Prometheus 6

Jonah Goldberg wrote this really interesting article I meant to get back to before now. It's about white America's struggle with dual consciousness and its racial identity...though Mr. Goldberg doesn't frame it that way.

The unspeakable American culture
Journalism's elite don't dare speak of the patriotism that holds this country together.

...I've come around to the view that the culture war can best be understood as a conflict between two different kinds of patriotism. On the one hand, there are people who believe being an American is all about dissent and change, that the American idea is inseparable from "progress." America is certainly an idea, but it is not merely an idea. It is also a nation with a culture as real as France's or Mexico's. That's where the other patriots come in; they think patriotism is about preserving Americanness.

To him, it's the culture war.

It's like they really think they can change reality by describing it differently. 

Before the Storm Clouds, Nothing but 'Blue Skies'
By Jennifer Frey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 6, 2007; C01

Lynne Cheney wants time to stand still. Not now, not in this present tense of bloodshed and bile, where she is the stalwart wife of a vice president vilified as a warmonger. She wants the past back, she wants then. [P6: You shouldn't have married the Personification of Evil.]

Which is why her new memoir stops in 1959, when Lynne Cheney was just graduating from high school, her life scarcely yet lived in a Norman Rockwell America, where girls twirled batons and played competitive jacks, and boys joined "car clubs" to work on their Chevys. Back then Lassie always came home.

The book -- titled "Blue Skies, No Fences: A Memoir of Childhood and Family," published by Threshold Editions, the Simon & Schuster imprint helmed by family friend Mary Matalin -- includes no discussion of Cheney's adulthood. There is nothing about her academic career or her tenure as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. And there certainly is nothing about life as the wife of a controversial politician, Dick Cheney.

• A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of Mrs. Roberts could have his position.
• Mrs. Roberts -- who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as ORU's "first lady" on the university's Web site -- frequently had cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to "underage males who had been provided phones at university expense." 
• The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to the ministry as an "evangelistic function of the president." 
• Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store alone in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also repeatedly said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off." The document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV. 
• Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by ministry donors. 
• University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts' home to do the daughters' homework. 
• The university and ministry maintain a stable of horses for exclusive use by the Roberts' children. 
• The Roberts' home has been remodeled 11 times in the past 14 years.

Scandal Brewing at Oral Roberts
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS
Associated Press Writer
5:38 AM CDT, October 6, 2007

Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts' university, or else he would be "called home."

Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.

Teaching students to mislead people in the name of The Lord. 

In Monument, Colo., a disgruntled valedictorian who misled school officials about the content of her speech is going to court. Erica Corder was one of several speakers during graduation ceremonies at Lewis-Palmer High School in May 2006. Students were required to clear their speeches with the principal first. Corder did so, but then added sermonizing later.

"We are all capable of standing firm and expressing our own beliefs, which is why I need to tell you about someone who loves you more than you could ever imagine," Corder said. "He died for you on a cross over 2,000 years ago, yet was resurrected and is living today in heaven. His name is Jesus Christ. If you don't already know him personally, I encourage you to find out more about the sacrifice he made for you so that you now have the opportunity to live in eternity with him."

The Religious Right's New Tactics for Invading Public Schools
By Rob Boston, Church and State
Posted on October 4, 2007, Printed on October 6, 2007

In mid-August, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed something called the "Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act" into law. Although the new law has an innocuous-sounding title, it's really a ticking time-bomb, opponents say.

The law requires every public school in the state to adopt a policy guaranteeing students' right to religious expression. It mandates that schools create "limited public forums" for religious and other types of speech. A student could, for example, read the morning announcements over a loudspeaker and then lapse into a prayer or mini-sermon.

Many people think the law is yet another effort to get around the Supreme Court's rulings on separation of church and state in public schools -- and they're expecting a torrent of litigation to result.

"This law is fundamentally at odds with the principle of religious freedom," said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, an Austin-based group that opposes the machinations of the Religious Right. "It will force public school students to participate in public events that promote religious views -- through prayer or even proselytizing -- that they and their families may not share or may even find deeply offensive. So rather than protecting religious freedom, this law represents a grave threat to it.

