Vision Circle

Somebody else beat you to it

Prometheus utters the battle cry: Fuck George Will!

Too late. Check out Will's marital record.

Idiocy rings in the new year

I am sure that according to the Chinese New Year we aren't living in the Year of the Idiot. But if you read the news you wouldn't believe it.

George Will: Unchanged by Welfare Reform

George Will wrote a piece about welfare reform.

A small piece of it...

After the liberalization of welfare in the mid-1960s, the percentage of black children born to unmarried mothers reached 50 by 1976 (it is almost 70 today), and within a generation the welfare rolls quadrupled. But DeParle says people mistakenly thought people like Jobe were organizing their lives around having babies to get a check. Actually, he says, their lives were too disorganized for that.

P6 responds in a manner that's appropriate, I think. So, here's a quote from him:

You cannot read this paragraph without coming away feeling Mr. Will is implying the entire quadrupling of welfare rolls was due to the increase in Black children born out of wedlock. If asked was this his intent I'm sure he would say no. And yet you cannot read this paragraph without coming away feeling Mr. Will is implying the entire quadrupling of welfare rolls was due to the increase in Black children born out of wedlock.

Selected Quotes: Jesse Lee Peterson

These quotes come from listening to his show:

"Most Black people are not honest and don't like to work."

"Most Black preachers aren't called by God, they are called by their mommas."

"Most Black preachers teach hatred of Israel."

"Most Black people, not all, but most, like lies over truth."

"A lot of Christians aren't really Christians, especially Black ones."

"When it comes to sex, you can't trust a Black preacher."

"Blacks who complain should be put back onto the plantation so that they would know how to work."

"Most Black men are not worth anything."

"Black preachers are racists".

Future Warriors

Earlier this year the question came up about fast-tracking the citizenship papers of immigrants on green cards or student visas who decide to join the armed forces. I stood behind the effort and still do. What I didn't realize at the time that this particular deal has been seen before. Apparently Werner Von Braun wasn't the only immigrant to come over here in support of our war effort.

I imagine that there are a significant number of German Jews and others who managed to get over here in time to turn against their own former taskmasters with the appropriate vengeance, and American combat gear. I wonder if there are any bloggers who might admit that their parents were such individuals. I haven't looke for, or presumed anything about a Jewish angle on support for the war in Iraq, but I think somebody has an honest opinion about such matters out there.

Consdering how many people flee oppression to find a new home in the US, I suspect that this route to citizenship will be an important avenue for generations to come.

All Quiet on the Fallujah Front

Given the jarring blackout of progress reportage on Fallujah, this supersize me screed at Cobb begged some questions. Didn't take much backchannel searching to come up with fair and balanced coverage in the south asian press

Against the most heavily armed opponent in the history of War, Fallujah has still not let itself be "taken" to date. The mightiest military machine in history has met its match. A turning point in military affairs? The end of warfare, as practiced by the Americans - the application of overwhelming force to obtain a victory?

No wonder it's gotten so quiet on the Fallujah front.....,

Acting Like A Public School System

This move by the Archdiocese Of Baltimore would tick me off. This may be an example that voucher opponents may use in the future.

There is no freedom of movement here.

Transfer edict angers parents Catholic education chief bans midyear enrollment; Three schools merging into one; Decision made to prevent 'mass exodus' by pupils

By Lynn Anderson
Sun Staff

December 27, 2004

Plans by the Archdiocese Of Baltimore to combine three Catholic schools next fall to cut costs and boost enrollment are angering some parents of children who attend.

They are particularly upset about an edict by the Catholic school system's superintendent prohibiting other schools in the archdiocese from accepting midyear transfers from the affected schools - St. Anthony of Padua, St. Dominic and Shrine of the Little Flower schools - for fear of a mass exodus.

Parents who don't want their children to attend the new combined school are calling Superintendent Ronald J. Valenti's decree - issued in a letter to principals shortly after the Nov. 17 merger announcement - unfair. They worry that if they wait too long to change where they enroll their children, all the open seats will be taken.

"He wants everyone to give the new school a chance, and so he is strong-arming everyone and not allowing them to transfer in the middle of the school year," said Lilly Santmyer, the mother of a third-grader at St. Dominic School in Hamilton. "It is unheard-of. I don't get it."

Parents say they are concerned that the new school - housed at St. Anthony's in Gardenville and named after Mother Mary Lange, a Haitian who became a nun after opening the first Catholic school for black children in Baltimore in 1828 - will offer a different curriculum and larger class sizes. They say detailed information, including preschool schedules, has been slow to come out.

Merry Christmas

And a Happy New Year.

Bling Bling

I had heard about a new way to make synthetic diamonds that were literally indistinguishable from the "real thing" (which is soaked in DeBeers blood). Today in Salon the cover story deals with the move to get synthetic diamonds on the market.

Given the assumptions about black consumption patterns--which actually aren't born out by the data but I digress--I think that black Americans could probably do a pretty good job of putting the DeBeers on their back for good. The first person who can meld black nationalist rhetoric/realities to the sale of synthetic diamonds is going to have a diamond mine at their feet.

Does Cosby Help?

Booker Rising gets a big hat tip from me.

From MSNBC:

At some point Cosby's crusade either reaches the level of the street, of people like Kenny and Tate, or it will come to be seen as little more than sound and fury signifying nothing more than the power of an outspoken celebrity to get people talking.

What should Cosby do? He might try shoring up the work of those who have shown they can make a difference in the lives of inner-city youths. Marshall and Holland are splendid examples; but in any large city, there are heroes dedicated to helping young people make wise choices—one crisis at a time. Those who do such work are always chronically underfunded and tragically underrecognized. For Cosby to publicly join forces with them would surely help their cause—and his.

The comedian already has indicated that he would like this crusade to become something more than a one-man roadshow. He has aligned himself with Ras Baraka, the deputy mayor of Newark, N.J., to launch something called "Hip Hop for the PEOPLE" (Providing Education Opportunity, Prosperity and Life Eternally)—an entity that will urge rappers to focus on subjects other than sex and bling.

It's wonderful Cosby has involved himself in a war that has consumed so many young lives. But this war's most meaningful battles will not be fought from floodlit stages. They will be fought in inner-city streets, and in schools and clubs, where souls are saved one at a time, and where the applause of a star-struck crowd is rarely to be found.

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More at that link...

See, this is what I've been saying. Talking all the negative doesn't mean jack unless you show off the positive. He doesn't mean a damn thing unless you show what's being done.

I'm about to get real foul.