A Pox on Baltimore

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Thanks to an infection and the antibiotics taken to rid myself of it, I have had several days of being able to do little more than watch the news on television, listen to it on the radio, and reading about it in my daily edition of The Wall Street Journal. If there was anything else happening in the world, you would not know it because it was 24-7 Baltimore, Baltimore, Baltimore.

Specifically, it was about the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, a known drug dealer and user with an extensive rap sheet. There are different descriptions of the manner of his death, but the details of the autopsy are still obscure beyond a reference to having received a blow to his spine. This is attributed to having been placed in the police van, shackled hand and foot, but not having a safety belt applied.

The response from a certain element of Baltimoreans was to begin to loot, vandalize and set fire to their own neighborhoods by way of protesting alleged police brutality. This followed his funeral on Monday. The Mayor’s response was to tell the police to stand down and let the protesters have their way. When that predictably did not work, the National Guard was called in and a curfew imposed.

Capping these events was the indictment of the six arresting officers by the State’s Attorney General, Marilyn Mosby that included charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. That seemed to appease the mob that passes for Baltimore’s citizens.

I wish I could say I have sympathy for Freddie Gray and his family, but I don’t. I wish I could say that I feel sorry that Baltimore has been a state of decline and decay since the last riots in 1968, but no one asks why the trillions of dollars poured in comparable cities since the days of Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” hasn’t demonstrated any results.

I wish I could say that the connecting factor between Baltimore, Detroit, and other Democrat-controlled cities was the primary reason that their citizens suffer unemployment, why their children attend schools that fail to teach them even fundamental skills, but what has evolved in these distressed cities is a culture that does not emphasize the traditional family, demand better education, and replaces the work ethic with the “entitlement” check. The Baltimore mother who chastised her son to keep him from participating in the riot is single and has five other children.

These cities are daily crime scenes. The riot was a crime scene.

And who is accused of Freddie Gray’s death? Members of the Baltimore Police Force who initially spotted Gray, a 25 year old with a criminal record, and went to investigate what they had observed. He ran. They ran after him. That’s what we want and expect our police to do.

The indictment, a purely political act intended to quell the angry mood of those Baltimoreans who protested by committing crimes, is an attack on every police officer in America. Most are good men and women, but like any other profession, there are some bad ones. The legion of police who protect us do not go around murdering suspects indiscriminately.

Tell that to State Attorney Mosby. Then consider that Freddie Gray’s attorney, William H. Murphy, Jr. donated $5,000 to her campaign. Consider that her husband, Nick Mosby, is a Baltimore city councilman with lots of reason to see the riots quelled.

What these cities and the decades reaching back to the 1960s all represent is a vocal resentment of police authority. Back then they were called “pigs.” America has been drifting away from the traditional respect and regard we have had for our police.

The problem isn’t the police.

It’s liberal notion that raising taxes and heavily regulating businesses large and small will somehow attract them to our cities. It doesn’t work that way. Our cities have become great dumping grounds for people who interest the Democratic Party only around election time.

And that is a problem for the police. It will be a growing problem for everyone if we cannot return to a decent respect for our police.

So, for now, a pox on Baltimore and on all the politicians from the President on down who keep telling us the police are the problem, not the world of Freddie Gray’s roaming our city’s streets.

© Alan Caruba, 2015

Baltimore Rising

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Over the past week, I have watched with amazement, wonderment, awe, and shock as the funeral of one rather dubious Mr. Gray resulted in the riots, burning, and pillaging of Baltimore, MD.

I was in greater amazement, wonderment, awe, and shock by the statements of that great American city’s Mayor. I won’t go into detail about what she said but I will paraphrase her in accuracy. She gave the rioters room to destroy and pillage. She is on record, on tape, on video as saying such. Even as she later denied having said such a thing, it is without question that even the greatest of ultra left wing nuts could not deny.

What is it with some citizens that they feel justified in releasing their supposed anger by destroying private and public property? How is it they feel they are fully justified in their rampage, their overt aggressive anger? Simply put. Liberalism.

You see, they have been told by the left for over 50 years that “the man” has kept them down. Kept them poor. Kept them destitute of all sense of worth and ability. That “man”, as it were, is none other than those with whom they feel an affinity. That “man”, as it were, who deftly parlayed a simple statement “war on poverty”, to full fledged slavery. Yes, I said slavery.

It’s a simple word that means a lot. And African Americans have bought into it, hook, line, and sinker. They bought the lie so much, so well, and internalized it so deeply that when they are faced with their oppressor, they act out by destroying their own neighborhoods. Neighborhoods in which their own family, friends and co-workers own businesses, property, homes, lives.

It means nothing to them once the evil that is called rage takes hold in their hearts and minds. Indeed, it consumes them down to their very core. I say that rage is due to the fact that they realize that they have been duped. Yet they cannot admit they have been duped by “the man” who is the left in this country. The left tells African Americans that it is the right that oppresses them. Keeps them down. Robs them of the very dignity that was once the hallmark of the African American community. For those who would argue against my statement, I say, tell me what was the African American community like before the liberals decided to “help”?

It was a proud, clean and, bright community. Even though before Civil Rights, we were treated like second class citizens. We were treated like dogs. Less than dogs. Our lives were worth less than dogs. And all of that was the direct result of the left. History cannot lie and it is still fresh.

Yet those same leftist liberals were able to dupe an entire ethnic group of people into believing they were their deliverer. Their savior. And with that, over the last 50 years, we saw a progressive destruction of the Black family, the Black pride, the Black community, the Black pride.

The left passes law after law. They instituted policy after policy that has left the Black community in shambles. The Black family is now virtually nonexistent. We see many of our men under the age of 30 dead or in jail. It was all by design. But the architect of this grand design was not a member of the right or conservative line. No. This was all ushered in by those on the left, of the liberal bent.

Blacks look for someone to blame other than themselves for the mess and sorrow and grief and poverty that infects our community. But they cannot yet bring themselves to blame those who are truly responsible. So instead they create a demon. That demon often are the very agents the left gave rise and power to. Our nation’s police.

Now to be fair, in most cases, it is not the fault of the police. Their job, their duty, is to enforce and uphold the law. The very law that the left have passed and instituted. In other words, the police are sworn to uphold the laws that cause the death of the black male at an early age, keep people in poverty, and show them on a daily basis that there is no hope at all. The laws put into action by the left. Yes, the left who said it was the right who is responsible for their plight.

So when they find that it is the left that is responsible, they find it hard to accept and swallow. So they do what humans have done since the dawn of civilization. They act out. They act out violently.

They see that great cities like Detroit, which have been ruled with an iron fist by the liberal left for decades are in total ruin. But they have been conditioned to think that it is the fault of “the man”. That “man” is always on the right. Never the left. Blacks may say, through Black leaders who have not earned the respect of their community but have taken it, that it is still the fault of the right even though they have lived their entire life under the rule, under the thumb of the left.

So when you cannot fight a phantom, when you cannot accept that you have been duped, hoodwinked, lied to, you act out. Violently. This is human nature.

So when we look at the events in Baltimore, we should not say these people are thugs. We should say that these people do not know where to turn because they have been lead down a path of self-destruction by those in whom they totally trusted. We should not pity them either. We should stand firm and shout, it was not the right who did this to you. It was the left and we have history to back it up. Education is our greatest weapon against oppression and lies. It always has been and always will be. Which is why the left has taken control of the educational system all over the nation. By spreading their lies and by covering up their guilt, they keep those who they wish to be enslaved on the plantation. So, if you do not want another Baltimore, another Los Angeles, and if you don’t want another innocent police officer demeaned, degraded, defamed, and belittled then you need to demand as well as act to take back our educational system and continue to teach the truth. Teach history. Teach fact.

But please do not denigrate those who are ignorant of the truth. It only serves to cement their false belief that the right is the monster in which they fight. Give them, instead, their true oppressor. Their true slave master. And when you have taught them well and true, watch as they do what slaves have done throughout history. Watch as they rise up and turn their anger to those who truly deserve it. Remember. Please remember. If nothing else, remember. Liberalism in this form is not a mental disorder. It is sinister, it is evil in its core. It is formed in the pits of hell itself and dispersed by the great Satan of lies and deceit. After all, we on the right know that liberals are the masters of deceit.

Remember that.

