Sobran: fear of the smear
By reading
an article at my favorite online magazine:
TakiMag, I ran across Sobran's article, "
Fear of the Smear" -- rarely when I read articles do the words resonate as loudly as they did in this article.
Labels: foreign policy, Israel, policy, politics, racism
Sitting amongst political scientists and seeing hope
So I snuck into the
APSA conference in Boston for a few sessions. It was good, and I enjoyed it, specifically the sections on "
Urban Politics" -- it made me get back into the professorial mindset, and being amongst them helped rekindle that atmosphere of academia. While in one session, though, I witnessed quite a discussion: the urban politics crowd discussing whether they ought to 'come clean' about their own values, and hence, their own bias. They freely talked about how white flight was due solely to racism, and yet, during this limited discussion, they opined that perhaps these suburban families desired the peace, security and tranquility of that life. The features of "
urbanity" such as the creativity that comes from constantly being on one's toes, perhaps, doesn't appeal to all-- and that it appeals to intellectuals who enjoy city life, should tell them that perhaps they simply don't understand the suburban ethic. I was shocked to hear this, especially since the discussion was so frank, and, well, so honest. Even leftist intellectuals desire to be thorough and many are trying hard to be good academics, they are, in my opinion, simply conditioned so hard that they end up with
confirmation bias: so that the only reason whites could move out of the cities is due to racism and not, as I suspect, due more to
crime than anything else.
Labels: academia, politics, race, racism
Leftist and Bush hypocrisy
One tragedy
you will rarely hear of is the continuing saga of Zimbabwe's implosion at the hands of tyrant
Robert Mugabe. The dark continent has its great deal of admirers, people in the Peace Corps and all sorts of relief missions, and Christian do-gooders, but for those who took the very real and very productive step of colonizing parts of Africa and starting farms to feed the masses, they are paid with brutality.
Will the mainstream media cover this? Will the attention of the government ever turn to Zimbabwe and Mugabe? Why would
Mugabe want 3 million rounds of ammunition? Would Hollywood ever make a
political movie about problems in Africa that don't relate to apartheid? Will anyone have the courage to ask if perhaps Rhodesia was a better state than Zimbabwe? Will the starvation caused by the destruction of these white farms cause some to question whether the problems in Africa are rooted in something other than colonialism and vague generic racism? Will Michigan State ever revoke their honorary degree to Mugabe?
How many missionaries would it take to bring stability to Zimbabwe? How many Peace Corps volunteers? How much aid would cause this violence to end?
And if those are not the answers, if you think those are straw men, then tell me whether our approach to Africa is meaningful other than to give people some sick pleasure that we're "helping" in some vague ambiguous way. Africa needs a noble tyrant to give it stability, peace and prosperity.
And where's our President on this?
Blandly talking about not recognizing Mugabe's fake elections, and entertaining the idea of more sanctions. The leadership vacuum is deafening. If this were Darfur, we'd have riots on campuses, but when the victims don't fit the right narrative, all the moral outrage evaporates.
Labels: Africa, African aid, policy, racism
