An Inconvenient Truth

Someday, I plan to write some thoughts on Islam. I have not solidified a position on the matter. I do have issues with it, but I would not say I trust sites like LGF. People are always saying where are the moderates. Well, I think I have found some. This group of Muslims is offering to pay for lawyers to help the John Does being sued by the Flying Imams, which is more than any Christian groups are doing. If anything, the Methodists would be hiring attorneys for the Imams.

Of course, I hardly want this blog to descend into rampant kumbayahism, so I have found a moslem whom I can sink my anti clerical teeth into. Sheik Mohammed Omran has told his followers at an Ozzie mosque that the terrible drought Austtralia suffers from is caused by the displeasure of Allah. I am guessing the implication here is that if the denizens of the land down under convert en masse, the heavens will open.

The Sheik did not have the thinking cap on when he came up with this one. Now, the home of Islam and the most Islamic of nations is in Arabia. When you think of Arabia you think of, let me think here, desert, sand , dry, hot. Enough, I am starting to choke with thirst from my little word assocition. My guess is that Allah must really hate Arabian Muslims. Whereas every now and then Austalia lacks for rain, the drought in the peninsula is never ending.

While we are on the subject of moisture or the lack thereof, the point goes to Jesus on this one,

"the rain falleth upon the just and the unjust"

An Injustice against one, blah, blah, blah

I got this from my daughter. Another reason why she is homeschooled. I'm sure glad we did not shell out cash no matter how chic the uniform.

Every now and then I see the bumper sticker with "If you think education is expensive try ignorance." How true.

Anyone raised in the environment knows a school with Padua in the name is Papist. They ain't like they used to be.

Oh,and if any feminist wants to slam me. I am under no illusions. You could do just as much damage at a boys' prep.

I am so much more obnoxious now that I can post youtube. the voice of humility institute is instituting the Youee Prize for youtube stuff it likes and this is our first award. Great work, Mr. Albino.

UPDATE So my son came home and we asked if he wanted to watch it. In a bored know it all tone, he let me know they have been ending women's suffrage for a year now and Mr. Albino's creation is not original.

We have not decided whether or not to rescind our award.

schadenfrende

I'm a nobody from nowhere. If that were not enough, I've taken up blogging and it has not exactly been a self esteem lift. I edit and think I've got it right and a few days later, when I'm deleting the word processing document and see my uncorrected mistakes, I do feel stupid. I feel Sister Therese is looking down from above and saying, "We did not expect much anyway."

So when a major institution goofs up, it is a boost to my spirits. In an article by Michael Powell and Nina Bernstein titled In Tragedy, Glimpsing Oft-Overlooked Newcomers’ Lives I came across this paragraph,

"Lurking behind their economic troubles is another reality. Roughly 3,5000 Malians enter the United States each year on temporary visas. But precious few attain achieve citizenship: About 85 Malians a year, and as few as 19, since 1996. Only a handful have been granted asylum, typically women seeking refuge from genital cutting, which is widespread in West Africa."

Mike, Nina, (please, I hope you don't mind me being so familiar) I think you meant "attain or achieve." Don't mention it. I am always here for you. Okay, Sister Therese, lay off!

I know, I know. I'm being unfair. Mike and Nina work fast and leave the editing to someone else. Maybe all the money lost at the paper of record has meant the lesser staff is not as good as it once was. I'm jus greatful, becaus f they can slak of at the Grae Lady, So ken i.

Hat tip to Dennis Mangan.

A NATION ONCE AGAIN. maybe not.

From Taki's Top Drawer I came across De La Rey. De La Rey is an Afrikaaner song from the new South Africa. It mentions no dissatisfaction with the current government, but glories in the righteous struggle against Britain in the Second Anglo-Boer War. It is sung by a young Afrikaaner who performs under the name Bok van Blerk. I've read it described as a rock song, but is more a folk ballad. It is like a good Irish rebel tune in that it sounds to be a great song to sing after a pint or four, I'd guess as my four pint days are long gone. The Brits no longer govern so one would think it is all a bit harmless.