RELATED ARTICLES: 

Only 16% of Baltimore County Teens Grow Up with both a Father and Mother – Washington Times

Ex-Baltimore resident Ben Carson gives neurosurgeon’s take on Freddie Gray spinal injury

Gray family lawyer puts his foot in his mouth: War on drugs is a war on black people

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of a protester throwing a gas canister back at police during clashes at North and Pennsylvania avenues in Baltimore, April 28, 2015. Source: Reuters.

‘Risking Life and Limb for Liberty’ Real Heroes: Harriet Tubman

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When the day arrives that a woman’s image adorns Federal Reserve currency for the first time, it might well be that of Harriet Tubman. She’s reportedly on the short list. It may, however, be a dubious honor to appear on something that declines so regularly in value. Without a doubt, this woman would impart more esteem to the bill than the bill would to her. Her value is far more solid and enduring.

Slavery was once ubiquitous in the world — and even intellectually respectable. That began to change in the late 18th century, first in Britain, which ended its slave trade in 1807 and liberated the enslaved throughout its jurisdiction in 1834. Before the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in America in 1865, American blacks risked everything attempting to escape from their masters, who sometimes pursued them all the way to the Canadian border. Tubman, herself a fugitive slave, became the most renowned “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, a network of trails for escapees from the antebellum South to the North. As many as 100,000 slaves risked life and limb traveling its routes. It was the most dangerous “railroad” in the world.

Born Araminta Harriet Ross in 1820 in Maryland, Tubman survived the brutalities of bondage for 29 years. Three of her sisters had been sold to distant plantation owners. She herself carried scars for her entire life from frequent whippings. Once, when she refused to restrain a runaway slave, she was bashed in the head with a two-pound weight, causing lifelong pain, migraines, and “buzzing” in her ears. She bolted for freedom in 1849, making her way to the neighboring free state of Pennsylvania and its city of brotherly love, Philadelphia.

“I had crossed the line of which I had so long been dreaming,” she later wrote.

I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in the old cabin quarter, with the old folks and my brothers and sisters. But to this solemn resolution I came: I was free, and they should be free also; I would make a home for them in the North, and the Lord helping me, I would bring them all there. Oh, how I prayed then, lying all alone on the cold damp ground! ‘Oh, dear Lord’, I said. I haven’t got no friend but you. Come to my help Lord, for I’m in trouble! Oh, Lord! You’ve been with me in six troubles, don’t desert me in the seventh!

Tubman bravely ventured 13 times back into slave states to personally escort at least 70 escapees to Northern states and to Canada. “I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years,” she famously recounted, “and I can say what most conductors can’t say: I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.” Those passengers included her aging parents, her three brothers, their wives, and many of their children.

Working for the Union Army as a cook and nurse during the Civil War, Tubman morphed quickly into an armed scout and spy. She became the war’s first woman to lead an armed expedition when she guided the Combahee River Raid, an expedition that liberated more than 700 slaves in South Carolina.

For her service to the government — tending to newly freed slaves, scouting into enemy territory, and nursing wounded soldiers — she was treated shamefully and shabbily. She was denied compensation and didn’t receive a pension for her war duties until 1899. She took in boarders and worked long hours at odd jobs to make ends meet.

In an August 1868 letter to Tubman, famous abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass paid tribute to her heroism:

Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day — you in the night. I have had the applause of the crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by the multitude, while the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling, scarred, and foot-sore bondmen and women, whom you have led out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt “God bless you” has been your only reward. The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism.

Tubman spent her last decades caring for others, especially the sick and aged. She often spoke publicly on behalf of women’s right to vote. For relief from that head injury mentioned earlier, she endured brain surgery in Boston in the late 1890s. She refused anesthesia, preferring instead simply to bite down on a bullet. In her words, the surgeon “sawed open my skull, and raised it up, and now it feels more comfortable.” She died in 1913 at the age of 91 — a real hero to the very end.

In 2014, an asteroid was named for Tubman. In my book, that beats a Federal Reserve note hands down.

For additional information, see:

Lawrence W. Reed

Lawrence W. (“Larry”) Reed became president of FEE in 2008 after serving as chairman of its board of trustees in the 1990s and both writing and speaking for FEE since the late 1970s.

EDITORS NOTE: Each week, Mr. Reed will relate the stories of people whose choices and actions make them heroes. See the table of contents for previous installments.

Black Anger: Who’s to Blame?

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On the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a black high school student from Miami, was shot to death during an unprovoked attack on neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old mixed-race Hispanic.  The incident occurred when Martin became concerned that his movements were being observed by a person or persons unknown.  When attacked, Zimmerman was awaiting the arrival of local police after having reported the presence of a suspicious-looking person passing through his neighborhood.

In the afternoon of July 17, 2014, on a sidewalk in Staten Island, New York, 43-year-old Eric Garner, a black man, was approached by police officers when he was observed selling individual cigarettes from packs without tax stamps, a violation of New York state law.  Garner complained about being “harassed,” and when an officer attempted to place handcuffs on him he slapped the officer’s hands away.  Garner, a very large man who suffered from asthma, struggled with five officers, during which time he was allegedly held in a chokehold for approximately 15 seconds.  Officers called for medical assistance but Garner expired an hour later of cardiac arrest.

Just before noon on August 9, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown, a 6 ft. 4 in. 292 lb. black man staged a strong-arm robbery of a convenience store in Ferguson, Missouri.  Minutes later, as he and an accomplice strolled down the middle of a local street, they were told to move to the sidewalk by a white 28-year-old Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson.  When Brown refused and Wilson attempted to exit his police vehicle, Brown attacked him and attempted to take his firearm.  Brown ran away for a short distance, but then turned and charged the officer, during which time he was mortally wounded by several shots from the officer’s handgun.

On April 2, 2015, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a 44-year-old black man, Eric Harris, was a suspect in an investigation in which he allegedly arranged to sell a handgun to undercover officers of the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.  As Harris attempted to evade arrest he was tackled and brought to the ground.  However, as he continued to resist arrest he was shot in the back by 73-year-old Robert C. Bates, a white Tulsa County reserve deputy, who mistakenly retrieved his Smith & Wesson revolver while attempting to reach for his Taser.

On April 8, 2015, in North Charleston, South Carolina, a white police officer, Michael Slager, stopped a Mercedes sedan with a broken tail light driven by a 50-year-old black man, Walter Scott.  Slager ordered Scott to remain in his vehicle; however, as Slager ran a radio check on Scott for outstanding warrants, Scott exited his vehicle and fled.  When he refused to stop, Officer Slager pulled his Taser and fired at Scott.  When that failed to stop him, Slager pulled his handgun and fired eight shots, mortally wounding Scott.

At 8:40 AM on April 12, 2015, in Baltimore, Maryland, 25-year-old Freddie Gray, a black man, was injured when he attempted to elude police.  As Gray was being taken to a police van he would not, or could not, walk and was physically dragged to the vehicle by two officers.  When he was taken to a hospital, doctors determined that his spinal chord was 80% severed at the neck.  Gray died on April 19, 2015, and in the week that followed, the City of Baltimore was plagued with arson and riots.

It was here, during the War of 1812, that Francis Scott Key huddled behind the ramparts of Fort McHenry and penned the immortal words of the Star Spangled Banner, which later became our national anthem.  If Key were alive today he would be saddened to know that the fires that swept across Baltimore in recent days were not the result of a British naval bombardment, but of the criminal acts of street thugs, our fellow citizens, who gave vent to their frustrations by putting the torch to the homes and businesses of their friends and neighbors.

So what is the common denominator in all of these incidents, if any?  It is that, in each instance, the black men involved were either resisting arrest or fleeing to avoid arrest.  With that level of fear and resentment of police within the black community, it causes one to wonder whether or not we have passed the point of no return in race relations where it is no longer possible to create a color-blind society.  What is undeniable is that young black men have created a stereotype for themselves… a stereotype that must be fully understood by all concerned before we can even begin to deconstruct it.  So, if black people did not set out to purposely create a subculture in the freest, most prosperous nation on Earth… a subculture typified by poverty and hopelessness… then they must have had some very determined help.  And we know who that was.

For example, in 1866, after being defeated in the war to end slavery, Democrats established a paramilitary auxiliary called the Ku Klux Klan.  The Klan’s purpose was to keep the freed slaves in line and to intimidate them into voting for Democratic candidates.  Over the next 85 years the KKK waged an unrelenting war of terror against blacks and white Republicans.  Tuskegee Institute archives indicate that, between the years 1882 and 1951, some 3,437 blacks and 1,293 whites, nearly all Republicans, were lynched by the KKK.  Is this sad chapter in U.S. history being taught in Black History classes?  If not, why not?

