: Dionysian Shaman or Acid-Addled Freak?" Stogie watched the Oliver Stone flick and did a write-up.

Blog Headline of the Morning (Regarding Asshole Andres Serrano)

At Althouse, "Andres 'Piss Christ' Serrano as a guest judge on "Work of Art: The Next Great Artist." And click through to the original article. Some of the works include things like men performing sexual self-gratification. And you can see this stuff on TV? Seriously.

But it's Andres Serrano who's of interest to me (why is he considered a worthy judge for Bravo's program, for example?).

Check this interview with Anna Blume from 1993, regarding "Serrano’s recent photographs of [black] dead bodies":

AB Since color is an issue throughout the show, not just aesthetically, but also racially, and racial issues have shown up in your work before, was this in your mind when you edited for the show, thinking about which bodies to photograph?

AS In a manner of speaking. I photographed these people after the moment of death. I never knew them as human beings. I never knew what languages they spoke, what their religious or political beliefs were, how much money they had, or who they loved. All I know about them is the cause of death. And, as they say, you cannot judge a book by its cover. The woman you referred to as not knowing whether she was actually black, is a bleached blonde, brown-skinned woman. She’s a black woman. But she’s been in the morgue for over two months because she’s a Jane Doe, and as a result, she’s starting to decompose and if you look really closely, there are patches of white skin. I asked the doctor and he confirmed that there is white skin under black skin. A teacher of his once took a very thin slice of skin off a cadaver and showed it to his students and said, “This is the thickness of racism.”

And here's this, from an interview with Andres Serrano in 2002:

Being born, especially being born a person of color, is a political act in itself. Everything you do from that point on is political without having to be called political. My work has social implications, it functions in a social arena. In relation to the controversy over Piss Christ, I think the work was politicized by forces outside it, and as a result, some people expect to see something recognizably "political" in my work. I am still trying to do my work as I see fit, which I see as coming from a very personal point of view with broader implications.

Asshole.

UPDATE: Saberpoint provides some artwork, "Stogie Art: Piss Andres (Andres Serrano)."

Man, Ayla Brown is Tall!

Via Saberpoint, I just happened to notice this R.S. McCain interview with Ayla Brown. That woman is tall. Whoo hoo!! Be sure to read Stogie's comments:

Last time I wrote about height issues I got in a little trouble, but this time I blame Stogie!

See, At 5' 6½", George Stephanopoulos Debuts at Good Morning America - UPDATED!!"

RELATED: Ayla Brown Acknowledges It: She Voted for Kerry (via Memeorandum).

James "Barebacker" Webb

You can't make this stuff up!

From "Brainrage," who thrives on informality in his insistence on calling me "Don." And then, in another example of his glorious hypocrisy, turns around and demands that folks use his full name:

... it's James B. Webb. Get it right, Don ...

Actually, I NEVER gave James B. Webb permission to call me by my first name, AND THEN TO SHORTEN IT INTO CRUDE MONIKER OF MAN-CRUSH AFFECTION!

Obviously, James B. Webb ignored my earlier memo:

I think all of my readers should call me Dr. Douglas. 'It's just a thing. I worked so hard to get that title.

Hey, man ... it's cool. If he insists, James "Barebacker" Webb it is!

And I mean, SERIOUSLY!! James's link to that OUT website is like a buffed-gay gold mine!

Here's another blog that came to my attention through James B. Webb's blogging: "Best Gay Bloggers." (BUT WAIT!! EDDIE BURKE TRUTHERISM CONTENT WARNING: DON'T GO THERE!!)

And don't forget what I said earlier, "I don't do the flip-floppy on the side!"

Photo Credit: "Best Gay Bloggers."

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UPDATE: My friend Stogie at Saberpoint has joined the debate, "Jimmy B. Webb: What's a Libertarian-Socialist?"