At the time of his arrest, the authorities said, Mr. Atchison, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., was carrying a Dora the Explorer doll, hoop earrings and petroleum jelly.

Based on that alone, he was some kind of freak...

Mr. Atchison was an assistant United States attorney in Pensacola and a volunteer coach for girls’ softball and basketball teams in Gulf Breeze. His wife and three children were said to be as stunned by the charges as other residents of their affluent town.

Isn't that always the way? 

In a statement, Mr. Thomas said: “This is a man who has done a lot of good in his life. Unfortunately, he is going to be judged by his most recent charges and what we have read in the media, and not by the goodness, hard work or by the love of his family.” 

Isn't that always the way?

Mr. Thomas said he would seek to have the charges against his client dismissed, adding that prosecutors are sometimes willing to do so when a defendant dies.

Hell no. He didn't die, he fled prosecution by killing himself. 

U.S. Prosecutor Held in a Child Sex Sting Kills Himself
By ABBY GOODNOUGH

MIAMI, Oct. 5 — A federal prosecutor charged with traveling from Florida to Michigan to have sex with a 5-year-old girl committed suicide on Friday in prison, his lawyer said.

These guys are too damn cool. Not only do they have submarines, they sell floating houses.

Not like a yatch...I mean floating houses.

Y'all remember this story, don't you?

Official’s Ties to Contractor Are Scrutinized
By PHILIP SHENON

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 — The Justice Department is investigating ties between Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso R. Jackson and a friend of Mr. Jackson’s who was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by him for rebuilding work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, federal officials said Thursday.

The investigation, they said, centers in part on whether Mr. Jackson was fully truthful in Congressional testimony and in interviews with federal investigators when he said he had not steered housing contracts to friends and administration supporters.

Interestingly, the research team also had their subjects fill out a questionnaire to determine their degree of Machiavellian behavior. Those who proved to be the most ruthless of the bunch offered little to nothing when there was no threat of punishment, but within the punishment paradigm, they were generous enough to stave off retribution.

"These are socially intelligent, selfish people," Fehr says about the more calculating subjects. "They escape the punishments that are inherent in social interactions, because they seem to have a fine sense of when punishment is in the air."

Crime and Punishment: Why Do We Conform to Society?

A pair of brain regions work together to assess the threat of punishment and override our selfish tendencies

Y'all still stressing this fool? Yes, Michael Medved is a pig. But he's not an original pig.

1. Slavery was an ancient and universal institution, not a distinctively American innovation.

American slavery was a distinctly American innovation. You see, the United States of America is the only nation in the history of the world in which slavery was a stain that could not be eliminated. In every other nation in the history of the world, a freed slave was a full citizen. In the United States, not only was a freed slave not a citizen, an African American who was never a slave at all was not a full citizen. In most slave states, there were limits to a white American's ability to free his own slaves. In several, freed slaves had to leave the state by sundown or be subject to reenslavement.

That USA Today op-ed pleased me so much, I'm going to drop a clue I've determined a lot of y'all need based on the conversation in newspaper comment sections nationwide.

I judge anyone who responded to the Jena 6 discussion with a discussion of criminality in the Black community to be racist. Yes, just like that. They do nothing to address or explain ANY of the facts on the ground there...they just attack. I am kinder to those who responded with respect for the issue but dismay over the avatars thereof (though they do nothing to address or explain ANY of the facts on the ground there either). I accuse them of moral cowardice.

Given the piss-poor media on this, those who think the entire series of events was "nooses get hung, black boys jump white boy" are just ignant. It took a minute for me to stop calling them ignant assholes, though. Had to remember the asshole part is only justified once you've been given the real data and you reject it.

Finally, a sane editorial recapping the Jena 6 situation. Thank you USA Today.

You still have the same dickwad commenters, but you have to start somewhere. Getting the story basically correct in a national news source is about as good as it gets in the media.

Given that the city's administration is still dragging its feet on this, still fighting for the harshest possible judgement agaisnt the Black students and still denying the unequal protection that is visible to anyone who hasn't lost an eye while grinding their axe, it still ain't over. This IS the culchuh they would presurhv, after all.

