104 Comments

1. Ernie G:

That video creeped me out when I saw it during the campaign. It’s not hard to imagine that some teacher somewhere will want to use it in the classroom as a teaching aid.

Sep 3, 2009 - 6:57 am 2. always right:

Another teachable moment!

Sep 3, 2009 - 6:59 am 3. LFMayor:

This went out over email and “jungle telegraph” like a wildfire. My wife first asked a friend, a 5th grade teacher, what she had heard of this two days ago. Nothing had been communicated at that time to the faculty. Yesterday afternoon, after an email and phone deluge, the superintendent of the school district communicated that the event would be held but that alternate events would be available for students whose parents did not want participation in the President’s address.

My question is why poke this obvious hornet’s nest? I mean come on, this is one of the strongest visceral instincts. Several of you have made mention of an overload tactic or a sort of smoke screen, but for what? Are they really this inept or is there fel intent driving this?

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:04 am 4. Insufficiently Sensitive:

Previous Presidents have on occasion, infrequently, made suggestions for school kids, on behalf of the welfare of the USA.

The difference here is precisely the Cult of Personality: the kiddies are being pressured to ‘help’ OBAMA. The Glorious Leader.

That’s the hornet’s nest. Most countries with a Big Man at the helm are disasters of good government, and sensible parents are well justified in giving their local school administrators an emphatic earful in opposition such brainwashing.

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:26 am 5. Insufficiently Sensitive:

Some former Presidents, infrequently, have made suggestions to American schoolchildren for behavior or actions to benefit the country, in times of national emergency.

The grating difference here is that they are being pressured to help OBAMA. The Great Leader. In a time when his status as political celebrity is newly fading.

Those countries with a Big Man at the helm are generally sordid examples of bad government. This request for ‘accountable’ obedience to the Big Man in Washington is quite sufficient to stir a real hornet’s nest among folks who recall how a republic based on individual liberty is to be governed. Parents are more than justified in ringing up their local school administrators to give them a hot earful in opposition to such demagoguery.

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:36 am 6. Salt Lick:

It’d be pretty easy to nullify this. If every Patriot feeds their boys beans for breakfast and convinces them to eat a chili-dog for lunch… boys will be boys.

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:37 am 7. Mongoose:

One more of a zillion shocking perversion of the Oval Office by the administration. He is worse than FDR, and like FDR, he completely slips outside the political requirements and traditions of his office.

Is there now any doubt at all that Obama has not a corpuscle of American blood running through his veins? We are ruled by foreigners, and foreigners who hate us and seek to destroy us at that. This man know no limits; he knows no shame. There is no bottom to him. The Obama administration has in effect determined that they only represents a certain portion of the nation. The rest of us are enemies to be silenced or sheep to be herded or rubes to be hustled, conned and bilked. He has contempt for the very notion of this country. Not even Carter or Clinton sunk this low. Not even JFK. Can you imagine if GWB had enlisted School children to push the Iraqi war? It would not even occur to him to try. What a mess we are in.

A president should use the formal and legal government venues of the executive office to explain and argue his programs, vision and policies, and may buttress this with speeches and the normal and reasonable political operations of his party. That is pretty much it. He should not even use the the agencies of the Federal government to edge things to his vision. He is the executive branch of the government, not the legislative branch.

This latest assault on the citizenry is chilling, for it may alter the office forever. The president is not supposed to engage underhanded assaults on the citizens, enlisting any force he can marshal to set against them or use any tactics or means imaginable to achieve his ends. He is to approach the American people with open hands as a delegated leader; this is what is right, true and proper. It is not a matter of law, though it is this too, it is a matter of decency,respect and honor.

This arrogant and militant “popular front/political direct action” posture goes far beyond our norms, and clearly manifests the dangers of NGO and Union activism in the public square. A “public service” Union, the NEA, is pitting children against their parents. This is tactic more appropriate to the Soviets or the ChiComs, not the president of the USA. Here is a POTUS using public education and the NEA to promulgate what amounts to a political movement. He is utilizing the public education system and the Teacher’s Union as a (Communist) popular front. This is just the ideological equivalent of Union thuggery at town hall meetings. As far as I am concerned it is a form of treason, a form of sedition. It is a form of civil war.

People should be just livid, as they should be at everything he has done. How low we have fallen. Even Clinton would not have tried this and this was a decade ago.

How we are crumbling as a nation and at a rate beyond belief.

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:37 am 8. Marcus Aurelius:

Too bad this wasn’t being done later in the month, otherwise I would volunteer to take a kid hunting that day.

Yeah, Presidents have suggested for school kids to do things but this notion that there will be a simultaneous broadcast complete with what seems to be a full blown “lesson plan” is over reaching (however, that is a constant tic this administration has). I know a lot of my Facebookies are not at all happy with this, with at least one organizing a bus trip to a zoo for those who will be out of school that day.

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:44 am 9. Willy:

Again, another sign of the end times. See Mark 13:12 – …children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.

It started years with the War on Drugs, with law enforcement questioning children during anti drug programs about behaviours in their home, and their familiarity with drug paraphanilia. “How many of you know what a joint is…”, then investigating those childrens parents.

Now it will be, “Do you parents yell at the TV when BO is on?”

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:57 am 10. novanglus:

Mongoose/7: A “public service” Union, the NEA, is pitting children against their parents. This is tactic more appropriate to the Soviets or the ChiComs, not the president of the USA. Here is a POTUS using public education and the NEA to promulgate what amounts to a political movement.

You made me think of Orwell…

“Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it… All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children.”
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 2

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:00 am 11. Willy:

Well there you have it, both a secular and biblical vision of the future… We have arrived.

Pray for more time.

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:04 am 12. steeple:

Here’s what people who follow the Great Man leader have to look forward to:

Caracas, July 22 – Venezuela, a traditional coffee exporter that boasts one of the best cups of java in South America, may have to import coffee for the first time ever this year or face shortages, industry experts said.

Producers say rising costs and prices fixed by the government have caused production to fall and illegal exports to rise. The government says poor climate and speculation by growers and roasters is to blame.

“This is the first time ever Venezuela will have to import large quantities of coffee,” Perez said.

The 2008/09 harvest that ended in March produced 1 million to 1.2 million quintales, or 46-kg bags, compared with 1.5 million bags in previous years.

At the same time, demand has grown to around 150,000 quintales a month, or 1.8 million quintales a year, said Moreno.

But more recently large quantities of coffee have been smuggled across the border to Colombia, where prices have been more than double the fixed 470 Bolivares ($218) per bag that producers are paid in Venezuela.

Critics point the finger at price and foreign exchange controls that have slowed investments in expansion and maintenance and eroded productivity. The government blames shortages on speculation by the private sector.

A shortage of milk and beef contributed to Chavez losing a referendum in 2007 that would have granted him vast new powers.

Last week, Agriculture and Land Minister Elias Jaua said that the shortage of coffee, rice and sugar was due to climatic reasons. Imported sugar would reach the domestic market in coming days and the government will announce a host of measures to ensure the coffee supply, he said.

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:05 am 13. Lifeofthemind:

No political unit larger than a Congressional district should be permitted to operate a public school. Vouchers should be granted to every parent. This should be fought out as a 13th Amendment issue. Government at the local level or state can set minimum standards and inspect that children receive some basic level of education. Government can also inspect to ensure the voucher recipients are not committing fraud or theft. Beyond that the government should stay out of education.

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:13 am 14. cjm:

my kids will be asking their teachers — during the video — why obama doesn’t send his kids to public schools.

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:16 am 15. Lifeofthemind:

steeple,
Someone said that the arabs had a saying, “If the Russians ever conquer Arabia then we will suffer from a shortage of sand.”

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:18 am 16. DW:

If our president hadn’t insisted since even before Jan. 20 on being so (as George Will put it) “ubiquitous,” the school address may not have been so rankling to so many. And what rankles me isn’t so much any supposed attempt to further indoctrinate our nation’s children. It’s that the president seemingly can’t get enough of himself, and believes that he’s the gift that keeps on giving. And giving. And giving (like STD’s, maybe?).

If Bill Cosby, on the other hand, were chosen to make an address to the nation’s schoolchildren, I might just sneak in to watch.

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:22 am 17. Mongoose:

Well novanglus, one does not have to turn toward fiction to find such examples of this. As a matter of fact, the Soviets, Chicoms and the Nazi’s have been more dastardly than any villain of Orwell’s imagination.