Full Metal Saturday: Kristin Cavallari

Well folks, it's been a busy week blogging the culture wars, but I'm taking time out here for a little double-duty on babe-blogging. Readers might have missed my regular midweek "Rule 5 Rescue," so I'm going double-barrel with some hot Kristin Cavallari action! Ms. Cavallari's a local Laguna Beach hottie who was the leading personality during Season 2 of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County:

Readers will recall that Full Metal Saturday owes its origins to Robert Stacy McCain's pathbreaking post, "How to Get a Million Hits on Your Blog in Less Than a Year." I call Robert "The Hustler," not only for his recognition as one of the hardest working bloggers in the blogosphere, but for the growing influence of his program of shameless blog whoring! Today's case in point is Michael van der Galien of PoliGazette, who's introducing a new feature at his site called "Link Mess." But I should note that Steven Givler, who was featured here last week, is also a reader of The Other McCain. Now, note something else: When my friend Carol at No Sheeples Here! expressed some reservations about "Rule 5" blogging, Robert put up an interesting post on the subject, where he noted:

Conservatives must rid themselves of the Dean Vernon Wormer mindset ("No more fun of any kind!") and instead try to put the "party" back into the Republican Party. Stop trying to be the uptight, respectable Omegas. Let's bring a hell-raising, fun-loving Delta House mentality to the task at hand ...

Well, I'll tell ya: It looks like a number of conservative bloggers have taken the hint, especially the ladies! Fausta Wertz puts out some classic Rule 5 blogging this week with a couple of entries, "Captain Underpants" (featuring a "hirsute" Tom Selleck) and "About those hairless chests ..." Fausta links to Neo-Neocon, who not only offers a lengthy analysis of "men waxing their chests," but the post sports a shot of some pretty hunky beefcake! Plus, Monique Stuart's playing both sides of the fence with some hot Katy Perry Rule 5 action! Now that's what I'm talking about! And don't miss Pundette & Pundette, who's got her weekend link-fest up today, with some hot buns in there to boot! If I'm omitting any entries from the ladies, just send me an e-mail and I'll add your post to this entry. And with that, on to the guys! I've got to get a couple of my blog buddies fired up for some Rule 5 revelry! Dana at Common Sense Political Thought might post an update his hot Helen Mirren entry, and Stogie at Saberpoint might well be afflicted by the Dean Vernor Wormer mindset! Let's also put some pressure on my friends Dave in Boca and William Jacobson. Come on guys, break loose with some babe blogging! And check out Lance Burri to see how it's done, "Of Rule #5, YouTube, and commercials indeterminate, persuasive, and unpleasant." Dude, it's getting hot in here! And don't even get me going about John Althouse Cohen! But wait! This just in: "The Hustler's" got breaking news on Lindsay Lohan: "EX-DISNEY STARLET LINDSAY LOHAN REPORTEDLY DUMPED BY LESBIAN GF SAMANTHA RONSON . . ." Okay, switching gears a bit, don't forget that a number of our good friends have no time for breast blogging. They're busy doing even more important work: Tea Party blogging! Moe Lane's got a great post on the 12 whole anti-capitalist protesters - that's right just 12 - who turned out for the left's epic-fail copycat protest in Washington, D.C., one of the "New Way Forward" demonstrations that are modeled after the conservative movement's emerging "Second American Revolution." Conservatives are getting fired up on this, of course. Check out Point of a Gun, with some coverage of Maryland's Tea Party protests. Little Miss Attila is gearing up for her events, but check out Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit with all kinds of links to Tea Party action nationwide. As always, if I've missed anyone just send me a quick note and I'll add your post here in an update. Otherwise, keep up the Rule 5 hotness!

On Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs

You know, I've been thinking about Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs.

When I go over there nowadays I get confused. Last year LGF was doing some of the best pushback-blogging against leftist crazies like Markos Moulitsas. But now it seems Johnson's done an about face against conservatives, especially people of faith. I'm not a "creationist," but I've noted that Stephen Jay Gould's "doctrine of nonoverlapping magisteria" suggests a compatibility between Christian beliefs and scientific evolutionary theory.