Except that South Africa has a lot of history. Different racial groups, different ethnic groups in what is termed a rainbow nation, but is not much of a melting pot. The question is, is the song just about resistance to the colonial conqueror or is there a subtext of wanting to go back to the bad old days of Afrikaaner enforced apartheid? Beats me. Mr. van Blerk has said he is singing not about triumphalism, but pride in who he is. Fair enough.

Koos De La Rey was a brilliant and chivalrous general who fooled a number of English officers gallant enough themselves to see his greatness. He had not supported a war with the imperial government, but like Lee, gave it his all when it came. After the war, he did his best to reconcile Boer and Brit. His record on race, I know not, nor has anything I've read go into it. I'm surprised the thought police have not looked into this. So because of the man's sterling rep he was chosen as the eponymous Boer of the new nation. Nah, his name worked better in song than De Wet or any of the other war heroes.

Of course the thought police may not have a take on General De La Rey, but they do have a verdict on the young Afrikaaners who have a few brewskis and sing the ballad teary eyed and surprise, surprise, it ain't good. Hey, I'm a world away, so what do I know. They could be dead on. Still, there is little doubt from experience where they would come down.

Max du Preez, anti apartheid Afrikaaner when it was not easy to be one, puts it this way,

There's an element here of a search for identity, a search for pride, he said. They had to go back 100 years to find a hero to praise because there was nothing in between. After the Anglo-Boer war there is nobody in Afrikaner history that you can glorify except maybe rugby players.

Du Preez sees the song as cover for resentment at the post-apartheid order.

When they sing about how nasty the British were to the Boer women in the concentration camps and "general come and lead us because we will fall around you", they're not thinking about the British, they're thinking about blacks. Their enemy is now black.

Afrikaners don't have a cause anymore. They have become their own cause over stuff like affirmative action and crime.

Hey, the guy is there on the ground so I am not the man to say he is wrong. He may be the right fellow to look into the collective soul of his countrymen. I would like to know what he thinks the young Afrikaaners should adopt as an identity other than just fading into oblivion.

Another Afrikaaner, Newspaper editor Tim du Plessis, puts it this way,

University lecturers who are in regular contact with smart young Afrikaners say there is a steely determination among these youngsters that has been absent for quite a while. They come to the universities to equip themselves to stand on their own feet. They no longer complain about affirmative action because they believe to do so is futile. The are asking no favours from the new SA.

They know the public sector is a no-go area and they don't care. The corporate sector is best avoided also because of affirmative action and black economic empowerment (BEE) rules.

As one student put it: "I want to qualify as a professional or start a business where I can work for myself, be comfortable, but remain small enough not to be bothered with BEE. Or become well-qualified so that I can work anywhere in the world."

also,

Afrikaners are merely migrating to a new space. It's a natural, spontaneous process without the erstwhile marshals of the Nat party, the Broederbond and the Afrikaans churches.

It's not the dead-end radicalism of the Boeremag, but it's also not ANC co-option personified by the acquiescent presence of Marthinus van Schalkwyk in the Mbeki cabinet.

They had no choice but to become new South Africans. Now they want to be new Afrikaners."
Who is right, how will it work out. In time, we shall have an answer.

But, it is not just South Africans who have an opinion in the matter. One American blogger,calling herself NYMary, has looked into the Afrikaner soul, or at least listened to the music and found it wrongthink, and so replied to one of her commenters..

Well, enjoy your rage, but I claim the right to call bullshit on it. A line like "And the Khakis are walking over a nation that will rise again" is not a historical referent; it's a threat, a warning to uppity blacks that they had better keep their place. To NOT see that is willfully blind. We have Lynryd Skynryd and Charlie Daniels; you have these guys.

There is not much to say about the American groups she cites as I don't know if I have ever heard their music. As to the threat part, the big question is, is someone walking over the present day Boer? If no one is, and the intent is to threaten the innocent, then she is right. NYMary does not really go into this. If someone is walking over the Afrikaaner, maybe the song hits a nerve, but it would not be totally uncalled for. After all, genocide watch has raised an alert regarding the ongoing murder of white farmers. During the days of Apartheid, I doubt NYMary types were saying whoa when the refrain of "One settler, one bullet," was heard.