The most glaring, of course, is Mao’s various political fronts, the acme being the Cultural Revolution, but let us not forget the Soviet House of Child or the uilization of child informers during the great purges.

If you want to know where are “educational professionals” get their ideas of “pedagogy”, here is a hint:

Many mistakes are made because parents forget what period of history they live in. Out in the world, they seem to be good Soviet citizens, members of the new socialist society. But at home, with their children, they live in the old ways. Of course not everything in the pre-revolutionary family was bad, much should be taken over. But do not forget the major differences. We live in a classless society…our children must grow up to be active and conscious builders of communism.

Parents must remember too, that in the pre-revolutionary family the father had great power; children lived completely under his will, there was no escape for them from parental authority and some fathers treated their children cruelly. Government and church upheld their power — it was convenient in an exploiting society. In. our family the organization is very different. Our daughters do not have to wait for their fathers to find them a husband!

The feelings of the children rule. Obviously, if parents are to have influence now, they must find new methods, the old ones may no longer be used.

In the old-type family everyone belonged to some class and the son of a peasant was a peasant too, the son of a worker, a worker. Now a broad range of choice opens before our children. Their decisions need not be made according to the economic situation of the family but on the basis of their own capabilities and preparation. Both parents and children understand this. Under such conditions, parental decrees are impossible. Guiding must be done by wiser, more subtle and cautious means.

Our family is no longer a paternal one. Our women enjoy the same rights as men, mothers have rights equal with fathers. The Soviet family is a collective, not a group under one-man rule. Yet in this collective the parents have certain recognized rights. From whence do they derive them?

In the old days, it was believed that paternal power had heavenly sanction, that it was pleasing to God. Parental repression was based on the Ten Commandments.

Now we do not deceive children. Our parents are responsible for their children before Soviet society and Soviet Law. They have great power, therefore, and must have authority. Although a family is a collective of equal members of society, children and parents differ from one another. Parents guide the family, the children are being brought up in it.

Parents must clearly understand that they are not the sole, uncontrolled bosses but must act as the older, responsible members of a collective. A clear concept of this will be very helpful in the task of bringing up children.

….

Family affairs cannot be separated from the affairs of society. Your activities at home or at work are reflected in your family. They should see you as a politically, civic-minded person and not separate this image from their image of you as parent. Whatever happens in our country will reach them through your feelings and thoughts. They should know what makes you happy or sad, what is going on at your plant, what kind of community activity you are involved in. They should be proud of your successes and your service to society. This will not be healthy pride, however, if it is only pride in your good clothes, your automobile or your hunting rifle.

Anton Semyonovich Makarenko (1888-1939) — One of leading early Marxist Education “Reformers” of the USSR, and one whose work and thought had broad influence in the Soviet era.

It is not by coincidence that the modern education establishment follows the tenets and spout, behind closed doors for now, the ideologies of the of the old Soviet ideologues and apparatchiks. Rather, there is a direct and personal connection, linage, and legacy which connects our “educators” with devils like Makarenko.

Either we expose these people for what they are and reform the educational system, or we are headed straight for a Hell on Earth.

(His writings are online. Check here: http://www.marx.org/reference/archive/makarenko/index.html)

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:32 am 18. Salt Lick:

my kids will be asking their teachers — during the video — why obama doesn’t send his kids to public schools.

Good for you, cjm. This type of rebellion needs to spread until it becomes a story in itself.

A friend of mine grew up in East Germany, the Soviet Bloc. His father insisted on excellent grades in every class, except Russian Language, which he was allowed to fail every year.

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:36 am 19. Mongoose:

LotM: Even a county is too large of a unit. It should be at the municipal level.

And if a town does not have the resources, it perhaps can appeal upwards to the district for funds. Perhaps, as well, the State can be appealed to–the Constitution would see to point to this, and it seems reasonable to leave this in the hands of the States, but never should the Federal Government be involved in any manner with education.

We forget this: The limiting economic factors on education at the municipal level were once goads to reasonable accommodation of commerce, liberty and responsibility, and, in general, good government. Here, as in many other areas besides education, it served as an informal but structural check and balance on bad government.

Federal and State largess has short-circuited this goad to commonsensical government, and not just at the most local level and not just as regards education. This is a pernicious side effect of modern “Liberalism”: It makes of poverty a “reasonable condition”, at least for a time. But it should not be. Poverty should be a circumstance to escape, not wallow in. This aspect of Liberalism gets neither the examination or the public discussion it deserves. Heretofore, our society prospered because shame and hardship fell on a man who in finding himself poor did not attempt to rise out of it.

It is such an obvious moral and historical truth that one is almost embarrassed to point it out, yet modern Liberalism would upend this. Now we see the results of what successes they have had, education being a glaring one, but not by any means the only one.

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:55 am 20. BuglerJay:

“Change” can always be for the worse – and is going that way. This reminds me of “Chairman Mao” and his little red book in Chinese schools. And – what would happen to that teacher if he/she were to have the class – say – - maybe say a prayer???

Sep 3, 2009 - 9:09 am 21. Tarnsman:

Just another example of how out of touch and clueless the President and his people are. “This is America, not North Korea!” no doubt is going to be the reaction of many parents. This “Obama in our face all the time” isn’t working. In fact, I think it has a lot to do with his plummeting approval ratings. Many of us just want him to show up for work at the Oval Office for a change instead of showing up on our TV screens all the time.

Sep 3, 2009 - 9:23 am 22. Ashen:

What a bunch of arrogant a-holes these ppl are. I started my fight against liberalism/collectivism/communism in 3rd grade. I brought some gum to class and the teacher said if I don’t bring enough for everyone then I can’t bring it At all. I told her that this is America not commie Russia. She didn’t like that but I didn’t care.

Sep 3, 2009 - 9:45 am 23. luagha:

My teachers quickly learned never to use the old ‘did you bring enough for everyone’ trick on me. After the first time I always had enough for everyone.

The first time I had a good teacher, and we all had a friendly bubblegum chewing five minute break. The other times they were not so amused.

Sep 3, 2009 - 10:12 am 24. Rurik:

Pavlik Morozov. The Komsomol hero and Soviet secular saint. During the collectivization fmine, as a 12 year boy, he ratted out his parents for hoarding a small amount of grain to feed the family. the parents were shot. Then the villagers, led by Pavlik’s own uncle, cut him down with an axe. In retribution, the OGPU burned down the village. Paavlik was posthumously elevated to the highest levels of the official Stalinist Pantheon. Though widely despised by Soviet serfs, he remained an official hero till 1989.

Sep 3, 2009 - 10:16 am 25. dan:

“Give me a child for 8 years, and I will make him a Bolshevik forever.” – V.I. Lenin.

It cannot be remembered enough. I want someone on Fox to put this up big and bright on the screen – especially the “Lenin” part.

Sep 3, 2009 - 10:19 am 26. Wildernesscalling:

Impeach 0bama, Pelosi and Reid! Now is the time…Impeach 0bama, Pelosi and Reid! Impeach 0bama, Pelosi and Reid! Impeach 0bama, Pelosi and Reid! Impeach 0bama, Pelosi and Reid! Impeach 0bama, Pelosi and Reid! Impeach 0bama, Pelosi and Reid!

Sep 3, 2009 - 10:25 am 27. Kirk Parker:

Mongoose,

“Is there now any doubt at all that Obama has not a corpuscle of American blood running through his veins?”

Oh, please, what does blood have to do with it? “American” is not an ethnic thing; the real problem is that he doesn’t have an American mindset.

Sep 3, 2009 - 10:34 am 28. Roderick Reilly:

#13 LOTM:
“”"” No political unit larger than a Congressional district should be permitted to operate a public school. Vouchers should be granted to every parent. This should be fought out as a 13th Amendment issue. “”"”"

Why the 13th? Just curious. Why not also the 10th?

Sep 3, 2009 - 11:29 am 29. Mongoose:

Kirk: Well obviously, it was a figure of speech and well you know it. But the point still stands?

Whatever are you trying to say? Do you have a point beyond sophistry and casuistry? Just what do you mean apropos of this thread?