Along with the violence and the intimidation of the KKK, Democrats in southern legislatures enacted Jim Crow laws and the Black Codes… dictating where and for whom blacks could work, where they could live, where they could eat and sleep, which restrooms and drinking fountains they could use, and where they were allowed to sit in movie theaters and on trains and busses.  Are black children taught the truth of Jim Crow and the Black Codes in Black History classes?

Then, in 1894, after regaining control of the Congress, Democrats passed the Repeal Act of 1894, repealing much of the civil rights legislation passed by Republicans in the 28 years following the close of the Civil War.  What followed was a period of some 60 years in which black civil rights were in limbo.  Are these truths taught in Black History classes?

It was not until the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that black people could see a glimmer of hope for the rights Republicans had won for them during the previous 90 years.  So is it any wonder that, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, many blacks still feel the indignation of slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow, and the Black Codes?

In the earliest days of the civil right movement, Democrats resigned themselves to the fact that their century-old campaign to oppress blacks through violence and intimidation was at an end.  Instead, they found it politically expedient to create a welfare system through which they could simply purchase the allegiance of black people… in effect, paying blacks NOT to pursue the American Dream as every other ethnic group before them had done.  As a result, the welfare state has robbed black men of their pride and their dignity, and many have resigned themselves to lives of crime and anti-social behavior.  Where better to see the fruits of that cynical stratagem than in recent videos of arson and looting in Ferguson and Baltimore… what black activist Tavis Smiley predicts will be the “new norm” in race relations?

But none of this would have been possible without the acquiescence of the black community.  To learn how Democrats were able to implement their grand strategy we need look no further than a federal program called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), a social welfare program passed in 1935 by a Democrat Congress and signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt.  It was a program in which a family was eligible for benefits only if the family had at least one dependent child, under age 18, who was “deprived of financial support from one of their parents due to the parent’s death, continued absence (emphasis added), or incapacity.”  In other words, if two able-bodied parents lived in the household the family was denied AFDC benefits.

Nothing… not drugs, not poverty, not urban decay, nor lack of educational opportunities… has contributed more to the disintegration of the black family unit in America than the restrictions of the AFDC program.  As a consequence of AFDC, marriage was discouraged, fathers were forced out of their homes, and single-parent welfare mothers found they could increase their monthly income by simply having more babies.  As a result, we now have a society in which three out of four black babies are born out of wedlock, where black father figures are absent from their children’s lives, and where black mothers, unable to control their fatherless children, find so many of their young men either behind bars, addicted to drugs, or the victims of gang violence

It’s not as if opportunity has passed black people by.  If black parents, in the 50s and 60s, had insisted that their children do their homework every night; that they be in school every day; that they always behave themselves, inside and outside the classroom; and that, once they’ve entered the workforce, they always give their employers eight hours of their best effort in exchange for eight hours pay… the time-honored formula for achieving the American Dream… African-Americans would be far down the road, socially and economically, from where they are today.

But blacks are not entirely to blame for the social and economic condition in which they find themselves.  It is true, as liberals and Democrats insist, that black people in America are “victims,” but not in the sense that liberals and Democrats would have us believe.  If black people would be honest with themselves they could readily see that every state run by Democrats is in steady economic decline, dominated by public employee unions and saddled with billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, while every major city run by Democrats is a cesspool of crime, drug addiction, and economic stagnation.  Cities and states governed by Republicans are quite the opposite, although urban blacks continue to nestle comfortably in the pocket of Democrats.

Pride, dignity, and self respect are not easily come by and the larger population, primarily white people, are not likely to forgive and forget the outrageous behavior of young black men until they’ve proven that they deserve to be treated as equals.  It is they who have dug a deep hole for themselves and white people cannot dig them out of it.  That is something that only they can do and it’s time they got started.  But that task cannot be accomplished so long as they continue to squander their political power and influence in exchange for crumbs from the Democratic table.

What is the Point?

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Recently someone asked me a very insightful question.  Since black Americans are always complaining about and committing dastardly acts, because of real or imagined problems, how is it that they have become what they have complained about?  When I was viewing the ongoing criminal activity of burning, looting and physical violence against reporters who were simply doing their job I became quite angry.  It did not matter to me what the angry black men and women were upset about.  The brutal demonstrators threw rocks at police cars and set fires to businesses, including liquor stores they raided.  Of course they consumed fire water and had a jolly good time giving the ultimate display of how uncivilized people can be.  The massive void of common decency and wisdom among the population of criminals was jaw dropping.

I could not help but think about the almost comical irony concerning the Baltimore rioters.  On one hand they were cursing capitalism and expressing the need for more jobs. Then preceding to confirm how stupid they are as they commenced to burn businesses up that had been a source of jobs.  But the truth is, whether it’s the bully thugs of Baltimore, the Debbie downers of Detroit, the shysters of Chicago or the complainers in Cleveland, there is one common denominator.  That is a dangerous philosophical base which includes hatred for America, capitalism, virtue, civility, liberty and self- reliance.

For decades, the liberal controllers of government schools have systematically and purposely indoctrinated generations of young Americans, particularly blacks against almost anything that is good and mentally stimulating.

Then there is the government of Baltimore, starting with its progressive mayor who was concerned about giving people the space to destroy and almost lost the whole city to destructive cretins. Her wrong decisions allowed thugs to gain so much ground that the Baltimore Orioles had to play their opponents in an empty stadium. In my opinion that was not a good decision. They should have used the force necessary to shut down the efforts of those who were using the death of one individual as an excuse to destroy the city.

The free speech of looters, fire starters and those assaulting police officers should not have been of any concern to anybody including the media.  Simply because they were obstructing the rights of business owners, people in general and even the police who according to their job description should have put forth more effort to protect the city and its citizens.  The failed mayor of Baltimore was and remains so misguided in her interpretation of the law. She forced the police to put forth a wimpy effort against criminals who were then strengthened in their mission to kill, steal and destroy.

The United States of America is a nation of laws.  Some of which are enforceable guidelines for the protection of  law abiding sovereign citizens.  They are not silly proclamations to allow looters, gang bangers and wannabes to destroy everything in sight because of some imaginary racist boogeyman.  “We the People” who truly desire a better life for our fellow Americans must demand that government be a fearsome force against evil doers, no matter what their color.

I am of the opinion that the Baltimore rioting was allowed either on purpose, or thru stupidity to get out of control and the looters were given way too much leeway.  Some pundits called it a delicate balance.  There is nothing delicate or balanced about thugs destroying private property, assaulting police officers, stealing and burning cars.  Thus a swift and powerful force should have been applied to stop the bully cretins who were more interested in decreasing jobs by burning businesses than seeking the truth about what really happened to Freddy Gray.

It was almost hilarious to witness the attorney for the Gray family call conservatives’ racist.  This after witnessing hours and hours of the end result of progressive, liberal indoctrination being acted out viciously on the streets of Baltimore.  I almost felt sorry for the Gray family attorney, who like many of the rioters blaming conservatives for the plight of black (he called them African Americans).  As long as black Americans continue to blame others for every problem (most of which they bring upon themselves) life will continue to be nothing more than misery for them and their generations far into the future.

If Black Americans truly want a better life, it would behoove them to quickly stop being willing agents of destruction and seek the path that leads to righteousness and restoration.  Black Americans must wean themselves away from the Alinsky, Soros inspired path of destruction.

Let us pray for wisdom and renewal to replace ignorance, misguided rage and broken families.

EDITORS NOTE: Please join Ron on his new talk show every Saturday @ 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM EST on Philadelphia’s AM 1360 WNJC Radio and everywhere  www.wnjcradio.com. Also, AM 1360 WNJC  is the newest affiliate outlet of The Edwards Notebook Syndicated commentary weekday afternoons @ 4:57 PM EST.The featured image is courtesy of the International Business Times.

Circumstantial Evidence

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Benefit of the Doubt ConcelledImagine that you are the former Governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, both sitting in jail after having been found guilty last year of public corruption for accepting golf outings, lavish vacations and $120,000 in “sweetheart” loans. Compared to the Clintons they are just two failed bit players.

Writing in the May issue of Commentary, Jonathan S. Tobin, a senior editor, noted the lack of a “smoking gun” in the case of just the latest Clinton scandals. “But what Democrats and all Americans should be asking about this argument is why some people get prosecuted for corruption on such circumstantial evidence while others are considered likely to be elected president.”