One might think there is subtext in NYMary's post. Maybe she and all other Americans who spent years incensed at the ancien regime see this song and think, didn't that nice old ANC sweep those horrible whites out the door or at least under the rug. How it inconveniences her to have to know these people still exist and again address the issue.

Ultimately, what is stupid about slagging the Boer no matter what he tries is put well by a fellow named Wessel who blogs as Mhambi,

What Afrikanerdom means today is eminently up for grabs, by cutting them no slack, by expecting the worst, intellectual left Afrikaners will help define Afrikanerdom as intrinsicly right wing. That is sad because its simply not true.

The inner contradictions of Apartheid* doomed it. World wide activism shortened its life. Are the contradictions inherent in the new system enough to cause it to come apart? I would guess the South African state will continue in some form but with more and more separateness. It is to be lamented, I guess, but it is hard enough to love one's neighbor when you are the same ethnicity. It is really tough when such things are not shared. Just ask the Hutu and Tutsi.

*See Preferential Policies by Thomas Sowell, page 30.

Also, Steve Sailer points out over at Taki's Apartheid did not much exists in the meaning of Apartness,

The problem with South African apartheid was not the idea of apartness, but the manifest dishonesty of its implementation. South African whites didn’t actually want to live far apart from blacks. Who else was going to serve them as cheap maids and farmworkers? They couldn’t possibly be their own hewers of wood and drawers of water, now could they?

Below is an excerpt from an South African English language TV newsmagazine discussing the De La Rey phenomenon.

Rudy, we hardly knew ye, or, maybe we know you too much

February, 1978. Massachusetts is buried under snow that was delivered during a Winter hurricane. All week on TV a man in a sweater is talking to cameras and updating the citizenry and saving them. Or so it was claimed by a supine media and the legions of hacks that served him. There has never been a storm like that and everyone who lived through it prays fervently that it never happens again and fear is so embedded still that if anyone sees a flake in February, the groceries are cleaned out so the populace can face life without despair.

The TV savior was Michael Stanley Dukakis, the only Hellene who could bring gloom to a big, fat Greek Wedding. The problem with his performance was the people didn't really buy it. He was ushered into the political wilderness for a term after he was defeated by another democrat at the next election.

So, come 2001 and another pol takes the helm at a disaster and gets the people through the emergency. The problem is there is no baseline to measure performance. People ramming planes into skyscrapers has happened only once and so we can't say Rudy did a good job compared to all the other mayors who have had to so cope. Anyway, has anyone ever analyzed all those decisions he made on 9-11. Maybe he is superior to sliced bread, but how do we know?

What we do know is not all that great. He was big into witch hunting Wall Street as that is always good copy. He made two innocents,Richard Wigton and Timothy Tabor, do the perp walk. After ruining them, he had to drop the charges two years later.

Give him credit, he hired Bill Bratton to put in place an intelligent policing strategy. Of course, too many people gave credit where credit was due and Bratton had to be fired.

It is not all horrible. There is at least one reason to vote for him. He probably looks better than Hillary in a dress.

The Past is Another Country

Via Russell Wardlow's link, I visited the Dawn Patrol website and in scrolling down came upon the video above. I must be fairly healthy for a dedicated gourmand as I thought cardiac arrest would happen. The video is about the May Procession held every Spring in the parish I grew up in during the fifities. I never remember it being other than sunny on those days. I and my sibs were part of them when we attended the parish school.

I am sure someone could do a dissertaion on all this. The pastor who is patting the dog in the video was a wonderful man. I tend to be a sceptic in most things. It is impossible for me to get away from the faith of my ancestors partly due to people like him. If the priest who took over after he died had been there earlier, I am sure I would now be Richard Dawkins instead of just anti clerical. There are other things too. I feel guilt over the way I mistreated the nuns. The few times I run into people from the school, the ones who always sucked up to the nuns are the ones who now claim to have been horribly mistreated.