And no, being an American is most certainly not merely “a mindset”. This notion that America is “an idea” is pernicious hogwash, and mostly the leavings of New Dealer and multicult propaganda. America is a physical place. It is a real nation located in actual space and time; it a culture with its own history and traditions, and it is populated by real people. One has to be reared in it; one does not “read up on it” in a pamphlet and then become an American. It is just for this reason that the Founder placed the restrictions they did on the birth of the POTUS.

I do not know which is worse, you juvenile and condescending opening, “Oh Please”, or your superficial and unexamined bromides.

I stand by my statement.

My family has been in this country since before it was a country. Our members have fought in every war this nation has fought, and that includes some of the Pre-revolutionary Indian Wars. We fight today in the ME. Do me a favor, do not presume to instruct me in what it means to be an American.

In the future, if you wish to interact with me please do me a favor and mind you manners. I find them quite vile.

Sep 3, 2009 - 11:35 am 30. myna:

It is creepy to see all these Obamatons having access to taxpayers’ money and power. It is like the Nazi running the Americana.

Sep 3, 2009 - 11:43 am 31. Roderick Reilly:

#19 Mongoose:
“”" Federal and State largess has short-circuited this goad to commonsensical government, and not just at the most local level and not just as regards education. This is a pernicious side effect of modern “Liberalism”: “”"

Is everyone here aware that recently federal funding to the states has reached a tipping point/milestone (according to a source I will try to relocate)? On average — it will vary with different states — the states now get more from the feds for their operating budgets than they do from in-state revenues. This. Is. Crazy.

Sep 3, 2009 - 11:44 am 32. CPT. Charles:

Feh. Until I hear the previously fabbed ‘lesson plans’ have been torched and the ashes scattered I’ll presume they’re waiting to be handed out.

‘Rethinking’ doesn’t mean squat to me.

Best course of action: call the boss of the School Board [hint: they're usually 'elected'] and tell them in no uncertain terms that this is a ‘no-go’. Bottom line: side with Obama and we’ll remember that next election day.

My children are grown, so I have no ‘direct’ dog in this fight, however I’d yank my children for that day.

This is a ‘line-in-the-sand’ moment.

Sep 3, 2009 - 11:53 am 33. Roderick Reilly:

Mongoose, your points are well-taken, but both you and Kirk have kind of misinterpreted each other. And while your argument that America is a solid, real, place populated with many people who have deept roots in its past is valid, Kirk made a good point about the “American mindset.” That is what us “more recent” arrivals (little more than a century for my Irish and Slovak ancestors) acquired very quickly. “My people” missed the founding and the Civil War, but I see the founders and other patriots as “my people” as well.

As to Obama and his non-American mindset or lack of “American blood,” that is a widely-held perception, isn’t it? It also doesn’t help that he has such an “exotic” name. It may be primitive and xenophobic to react negatively to his name, but people have deep-seated, reflexive reactions to anything they associate with a “foreign threat” if you will. “Acting American” can be as varied as New York City and Idaho, but the perception so many of us have of Obama is that he doesn’t even fit comfortably within a blue-state American mindset; he’s too “out there,” or something.

Sep 3, 2009 - 11:59 am 34. maineman:

This might have an impact if more than a few of the kids gave a sh** about what the authority figures in their lives say and think. As it is, it will just be another school-based annoyance to them.

These guys miss two big points. One is that the yuts are by and large irresponsible and undependable, largely because of the influence of the left, which means they’re building a network of kindergartners as a voting block and community agitator network.

The other thing is that the class struggle they seem to want to whip up isn’t between who they seem to think it is anymore. It’s not between the workers and bosses or racial minorities and majorities. It’s between the bed-rock Americans and the group of elite airheads that include Obama and Jones and Jackson and Gates.

I don’t see how any of this works for them unless they can get the Russians or Chinese to invade.

Sep 3, 2009 - 12:02 pm 35. Kirk Parker:

No Mongoose, I will not back down an iota: if you’re not some kind of vile nativist, then be more careful in how you present yourself. Some of my ancestors have been in this country as long as yours, some have not–and Bobby Jindahl is just as much an American as any of us. It’s got nothing to do with genetics, and everything to do with culture.

Sep 3, 2009 - 12:04 pm 36. Mongoose:

RR: All too true. Here is an idea: No direct Federal income taxation. The Feds have to go hat in hand to the states. Well, they will find a way to corrupt that too, I know, but it elevates the attention paid to Statehouse. Maybe there should be some cap? Or the money cannot be returned to the States, it can ust be used for core Federal functions? Fat Chance, right?

I would not mind bringing back state regiments too.

When we bail out CA and the other blue strongholds, and they come back again for more in a year, maybe it is time to talk about it. As you say: It is insanity.

These people, I am getting to the point that I cannot bear to think of them.

Sep 3, 2009 - 12:04 pm 37. Roderick Reilly:

#19: Mongoose:
“”"” Heretofore, our society prospered because shame and hardship fell on a man who in finding himself poor did not attempt to rise out of it.

It is such an obvious moral and historical truth that one is almost embarrassed to point it out, yet modern Liberalism would upend this. Now we see the results of what successes they have had, education being a glaring one, but not by any means the only one. “”"”

Another example is the concept of giving the “poor” and disadvantaged the trappings of middle class life without also requiring them to have the earning power to afford it. Section 8 housing comes to mind, but the orgy of unsupportable home mortgages handed out to the “poor” is the most eggregious example.

Sep 3, 2009 - 12:08 pm 38. no mo uro:

Bully for you, Mongoose. Illigitimi non carborundum.

I never refer to ‘Western leftists’, which I consider to be an oxymoron, but rather ‘leftists living in the West’.

AFAIC, they aren’t Westerners and certainly not authentic Americans.

Sep 3, 2009 - 12:10 pm 39. no mo uro:

#37 Roderick Reilly

Please see my comments on the previous “Unintended Consequences” thread regarding expectations of upper middle class standard of living for a given amount (or not) of work regardless of its actual value.

You’re right about this, but this phenomenon isn’t limited to the poor, it’s society-wide.

Sep 3, 2009 - 12:15 pm 40. Lifeofthemind:

Roderick Reilly,
Blacks are keenly aware that their children are treated like property held in involuntary servitude to the teacher’s unions. The 10th Amendment is a nonsyarter. Federal Judges either laugh at such suits or quietly dismiss them. Once I heard former Solicitar General Ted Olsen point that out at a Federalist Society meeting. Fighting the issue under the 13th and 14th Amendments simply makes more sense.

Sep 3, 2009 - 12:28 pm 41. Mark Razak:

From the classic Outer Limits series, a timely quote from the “The Special One”:

“The mold of a man stems from the mind of a child. Educators and emperors have known this from time immemorial. So have tyrants.”

Sep 3, 2009 - 12:31 pm 42. Walt:

An advance copy of President Obama’s address to the nation’s school children has come into my possession, which I now share with fellow Belmont Club members.

My children, firstly let me say
How pleased I am to be today
Addressing you, the future of our land
And I as president do ask
That you the future share the task
Of giving me the president a hand
In changing first our country’s face
By putting evil in its place
Those devils who would keep our people poor
The rich and even middle class
Who live in places where there’s grass
And will not see our healthcare is the cure
For all of us, both well and ill
And that is why I know you will
Inform on mom and dad and friends alike
Who might attempt by deed and word
To keep my truths from being heard
And if your mom gets jail you’ll get a bike
In closing let me say once more
That I will show you what’s in store
If all my plans to change the world fall flat
Your school will close, your dad will die
Your mom will leave without goodbye
And you’ll be all alone and that is that

Sep 3, 2009 - 12:40 pm 43. Robohobo:

In 6th grade, we were encouraged to bring a book from home for reading during quiet class times. I brought “Animal Farm”. It was confiscated and I was sent to the office to talk to the principal. Then my mother was called to conference. I was not allowed to hear the dialog but I do not believe my mother lost that one but I was told not to bring in that particular book. Even 47 years ago the PC was having it’s effect.

Sep 3, 2009 - 12:51 pm 44. James:

Obama never ceases to amaze with his incompentence and tin ear. If his advisors have the sense God gave geese they’ll insist on a perfectly innocuous address focused entirely on the benefits of a good education and encouraging kids to study hard.
At least for the first address. After that there’ll be a precedent set.
I have a dream: a dream of a teleprompter flaking out partway through and the speach turning into qwerty SHRDLUs.

Sep 3, 2009 - 1:06 pm 45. maineman:

James, his advisers are even more whacked out than he is, at least those we know about.