“Just because a prosecutor isn’t likely to haul the Clintons into court over all these astonishing coincidences (or at least not so long as the Democrats control the Department of Justice), that doesn’t mean their behavior doesn’t smell to high heaven,” said Tobin. “The court in which the Clintons deserve to be condemned is that of public opinion.”

The Clintons have conspired and sometimes acted in direct contradiction of the law to rely on the concept of circumstantial evidence. Hillary’s use of her own private email server and her later destruction of that server is a classic example of this behavior. The high-paid speeches which Bill gave put him into a gray area of collusion, benefitting from the influence Hillary had as Secretary of State. Ultimately, the donations to their foundation by foreign governments rank far above a mere misdemeanor. It was too often just blatant bribery.

I fear that far too many Americans do not realize that our nation and its system of justice are on the cusp of encountering serious damage. Merely condemning the Clintons for what we know at this point is simply not enough.

What is needed is a widespread denunciation of their actions over recent years.

What is really needed is a decision by the Democratic Party to withhold the right to run in its primaries for the office of president, based on her actions deleting emails and accepting donation to the foundation.

The U.S. media needs to be more vocal that Hillary withdraw her candidacy.

Why would a media mute its criticism and a political party ignore the obvious revelations, even if deemed circumstantial evidence, of the corruption demonstrated by the Clintons? The Clintons have been given a free pass from the day they entered politics.

As Peggy Noonan, a Wall Street Journal columnist, has said, “We are defining political deviancy down.” That degrades the process by which we select and elect the men and women who are given the role and responsibility of lawmakers.

As Noonan notes of Hillary, “The story is that this is what she does, and always has. The rules apply to others, not her.” As recently as 2012, the State Department forced the resignation of a U.S. ambassador for “in part setting up an unsanctioned private email system.”

“In 1992 the Clintons were new and golden. Now, so many years later, their reputation for rule breaking and corruption is so deep, so assumed that it really has become old news. And old news isn’t news.”

Except when it is. When old news is an unbroken succession of wrong-doing it is incumbent on everyone involved with the present “campaign” by Hillary Clinton to be the next President to not avoid the stink that arises from both the earlier and most recent revelations.

“A generation or two ago,” said Noonan, “a person so encrusted in a reputation for scandal would not be considered a possible presidential contender. She would be ineligible. Now she is inevitable.”

Those earlier generations have been replaced by those more intent on celebrity than substance. They have the attention span of fungus. They lack any vision for America, having never really learned about or absorbed the lessons that the Greatest Generation and others passed onto us.

Are there enough of them to plunge America into the Clinton cesspool by electing her President? One can only pray that the answer is no.

© Alan Caruba, 2015

Another Thrilling Episode of Blacks Behaving Badly

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My brother texted me in Florida reporting from Baltimore, our hometown. He said the thugs have gotten crazy and need to be dealt with. My nephew who is a video journalist said it was appalling witnessing local black ministers arguing over street corners for their group of protesters, jockeying for position for the TV cameras.

A friend called interrupting me watching Bizarre Foods TV show, wanting to know if I was watching the coverage of the Baltimore riots. Upon turning the channel to watch the mainstream media coverage, I had to turn the channel away from it. It was too much to stomach.

All I saw was people behaving badly; from Baltimore’s insanely liberal mayor to black talking head liberal operatives spewing idiotic excuses to domestic terrorist thugs turning the city into a war zone.

I thought, I have seen this stupid evil horror movie before (Ferguson) and I “ain’t gonna” watch it again.

The media is reporting that some black leaders are calling for peace. Well, I am sorry, but that is too little too late. How do you expect black youths to react to the Left’s orchestrated campaign to convince them that white Republicans and conservatives are racist and out to get them; white cops murder them at will, the rich got rich stealing from them and business owners are selfish and evil?

These lies have been sold to black youths by the highest black voices in the country – Obama, Oprah, Democrats, Sharpton, Holder, Jackson, the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus and assorted other race exploiting scumbags. If I sound angry it is because I am.

What was that mantra George’s dad on Seinfeld used to keep calm? Oh yeah, he said, “Serenity now! Serenity now!”

Enough with this hogwash that Christians should not get angry. The bad behavior destroying peoples’ livelihood in Baltimore and the nuanced response to it should make decent honorable people angry.

The Baltimore riots and other incidents of black mob attacks and assaults on innocent whites across America are the result of the Left’s hoax that blacks are victimized in America; perpetrating hate for political gain. Such evil should make decent Americans angry.

When Jesus turned over the tables of the crooks in the temple, he was angry. Jesus even called evil doers names, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Jesus pretty much expressed my thoughts regarding modern day black so-called civil rights leaders.

I am not advocating bad behavior from our side. The Bible says, be angry, but sin not. I am advocating that we stop putting up with it. These thugs do this stuff because they can.

I still can not wrap my head around the mayor of Baltimore saying the thugs must be protected and given space “to destroy.”

In essence, the liberal mayor is saying that taxpayer businesses are acceptable collateral damage. I mean, who cares? Most of the trashed businesses are probably owned by rich white racists. Their ancestors probably owned slaves. So, they deserve it.

I am sick of it folks, liberal officials, liberal talking heads and liberal media justifying, tolerating and even celebrating bad behavior.

My brother asked if I noticed that all the blacks heralded as modern day civil rights heroes are criminals? I said, “Great observation grasshopper”, impressed by my low-info-voter brother.

Trayvon Martin was shot while attacking George Zimmerman. I remembered watching a YouTube video of Alabama State marching band honoring the thug, spelling out “Trayvon” on the field. I thought, you have got to be kidding me.

Equally frustrating is that all the black outrage, anger and violence is based on lies. For example. It has been proven that witnesses lied about Michael Brown after robbing a Ferguson convenience store and assaulting the clerk had his hands up in surrender to police. Brown was shot while attacking a police officer. And yet, from the Grammy Awards to pro football players running out of the tunnel with their hands up, the lie, slander of America’s police and hatred was furthered and nurtured.

Serenity now! Serenity now!

Meanwhile, truly extraordinary black role models such as retired black neurosurgeon Dr Ben Carson continue to be rejected and despised by black civil rights leaders. Only blacks who hate America with victim mindsets need apply for membership in their black civil rights movement club.

Blacks angry because of high black unemployment and poor economic conditions need look no further than their messiah (small m), Obama and his job killing policies and mountain of new outrageous regulations.

So please forgive me folks, my blood pressure can not take getting sucked into watching 24/7 sympathetic media coverage of this latest episode of Blacks Behaving Badly, Baltimore edition.

If the mayor of Baltimore and liberal media are going to take a don’t-make-the-black-kids-angry approach to dealing with white bystanders being brutalized, businesses being destroyed, looting and chaos in the streets, there is nothing I can do about it. Someone said voters get the government they deserve. Baltimore is notorious for electing liberals.

While I pray for my former hometown, I must emotionally sit this one out.

Could You Spot a Potential School Shooter?

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In April 1999, we were all stunned by the news that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had attacked and killed students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado and, more recently, in December 2012, that Adam Lanza, after killing his mother at home, then massacred twenty-six staff and students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. These events evoke dread of potential events, a quest to understand why they occurred, and ways to avoid further comparable killings.

Cover - School ShootersPeter Langman has authored “School Shooters: Understanding High School, College, and Adult Perpetrators.” It offers very little comfort, but only because this psychologist, widely recognized for his expertise, is refreshingly honest.

“Many people seek to reduce school shootings to a bite-sized explanatory chunk, but the phenomenon defies easy analysis,” says Langman. “There is no one cause of school shootings, there is no one intervention that will prevent school shootings, and there is no one profile of a school shooter.”

He offers a wealth of information about forty-eight shooters He divides them into “Psychopathic shooters” whom he describes as “profoundly narcissistic, arrogant, and entitled; they lacked empathy, and met their needs at other’s expense” and ”psychotic shooters” who “suffered from schizophrenia or a related disorder. They were out of touch with reality to varying degrees, experiencing hallucinations or delusions.”

“Unlike the psychopathic and psychotic shooters, who generally came from well-functioning, intact families, traumatized shooters endured chronic abuse as children. They grew up in violent, severely dysfunctional homes.” Most fell into the first two categories.

