Wright; a turncoat racist.

As far as I am aware the white-sheeted Klukker of old seems, apart from perhaps a few isolated holdouts, to be consigned to the waste dump of time and common sense. This is not the end of racism, it is still out there and will probably remain so. All the laws in the world will not create a modicum of respect, reason, or any of the other things starry-eyed idealists hope for. Nor is racism confined to the white community.

The reverend Wright is a great example of the other side of the fence. Wright came to fame during the election of 08 with his ridiculous assertions of the US developing AIDS to kill off the black community, and so on, apart from his, God damn America,” remarks. He is back in the news again.

At a five day school taught at the Chicago Theological Seminary, he reportedly told those in the class they will never "be a brother to white folk," describing racial divisions in the country as entrenched. The civil rights movement "was always about becoming white," Wright said at the seminar. At another point, he said: "White folk done took this country. You're in their home and they're going to let you know it." 



Wright also claimed that the American education system is built to poorly educate black students "by malignant intent" and criticized civil rights leader Martin Luther King for advocating nonviolence, the Post reported.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense would be aware that things have changed coming into the modern era. The increasing number of minority faces in Congress, as well as professional life affirms it and I find it difficult to take Wright seriously if he is suggesting that it is not happening, hell one of his black former parishioners is President.

He is also well aware that the flaws in the education system, and there are plenty of them, are not restricted to minority Americans. There is a constant flow of criticism from all of the community about this problem. Home schooling is a growing phenomenon there because of dissatisfaction with the system.

It may be true that blacks are overrepresented among the poor and poorly educated, but the type of remarks being made by him are not going to help. The way to improve education for black kids is to press for meaningful improvements to the entire system; after all they in the main go to the same schools as white kids anyway.

Wright is not about improving the lot of African Americans, he is about creating and maintaining a divide between the races in a manner the Klan, Birchers and their ilk were never able to achieve. They might have succeeded had they not used force but encouraged the Wrights of the world to do it for them. His power base is the poor and dispossessed and he has no intention of relinquishing it by having them succeed in life.

The way for minorities to improve their condition is to engage with the community and take responsibility for themselves, not to create an artificial divide. There are a great many things that people can do to improve their lot, but separating themselves and being hostile are not among them. Those people who have succeeded are not Uncle Toms, class traitors, ‘house niggers’ or whatever else Wright has branded them in the past but good practical people who have understood that to succeed you have to work for it.

Followers of Wright will get nowhere, because with his guidance, they will always have a sense of defeat, and entitlement, and as such will always be second class citizens on the Democrat welfare plantation. The man is a traitor to those who trust him.

Carbon Tax the next battle in the long War on Carbon.

Cartoon; by Nicholson.

By Viv Forbes,

Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition. http://carbon-sense.com/

Nearly twelve months ago “Carbon Sense” predicted that the Ration-N-Tax Scheme was dead in the water, but there was real danger that it would be replaced by a carbon tax.

This looks more likely today. Those who seek total control over our lives and our assets will not rest, and a carbon tax will be supported by: 


• Governments who need help to fund their wasteful spending. 


• Promoters of wind and solar power – a huge permanent carbon tax is the only thing that will make these energy follies look economic.

• Those promoting nuclear power, which is coal’s major competitor for the generation of reliable economic base-load electricity. 


• The Climate Change Research industry, which needs an assured stream of income to support never-ending “research”. 


• Those who support national and international redistribution of wealth. Favored classes and nations will have access to a carbon slush fund to be used for “compensation” for the effects of climate change, for increases in the cost of living or for whatever else sounds plausible and deserving at the time. 


• The anti-development, anti-technology, anti-enterprise, anti-growth, back-to-sandals brigade who see carbon fuels, cheap energy and abundant power as the wicked foundations for all modern industry. 


• Gas producers will secretly barrack for a carbon tax. Even though gas is a carbon fuel, and produces carbon dioxide when burnt, gas usage will get a boost every time a wind farm or solar array is built. Every wind/solar plant needs a reliable but flexible power plant on standby. As soon as the wind drops, or a cloud obscures the sun, the standby plant must be ready to fire up immediately. Gas will generally be the chosen backup. A carbon tax will also encourage the replacement of coal generators with gas generators, as gas combustion produces less carbon dioxide per unit of energy produced. So, ironically, one carbon fuel (gas) will benefit from a carbon tax, even though its price will increase to cover the tax. 