Sep 3, 2009 - 1:11 pm 46. Mongoose:

Parker:
More immaturity out of you–more filthy snd vile manners! More effeminate, foot-stomping tantrums. I could not care less what you think–I do not imagine that you ever think much of any worth at all. I have seen no meaningful contribution from you whatsoever to warrant this comically high self-regard of yours. How dare you presume to come here and judge me. How preposterous. How risible. Its meets with my contempt and derision.. You should be ashamed your yourself, and if you were half the “real American” you purport to be you would be ashamed. You consider yourself a “real American”? Do not flatter yourself.

Rock away on whatever infantile, PC hobby horse as you care too, stamp you tiny feet as you will, but leave the serious adults out of it. Leave real Americans out of it. And stop pushing you cant around and imagine adult, decent Americans meet it with anything but the contempt it so richly deserves? You “will not back down”? How hilarious. My guess is that you would run at the sound of the first round going off.

Can you read English? Once again, if you cannot control you infantile bad manners do not interact with me.

Sep 3, 2009 - 1:13 pm 47. Bob Smith:

When did “rethink” start meaning “withdraw”?

Sep 3, 2009 - 1:39 pm 48. Neo:

The real shame here is that everybody, both supporter and critics, believe in their hearts that the President of the United States would (or should) use this speech to pitch a political agenda to school children.

Has the office been debased that much in a mere 7 months ?

Sep 3, 2009 - 1:40 pm 49. Uncle Jefe:

That idiotic video and others that were made before the election, as well as the pleas to youngsters to ‘get in the face’ of their parents, etc foreshadowed this latest attempt at brainwashing our children into loving Dear Leader.
‘Orwellian’ and ‘Hitler/Nazi’ have become way overused lo these many years, but damn, these guys sure make it difficult to find terms to better describe their actions…

Sep 3, 2009 - 1:44 pm 50. Jack Okie:

Mongoose:

I don’t know what has your panties in a twist today, but I commend to you this portion of Lincoln’s “electric cord” speech:

http://tinyurl.com/nr5apy

Of course, since as far as I can tell Lincoln did not trace his ancestry to back before the Founding he may seem a little declasse to you.

When I was ten we lived in a duplex owned by a Jewish family. The man was a successful plumber – had a beautiful new Mercury; his wife was a nice grandmotherly type who would let us kids come in sometimes to watch her round black & white Philco television. My mother told me much later that they were refugees from the Bolsheviks. The woman was the only survivor of her family, hiding on top of a railway car while the rest of her family was cut down. This kind, successful family was 100 times more AMERICAN than you and the nativist crap you’re peddling.

Was Bill the Butcher, by any chance, one of your illustrious ancestors?

Sep 3, 2009 - 1:44 pm 51. Tcobb:

Robohobo writes:
In 6th grade, we were encouraged to bring a book from home for reading during quiet class times. I brought “Animal Farm”. It was confiscated and I was sent to the office to talk to the principal. Then my mother was called to conference. I was not allowed to hear the dialog but I do not believe my mother lost that one but I was told not to bring in that particular book. Even 47 years ago the PC was having it’s effect.

Yeah–the infection has persisted for quite some time. The central question is: Is it merely a boil that can be lanced and drained or is it gangrene? And who will do the cutting on the political body, and on what parts of it? One hopes it won’t be the political equivalent of Dr. Kevorkian, but one never knows. We live in interesting times.

Sep 3, 2009 - 2:01 pm 52. Roderick Reilly:

#40 LOTM:

Thanks for the feedback. The 13th has other litigation uses as well. While this may not be germaine to the thread, the issue of some businesses insisting that they can fire an employee for smoking at home (a bogus “health insurance cost” issue easily remedied by making said employee pay the full premium) is — to me — a 13th amendment issue, since it implies “ownership” of all the employee’s time by the employer — making it virtual indentured servitude.

Oh, and by the way everybody, September 17th is Constitution Day (http://edsitement.neh.gov/ConstitutionDay/default.asp), courtesy of Se. Robert Byrd.

Sep 3, 2009 - 2:08 pm 53. Kirk Parker:

Thanks for the support, Jack. Since M. doesn’t want me to address him any more, I’ll abide by that.

Sep 3, 2009 - 2:31 pm 54. trangbang68:

That creepy video of the little fascists in training in Santa Monica reminds why I never want to live in California again. Its straight out of North Korea. Dear leader we exalt you .We will bow at your feet and acknowledge your superior wisdom in everything O most Celestial and Omniscient Dear Leader. Coupled with the Pledge video from the Hollywood trash , dude, I want my country back.

Sep 3, 2009 - 2:36 pm 55. Gordon:

America is our land and there are many beautiful lands–New Zealand, maybe. But I believe the difference between Americans, who come from all over the globe, and others is that of mentality or personality.

I work weekly with immigrants, mostly Hispanic but occasional Asians, even 2 Russians. Almost every time I ask the what is the difference between themselves and those who stayed behind. Sometimes it’s money or other obstacles but far more often it’s the difference between one person and another, between those who will take the risk and those who will just put up with the status quo.

Paraphrasing, I’ve heard this a thousand times: “Well, I knew nothing would ever change down there, with the corrupt police and the poverty and I decided I could do better here. I knew others have and I knew life would be hard as an immigrant. But I also knew my children would have a better life than the one here, so I came. Some of my friends, they were used to the life down there and wouldn’t make the trip. I love my homeland, and I really miss it, but now I’m here and things are better.”

This is verbatim, from a Guatemalan (a “chapin”): “Life here is hard and beautiful; in my country life is hard and ugly.” (’dura y linda; dura y fea’)

So what’s the difference? Ambition? Resourcefulness? Self-sufficiency? Determination? Courage? Desire for opportunity and independence? I say all the above and that’s how we are compared to most other countries.

What a cruel irony if these people came here only to find socialism and lovers of Selaya/Castro/Chavez.

Sep 3, 2009 - 2:44 pm 56. Al_Batross:

“So what’s the difference?” Gordon@55

Optimism ? From:
http://anglosphere.com/weblog/archives/000118.html

“But there’s another difference, just as important, and that is that America is an optimistic nation. This is because so many optimists were confident enough to bet their futures that they could make a better life for themselves in the new country of America, and they steeled themselves to leave their homes and families, knowing they would probably never see them again. As America became a success, based on the efforts of these first pioneers, other optimists in other countries also turned their faces to the sun – the Italians, the Germans, the Poles, the Jews – optimists every one – determined to take their fate into their own hands, confident they could prosper. And, by and large, they did.
That is why America is such an affirmative, optimistic nation. It’s where all the optimists went”.

a cruel irony indeed…

Sep 3, 2009 - 2:55 pm 57. Gordon:

Yes–I would certainly add optimism to the list. Hence we see the children of Boat People graduating from West Point and my housekeeper’s girl winning math awards in school. And we benefit and prosper from this mentality and it shapes how we are.

Sep 3, 2009 - 3:01 pm 58. Peter Boston:

I think it extraordinary that people reacted so quickly and forcefully to this. What better proof that Obama has so quickly lost the trust of the American people than that they are repulsed by the idea of him speaking to their children?

Obama is such a bonehead that he probably will still turn it into a self worship session.

Sep 3, 2009 - 3:02 pm 59. Kirk Parker:

Gordon (55) and Al (56): Interestingly, while many relative newcomers display what we would recognize as the American spirit, it turns out that John F’n Kerry is descended on his mother’s side from a pre-RW family from Boston. But he’s Yet Another Tranzi these days, isn’t he? Not to mention his treasonous lying during his Winter Soldier episode. And he’s far from alone in drifting away from the sensibilities of his forefathers (and mothers.)

Sep 3, 2009 - 3:10 pm 60. Robohobo:

Walt – Good one but I will not be showing that to any children!

Sep 3, 2009 - 3:13 pm 61. Al_Batross:

As I suffer from a low cringe-threshold, I find it very difficult to look at the video above.
Something awfully creepy there…

Sep 3, 2009 - 3:19 pm 62. Kirk Parker:

Robohobo, that’s amazing. Care to divulge which particular socialist paradise this was in? I’m about 4 years younger than you, but even here in the Soviet of Washington, “Animal Farm” was perfectly acceptable.