Well, it turns out that yesterday Johnson basically joined the likes of Glenn Greenwald in attacking Glenn Beck for SIMPLY HYPOTHESIZING the possibility of an American anarchy:

There's not going to be any mass anarchy, and there's not going to be any sedition. Glenn Beck isn't going to bring about the End Times, or a financial crash.

But what he IS doing is encouraging and inciting the real nutjobs out there to do violence. One on one violence, stoked by paranoid fantasies.

It's crazy, and it's wrong, and it's irresponsible.

It's crazy? I'm sure many said the same thing about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina, despite the warnings of the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center.

I have no personal quarrel with Johnson, although I'd just note here his tremendous inconsistency. On the one hand he attacks radical Islamists for practices such as child killing, and then on the other he attacks people like Geert Wilders for attacking, well, the exact same thing.

For some related matters, see Dr. Pat Santy's comments on the controversies Johnson's had with folks on questions of Islam and terror (see, "My Response to Blackmail Threats").

But also check out Stogie's post at Saberpoint for more on what folks are noticing about LGF:

I rarely read the blog "Little Green Footballs" any more. I have discovered that, as time goes by, I have less and less in common with its owner, Charles Johnson. Frankly, he acts like someone who is developing a brain chemistry imbalance. If so, he should consider a psychotropic medication like Prozac or Paxil. Personally I prefer Zoloft. Since I started taking it, I notice the ax murders are fewer and further between. Yes, we don't see that much of Mr. Hyde anymore.

Charley's latest gambit is to trash Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and to oppose Geert Wilders. Seems Charley is very adamant about the right of individuals to freedom of religion, apparently any religion, regardless of their practices, e.g. honor killings, genital mutilation, wife beating, polygamy, jihad, insistence on Sharia rather than democracy. No doubt Aztecs performing human sacrifices of virgins would be just fine with him. You can't oppose "freedom of religion" after all. Charley is so open-minded and tolerant that he would probably accept an invitation to dinner by a tribe of cannibals, and never notice when they shove an apple in his mouth and push him into a big pot of boiling water.

Another of Charley's annoying habits is that he has become a fanatical supporter of Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution. That's fine if that's your bag, but every other post is an ideological screed in support of this pseudo-science. Who cares?

Evolution, says Charley is absolutely true and beyond criticism. Today he was running an article entitled "Transitional Fossils Do Exist."

Charley should know. He's one of them.

My main interest here is as it relates to the broader internal debates I've been discussing on the freaky left-libertarian alliance of "liberaltarianism," as well as the continued and self-evident power of neoconservative clarity in combating the creeping totalitarianism of Islamic radicalization.

At lot of folks are focusing on electoral schisms within the GOP, but some of the more overarching issues of foreign affairs and moral authority are going to be increasingly important to the emergence of the next right-wing governing coalition.

More later ...

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UPDATE: Critical Thinker add this, from the comments:

Methinks ole Charlie might need to go back to playin' Jazz and leave the world of bloggin'. Seems he is turning into a control freak and might be the one going off of the deep end.

International Reaction to Israeli Self-Defense

This photograph, so deeply offensive and saddening, has gotten me thinking once again:

The image is available at Ralph Peters' essay, and the caption reads: "Propaganda: Activists around the world, like this woman in Spain, protested Israel's airstrikes."

As Peters indicates at the article:

DEAD Jews aren't news, but killing terrorists outrages global activists. On Saturday, Israel struck back powerfully against its tormentors. Now Israel's the villain. Again ....