I would like to offer the reader some comfort that school shooters can be “spotted” in advance, but in most the cases that Langman cites, they looked like everyone else in any school. Only if one of them was to confide his plan was there any opportunity to intervene and then only if he was reported.

Among the psychopathic category “at least 75 percent (nine out of twelve) had body issues. Many of these physical characteristics had a direct bearing on perceived manliness, including short stature, thin build, chest deformity, and fear of sterility” leading Langham to suggest a link between feeling weak or damaged and extreme narcissism. It is widely believed that bullying is linked to these events, but Langham notes that while about forty percent were harassed only one targeted a bully. While there is concern these days about bullying in schools, it is mostly due to a heightened awareness, not because there is more or less of it than has ever existed.

One thing does stand out, however, “nearly all shooters had bad educational experiences, including academic difficulties (failing classes, repeated grades, not graduating) or disciplinary problems…at least 92 percent had negative academic or disciplinary experiences.” And then there’s this: “At least 38 percent of shooters had relatives who worked or volunteered in schools.”

Another common factor was that “at least half of the perpetrators engaged in substance abuse (illegal drugs, prescription drugs, or alcohol.) In addition, “at least 42 percent of the shooters had a history of legal troubles, including arrests, contempt of court, and loss of a driver’s license.”

“Many shooters had trouble getting or holding jobs.” This was particularly true of the older shooters. Charles Whitman, an American engineering student at the University of Texas, gained infamy when in August 1966 he killed his wife and mother in their homes and later that day went to the Austin campus where he killed sixteen people and wounded 32 others over the course of ninety minutes, firing from the observation deck of the main building before being killed by an Austin police officer.

To academic and employment problems, add romantic failures. “Most shooters either failed to establish any romantic or sexual relationships or else suffered breakups or rejections that contributed to their anguish and anger.”

It should surprise no one that a number of the shooters “had specific role models for violence, including serial killers, mass murders, and other school shooters.” Most of them were psychotic, whereas the psychopaths “felt no need to attach themselves to a source of power; they were the source of power.”

Out of this densely documented book Langham concludes “There is no one way to prevent school shootings.” What also emerges is the fact that “Most school shooters leave a trail of warning signs that are either not noticed or not responded to.”

What the shootings are not about is gun ownership. Many of the shooters came from families that owned guns and used them for hunting or sport shooting. They had little reason to regard them as instruments with which to kill people other than their own twisted psychological interpretation.

What I came away with was the conclusion that the shooters are people we would all easily identify as “losers.” Beyond that, there is no specific way of identifying them, only suspicions of their capability to do the unthinkable.

© Alan Caruba, 2015

Rules of Logic, Reason and Debate for Radicals

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Comrades! Perhaps all of us, while debating the enemy, have been subjected to accusations of logical fallacies. Ignore such accusations. The non-concept of “logical fallacy” is a tool of capitalist propaganda, designed to expose us to a retrograde pre-twenty-first century mindset, which may cause the weakest of us to question their allegiance to Progress. But that is the enemy’s mindset; it no longer applies to the new era. Progress calls us to destroy the straightjacket of linear thinking.

There are no absolutes. The outdated scientific methods of hard logic and cold reason have now been replaced with soft logic and cozy reason, especially when dealing in political science.

Here are the Rules of Logic, Reason and Debate for Radicals for the 21st century. Learn them, know them, use them. You have nothing to lose but your logical chains.

Radical Political Science Terms

Seductive Logic – If the parts of the premise are true, or true enough, the conclusion is proved.

Premise: Hitler would hate President Obama and have him liquidated. Tea Partiers hate big government.
Conclusion: Tea Partiers are Fascists plotting a coup against President Obama.

As you can see, statement one is true, as is statement two. So the conclusion, statement three, is proven.

Preductive Logic – If the conclusion is true, the premises are proven.

Conclusion: Stimulus hasn’t worked.
Premise: George Bush’s economic policies were stupid. George Bush is to blame for everything.

Similar to seductive logic, as statement one is true, statements two and three are proven.

Unductive Logic – If the evidence doesn’t support the conclusion, the evidence is in error.

Conclusion: Man-made CO2 causes global warming.
Evidence: From 1950 to 1975 temperatures fell as man-made CO2 increased. therefore, the temperature data must be wrong and altered accordingly.

This one is particularly useful as it makes disproving any assertion on your part impossible. Contrary evidence is simply wrong and those using it are liars, deniers, and anti-reality based imbeciles.

Primary Reason – Something is true when you have the right reason, or motives, to believe it, not the right reasoning. In other words, if it just feels right, that is reason enough. (Though evidence is unnecessary, if desired such can be obtained with the rules of logic above. i.e, can be fabricated.)

Secondary Reason – When those who share your Primary Reason agree with your assertion, it is therefore well-reasoned. Which in turn makes those who agree with you reasonable individuals, and those who disagree intolerant imbeciles.

Radical Political Science Tactics

Any statement prefaced with “obviously,” “no doubt,” or “everyone knows” is accepted as proven. Nothing more need be said nor evidence produced. No doubt everyone knows this is obviously true.

Exclamation marks and all caps add weight of truth to any statement. This simple method is ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY TRUE!!!!

Should your adversary press on despite these logically reasoned assertions, any of the following will put an end to him and thus his argument.

Method one: Call them stupid. This is almost fool-proof because there is no good defense. How do they show otherwise? Recite the times tables, name the state capitals, produce Mensa membership cards? After all, they don’t agree with you or believe what you do, therefore, ipso facto, QED, they must be stupid.

This method has worked for years. Think of Reagan, Quayle, Bush, Palin.

Method two: Call them racist. This is just as effective and is also virtually impossible to defend. How can they prove they’re not? If they aren’t racist there will only be an absence of evidence that they are. Let them try to produce the absence of evidence. They can’t do it. Therefore, ipso facto, QED, they must be racist.

This method has worked for years. Think of… everyone but us.

Method three: Call them heartless, evil, intolerant, bigoted… Are you beginning to get the idea? Call them anything you like, no need to provide any evidence. Yet it still puts them on the spot, requiring them to prove a negative, which is impossible. Once a label sticks they’re defenseless.

After this is done, you can defeat any assertion or proposal they make no matter how well-argued or thought-out on their part. After all, why should anyone listen to a stupid and heartless racist bigot?

Against socialized medicine? Heartless! Against Cap and trade? Stupid!! Against President Obama’s multi-trillion dollar stimulus? RACIST!!! You win EVERY TIME. And the more exclamation marks the better!!!!!

You might think these simple rules are a little too simple, or too simplistic, or too simple-minded even, but they work. After all, look who occupies the White House or owns the media, academia, and entertainment establishments.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in The Peoples Cube.

Hillary Clinton for President? NO WAY!!

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A few weeks ago, Hillary Clinton announced her desire to be the next President of the United States of America. This is both wrong and frightening at the same time. Mrs. Clinton does not quality nor does she deserve to be President of this great nation. Her qualifications have nothing to do with her being a female. In fact, I welcome a qualified female to be president when that qualified female decides to run for the nation’s highest and most powerful public office.

This statement will not stop those on the left from calling me a sexist. They will, indeed, call me a sexist and a host of other names. They will try to lambaste me, deride me, make fun of me, and name call all in an effort to either get me to shut up or to discredit what I have said about her.

The fact is, I do not lie. I am only interested in the truth. The Constitutional Truth. The historical truth. The truth is, Mrs. Clinton is not trustworthy to hold this high office. Mrs. Clinton is not qualified to hold this high office. Mrs. Clinton has proven she does not deserve to hold this high office.

Sure, I can run down the litany of reasons why she is not qualified. But I really do not need to do that as those reasons have been given, discussed, debated, and even argued over and over and over, ad nauseam. Instead, I will formally ask those who support her for this office, why do you support her? What has she done specifically, that would qualify her for this high office? What are her accomplishments that would suggest she would be a good representative of the people of the United States of America?

The problem with this question is that those who support her cannot answer them. They cannot delineate her accomplishments, her successes. On the other hand, we have a plethora of those on the left and the right that denigrate her, revile her, reveal her shortcomings, and excoriate her lack of class and proper demeanor. She is a woman proven to be ill tempered, vulgar, crude, a drunkard and a host of other adjectives.

This is not new with Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton. Indeed, those who have worked with her and for her when her Husband was President have been coming out of the woodwork to denigrate her. They talk about her legendary temper. Her lack of compassion. How she belittles and demeans those that work for her. In other words, they tell us she is not a nice person.