Sep 3, 2009 - 3:22 pm 63. presbypoet:

As an American who’s ancestors came from various places, I have contemplated just what it means to be an American. America came to some of my ancestors. Having crossed on the Mayflower, they lived in America for generations, until America was born.
Later, an ancestor sailed on a New England trading ship to California. He met a beautiful young woman, jumped ship, and became an illegal alien in Mexican California. They were afraid Americans would change the culture. We did. America came to him again.

America is the first nation in the world you can come and become American. You can’t move to Japan and become Japanese. It is one of our strengths. Part of the freedom thing. It keeps us from the third generation problem. (the first generation works, the third lives off what their grandparents built, and doesn’t appreciate what they did. See Paris Hilton.) The fresh “blood” brought to a new land, keeps bringing people who appreciate our freedom.

This isn’t a guaranteed thing. We can certainly lose it. That is why we must not give up hope, and why the tree needs water. I would propose we pay any legal immigrant to go to school for a year to learn English, to help them become American. It is crucial we think of what it truly means to “Be an American.”

Sep 3, 2009 - 3:40 pm 64. Promethea:

The problem with America today, as many have said, is that the incredible labors of the early settlers and more recent immigrants led to an amazing country full of wonderful comforts.

Millions of the offspring of those hard workers now believe that the America we love today can last forever without effort. They think that we’ll always have freedom, that the taxpayers can care for all the sick, that the country will never be invaded or destroyed by enemies, etc. Those offspring are clueless, and since many of them are liberals, they also believe that “feelings” are more important than “facts.”

If the public schools don’t help children to understand the history of the United States, then even more ignorance will be spread.

I know this is obvious. It just needs to be said again.

Sep 3, 2009 - 3:47 pm 65. Uncle Jefe:

Being American…it’s about so much, but like Sinatra sang “Especially THE PEOPLE, that’s America to me.”
America is pride and a feeling of ownership in the Declaration of Independence and in our Constitution, and the knowledge that we have and will fight for the ideas and ideals therein, not just for ourselves, but for the whole of humanity.
We have wonderful partners around the globe that have shared this privilege and burden over the course of the last century, but our exceptionalism arises from how we fought and carved out the nation and what it stands for, and have sought to share that with, not impose it on, the rest of the world that has asked for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, for it is in these aspirations that we’re all created equal.
Other nations can claim wonderful constitutions, and have pitched in to defeat fascism.
None can claim what Americans have striven to do since we declared ourselves independent.
And even though many of us can trace our American lineage back to Plymouth Rock, the beauty is indeed that you can come here tomorrow and share those same ideas and ideals, believe in them by swearing your allegiance and by contributing to our way of life, and BE American.
I would not allow the PC police at the hospital fill out my childrens’ birth certificates with any racial affiliation.
I made them write in ‘American’.
And they did.

Sep 3, 2009 - 4:15 pm 66. Tarnsman:

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American … There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag … We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language … and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

Theodore Roosevelt 1907

BTW One of the roots of my family tree extends back to an Irish settler who served with General Washington for the entire eight years of the War for Independence. Another root traces to a Scottish farmer who immigrated to Minnesota and later as a Union soldier in the Civil War experienced the horrors that were the Andersonville prison. Another traces to a French-Canadian who hitched the rails to America as a young man leaving behind the lumber camp his father ran to find his fortune, and later served in US Army in France during WWI. The last root traces back to a young German lad who came to this country with his family at the turn of the 20th century, who was forbidden to speak German by his father during the years before the Great War, and later enlisted in the USN to take up arms against his former homeland. Guess all that makes me a real, real American, huh? But I see anyone willing to embrace the ideals of this country as American as I am. It is neither blood, nor culture. It is ‘attitude’ that makes us Americans.

Sep 3, 2009 - 5:04 pm 67. Karen Yvonne:

Mongoose @29: This notion that America is “an idea” is pernicious hogwash…

I have to admit here that I said that very same thing – that America is an idea – on another thread just the other day [thank goodness you overlooked it and I was spared the kind of reply that Kirk Parker got - I don't believe I've ever found myself disagreeing with you, including this time] but, in stating that, I wasn’t thinking of America as ONLY an idea. I totally agree with you that it is also a distinct geographical place with its own culture, history and traditions.

I only bring this up because this whole question of what defines America seems to be part and parcel of why we could even find ourselves facing a situation where an essentially un-American president is attempting to promote his political agenda to the nation’s schoolchildren, and why so many in the education establishment (and others) see nothing wrong with that.

Samuel Huntington said in his book, Who Are We? that, historically, the American identity had 4 key components: race, ethnicity, culture (notably language and religion), and ideology (the ideology of the American Creed of liberty and democracy). Of course, with race and ethnicity no longer prerequisites, and with culture under continuing relentless attack lo these many decades; if that attack proves finally and ultimately successful, then we are left with only our ideology, the American Creed, as the sole definition of the American identity. But since this Creed was the product of a distinct Anglo-Protestant culture, Huntington questions whether or not it alone is enough to bind us together as a cohesive society or civilization. It’s a good question. It IS enough, IF one assumes that “a nation can be based on only a political contract among individuals lacking any other commonality.” According to Huntington, the best outcome would be for Americans of all races and ethnicities to reinvigorate the core culture.* I’d have to agree with that. Unfortunately, it is our current political regime that is leading these attacks on the culture, even down to the little children.

*The American culture Huntington defines as being comprised of the following key elements: the English language; Christianity; religious commitment; English concepts of the rule of law, the responsibility of rulers, and the rights of individuals; and dissenting Protestant values of individualism and the work ethic.

NB: Huntington made clear that he was arguing for the importance of Anglo-Protestant culture, not for the importance of Anglo-Protestant people.

Sep 3, 2009 - 5:05 pm 68. trangbang68:

Obama’s merry band of pranksters made sanctions of Honduras official today because the army illegally seized power from the president who was illegally establishing himself as el presidente for life. It can’t happen here.

Sep 3, 2009 - 5:13 pm 69. Tarnsman:

Another quote from Teddy Roosevelt that Mr. Obama and his followers would do well to remember:

“The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.”

Sep 3, 2009 - 5:30 pm 70. Uncle Jefe:

Trangbang, did the Honduran army illegally seize power?
Or is that obammy’s justification for sanctions?

Sep 3, 2009 - 5:35 pm 71. Mongoose:

Okie: First, you are not reading what I am saying, you are allowing JP to put words in my mouth.

Second, being concise, accurate and clear is not having “you panites in a wad”. Neither is defending yourself, your race, your nation or your political section from innuendo and slander and the outrages of the Left. Calling out a Moby is the right thing to do.

I suggest you try these thing sometime.

But more to the point:

While gratifying–your story about those Russians–you miss the more obvious and the much more deadly reality about Russians on our shores. Bolshevik operatives came here and, under the cover of the political system, academia, media and the Unions promulgated cultural relativism, cultural marxism and multi-culturalism, and thereby sought to undermine the “real” America (and the West in general) using the nostrum of “America is an idea” (among other nostrums, of course). If America is just an Idea, it can become another Idea. If it is not an expression of particular peoples, “culture” and a great historical civilization, if it does not live in history, then a new history can be create for her, and out of whole cloth. To see this in another context, all one need do is look at their infiltration of the mainstream churches and the Jewish faith.

Attempts to fight this result in the slander of “nativism” being thrown, along with “racism”, as does the slightest attempt to voice concern that our border are out of control, or that our immigration policies have a decidedly anti-white bias. This was used by socialists prior to ww2, during the Cold War and it is being used now. But the Left’s use and intent of Race and immigration against this Nation and this Civilization are not what they claim. It is not in the tradition that Lincoln or Reagan mused over. Their clear intent is chiefly to use race to destabilize and, most importantly, to introduce decidedly un-American notions. This is done by literally having the “client race/immigrant” voice these “ideas” as somehow reasonable and then to shout “nativism” or Racism’ when someone who knows better objects. The “ideology” we are hearing out of Black apparatchiks and the entourage of Obama’s admnistration is a case and point (and note: these people are the commonplace of Blacks in politics, not the Condi Rices of the country). When called out on their perfidy, the “nativist” agitprop smears quickly ensue. It is all a part of the plan, and the plan is a carefully thought out political direct action against us.

But no matter how well they lie, the Left’s animus and doctrine do not come from these shores. They are not American. Period. The whole of it is foreign, literally directed from the politburos of the USSR and their henchmen until such time that the Left in the USA could set up their own “politburos”. It all would have been rejected once apon a time.

