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Sunday, June 22, 2008

BOndage

Sen Obama claims that "more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities." Bad news, eh? But George Will corrects the error: "Actually, more than twice as many black men 18-24 are in college as there are in jail." Oh. A factual error, then, from the Obama camp. Obama claims, "We have a system that locks away too many young, first-time, nonviolent offenders for the better part of their lives." Actually, says Will, "from 1999 to 2004, violent offenders accounted for all of the increase in the prison population."

Is it racism, all racism, as post-racial hopeful Obama implies? -- "We have certain sentences that are based less on the kind of crime you commit than on what you look like and where you come from." If that's true, it's really bad. And how could it not be true, since in 2006 blacks made up 37.5% of the prison population, while comprising less than 13% of the general population? Picture's looking grim for America, eh?

Here's how it isn't true: The "reason more blacks are disproportionately in prison, and for longer terms, is not racism but racial differences in patterns of criminal offenses..." Will cites statistics to the effect that the black homicide rate is more than seven times higher than that of the rest of the entire population. "From 1976 to 2005, blacks committed over 52 percent of all murders. ...The race of criminals reported by crime victims matches arrest data."

Is it all crack? -- crack equals black and therefore greater penalties? "It's going to take a lot more than 5,000 or so (federal) crack defendants a year to account for the 562,000 black prisoners in state and federal facilities at the end of 2006 -- or the 858,000 black prisoners in custody overall, if one includes the population of county and city jails." Yes, crack is a scourge, another scourge across black backs. Who wields the whip, though. Some, closely associated with Obama, would say the CIA. We are in the process of testing their credibility.

Will quotes James Q. Wilson, whom he styles America's premier social scientist: after a decade's worth of carefully conducted studies, it is evident that "states that sent a higher fraction of convicts to prison had lower rates of crime, even after controlling for all of the other ways -- poverty, urbanization, and the proportion of young men in the population -- that the states differed. A high risk of punishment reduces crime. Deterrence works." Thus, higher incarceration rates equates with lower crime. Not a counterintuitive conclusion, is it, for all that liberals complain about it.

My point? First, where does Obama get his information -- or rather his opinions? From what wellspring has he been drinking, so deeply that his convictions slosh? We know the answer. He sat in a church absorbing it for several decades. He presents his philosophy in a much more plausibly modulated voice than that of his pastoral pals. But whether the tone is dulcet or clangorous, the cadence is the same. Obama may or not be a Black Liberation Theologist. It hardly makes a difference, what his religion is. But his opinions, his precepts, his worldview, they are radical.

Then there's this:


Oh my. And no flag pin, either. That guy behind him might have a pin on -- is it Richardson? -- and he's certainly got his hand where you'd think it belongs. But wait. It isn't, as is commonly reported, the Pledge of Allegiance -- during which time it is customary to place your right hand over your heart, ready, begin. This is during the National Anthem. Sorry. I don't put my hand over my heart during the National Anthem. No disrespect meant. I stand, because it was what I was taught. I stand if it's in public. If not, not. Others will have been taught better than I, or Obama -- or learned it on their own. And something else, in this photo. Obama is frontman. He doesn't see the rest of them. He didn't get the visual cue that the others did. They might as well be holding up bunny ears behind him. So there he is, unflattered by his unmindfulness, but we must be fair, here, and not, not hold it against him.

There are real issues to hold against him. Like his careless disregard for fact. Again, in itself this sometimes happen. It's really the bias behind such carelessness that should set the alarums to pealing. There's a very real chance that Obama will be elected. For a bright guy, he's almost a moron, to hear him wing it. Uhhh, y'see, y'see, y'see... And when not strangely Bushlike, he's just glib, shallow and glib, all about the surface, like a waterwalker -- not the Messiah kind ... more arthropoidal ... light weight. Now, glib is attractive, in the coffee shop, in line maybe, hitting on the chicks ... but ...

Is he going to just charm the Arabs then? Yeah, that'll work. I hope. The fact that Bedouins still hold slaves shall cause me no unease. Cuz, cuz Black Liberation Theology will free Obama from subservience to the Arab, as it does from whitey.


J

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! Where are all the naked chicks?

Anonymous said...

Jack -- I thought Barry's Changes was you being er you ... I see now it is a "for real" Web site. Interesting!

Jeanette

Jack H said...

J -- All my frauds are easily pierced. The frauds of others are even more so.

Obama in 08

Abominate