Yes, Israel's always identified as the villian, but folks shouldn't comfort themselves by suggesting that it's only the global left-fringe that's demonizing Israel's airstrikes. It's not just global activists denouncing Tel Aviv's "disproportionate" response. This morning's Wall Street Journal indicates that the United Nations has decried Israel's "excessive" force, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has done so as well. It's clear by now that without the United States Israel would be standing alone against the forces of global postmodernism and appeasement to terror. The response at the U.N.'s General Assembly is the diplomatic equivalent to the swastikas on Spanish antiwar protest banners. People need to take a look around. Israel stands at the center of a global culture war. From international institutions, to the halls of heads of government, to the streets of the nihilist left's demonstrations, the plague of moral equivalence keeps creeping up - gaining strength just a month after Mumbai's demonstration of nihilist destruction - like a modern-day Black Death.

Here's Melanie Phillips, thankfully, on the left's smear of "disproportion":

All too predictable – and going to plan, with assistance from the Club of Terror U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who condemned ‘excessive use of force leading to the killing and injuring of civilians’, and Navi Pillay, the ludicrous U.N. High Commissioner for ‘Human Rights’, who ‘strongly condemned Israel’s disproportionate use of force.’ Of course, the Club of Terror U.N. has been silent about the actual violations of international law by the Palestinians, as pointed out here by Justus Reid Weiner and Avi Bell ....

But for exercising its legal duty in accordance with international law, Israel is condemned and told to stop by politicians such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband. The moral inversion is staggering. Miliband has called for an immediate ceasefire by Israel. The implication is that Israel should suffer the Palestinian rockets attacks indefinitely.

If anything has been ‘disproportionate’, it’s been Israel’s refusal to take such action during the years when its southern citizens have been terrorised by rockets and other missiles raining down on them from Gaza. No other country in the world would have sat on its hands for so long in such circumstances. But whenever Israel defends itself militarily, its response is said to be ‘disproportionate’. The malice, ignorance and sheer idiocy of this claim is refuted here comprehensively by Dore Gold, who points out that Israel’s actions in Gaza are wholly in accordance with international law. This permits Israel to launch such an operation to prevent itself from being further attacked ....

Those who scream ‘disproportionate’ think – grotesquely - that not enough Israelis have been killed. But that’s in part because Israel cares enough about human life to construct air raid shelters where its beleaguered civilians take cover; Hamas deliberately stores its rockets and other apparatus of mass murder below apartment blocks and in centres of population in order to get as many of its own people killed as possible as a propaganda weapon. Hamas is thus guilty of war crimes not just against Israelis but against the Palestinian people. Yet on this there is – fantastically, surreally – almost total silence in the west, which blames Israel instead. Historical resonances, anyone?

As I've noted in my previous essays, what's most disturbing about the outbreak of war is the reaction on the left to Israel's actions. Again, readers should have no doubt, the left's denunciations against Israel are rhetorical displays of those Spanish protest banners. For the postmodernists, for all intents and purposes, the Israel state is the new Nazi regime. Melanie Phillips gets it. Caroline Glick gets it. And my friend Stogie at Saberpoint gets it, and I'll give him the last word:

We can expect the mainstream media to once again portray the Muslims as victims and the Israelis as aggressors. The overwhelming number of news photos coming out of the conflict depict Palestinians wailing over fallen comrades, or wounded ones with blood on their faces, being helped to the hospital. There are the usual photos of fat Muslim ladies with their mouths wide open in faux horror as they pose for the news cameras, and dusty wreckage of some Palestinian shithole recently renovated by Israeli ordnance. There are never any pictures of dead Israelis, or Palestinian rockets, or mutilated bodies of kidnapped and murdered Israelis. Even Fox News contributes to this gross imbalance in news coverage.

As for you, Palestinians, who rejoiced when your fellow barbarians murdered 3,000 Americans in 2001, I rejoice in the righteous destruction and long overdue payback for your evil, your barbarian savagery, your murderous and false religion. You have earned every bomb and every bullet, and since we don't practice Islamic finance, there will be a great deal of interest due with every payment. Enjoy.

Texas Fred's Bigotry

I had a run with Texas ("Tex-ass") Fred in 2006. He's a Lone-Star redneck blogger, whose my-way-or-the-highway style of blogging has earned him a reputation as a genuine sleazebag.