But it goes beyond that, They also wish to use the “nativist” smear to discredit not only the principles of the nation but those who built it and and thus all they built, all they stood for and their history, including, of course, the resistance to collectivism in general and the Cold War in particular. And, not the least, they can now attack the descendants of the real Americans so they might plunder their wealth. This is the hustle: There was no great nation called America, only “ideas”; there was this terrible place those evil, hypocritical white people created. We Must tear it down along with the whites to create a new, great nation.

Think not? Go ask a high school student about WW2 or the Cold war and America’s role in these wars. The answers you get may shock you.

I will resist this with all my blood. Their “multicultural” nation with whites as a minority will be a living hell, and if you do not believe me go to Africa and have a look.

In this sense, the “navitist” of the last century were right. It was well and good that Al Smith was treated like he was during his presidential bid. He was not treated this because he was an Irishaman, but because he promulgated Southern Middle European notions of politics and society that were deeply foreign.

But beyond all this, we must lay aside the hallowed, dreamy notion of that “special type of soul” who is a new American immigrant; who is courageous and self reliant. Let us lay aside for a moment that the left has managed to make it quite hard for whites to immigrate here now, that immigration has now taken on a different hue. Let us lay aside the Asian case too, which is really a relative trickle. Let us also put aside the few who come today who are of this older type. The grim truth is greater part of our urban immigrant committees today are here for the welfare handouts. They are possessed of an arrogant cynicism. Their loyalties are to their home countries and languages and they have no intention of assimilating. They scoff at our history, they scoff at our ideals, and , yes, a great many scoff at the natives and their race and civilization. Think not? Go to Southern CA, Go to a Laz Raza rally. Listen to what our new immigrants say. No Shining City on a Hill here.

They hope by government fiat to take the accumulated wealth of Whites and distribute it to them, and that they will stand on not even a level playing field, but on one were they are a protected race. And do not think that illegal immigrants do not vote. Of course they do.

These are not your father’s immigrants. They are Weapon pointed at the white middle class.

Nowhere in the dreams of Lincoln was the idea that we should become a third world, Latin American dump, where English is just one language among many and that people of European decent would be in a minority. It is not immoral to object to this, any more than it is immoral for the Europeans to object to the growing Islamiscization of the EU.

What is going on in LA is not in anyway a part of the “American Tradition”. It is a vile design foisted on us by the Left to splinter the counties, destroy us a nation and as a superpower.

We need to face the truth about this. Irrespective of Mobies who may come to BC and lay this Nativism card or unwitting readers who have not examined just how and why this meme has been placed in their minds, we must grasp how we are being attacked.

And beyond that, this all confounds Civilization with “culture”, “culture” with “custom”, and “customs” with beliefs and ideas. None of these things are synonymous, and they are not of equal import either. That Leftists do so willfully and to an evil end, you seem to do this unwittingly.

Civilization, and “culture”, in the highest sense is much more than this, and it is certainly much more than what appeals purely to the intellect. Certainly there are articulated precept and principles but their impact and weight is not in the end the whole of the matter. Civilization is not a matter of some sort of abstract moral or intellectual assent. It is too close to the bone. Consciousness itself is shaped by the very civilization, and, over time the body too. Then this flows back into the civilization. Who the civilization values, who bears it standards gives forth the next generation. It permeates ever aspect of us, not just our intellects.

Along this line, some vague, psuedo-scientific notions about “genetics” in abstract hardly accounts for the relationship between the human and civilizations–they are created by Human Beings–created By peoples-they do not drop out of the sky, and are in turn shaped by them. They are not epiphenomena. Political Correctness has blunted reasonable discussion of race and civilization–it creeps in even here.

Additionally, it is a ontological and epistemological rhetorical dodge to say that America exist out of time, that it is some sort of “work in profess”. This too is pernicious rhetoric. Yes, Obama and Chavez could create a “new” America” and it could last for two hundred years and that would be “the real America” then, but this is not what we are talking about. America, what is best in her, what is enduring and noble in her, is a product of Western Civilization. It is a product of the Judea Christian heritage and the Grand synthesis of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem, with a strong dollop of Edinburgh, London, the Low Countries, Oslo and Hamburg thrown in for good measure. In the middle of the last century we got a rather all too strong dose of Moscow and Vienna (as in Austrian Social democratic Welfare) and that is just the problem we have today, and just the problem with “America as an idea”.

Nothing Lincoln says in that speech contradicts this, and I am surprised that you think it buttresses your argument. It does not such thing, it buttresses mine. Lincoln did not imagine that he was making a free home for Muslims and sharia law as a major political force, I can assure you of that. You should read closely what he is actually saying relative to world civilizations.

Above and beyond that, the events that would soon unfold after this speech clearly underlines my point. It is odd for you to use Lincoln and nativism for historically the so called Nativists/Know Nothings were of the north, and strongly anti-slavery, or rather, were quite cleverly “wedged” as we say today, by the abolitionists through “Free-labor” sentiments. In that period they were one of the most vociferous voices against the addition of slave states. The Abolitionists were glad to make use f them and so was Lincoln. He would make more use of them later as soldiers. Moreover, the Scots/Irish on both sides of the line were fighting for for what they took to be their individual freedoms, rights and dignities, and on the both side of that thought themselves “American” and fighting for their nation, They were not fighting for the same “ideas”. That is just my point.

My guess is that, given the date of the speech, Lincoln was more attempting to lure some folks away for the Know Nothing Party than he was oraculating about the nature of America in the “world consciousness of free men”.

America is a real country, it is not a state of mind, and our notions of immigration and race need to be adjusted to current realities. To cling to past notions in the face of damage the left and the Democrats are causing with race and immigration is to indugle in dangerous sentimentality.

Sep 3, 2009 - 5:35 pm 72. Uncle Jefe:

Well said Mongoose.
I should say that ‘principles’ is appropriate rather than ‘ideas’.
However, for those who do (and many desperately do) want to come here to be ‘American’, the door remains open.

Sep 3, 2009 - 5:46 pm 73. Mongoose:

Well really, Karen, is is just a evasion to separate anglo-protestant “culture” (read Civilization) from Anglo-Protestant people. They are one and the same.

What this really works out to is that a minority need to assimilate into a predominately Anglo-protestant nation, and that nation must strongly cleave toward the traditions of its founders, and that is really how we have viewed America and immigrants here historically. To imagine otherwise is just to deny reality.

This is just the problem that we are encountering now. As the Anglo-Protestant (Continental Catholic too to a degree) diminishes we find we are becoming a different nation. We certainly are a different country than we were in 1950, and it is not just because of “ideas”.

Sep 3, 2009 - 6:10 pm 74. Tcobb:

Obama’s merry band of pranksters made sanctions of Honduras official today because the army illegally seized power from the president who was illegally establishing himself as el presidente for life.
That’s what tranzis are all about. The new and “progressive” world order is not about leading mankind to some new and wonderful dimension, its about the current ruling political class of every country making a deal with one another that outsiders won’t interfere with or even mention what predations they do upon their own people.

After all-the only time you should interfere in the internal affairs of another country is when the peasants start thinking they know better than their Betters–a political condition that ruling classes throughout the ages have rightly perceived to be very, very dangerous to those who currently hold the reins of power. And besides, the very idea that peasants can resist their Betters is a very dangerous idea. If you have examples of it working it spreads amonst the peasants like the black plague. We can’t have it. Period.

Look at the UN–functionally what is it other than a confederacy of filth, scum, and whores with delusions of grandeur? If that’s the shape of the new world order, I think I would rather keep the one I have now.

Sep 3, 2009 - 6:13 pm 75. Promethea:

I agree with you, Mongoose, but in Chicago, where I live, it seems to me that the Mexican and other Spanish-speaking immigrants are assimilating nicely. La Raza may be more active in Southern California than it is here.

I don’t think you should put your hopes in American remaining “white,” but so long as Americans of all colors believe in the American nation as you describe it, there won’t be the kinds of vicious race consciousness that the Dems have been fostering.

I hope Obama’s presidency will mark the death knell of Affirmative Action. There must be a concerted effort to get rid of this plague. I don’t want any surgeons who work on me to be AAs. Oddly enough, I’ve had several doctors work on me who are of Indian descent. But they aren’t counted as AAs because they are successful, as are the East Asians who have now become “white” in the last few years because they are also successful.