And seriously, a message needs to be sent to the National Noose Network. It would be good to see some sort of follow-up on the explosion of symbolic lynchings this mess seems to have engendered. But that last isn't in the cards at the moment.

"I think that Secretary Rice is going to have a confrontation with this committee, because we're not going to accept the idea that if you say something that could be negative about the Maliki government, it's classified, but if you say something positive about them, it's OK," Waxman said.

U.S. official won't discuss Iraq corruption
The State Department is accused of trying to hide whether Prime Minister Maliki blocked investigations into his cabinet and family.
By Peter Spiegel
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 5, 2007

WASHINGTON — State Department officials faced new allegations Thursday of attempting to conceal misdeeds by the Iraqi government after refusing to tell congressional investigators whether Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has blocked corruption investigations into his cabinet and family members.

"We don't need to reinvent a new paradigm for each modality or brain region," he said in a statement.

MIT develops brain-to-machine algorithm
Posted by Stefanie Olsen

Scientists are making progress on neural devices that can translate the thoughts of a paralyzed person into driving action for a prosthetic device.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Wednesday that they've developed an algorithm for a neural prosthetic aid that can link an individual's brain activity to the person's intentions; and then translate that intention into movement.

In the New York case, lawyers for the plaintiff said Catholic Charities should not be forced "to finance conduct that the church teaches is sinful."

Besides New York, more than 20 states (including California) have laws that require employers to include contraceptives in drug coverage. Though churches themselves are exempt from the laws, the exemption does not extend to church-related groups.

"If the state can compel church entities to subsidize contraceptives in violation of their religious beliefs, it can compel them to subsidize abortions as well," the lawyers argued.

The justices turned down a similar challenge to California's prescription-drug law in 2004.

Can you imagine how cool it would be if this reasoning held? I think your upcoming invasion of Iran is sinful. You can't force me to pay for it. In fact, I could make a case for stupidity as sin so I wouldn't have to pay for anything I think is stupid.

High court says no to new rights for church groups
Justices rebuff a quest for services in a library, along with a Catholic group's effort to avoid paying for employees' birth control.
By David G. Savage
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 2, 2007 

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to expand the rights of church groups, turning down appeals in a pair of cases.

In the first case, the justices declined to hear a free-speech claim from an evangelical minister in Northern California who wanted to hold worship services in a public library meeting room. In the second, they refused to hear a freedom-of-religion claim from Catholic Charities in New York, which objected to a state law requiring that employees' prescription drug coverage include contraceptives. The cases were on a long list dismissed on opening day of the court's term.

So what? Blacks are criminals. 

The lawsuit opens a new debate on racial profiling and police tactics in Ventura County's largest city, seven years after it struggled to deal with a spate of similar charges.

In 2000, a black Oxnard couple alleged that as they were returning from church, 12 gun-toting officers pulled them over for no reason other than their race.

But their federal lawsuit alleging racial profiling was thrown out two years later by a judge who found that the officers were properly investigating a stolen-vehicle case when they ordered Neil Skipwith to lie face down on the pavement in front of his wife and son.

In 2001, Oxnard police were involved in five fatal shootings, fueling claims of racial profiling and faulty tactics. All five of those killed were black or Latino. The district attorney's office found that all of the homicides were justified.

Suit alleges racial profiling
An Oxnard man claims police targeted him for questioning because he is black.
By Catherine Saillant
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 5, 2007

An Oxnard man filed a federal lawsuit Thursday alleging that city police targeted him for questioning because he is black and then used excessive force to detain him. 

There is no other good reason why Oxnard officers accosted Cornel Allen Jr. outside his home last year, dislocating one of his shoulders in the ensuing arrest, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Allen was taken into custody for resisting arrest in the Sept. 18, 2006, confrontation and spent the night in jail, the suit said. The Ventura County district attorney's office later dismissed the charge and Allen has no criminal record, said Shawn Khorrami, Allen's lawyer.