Of course the President of the United States is not out to win a world popularity contest. People do not have to like the President or the American People. But we do need a President the world respects and our enemies fear. Mrs Clinton does not command world leader respect nor do our enemies fear her. Her tour of duty as Secretary of State shows that she is not respected and not even thought of as being on the same level as the other world leaders. This will not change if she is elected President. Let’s face it, Barack Obama is our current President and most of the world does not respect him and our enemies do not fear him.

The very fact that she was a failure as Secretary of State should prove to even her ardent supporters that she is not qualified to be President. But let’s put that aside for a minute. All of her current and seemingly new and endless scandals should be the nail in the coffin of her candidacy. It seems there is a new scandal almost on a weekly basis. And, she still has not put previous scandals to rest. Can you imagine a President with such baggage? Who would she owe? Who would she have to pay off? Who would she have to keep quiet? Scandals have a way of haunting you when you least expect them to. So again, I ask all of those who support Mrs. Clinton to be the next President of the United States of America, why, and be specific, do you believe she is qualified?

I, on the other hand, have more than a host of reasons why this woman should not be the next President of the United States. And yes I can give factual and historical reasons why. Besides, this is not a test of reason why not, this is a test of reason of why so. The silence of the left on this question is, rather, deafening.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Real Elephant in Hillary’s Scandal-Plagued Room

Have Blacks Declared War on Themselves?

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It seems hardly a week goes by without another report of a seemingly innocent, unarmed Black male being killed by the police. I have written several columns about this issue and have received harsh criticism for writing them.

You have had recent killings by the police of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York, Oscar Grant in Oakland, Ezell Ford in Los Angeles and now Freddie Gray in Baltimore, just to name a few.

In many instances, police are shown to be guilty of using excessive force against Blacks; but based on the way local and state laws are written, an overwhelming amount of deference is given to the police. The legal standard in most cases to justify using deadly force is “a reasonable fear for one’s life.” Legally, that is an extremely low bar to meet.

So, Blacks must come to terms with this simple adage of the streets, “it’s not what you know, but what you can prove.” Most Americans will confess that that many of these policemen are out of control; but based on the law, the police can easily justify their actions.

This issue is easy to deal with; it‘s just a matter of getting consensus regarding what changes need to be made legislatively.

The more complicated issue that no one seems to want to deal with is the issue of what I call “Black culpability.” What is it that we, as Blacks, are doing to create an environment where Black lives are so devalued that we are viewed as expendable?

Here is an excerpt from a column I wrote last year during the Ferguson uprising.

“For the past 30 years, we have created images of Blacks in the most negative of lights. For those who would say it’s just music, it’s just a movie, it’s just a reality TV show; I say now there is just another Black body lying in the streets of America.

Before you go to war, the first thing that is needed is to create a psychological operations campaign (psy-ops). This is a tactic that the military uses to marginalize its targeted population so that when the troops are sent in to destroy this group, there is no public outcry.

Just look at how the U.S. military vilified and demonized former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and terrorist Osama Bin Laden before we set out to kill them. Upon their deaths at the hands of the U.S. military, the American people cheered because we had devalued and marginalized them before the American people.

I can’t help but ask the Black community, have we unleashed a psy-ops campaign on our own people?

In the horror movie series Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein did not set out to create a monster; but rather he was a scientist playing around in his laboratory. As a result of this experimentation, he created a monster that neither he nor society could control.

In a similar manner, one could argue that Blacks, specifically in Hip-Hop, have experimented in the laboratory called a recording studio; and by exercising their First Amendment Right of freedom of speech and expression through music, they have created their own version of Frankenstein.

In the beginning, like with Frankenstein, people marveled at this new creation and people were willing to pay to see and hear it. There was “Rappers Delight,” there was “The Message,” and there was “Fight the Power.” Then, the imagery and lyrics took a twisted turn under a perverted interpretation of the First Amendment called “keeping it real.”

Now, the establishment, especially the police, had become the enemy. Hip-Hop became a counter-culture movement that turned into a monster that could no longer be controlled. Women became “bitches and hoes,” men became hyper-sexualized thugs who were only out to force themselves on your daughters and to “get rich or die trying.” When rap music started, it was a verbal extension of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the spirit of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; it was about the uplifting of our community and providing a voice to those often without a voice.

Then in the 1990s, rap took a more militaristic tone with the creation of “gangsta rap.” This too, was a verbal extension of the Civil Rights movement; but more in the spirit of Malcolm X on steroids. These artists represented those in the “hood” who felt trapped and abused by the system. They felt like no one cared about them and that life was about the here and now – immediate gratification; so screw the future. They wanted to “get theirs now.” They wanted to live fast, even if it meant dying young.

This ultimately led to the “thug” culture, personified by hit movies like Scarface, New Jack City and Carlito’s Way; each glorified the criminal lifestyle.

Then you had the crack epidemic of the 1990s with the violence that it brought into the hood. All these factors combined to create a narrative that Black life was worthless and Black youth brought no value to society.”

So again I ask the Black community, what have we done to make our lives so worthless in the eyes of the public? I think this is a conversation worth having.

RELATED VIDEO: Baltimore Riots Looting Protesters Freddy Gray – Protest Erupts In Chaos A Police Cars [RAW FOOTAGE]

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of black demonstrators pretending to be arrested in front of the Baltimore Police Department Western District station to protest against the death in police custody of Freddie Gray in Baltimore April 23, 2015. SAIT SERKAN/REUTERS

#Take Back Our Kids

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Our nineteen fifty something station-wagon was loaded with Mom, Dad, big fat Aunt Nee (300 lbs ), myself and four younger siblings. Aunt Nee raised my Dad; his surrogate Mom. Our family was excited about spending a hot summer day at Carr’s Beach, Maryland. I had no idea at that time that it was the only Maryland beach open to blacks.

Before hitting the road to the beach, the ritual included riding from our black suburban community into Baltimore city to pick up Aunt Nee and stopping down “Jew Town” to purchase corned-beef and a bread that the adults loved. I did not get a sense that my parents calling it Jew Town was meant in a derogatory way. It was simply an area of Baltimore filled with Jewish businesses that sold great food.

As a matter of fact, most of the corner stores in black neighborhoods were owned by Jews. Blacks purchased items without cash, put on their account. Store owners would log items in their book; no bulletproof wall and turn-style between the Jewish store owners and their black customers.

We always had a wonderful time at the beach and rode home exhausted. Dad’s car was not air conditioned. Looking back, I wonder how on earth did we endure; three adults, five kids, food and beach supplies stuffed in a hot station-wagon. And yet, all my memories of family days at the beach bring a warm smile to my face.

Mom was a great cook. Two of mom’s weekday dinner menus stick out as favorites. One was mom’s hot homemade biscuits with butter and King Syrup. The other was collard greens with cornbread dumplings. We kids were clueless about the economic component surrounding these meals. We simply enjoyed them, never feeling deprived.

Wednesday nights were prayer service at the storefront church in Baltimore city where dad was assistant pastor. On the way home, there was a corner bakery right before we crossed over the Hanover Street bridge. Whenever dad unexpectedly pulled over to purchase a dozen donuts, it was an exciting family treat.

As the eldest, I remember my parent’s lean years more than my siblings. One Christmas, I was extremely excited receiving a secondhand bicycle. Years later, Santa delivered new bikes for my younger brothers and sister.

Dad was among Baltimore City’s first black firefighters and mom worked part-time as a custodian at a high school and a domestic for white folks.

My point is we did not have what kids have today. And yet, we enjoyed the little things. We did not feel deprived. Mom and dad always found a way to get us whatever we needed. I remember wearing my new suit for 6th grade graduation looking at my friend Martin wearing a suit a few sizes too small. My three brothers, sister and I were happy.

The Bible says “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). While my siblings and I had our individual periods of rebellion, like the prodigal son, we defaulted back to our home training; our parent’s principles and values.

Today, the Left is aggressively usurping authority over your kids, ripping parenting out of your hands.

Decades of allowing liberal indoctrination to go unchallenged has produced a generation of youths who believe in the name of “fairness” that no one should have more than anyone else (income inequality). Needs and desires are now declared to be rights (government entitlements). In our quest to prove our tolerance as conservatives, we allowed the Left to steal our kid’s minds.

Youths are idealistic. Once liberalized guilt-ridden youths are led down the road of trying to make life fair, the consequences are far reaching. For example: Pressure from students is forcing colleges to make all campus restrooms “all gender”. An Oregon High School created gender-neutral restrooms for transgender students.