Anyway, I agree with your views of America and how we need to defend it. We can’t let the marxists and black power agitators continue to put us “whites” (and I may not even be “white”) on the defensive.

Sep 3, 2009 - 6:15 pm 76. Robohobo:

Santa Fe, NM

Socialist workers paradise that it is now. Back then it was not. It was quite conservative.

Cute story.

Riding with the mentioned Mother. She said, “You are going to go get a haircut today!” Points at the group of hippies strolling down Water Street, “I don’t want you looking or being like them!” I argue that hair a touch longer is the fashion and besides, “Mom, those are all millionaires!” She says, “B.S. And just who are they?” I says, “Mom, that’s the Grateful Dead!” Then explained to her who they were. Whole lotta good it did me, still had to get a haircut.

Sep 3, 2009 - 6:21 pm 77. OldSalt:

If the Obamanauts want to press their ideological agenda upon the innocent minds of school children, there are more innocuous, effective ways. This entire episode reeks of incompetence on the part of the Education Secretary, and the little left-wing ideologues filling out that department. To any normal adult, the lesson plan suggestions would have raised huge red flags. I don’t view the Clinton Administration as an example of competency, but does anyone think this “great idea” would have gotten to first base with the Clinton team?

Obama’s Cabinet appointments reflect his own naive, foolish self. If it were not for the dangerous world we lived in, Obama’s incompetence would be both funny and reassuring.

Sep 3, 2009 - 6:56 pm 78. Mongoose:

Promethea. There is no reason that this country has to be wildly multi-enthnic or multi-cultural, or that there should be even a less percentage of whites now than in the past. This is wholly the doings of the left. There is not some sort of Zeitgeist out there commanding this–it is not some sort of inevitability about it. It is not some sort of mark of “progress” or “decency”. Such nations do not last long, it is unnatural.

There is no natural reason that Rotterdam or Malmo should be over half Muslim. Quite the opposite. This is ripping Europe apart. The USA is sure to follow.

At some point there will a harsh reaction here and in the EU, perhaps in a decade, perhaps in a generation, but it will surely come. I think that this is rather the point. People have had enough of it as it is.

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:08 pm 79. Robohobo:

Mongoose said:

Bolshevik operatives came here…

Not only that but many were home grown. I don’t know if you make that point or not. Dad was a member of the CPUSA, taught at the New School for Social Research and organized for the IWW in the Central Valley of CA. I have said this before.

In some respects we are engineering our own downfall.

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:15 pm 80. Tcobb:

In some respects we are engineering our own downfall.
No disrespect intended Robohobo, but that is one hell of an understatement.

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:28 pm 81. Doug:

“Some developments seem to be evolving in a less than optimum manner.“

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:40 pm 82. rickl:

71. Mongoose

Well said. And it needs to be said, as often as possible.

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:57 pm 83. Promethea:

#78 Mongoose . . .

I think most of the multicultural stuff is really about food and holidays. When it comes to wearing burkhas and polygamy, that’s another story.

Also, gerrymandering congressional districts has got to stop.

I guess some battles are worth fighting, and others not. I would certainly fight against burkhas, affirmative action, and gerrymandering. I also don’t think we need “black history month, “women’s history month,” and a special seat on the Supreme Court for people with Hispanic names.

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:05 pm 84. Charles:

September 03, 2009
-Special Report- Panel: Van Jones Will Be Gone By Monday

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:05 pm 85. Mr. Frank:

The excrement has hit the fan in one school system. My grandson came home from 1st grade today with a letter from the principal explaining how Obama’s speech will be handled. The district is recording it and making DVD’s available to all schools in the city. Children whose parents want them to see the video will do so during their PE period. Other students will maintain their regular schedule. Parents must sign the letter indicating their preference. Of course, this was in a red state in the south.

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:18 pm 86. Robohobo:

Tcobb:

No disrespect intended Robohobo, but that is one hell of an understatement.

None taken. Understatement is my specialty.

Unless things change radically, it is only a matter of how fast, not if.

My hope is there is someone out there who can say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done to cut the nuts out of the current crop of idiots on both sides.

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:20 pm 87. Mad Fiddler:

Anyone planning to attend a Town Hall Meeting, or any sort of public protest against O-health care…

Wear a pair of Kevlar gloves.

You can get’em at shops which sell woodcarving tools.

Buy enough of’em and you could stitch’em together into a Kevlar shirt.

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:22 pm 88. Mongoose:

Fiddler: Are you suggesting that they will bead the Hand that fights them?

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:30 pm 89. Kirk Parker:

Is there anyone here who ever, even slightly, advocated multi-culturalism?

Nah, I didn’t think so.

Look, I’ve already mentioned John Kerry, whose contributions to American society and culture have been almost universally negative, as one person of fairly early ancestry who nevertheless is not on our side. Jay Rockefeller is another, and I’m sure it would be merely an exercise in tedium to compile a much longer list of similar folks with extremely long ancestry in this country, who are nevertheless today working to its detriment (and possibly to its demise.)

So am I supposed to be respectful of these people, and allow them free hand to put their harmful policies in place, just because they’re of (longstanding) Northern European lineage? Sorry, I’m not buying that.

On the other hand, I know first- and second-generation citizens of Coptic, Indian, Filipino, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, and South African descent, as well as some recent arrivals from England and Ireland (and these are just the ones that come immediately to mind) who are as conservative as the average commenter here, and who are of the American mindset, who have essentially adopted (or are in the process of adopting) American culture, and who are not only every bit as much my countrymen as folks in the former group, they’re actually working to maintain and perhaps even improve this pinnacle of Western Civilization rather than tear it down.

It’s not about genetics and DNA, people…

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:50 pm 90. Mad Fiddler:

Mongoose, your #88

AAAAUUUUGGGHHH!

Sep 3, 2009 - 8:59 pm 91. Kayak2U Blog » Blog Archive » Dear Fearless Leader:

[...] to the nation’s captive public school audience (a few of them, impressionable youngsters), comment 14 at Richard Fernandez’s [...]

Sep 3, 2009 - 9:14 pm 92. davidt:

Obama’s address to students probably started with, “Jesus, will you look at this polling! What can we do to stop the bleeding?”

“I know, we can have the big guy give a nationwide speech to all the kids in all the schools about the importance of education and stuff! No way can anybody criticize education! And it’s For the Children! Solid gold!”

“That’s it! Get on it, right away!”

Then, “The Commitee,” got ahold of the project, and added all its extras of ObamaProp.

Now they’re back to, “Jesus, will you look at this polling! What can we do to stop the bleeding?”

Sep 3, 2009 - 9:38 pm 93. Lifeofthemind:

Coming to America, from Casablanca.

Mr. Leuchtag: Come sit down. Have a brandy with us.
Mrs. Leuchtag: To celebrate our leaving for America tomorrow.
Carl: Oh, thank you very much. I thought you would ask me, so I brought the good brandy. And – a third glass!
Mrs. Leuchtag: At last the day is came!
Mr. Leuchtag: Mareichtag and I are speaking nothing but English now.
Mrs. Leuchtag: So we should feel at home when we get to America.
Carl: Very nice idea, mm-hmm.
Mr. Leuchtag: [toasting] To America!
Mrs. Leuchtag: To America!
Carl: To America!
Mr. Leuchtag: Liebchen – sweetnessheart, what watch?
Mrs. Leuchtag: Ten watch.
Mr. Leuchtag: Such much?
Carl: Hm. You will get along beautiful in America, mm-hmm.
/HT IMDB

Sep 3, 2009 - 10:04 pm 94. RCM:

29. Mongoose:

Sometimes the bark just has to come off.

We may be in great need of that clarity of thought, sooner than later

Bravo!

Sep 4, 2009 - 1:47 am 95. dtmack:

It’s certainly true that this Country was founded by Anglo Saxon White people, and the culture we’ve been given has proven far superior to others, and must be defended vigorously.

That said, I believe wholeheartedly that you don’t have to be White, or native born, to be a true American. I see it every day. I’ll go even further, and say that in many cases immigrants, and/or their children, are more devoted to the ideas of this country than many native borns. Regardless of color or country of origin. I’ve seen this in action multiple times.

