Old age makes a realist out of a far Leftist

A move from Left to right is normal as people progress through life and find out there are no simple answers -- but it normally happens long before age 80.  Good at any age, however.  And he's spot-on in this case

I recall back in the 1980s that you could always count on Duke political scientist and “Sovietologist” Jerry Hough to take the wrong line on everything. Reagan was a dunce, the Soviets are normal folks just like us, détente is dandy, the arms buildup is bad—the whole catechism. You wondered sometimes whether he was on the Soviets’ payroll.

So it is with some delight to see this octogenarian grandee of liberalism get into all kinds of trouble for writing to the New York Times to criticize one of their post-Baltimore editorials. Here’s what he wrote to the Times, in full:

"This editorial is what is wrong. The Democrats are an alliance of Westchester and Harlem, of Montgomery County and intercity Baltimore. Westchester and Montgomery get a Citigroup asset stimulus policy that triples the market. The blacks get a decline in wages after inflation.

But the blacks get symbolic recognition in an utterly incompetent mayor who handled this so badly from beginning to end that her resignation would be demanded if she were white. The blacks get awful editorials like this that tell them to feel sorry for themselves.

In 1965 the Asians were discriminated against as least as badly as blacks. That was reflected in the word “colored.” The racism against what even Eleanor Roosevelt called the yellow races was at least as bad.

So where are the editorials that say racism doomed the Asian-Americans. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves, but worked doubly hard.

I am a professor at Duke University. Every Asian student has a very simple old American first name that symbolizes their desire for integration. Virtually every black has a strange new name that symbolizes their lack of desire for integration. The amount of Asian-white dating is enormous and so surely will be the intermarriage. Black-white dating is almost non-existent because of the ostracism by blacks of anyone who dates a white.

It was appropriate that a Chinese design won the competition for the Martin Luther King state. King helped them overcome. The blacks followed Malcolm X.

Cue all hell breaking loose at Duke! Hate speech! Hough is a racist! Fire him! (He’s already on a long-planned leave, but who can doubt this will transition into “retirement”?)

Duke University issued a statement, naturally:

“The comments were noxious, offensive, and have no place in civil discourse,” said Duke Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Affairs Michael Schoenfeld. “Duke University has a deeply-held commitment to inclusiveness grounded in respect for all, and we encourage our community to speak out when they feel that those ideals are challenged or undermined, as they were in this case.”

Just curious: has the Duke administration ever apologized or censured the “Gang of 88” racist professors who judged the Duke lacrosse team guilty without any facts merely because of their pale skin color? Or perhaps not issuing a statement was part of the financial settlement Duke had to make with the wrongly charged players. (Heh.)

Hough is not backing down, sending a follow up comment to a local TV station:

“Martin Luther King was my hero and I was a big proponent of all the measures taken at the time, including Affirmative Action. But the degree of integration is not what I expected, and it is time to ask why and to change our approach. I am, of course, strongly against the toleration of racial discrimination. I do not know what racial intolerance means in modern code words and hesitate to comment on that specific comment.

“The issue is whether my comments were largely accurate. In writing me, no one has said I was wrong, just racist. The question is whether I was right or what the nuanced story is since anything in a paragraph is too simple.

“I am strongly against the obsession with “sensitivity.” The more we have emphasized sensitivity in recent years, the worse race relations have become. I think that is not an accident. I know that the 60 years since the Montgomery bus boycott is a long time, and things must be changed. The Japanese and other Asians did not obsess with the concentration camps and the fact they were linked with blacks as “colored.” They pushed ahead and achieved. Coach K did not obsess with all the Polish jokes about Polish stupidity. He pushed ahead and achieved. And by his achievement and visibility, he has played a huge role in destroying stereotypes about Poles. Many blacks have done that too, but no one says they have done as well on the average as the Asians. In my opinion, the time has come to stop talking incessantly about race relations in general terms as the President and activists have advocated, but talk about how the Asians and Poles got ahead—and to copy their approach. I don’t see why that is insensitive or racist.”

This isn’t going to go down well. So liberals are about to eat up another one of their own.

Remember: when leftists say they want a “conversation about race,” they mean—you shut up and confess your white guilt. Oh, and raise taxes.

SOURCE. See details of the backlash against Prof. Hough here






Multicultural Corrections Officers Accused of Looting Store During Baltimore Riots

Two female Baltimore corrections officers were caught on tape last month allegedly looting a 7-Eleven store during the riots, according to a CBS affiliate.

According to police, they reviewed the surveillance footage after receiving a tip and saw Tamika Cobb and Kendra Richard leaving with merchandise while the store was closed.

"Our Intelligence and Investigative Division did an outstanding job, immediately following up on this tip," said Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Stephen T. Moyer. "We will not allow the vast majority of our employees who are honest and hardworking to be tainted by the actions of a few."

The pair - who were assigned to a downtown Baltimore Division of Correction facility - have been suspended without pay and charged with theft and burglary.

SOURCE





America's favorite guy to hate: George Zimmerman

The name George Zimmerman has been one of the most well-known names in American media outlets.  Since his acquittal in 2012 in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, he has been caught up again and again in the news.  Since his not "guilty verdict", he has had had three separate girlfriends accuse him of abusive behavior (one even claiming he smashed an iPad in a fit of anger), he has been caught up in a road-rage incident with a man named Matthew Apperson, and now, most recently, he has been shot at.  George Zimmerman's attacker in the recent event, the same Apperson as the road rage incident, has since been arrested and is in custody with several serious charges pending.  So far, the legal system has yet to find any evidence of this man doing anything wrong in ANY of the previously mentioned events. 

This has not stopped the court of public opinion from finding him to be a criminal who always sleezes his way out of trouble.  Is this what American justice has come to today?  Trials be damned and courts need not intervene, the people know all they need to know.  The people have already found him guilty of being a racist, murdering, abusive little troll who deserves to be the victim of whatever some vigilante wants to do to him. 

The most recent incident has ignited the Twitter world with an entire hashtag #WhenIHeardZimmermanGotShot posting over 12000 tags and his name being mentioned closed to 300,000 times.  In the vast majority of cases, people lamented that Zimmerman wasn't a blood splatter on the pavement of Lake Mary, Florida.  People celebrate his attacker, and feel a sense of poetic justice in anything awful that happens to the man.  This is the new America, unfortunately.  A white-man (though even that is in question) has been dubbed a racist by the mainstream media and thus he is no longer deserving of due process and protection under the law. 

Has vigilante justice made a come back?  Can we expect more lynching by anti-racist mobs?  Why don't we just take Zimmerman out to a sycamore tree and string him up?  The behavior of the media and twitterverse is shameful at best.  It shows not only a bias that 21st Century public opinion has on those dubbed "racist", it also shines a light into a bigger problem of a lack of faith in the American people towards our justice system. 

SOURCE






The decline of manners



SOME Twitter users have been up in arms over this normal looking photo, but what is it that’s got them worked up? Can you spot the problem?

The Mirror reports that the photo isn’t some kind of optical illusion. But as some users noted, the man is allowing the woman to walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk — the side closest to the road.

“I’m sure half of you guys don’t even know what’s wrong with this picture. Smh (shake my head),” Twitter user ibi said on the original post.

Many were utterly clueless as to what the issue was, but many, such as Denzell Lowery saw it straight away.

“He should switch sides with her and hold her hand,” he commented. “I think it’s just the ‘gentleman thing’ to do. just like opening doors. some women may not like that, but it doesn’t change,” another said.

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here. 

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