In case you have not noticed, the Left has zero tolerance for anyone daring to disagree with their far left radical liberal agenda. They punish and even seek to criminalize opposing points of view. How long will it be before our kids are reporting their parents to authorities after overhearing them express an opinion out-of-step with that of the Left, government and the mainstream media?

Folks, it is time that we take back our kids from Leftist’s indoctrination.

Though “#Bring Back Our Girls” won rave reviews from liberals, sadly, it did nothing to free the 200 girls kidnapped and made sex slaves by Islamic extremists. A year later, the girls have not been returned.

I wish to implement, #Take Back Our Kids. I am calling all parents to closely monitor their local school administrators and school boards, confronting them when necessary. Home schooling is a great option. We can no longer sit back and passively allow the Left to totally control the thinking and beliefs of our kids. We must #Take Back Our Kids.

On the Road to Dictatorship

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In a speech before the City Club of Cleveland on March 18, 2015, Barack Obama put into words what, until now, he has only allowed himself to dream about.  In his remarks, he launched into a diatribe on how he would choose to run U.S. elections… if only he could dictate his own terms.

According to the Associated Press, when he was asked about the “corrosive” influence of money in U.S. elections, he digressed into the related topic of voting rights, suggesting that “the U.S. should be making it easier… not harder… for people to vote.”

For those who may doubt the wisdom of mandatory voting, he suggested, “Just ask Australia, where citizens have no choice but to vote.  If everybody voted, then it would completely change the political map in this country.”  As Obama sees it, universal voting would counteract the evil influence of money in politics more than anything else.  This from a man who raised $750 million against John McCain in 2008 (much of it from illegal foreign sources), and $1.12 billion in his reelection bid against Mitt Romney in 2012.  So, if money in politics is “corrosive,” as Obama suggests, then he is the most thoroughly “corroded” politician in U.S. history.

He went on to note that, disproportionately, those who fail to vote on Election Day are younger, lower-income, and more likely to be immigrants or minorities.  Translated, what Obama yearns for is a nation in which the most ignorant and uninformed people (his base) are required to vote.

On Election Day 2008, in an attempt to learn how much Obama voters knew about politics and current affairs, Zogby International interviewed more than 500 Obama voters outside polling places across the country, asking the same fourteen questions in each location.  One of those interviews with self-proclaimed Obama voters was caught on film and circulated on the Internet.  They were asked:

  1. Which party currently controls Congress?
  2. Do you know who Barney Frank is?
  3. Do you know who Nancy Pelosi is?
  4. Do you know who Harry Reid is?
  5. What do you think of Bill Ayers?
  6. Which candidate was given $150,000 worth of clothes by a political party?
  7. Which candidate has a pregnant teenage daughter?
  8. Which candidate said they could see Russia from their home?
  9. Which candidate said they’d campaigned in all 57 states?
  10. Which candidate won their first political campaign by having all the other candidates of their own party kicked off the ballot on technicalities?
  11. Which candidate had to quit a previous campaign because of a plagiarized a speech?
  12. Which candidate said their policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and cause energy prices to skyrocket?
  13. Which candidate said that the government should redistribute wealth?
  14. Where do you get most of your news?

Those  interviewed were two white females, aged 20-25; three black females, aged 20-25; one black female, aged 40-45; two white males, aged 35-40; one white male, aged 55-60; and three black males, aged 40-45.

When asked which party controlled Congress in 2008, and what they thought of Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Bill Ayers, one black woman thought Pelosi was a “fair” woman, but none knew that Democrats controlled Congress or had any idea who Frank, Pelosi, Reid, or Ayers were.  However, when questioned about which candidate received a $150,000 clothing allowance from a political party, which candidate had a pregnant teenage daughter, and which candidate was charged (falsely) with having said that she could see Russia from her home, nearly all were able to name Sarah Palin.

When asked which candidate claimed to have campaigned “in all 57 states,” which candidate won their first political campaign by having all of their opponents kicked off the ballot, which candidate claimed that their policies would bankrupt the coal industry and cause energy prices to  skyrocket, and which candidate said that government should redistribute wealth, most of those interviewed attributed those statements to either Sarah Palin or John McCain… none named Barack Obama.  And when asked which candidate had to withdraw from a previous campaign because he had plagiarized a speech, none knew that it was Joe Biden.

Not surprisingly, when asked where they got all of their information, the respondents mentioned ABC, CBS, CBC, CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio, the New York Times, Bill Moyers, Jon Stewart, and the Colbert Report.  So is it any wonder then that they knew nothing about current affairs but took yellow journalism from network news and yellow propaganda from Democrats and television comedy skits as fact?

If the Zogby poll tells us nothing else, it tells us that a lot of people are voting who shouldn’t be because they are not representative of the sort of informed voters necessary to the maintenance of a constitutional republic.  By relying on yellow journalism and yellow propaganda as their primary sources of political information, they cast themselves, in fact, as enemies of the republic.

In the best of all worlds, voter registration should be open only to those who could provide evidence of property ownership, and their immediate family members, while on Election Day prospective voters should be required to score at least 60% on a simple fourth or fifth grade level civics exam, with multiple choice questions drawn at random from a pool of questions.

Unfortunately, it is precisely the type of voter interviewed by Zogby that Obama and other Democrats are interested in herding into the voting booths.  They make up a large enough segment of the Democratic base to sway most elections.  Without them, Democrats could never win control of any legislative body, nor could they elect a president or a vice president.  Such voters are the life blood of the Democrat Party.

As matters now stand, the Democrat Party is totally dependent on the availability of a large pool of ignorant and uninformed voters, such as those produced by the public education system and our colleges and universities.  It represents a “devil’s bargain” between the teachers’ unions and the Democrat Party in which the teachers’ unions churn out millions of ignorant, uneducated, and uninformed voters in exchange for the right to dictate education policy and funding to Democrats in Congress and in the state legislatures.

In a series of widely circulated remarks, former Clinton operative James Carville is quoted as saying:

“Ideology isn’t all that important.  What’s important is psychology.  The Democratic constituency is like a herd of cows.  All you have to do is lay out enough silage and they come running.  That’s why I became an operative working with Democrats.  With Democrats, all you have to do is make a lot of noise, lay out the hay, and be ready to use the ole’ cattle prod in case a few want to bolt the herd.  Eighty percent of the people who call themselves Democrats don’t have a clue as to political reality.

“What amazes me is that you could take a group of people who are hard workers and convince them that they should support social programs that were the opposite of their own personal convictions.  Put a little fear here and there and you can get people to vote any way you want…

“Truth is relative.  Truth is what you can make the voter believe is the truth.  That’s why I’m a Democrat… I can make the Democratic voters think whatever I want them to.”

Although Carville’s remarks are unsubstantiated and may, in fact, be bogus, the truth of those sentiments are undeniable and represent what Republicans have always known about Democrats.  Put those sentiments together with an ethically-challenged politician, motivated by a foreign ideology, and what do you have?  We have the United States of America under Barack Obama.

In the March 22, 2015 edition of the New York Post, Michael Goodwin says of Barack Obama: “First he comes for the banks and health care, uses the IRS to go after critics, politicizes the Justice Department, spies on journalists, tries to curb religious freedom, slashes the military, throws open the borders, doubles the debt, and nationalizes the Internet.

“He lies to the public, ignores the Constitution, inflames race relations and urges Latinos to punish Republican ‘enemies.’  He abandons our ­allies, appeases tyrants, coddles ­adversaries, and uses the Crusades as an excuse for inaction as Islamist terrorists slaughter their way across the Mideast.  Now he’s coming for Israel…  Barack Obama’s promise to transform America was too modest.  He is transforming the whole world before our eyes…”

In a recent townhall meeting I suggested to our second term congressman that he ask those in attendance if they knew who Valerie Jarrett was and what role she plays in the Obama White House.  Only four of us in the room, all Republican activists, knew the answer to the question.

Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett have put us well down the road to a fascist dictatorship.  What remains to be seen is whether or not rank-and-file Republicans will be concerned enough and wise enough to turn their backs on establishment Republican candidates in 2016, nominating, instead, conservative leaders with the backbone to lead us back from the abyss.

Supreme Court to Rule on Same-Sex Marriage

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In 1973, the Supreme Court looked into the Constitution, found that it approved of abortion and overruled laws banning it. Other laws have since addressed late term abortions and those resulting from rape or incest, but killing human life in the womb has been lawful since then. According to the Guttmacher Institute from 1973 through 2011, nearly 53 million legal abortions occurred in the U.S.