Lovely music, beautiful ritual, it is all gone. Catholicism is now, in this country, little more than "Unitarianism with a pope," according to the novelist, D. Keith Mano.

Oh, the church that you see at the beginning, it burned down a year or two ago. It was beautiful inside.

For more about life in Eastern Mass during and after the 1950s visit Ponderosa65

How many young souls must be destroyed before we do something!

Per Michael Brendan Dougherty

I was thinking just that when I tried to go to sleep last night. It was an uneasy night. Some ancient nightmare ran through my bones and rattled my guts. I saw feverish, ugly things happening in D.C.: ghosts heckling men in suits, think tanks erupting in purple flames, my friends calling out my name but I couldn't help them. Awful things. Then a light grew in the middle of it, blotting out that vision and and a child's voice said "Get out!"

The soul destroying leviathan that is our federal capital is in the process of claiming another victim. the voice of humility has no choice but to again demand that the seat of government be moved to a difficult environment. Yes, somewhere in Wyoming or some other freezing, cold, bleak landscape must become our new federal city.

Our quadrennial search for a führer

Not that anyone cares but I have been suffering a case of the slows. Not Spring Fever but Pre Spring Fever as self diagnosed. Anyway, the voice of humility intends to look at the candidates and shoot from the hip and the first installment is below.

It is that time again, the juices of ambition start to flow in senators, ex senators, governors, tree wardens and numerous other lads and lassies who dedicate their lives to the nation with no thought to any rewards other than the service they render. So for an inauguration day in January of 2009 we are now to be subject to candidates some of whom have been running since the last inauguration, if not since their childhoods.

Now, I use the term search for a führer. In truth it is not the volk that is searching for a führer but the potential führers who are searching for a volk. After all, Der Führer himself, Big Dolph* never got a majority of the German electorate and only got 43.9% even after the Reichstag fire. Memo to all candidates, if you are looking for a draft, you will have to manufacture it yourselves.

So in our country, every four years it is party time for ghost writers. Remember all those books from yesteryear. Jimmy Carter supposedly wrote Why Not The Best? to propel himself to the Oval Office. If you think it is more important to read than say, The Iliad, you can get it for 1 cent on Amazon. What I don't get is that after writing Why Not The Best?, he ran anyway.

How about Faith of My Fathers, the deathless prose of John McCain's ghost writer? Give the straight talker credit because he gave his ghost writer credit on the cover. Still, if someone says to John, "a penney for your thoughts?" he can send them to Amazon.

Plus ça change et Voilà,** we have a new wonder boy. and he has not one but two best selling books*** to inspire the nation. To be fair, he actually wrote them. Not only that, for awhile there, you could not go by a newstand without seeing Barack Obama's picture.

So what is his appeal? I've talked to people who are intrigued and I never get an answer of any substance. I can only guess that it seems he personifies what middle class white folk, while as ever, distancing themselves from the lumpen honky, want to see in a black candidate. He seems to be, in the words of Archie Bunker, "One of the good ones." Though my college educated, light skinned fellow countrymen and women would be horrified to hear it put that way, what else could it be? He has almost no track record. His schooling has been elite, but what does that prove? There is nothing to see.

Except there is. On October 22, 2002 He spoke against the impending Iraq adventure.

Now let me be clear – I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity.

He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda

I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.

Yep, pretty clear and, as time has proven, correct. He has since seemed to come on board what ever it is the Dems have as a policy or non policy on Iraq. However, if these are his words and not just those of advisors and speech writers, he does have something under the cap.

Still, he could never get my vote as he would be the candidate of a cargo cult.

* To all those goofballs who approve of someone they call a populist: Please note, Herr Schicklegruber was the most successful populist of the last century.

** I assume this is bad French. It is the only kind I know.

*** The audacious Udolpho had some fun with one of your man's bios. I had never thought of The Temerity of Mild Physical Arousal. I am sure it will be the title of a tell all autobiography someday.




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