I say this because in many cases they come from poor and/or politically repressive countries, and appreciate what we have here in a more fundamental way than many native born citizens, who may regard our system as a given, and don’t often marvel at what we have. Most of us, me included, are guilty of this.

I have had a perfect example of this living next to me for 20 years. The parents are from Vietnam, and their story is pretty amazing. They took a huge step down in affluence and prestige when they came here, and they’ve made the most of the opportunities offered without any complaint that I’ve heard. They’ve raised three beautiful daughters, and if all the rest of the young adults were like those girls I can tell you we’d be a better place. And those girls look Vietnamese, but they’re as American as Apple Pie. This is not the only example of this that I know of, just the one I’m closest to.

I deal with Europeans and Asians on a regular basis since I have projects going in Europe and Asia at work. I’ll tell you, from what I’ve seen, many of the Europeans, who are most assuredly “white”, would, if they emigrated here, attempt to bring their welfare state and slacker mentality with them. The Asians I deal with, however, are almost uniformly hard workers, and would fit in well in this Country, should they come.

If I had the choice to admit 100 people from Vietnam, or 100 from Belgium, I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment. The problem is not skin color, or the culture people come from, but whether they are willing to accept our culture, and accomodate themselves, or whether they expect us to accomodate them. Multiculturalism is the road to ruin, but whether we accept that depends more on the will of those who are already here than it does on those who wish to come.

Sep 4, 2009 - 7:03 am 96. Barry 0351:

I recall my grade school was released from classes to line the street from the town square to the local University to see, cheer and shake hands with Robert Kennedy when he visited the campus.
I recall it as an exciting memory but it never had any effect on my voting habits then, after or today.
It did ot turn me into a democrat nor sway me into the republican camp.
Most kids today do not care about anyone but miley cyrus or poke mon.

Sep 4, 2009 - 8:10 am 97. Wadeusaf:

It’s not about genetics and DNA, people…

Mr. Parker, may I humbly suggest that you are not even in the same conversation, much less of the same mind.

Culture has little to do with DNA, race is frankly a myth thus your insistence that we are talking about white Europeans is frankly disquieting. America is more than just a state of mind, Our laws, our traditions our view of ourselves as individual citizens with rights assumes there are responsibilities too.

Our Constitution asserts that all powers not explicitly given to the central government are reserved to the states. Within each state are Constitutions which likewise limit the powers of each part of government local, regional and statewide. Knowledge of and involvement in governing ourselves responsibly is the ultimate expression of that culture. What the current administration is proposing is nothing short of the abdication of that very specific and very American culture. That we believe such a culture can be practiced and supported by any group of human beings that desires individual liberty and believes like we do that our rights are self evident. To achieve that individual attitude in our cultural setting is not an exercise of automatic reflex. Especially if you are used to having your lowly self trampled by every celebrity driving down the street.

That said the school system has failed to support the culture, miserably.

Is there anyone here who ever, even slightly, advocated multi-culturalism?

No. Why would we, why should we? If you are referring to clog dancing then yeah, I can support that. But if you are referring to the political culture that allows the republic to function, then I I want nothing to do with your plea for multiculturalism. That would be self defeating.

Sep 4, 2009 - 10:51 am 98. TheCharlatan:

Yes we CAN!!!

Let’s win the children to our propoganda! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLRLw5Ve3qM

Sep 4, 2009 - 1:50 pm 99. Al_Batross:

“Our Constitution” Wadeusaf@97.

Is that not the crux ? The idea was that wherever a man might be born, and whatever his colour or belief system, he could become an American IF he could sincerely commit himself to “support and defend” the US Constitution.
The President swears to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution”, members of the armed forces swear to “support and defend the Constitution”, it seems like just about everyone swears to it in one way or another. The Constitution occupies a central and sacred (or maybe totemic) place in American society, and you fear that this is somehow changing, that the expectation of Constitutional loyalty is being allowed to slide into abeyance, and that a “pick and mix”, multi-culti, demi-loyalty is going to become the norm.
You fear that if that happens then the US will become feeble and divided, and you are right to be afraid. It certainly frightens me.
Perhaps the only positive aspect of Britain’s accelerating decline is that Americans can now look at us and take warning, understand the awfulness of the future lumbering towards you, and perhaps find ways to turn it aside.
If you succeed, then there is a chance that your example will help us, but if you fail then our future will be dark indeed.

Sep 4, 2009 - 1:50 pm 100. Kirk Parker:

Wadeusaf (97), good grief, am I really so incoherent that you think I’m arguing for multiculturalism, rather than against it? Yikes, back to the drawing board for me, in that case.

And not all of us, not at all, but I do think there is at least one person who appears to be arguing in favor of the “white race” in addition to Western Civilization.

Sep 4, 2009 - 2:01 pm 101. Wadeusaf:

Kirk Parker at 100,

No, I don’t find you incoherent, although, (if there is room at the drawing board) I won’t limit myself to charcoal. If I can use the crayolas or pastels too…

I just do not believe you can get to where Mongoose is unless your route goes through the caldron of war. War is, among its many faults, a large melting pot, a leveler of men. Attributing racial tones to the force of Mongoose’s words does display a bit of incoherence, if not myopia. The post racial-ism that obama-speak leads us to, is not the rejection of racism, but rather the reversal of those roles as found in the US. It is not the declaration of certain chauvinisms as the prejudicial conduct it is, but as the accepting of different “manners” as being right as in correct, within the framework of multicultural-ism. In its perspective it is a destiny meant for slaves, and that is nothing close to what Mongoose is aiming for.

I know I do not need to speak for Mongoose. But I do feel compelled to correct what I see as mis-perceptions, based on your original protest?

It would not surprise me one wit if you found me to be likewise incoherent.

Sep 4, 2009 - 4:12 pm 102. Jack Okie:

Mongoose at 71:

Thank you for your detailed and eloquent response, with which I agree. I truly pulled the trigger before clearing leather.

I just finished reading Shelby Foote’s three volume set on the Civil War. It was a far more gripping experience than I had expected. Apropos your comment that the combatants on both sides considered themselves American, I came away with renewed respect for the troops on both sides of the line (if not the politicians). What a stain if having fought that terrible war we allow our country to be co-opted by its enemies.

Sep 4, 2009 - 7:11 pm 103. Mongoose:

Okie: thanks a bunch, and it would indeed be a shame if our enemies prevailed, but it would also be our shame and not of those who fought in the Civil War. Their almost unimaginable bravery and courage places them far above us. Would that we had a thousandth of their stalwart dedication and will.

Yes, Foote’s work is a fine epic, and epic is what it surely is. A true masterpiece. One can almost smell the powder and hear the tumult. I think that only a southern intellectual of his generation could pull this off.

We should never forget how that war shaped us. The Europeans were shaped by ww1, and this haunts and bedevils us to this day. We were not so shaped. It was the Civil War that forged our national consciousness and temperament, and this is true down to this day. This is the source of much confusion between Americans and Europeans, and nowhere is this more clear than in the issues of society, governments, nations and the individual.

If you do not know of it, let me recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Cry-Freedom-Civil-War/dp/0345359429

It is perhaps the best one volume work on the Civil War and gives a wonderful overview.

It comes more from the sides of political economy and technology than the side of close battle descriptions, orders of battle, etc. It does, of course discuss the great battles, but it has not the rousing flourishes of Foote’s work, nor its focus on the raw battles of the war. Neither It does not delve so richly into the personalities of the soldiers who fought them. Still, it is well written and there is a bit of poetry to the prose. It is a reasonable and complimentary companion to Foote’s work.

Incidentally, My great grandfather fought under Grant and was wounded at Shiloh. He fought through most of the War, and many of the large battles.

Sep 4, 2009 - 7:44 pm 104. Jack Okie:

Mongoose:

I agree, McPherson’s book is a fine one-volume work. I’ve had it a while – read it for the second time last year. Read Catton’s trilogy many years ago and have been wondering if I ought to re-visit it.

One of my great-grandfathers was orphaned at age 10 in Georgia during the Civil War. He later came to Oklahoma with his 15-yr-old bride, became a Methodist circuit rider, fathered 12 kids, and according to family legend was the first Democrat (all others being Populists) elected in Oklahoma. So as the joke has it, until I was in my teens I thought damnyankee was one word. How things change – I don’t know a single family member now who’s not a conservative Republican.

Sep 5, 2009 - 7:40 am

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