Eric Cantor’s Loyalty

/39 Comments/in , /by

It’s a good sign that Rep. Eric Cantor’s pledge of allegiance to Israel has raised eyebrows. Cantor, who will soon be Marjority Leader in the House, released a statement that

“the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point, one party rule in Washington.” “He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other.”

Philip Weiss links to several commentators who were rather amazed that Cantor seemed to think it appropriate that the Republicans in the House would be making US foreign policy. Perhaps the most vitriolic comment is by Mark Perry at Foreign Policy who lumps Cantor’s statement in with the abject behavior of the Obama administration in offering Israel billions of dollars worth of military hardware in exchange for continuing a partial settlement freeze for three (3!) more months. Perry reviews a number of other recent examples of groveling before the Israel Lobby, and even sees fit to mention Elena Kagan’s testimony during her confirmation hearings: Read more

Glenn Beck on George Soros

/124 Comments/in , , /by

Glenn Beck has not exactly been a favorite around here (see here, here, and here), but his series on George Soros is intriguing to say the least. Beck has honed in on Soros as the root of all evil, and he has emphasized the point that Soros is Jewish. Beck seems have two main complaints: that Soros is a major funder of the left and that he is a currency manipulator poised to take down the dollar and foment revolution in the US.

Soros is well-known for funding the left, but Beck sees Soros as orchestrating the entire show:“For months, Glenn has been pulling back the structure progressives have worked decades to put in place. Beneath every layer lies one common thread: George Soros.” Beck’s team highlights Soros’ self-image as a messianic figure who believes he is able to change the world in his image: “If truth be known, I carried some rather potent messianic fantasies with me from childhood which I felt I had to control, otherwise I might end up in the loony bin. But when I made my way in the world, I wanted to indulge myself in my fantasies to the extent that I could afford.” Beck’s website shows how Soros funds the left, including Moveon.org, ACORN, Center for American Progress, the Tides Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and the National Council of La Raza. Read more

Soros Courts the Neocons

/32 Comments/in , /by

As reported in the Salon, George Soros has paid $150,000 to Randy Scheunemann, a neocon foreign policy figure. Scheunemann was McCain’s foreign policy adviser during the 2008 campaign and is now a top aide of Sarah Palin.

Scheunemann is completely in line on Israel, as is Palin. The Jewish Journal noted that during the campaign,  Scheunemann had led the attack on

Obama’s willingness to sit with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Scheunemann also led efforts to pitch the Iraq war to the American public prior to the invasion. . . . Scheunemann is also close to the pro-Israel community. Working with [Trent] Lott, he authored the 1995 legislation that would move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; a year later, Scheunemann’s advice led Bob Dole — the Republican presidential candidate that year — to pledge to do so. This year, McCain has picked up that pledge. Read more

Implicit Whiteness and the Republicans

/47 Comments/in , , /by

Kevin MacDonald’s work on the concept of “implicit whiteness” in his essay “Psychology and White Ethnocentrism” (acacdemic version) is a major breakthrough for White Nationalism. Ethnocentrism—usually stigmatized as “xenophobia” and “racism”— is a preference to be around genetically similar people. Anti-ethnocentrism—a preference for people unlike ourselves—is sold today as “diversity,” the secret ingredient that adds “strength” wherever it is found.

According to MacDonald, ethnocentrism is a natural phenomenon, hard-wired into the oldest and deepest levels of the brain. Anti-ethnocentrism, however, exists as a conscious moral conviction. From a psychological point of view, therefore, anti-ethnocentrism is relatively superficial, even though it currently dominates our culture and politics. Read more

“It’s instability, not poverty, that does the greater damage to children.”

/15 Comments/in /by

Following on the NYTimes report acknowledging the well-known fact that income levels do not account for race differences in IQ, another report emphasizes that poverty does not account for the family instability.

This study followed “5,000 children and their urban, primarily minority parents.” Only 50% of the fathers were living with mothers at the time of the birth of the child, and “within five years, a tiny 15% of the unmarried couples had taken wedding vows, while a whopping 60% had split up. At the five-year mark, only 36% of the children lived with their fathers, and half of the other 64% hadn’t seen their dads in the last month. One-half to two-thirds of the absent fathers provided little or no financial support.” Things got worse when both the mothers and especially the fathers went on to have children with other partners. Read more

Proficiency of Black Students Is Found to Be Far Lower Than Expected!

/108 Comments/in /by

I was shocked to read the headline in the NYTimes: “Proficiency of Black Students Is Found to Be Far Lower Than Expected.” Expected by whom? These results are quite consistent with the usual one standard deviation difference between Black and White IQ—a difference that has been completely resistant to change despite decades of liberal angst  and trillions of dollars aimed at correcting it.

A new report focusing on black males suggests that the picture is even bleaker than generally known. Only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys.

The report is clear that poverty is not the cause: poor White kids do as well as unpoor Black kids. Read more

Kicking and Screaming

/16 Comments/in /by

I was the target of a recent hit piece on the Council of Conservative Citizens in Essence Magazine entitled “A Look Inside Hateful Right-Wing Fringe Groups“. I’ve already ridiculed their transparent double-standards in my article, “The Essence of Hypocrisy“, but the final sentence of the article caught my eye. It deserves a closer examination…

That boundary [voting for Barack Obama] has been crossed; we can never go back. Even kicking and screaming, America must move forward.

People crave a narrative. They not only prefer a narrative, they need one. Just as surely as they see a face on the moon and the Virgin Mary on their grilled cheese sandwiches, they manage to “find” a simple storybook narrative behind the complex and chaotic chronicles of history. Every identity group has its own historiography, one that frequently inflates its own importance. That’s just human nature. Read more