It turns out that one of my blog buddies, Stogie at Saberpoint, has called out Texas Fred for his bigotry, and I'm happy to share this here to double the viral exposure: "Texas Fred: The Bigot Connection":

Yesterday I posted an email exchange with Texas Fred of "Reject the U.N." Fred treated me to an extreme racist rant on how he hates "gooks" (bigot-speak for Asians).

It seems ol' Texas Fred has a lot of these blog roller lists. Besides "Reject the U.N." there is "Come and Take It," "Children of the Confederacy," "The American Conservative" and "Naked Bloggers." His personal website is "Texas Fred's." You can google them all, if you are so inclined.

Fred likes to pose as a great crusader for morality, particularly against pedophilia. We can all agree that pedophiles are scum; but what about bigots, Fred? Will you be starting a a new blog roll soon, perhaps "Bigots Hating Hatchet-Faced Gook Bitches"?

Strangely enough, "gook"-hating Fred appeared on Fox News back in August 2007, where he was interviewed as to his anti-pedophile activities. I wonder if Fox knows about his "gook"-hating activities? Hmm, guess I'll have to tell them.

No doubt most of the sites on Fred's blogrolls are not aware of his virulent racism; Fred doesn't generally advertise it. If you know who the site owners are on the list below, you may want to warn them away from any affiliation with Texas Fred.

Check Stogie's page for some pictures of Texas Fred, although here's one of the Ten Gallon Bigot:

Stogie's debate with Texas Fred is timely, as it turns out one of my readers just had her own run-in the rotund "Reject the U.N." blogger. In communications with my friend, I found this post at Texas Fred's main page: "Illegal Immigrants Leaving Arizona":

Every single state in the nation needs to pass this law [Arizona's illegal immigration crackdown], we must make it so tough on employers that the illegals are faced with 2 choices, get legal, which is what they should do in the 1st place, or leave the USA, how simple can it be??

And here’s another little gem for all of you, I preached and howled at this same time last year and no one in a position of authority listened, and I doubt they will this year either, but every wetback in the USA tries to go back to Mexico or wherever for Christmas, they want to spend the holidays with their families, and I think that’s a really nice sentiment too, admirable even, well, there’s something WE need to do at this time of year too…

Close the damned border and shoot any SOB trying to sneak back in…

I am guessing that at least half of the 18 million or so WETBACKS in this nation would be denied admission to the USA if we’d act, but the time to act is NOW, put the National Guard on the border, with full combat capabilities and tell em, ANYTHING coming over that border is an ILLEGAL invader, KILL IT!!

Piece of cake, we have dead wetbacks all over the place, now that’s what I call ‘Happy Holidays’!!

If I am to be called ‘racist’, if I am to wear the name, if it makes me a racist to stand up and defend MY nation and to call an illegal invader a wetback, to call them by the only name that truly describes them for what they are, WETBACKS, then you’re damn right, I AM a racist, and I’ll wear the title proudly...

I post on this in the interest of "calling 'em as I see 'em."

As readers know, I routinely attack the racism and anti-Semitism (and anti-McCain sizism, for that matter) on the extreme left-wing of the Democratic Party's netroots, and I'll continue to do so.

But no commenter here at American Power (and I get lots of neo-confederate freaks) should ever allege a double-standard. I'll call out right-wing extremists when it's time, and folks like Texas Fred are a disgrace to this great nation.

There's no place for views like these in 21st-century America.

That Texas Fred can wear his racism like a badge of honor shines poorly on his fellow Texans, the great majority I know would never advocate or tolerate SHOOT TO KILL POLICIES AGAINST ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSERS. Such views are reprehensible, and should be fully repudiated.

Who need this baloney?

First Amendment protections don't extend to express advocacy of vigilante murder, so perhaps if my post, and Stogie's, can get some viral attention, the state of Texas might shut-down Texas ("Tex-ass") Fred once and for all.

See also, "Texas Fred Shoots Himself In The Foot."