Baca has failed to break up a disturbing, gang-like clique of deputies in Lynwood even though the same station was hit with multimillion-dollar lawsuits for similar activity in the 1990s, and his claims of poverty as an excuse for not fixing overcrowding in the jails have worn thin in the face of ever-larger budget allocations from county supervisors.

I suggest an in-depth audit. 

Who can make the most arrests?
Arrest contests by L.A. County sheriff's deputies are just part of a string of recent missteps.
October 5, 2007 

Quotas on arrests or citations are never a good idea, and are illegal for California traffic officers, but the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has been doing the next worst thing. A Times investigation discovered that the department has been holding informal competitions among deputies since July to see how many people they could arrest in a 24-hour period, or how many vehicles they could impound.

Middlebury director Kirpatrick Sale said Hill offered to sponsor the second secessionist convention, but the co-sponsor arrangement was intended to show that "the folks up north regard you as legitimate colleagues."

"It bothers me that people have wrongly declared them to be racists," Sale said.

The League of the South says it is not racist, but proudly displays a Confederate Battle Flag on its banner.

Secessionists Meeting in Tennessee
Wednesday October 3, 2007 8:16 AM
By BILL POOVEY
Associated Press Writer

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions - New England and the South - are sitting down to talk.

Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully.

That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence.

"We believe that an independent South, or Hawaii, Alaska, or Vermont would be better able to serve the interest of everybody, regardless of race or ethnicity," said Michael Hill of Killen, Ala., president of the League of the South.

Separated by hundreds of miles and divergent political philosophies, the Middlebury Institute and the League of the South are hosting a two-day Secessionist Convention starting Wednesday in Chattanooga.

They expect to attract supporters from California, Alaska and Hawaii, inviting anyone who wants to dissolve the Union so states can save themselves from an overbearing federal government.

October 4, 2007
Why can't pedigree be selling point?

IN HIS Sept. 28 op-ed "At the elite colleges - dim white kids," Peter Schmidt asks: "Should Harvard, which annually turns away about 2,000 valedictorians and has an endowment of nearly $35 billion, be in the business of wasting its academic offerings on some students admitted on the basis of pedigree?" My answer: Yes.

Success is realized at different times and measured in many ways, not always academic. Every institution needs diversity. Why should everyone's measurements be the same? Perhaps one's personality, athletic ability, and exposure to those accustomed to accomplishment can propel the person toward greater achievement in varied directions: artistic, athletic, academic, spiritual, and communal. Pedigree is a good indicator for those expecting success, much as good athletes are born of good athletes and tall people of tall parents. Perhaps the riches Schmidt refers to should be the richness of diversity, no matter the category.

JOHN SPERBER
Portland, Maine

I'm not playing. I said three years ago he hold the pure Religious Right position.

If the major political parties decide to abandon conservative principles, the cohesion of pro-family advocates will be all too apparent in 2008.

He's not MY man, but you know me...I'ma give a brother a hand if I can. Me being a progressive Black partisan, I figure pointing out he's the real Religious Right candidate and that I can't stand his ass is the best thing I can do for him.

The Values Test
By JAMES C. DOBSON

Colorado Springs

REPORTS have surfaced in the press about a meeting that occurred last Saturday in Salt Lake City involving more than 50 pro-family leaders. The purpose of the gathering was to discuss our response if both the Democratic and Republican Parties nominate standard-bearers who are supportive of abortion. Although I was neither the convener nor the moderator of the meeting, I’d like to offer several brief clarifications about its outcome and implications.

After two hours of deliberation, we voted on a resolution that can be summarized as follows: If neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life, we will join others in voting for a minor-party candidate. Those agreeing with the proposition were invited to stand. The result was almost unanimous.

I don't know why they're so pissed at Mitt Romney, but this is the most subtle stroke of political revenge against a Republican I've seen in years.

via Electronic Village

You had to review that to see it was a bad idea?

When pollsters inquired about the state of black-white relations, 75% of Anglo respondents said they were either very good or somewhat good. But when asked about black-Hispanic relations, Anglo respondents were much less upbeat, with only 46% describing them positively. The low opinion whites have of Latino-black relations is particularly interesting given that 68% of blacks and 59% of Latinos considered black-Latino relations generally good.