By dismantling the fundamental traditions and beliefs of a nation piece by piece, you ultimate will destroy it. Claiming this is done in the name of “love” or “equality” ignores the greater societal issues involved in marriage; the creation of families with mothers and fathers, and, indeed, the welfare of children raised in same-sex marriages.

Abortion remains a moral issue in the minds and hearts of many Americans and now they are waiting to see how the Supreme Court will rule on same-sex marriage. As Ryan T. Anderson wrote in The Heritage Foundation’s publication, The Daily Signal, “There simply is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that requires all 50 states to redefine marriage.”

“The over-arching question before the Supreme Court is not whether a male-female marriage policy is the best, but only whether it is allowed by the Constitution. The question is not whether government-recognized same-sex marriage is good or bad policy, but only whether it is required by the Constitution.”

Anderson points out that “The only way the Court could strike down laws that define marriage as the union of husband and wife is to adopt a view of marriage that sees it an essentially genderless institution…” Marriage is all about gender and the union of opposites that is blessed by the community when a man and woman enter into it. To legalize same-sex marriage is to degrade the essential element of society, the keystone of family.

What we are witnessing is the current high point in a long campaign to remove any obstacle to being homosexual and the right to marry another homosexual represents an important political goal for GLBT community. For them it’s not about the thousands of years in which all societies forbid the marriage between those of the same gender or the 227 years since the Constitution was ratified.

Clearly the Constitution neither requires nor bans same-sex marriage. The thought of such a marriage would never have occurred to the Founding Fathers and the creation of a new nation had far greater priorities and responsibilities than same-sex marriage. Most such issues such as abortion were left to the states to determine. Even so, when the voters of California voted in 2008 to ban same-sex marriage, the courts there overturned it.

We are witnessing a homosexual juggernaut that will settle for nothing less than their own interpretation of the relations between the sexes.

When the Supreme Court hears the same-sex marriage case on Tuesday, April 28, it will be decided by a Court that is sharply divided between liberal and conservative points of view, but in the legal community, there is no argument that, as federal law states, “Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

That’s why the fact that in late September Justice Elena Kagan performed a same-sex “wedding” takes on tremendous importance. As documented by MassResistance.org, Justice Kagan has a long history of advancing homosexual issues and policies. A 16-page report leaves little doubt that she favors acceptance of homosexuality and transgenderism as “civil rights.”

There is no way that Justice Kagan should join other Supreme Court judges to rule on this case. That would run counter to federal law and would be an arrogant dismissal of the most fundamental concept of justice before the bench.

What we have learned thus far is that the practice of same-sex marriage has proven more a threat to the rights of those who are opposed to it for sincere religious reasons than for those demanding their services. If there is any justice left in America, a bakery or florist should be able to say no. Demanding that they act against their faith tells you a great deal of the homosexual mindset when it comes to their “rights.”

I am utterly opposed to same-sex “marriage” for all the reasons the Bible and history provide.

If Justice Kagan does not recuse herself from Tuesday’s case and her fellow justices do not demand that she does, the rule of law and justice in America will have suffered another serious blow.

© Alan Caruba, 2015

BOOM! Allen West Goes After Muslim Student Association Cancelling American Sniper

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american sniper posterIt is the highest grossing war movie in U.S. history but — as we’ve reported previously — it is in the target sights of Muslim students. Once again, a showing of “American Sniper” has been cancelled, this time at the University of Maryland, College Park.

As reported by Foxnews.com, “The University of Maryland announced it will postpone indefinitely an upcoming screening of “American Sniper” after Muslim students protested – calling the film Islamophobic, racist and nationalistic.

“American Sniper only perpetuates the spread of Islamophobia and is offensive to many Muslims around the world for good reason,” read a petition launched by the university’s Muslim Students Association. “This movie dehumanizes Muslim individuals, promotes the idea of senseless mass murder, and portrays negative and inaccurate stereotypes.”

“The critically-acclaimed film about the life of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle was supposed to be screened May 6 and 7. It was “postponed” on April 22 by the university’s Student Entertainment Events (SEE). While SEE did not mention the Muslim Students Association’s petition, they referenced a meeting with “concerned student organizations” about the film. “SEE is choosing to explore the proactive measures of working with others during the coming months to possibly create an event where students can engage in constructive and moderated dialogues about the controversial topics proposed in the film,” read a statement from SEE posted on the university’s website. The Muslim Students Association posted a Facebook message praising the university’s capitulation to their demands.”

“Praising the university’s capitulation to their demands” — in other words, the surrender of our freedom of speech and expression. Now, I find it doggone funny that the Muslim Students Association (MSA), an organization affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, is allowed to operate freely on our colleges and universities in the first place. I furthermore find it unconscionable that this group of 250 who signed this petition would influence the decision on a campus of some 28,000.

However, consider this irony: black students were allowed to freely stomp on the U.S. flag at Valdosta State College and an Air Force veteran who sought to claim the flag for proper disposition was physically restrained by campus police, arrested, and ordered never to step on the Valdosta State campus again.

Are we upside down or what?

Regarding the MSA protest, I’m starting to believe something is up with states that begin with the letter “M.” I know this banning of “American Sniper” has occurred at the Universities of Missouri, Michigan, and now Maryland — where next, U-Mass?

But who are these individuals to tell an American university what can be shown on its campus? I wonder if the movie “Twelve Years a Slave” was shown at the University of Maryland? And if these MSA students believe “American Sniper” is offensive to Muslims it means means they are supportive of Islamic terrorism and jihadism.

If they stand for freedom, liberty, and democracy, they should not be offended. As a matter of fact, Kyle’s exploits came primarily in Al Anbar province — Fallujah and Ramadi — is it offensive to these Muslim students that ISIS, the reconstituted al-Qaida in Iraq, is now driving Muslims from their homes in Ramadi? Then again, MSA is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is affiliated with Hamas and supports Islamic terrorism and jihadism, so maybe the gist of all this is that these Muslim students are upset to see the story of a heroic American who fought against their compatriot jihadist brothers.

Maybe they don’t want the truth to be known about the savage barbarism of their associates. And the University of Maryland SEE and leadership is so cowardly that they succumb to these “demands.”

The President of the University and the SEE should have sent back a simple letter with a one-word response, “Nuts.” Now, the question I have, is there a Coach John Harbaugh on the campus of Maryland, someone who will stand up to these stealth jihadists who would seek to advance their intolerance in order to suppress our rights? And let me ask a very basic question — why are they here in America studying in our schools and universities promoting their beliefs which are counter to our Constitutional Republic?

If they don’t like the fllm then doggone, don’t go see it! But, how dare they make a “demand” and worse, Maryland caved.

“We sincerely appreciate your commitment to exercising your freedom of speech to create an inclusive, just and safe campus community,” MSA wrote. Furthermore the Muslims Student Association said “American Sniper” creates a “dangerous climate for Muslim students and severely devalues the community atmosphere.”

So what the heck does beheading Christians create? What kind of climate exists in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the hotbed of ISIS recruiting? What type of community atmosphere exists for Christians and Yazidis in Mosul?

“Breyer Hillegas, president of the university’s College Republicans, told Fox News that he was furious about the cancellation. “Universities are always trying to satisfy the political correctness police and worry about who they might offend – rather than standing up for principle and the First Amendment of the Constitution,” Hillegas told me. He said the College Republicans had been behind the effort to convince SEE to show the film. “If the university prevents a movie like that from being show – it promotes intolerance and stifles dialogue and debate – and goes directly against the atmosphere that the University of Maryland is supposed to support,” he said.

What do the University of Maryland Campus Democrats have to say on the matter? Crickets. Their silence is deafening — and telling.

So here is my message to the MSA:

I and many other Americans deployed to Muslim countries to bring a chance for liberty and freedom. We lost our brothers and sisters. Some lost their limbs — all gave some, some gave all. And to have you here in our country “demanding” the story of one of our own not be told is offensive.

Your time is running out, as we will not tolerate the intolerant for much longer. You will be crushed and defeated, because in America we just don’t take crap for too long — regardless of the complicit bond you’ve found with progressive socialists — stretching from the White House to the College and University campuses — Islamic fascism will not prevail in these great United States of America.

Two words: Molon Labe!

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on AllenBWest.com.