Call me cynical, but I suspect that Anglo race fatigue may be involved in this negative view of the situation. You know what I'm talking about. Over the last generation, a growing number of white Americans have expressed their exasperation with the seeming intractability of racial issues in the U.S.

Does that make whites who feel this way racist? No, not necessarily. But I imagine that plenty of them are eager to consign the issue of race to a new set of players and, indeed, may be relieved that the media's preoccupation with black versus brown has eclipsed that of white versus black. "They want to say, 'Look at them. It's not just us,' " said essayist Debra Dickerson. "They're not the guilty ones." 

The fantasy of L.A.'s 'race war'
Why is everyone so anxious to elevate Latino-black violence to historic levels?
Gregory Rodriguez
October 1, 2007 

Get this: A new study by three UC Irvine criminologists has concluded that Los Angeles is not on the brink of a major interracial crime wave. Surprised? That's understandable. Because for the last several years, the media have been increasingly fixated on the specter of black-versus-brown violence.

Last January, a CNN anchorwoman asked a visibly perturbed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa whether Los Angeles was "in the middle of a race war." That same month, this newspaper published an opinion piece claiming that "Latino ethnic cleansing of African Americans from multiracial neighborhoods" was an "increasingly common trend."

Yes, there have been high-profile incidents of Latino-black violence (mostly involving gang members in and outside of prison), but, as the new study's authors suggest, those stories tend to be sensationalized in the media to make those crimes seem like the rule rather than the exception. Furthermore, whereas the antics of white thugs are generally treated as unreflective of the opinions of whites at large, the media often interpret the actions of black and Latino criminals as the logical extension of the sentiments of the majority of their law-abiding ethnic brethren.

...which I mention because of comments like this one  

Via Prof. Spence, who says

Many of us have known that school officials were extremely derelict in their duties. But this really drives it home and in doing so brings to light the much larger issues that should concern ALL with school aged children (at least). The full post can be found here. This is GOOD work.

It is good work. It's just kind of a shame all that conversation is needed. 

A great injustice happened to the black community of Jena. Nooses were hung in a tree, bringing up a painful history and frightening threats. The Jena school handled it very poorly, and more and more racial incidents happened. Young people from the black community were caught up in the conflict. The black community has gathered the information, gathered together, and determined what they think needs to be done to protect their young people. The black community has called for all the charges to be dropped against all the students.

If white people who are progressive, would like to sign onto this cause and help, that is wonderful. Those progressive white people should support what the black leaders and the families of these students have asked for. The progressive white people should do what we do for our own–provide moral support, court support and donations.

What is not needed, is for white people to start publicly expressing doubts about 6 young men already caught up in our white, racist criminal justice system. It is certain that there are already laws and people inside the system that will scrutinize the students and what they did. How would you feel if your words against the students wound up in a prosecutor’s closing arguments against a child?

Here is what white progressives need to do: Help or get out of the way.

It posed two statements to voters. The first was, "Foreign trade has been good for the U.S. economy, because demand for U.S. products abroad has resulted in economic growth and jobs for Americans here at home and provided more choices for consumers."

The second was, "Foreign trade has been bad for the U.S. economy, because imports from abroad have reduced demand for American-made goods, cost jobs here at home, and produced potentially unsafe products."

Asked which statement came closer to their own view, 59% of Republicans named the second statement, while 32% pointed to the first.

Republicans Grow Skeptical On Free Trade
By JOHN HARWOOD
October 4, 2007; Page A1

WASHINGTON -- By a nearly two-to-one margin, Republican voters believe free trade is bad for the U.S. economy, a shift in opinion that mirrors Democratic views and suggests trade deals could face high hurdles under a new president.

The sign of broadening resistance to globalization came in a new Wall Street Journal-NBC News Poll1 that showed a fraying of Republican Party orthodoxy on the economy. While 60% of respondents said they want the next president and Congress to continue cutting taxes, 32% said it's time for some tax increases on the wealthiest Americans to reduce the budget deficit and pay for health care.