• Many Greens rightly object to the speculators, traders, regulators, auditors, lawyers and bankers lined up to benefit from emissions trading. They prefer the clean punishment of a simple heavy direct tax on their hated coal and oil fuels. 


• Nations (mainly in Europe) who depend on non-carbon fuels such as nuclear, hydro or geothermal will be very pleased to see taxes on coal-dependent countries such as USA, China, India and Australia. 


• Many economists will rightly claim that a carbon tax is more direct and efficient than the complex exemption-riddled Cap-n-Tax Schemes.

However the alarmist industry knows that people hate taxes. For them, the disadvantage of a carbon tax is that it will always be vulnerable to clean quick abolition (and the sooner the better).

An election is looming and carbon taxes and/or new resource taxes will loom large on the agenda. None of them will have any beneficial effect on global temperatures. We must increase the heat on all politicians – let them know that you will actively oppose anyone who supports or defends Emissions Trading or Carbon Taxes.

Icelandic protest vote.

It is rare for a party started with the express intention of taking the piss out of the political system, or really as a joke wins. We have had a couple of parties that were jokes achieve representation but they weren’t founded as jokes. The Australian Democrats was one where a Liberal minister quit and managed to take the ‘don’t knows’ out of the opinion polls and weld them into a solid political force. They held the balance of power in the Senate for years.

One Nation was another. It was founded when Pauline Hanson was disendorsed by the Liberals and went it alone and won a federal seat. She formed the party at a time when the Nationals members were disillusioned. Keating’s removal of protectionism and trade barriers had wiped away the parties ability to implement agrarian socialism, and Pauline was able to offer them unreality for a while, and they sweept the polls in Queensland. They are pretty much gone now.

Meanwhile in Iceland the ‘Best Party’ has gained the majority in the Reykjavik council elections, which represents the majority of the nation. The party is the brainchild of an entertainer, Jon Gnarr, who decided to start a website to satirise politics in Iceland after the banking collapse of 08. It took off. He has offered such whimsical policies as a drug free parliament by 2020.

Some of his stuff is really funny:


Unfortunately there is little to go on as to what he really intends to do. Some of the stuff he is offering is straight left wing but I am inclined to think that it is really part of the joke. Some of them are, to improve the quality of life of the less fortunate, stop corruption, (OK), equality, increase transparency, free bus rides for students and the poor, drag those responsible for the economic collapse to court, and listen more to women and old people.

Now he is mayor he may possibly take things seriously and pull the place out of the shit. He is a man who has the proven ability to think outside the square and might just be able to get the council out of the way and let business do the job.

I am not optimistic but the slogan, "Economise, we only need one Santa," is promising.

Guys From Al-Qaeda.

I think this is satire, and not a recruiting effort.

Rudd gets booted.

Cartoon: David Pope.

In what the press seem to feel is tumultuous and all the other guff that is involved in dumping him Rudd, yesterday’s turkey has become today’s feather duster. Goodbye and good riddance.

Much of the press this morning seem to put the emphasis on the ‘historic’ nature of Julia Gillard becoming the nations first female PM. For some reason ‘historic’ seems in the eyes of the media as equating with good. This is about the silliest idea, well one of the silliest things we can be asked to believe. In 08 the US got all caught up in the possibility that history could be made by electing the first black President.

That hasn’t worked out very well for them. After sweeping the polls and winning overwhelming majorities in both houses, in eighteen months the Democrats look likely to lose both in massive shows of voter anger, while the administration desperately tries to grandstand and play the race card in order to survive.

Historic is irrelevant, quality is the important thing. Watch for, “the opportunity to make history by electing our first female PM,” when the election comes around.

Gillard has given a fairly manicured performance in interviews today, which is to be expected. The press is still too bemused to ask serious questions so probably for the time being we will find out little. We can expect some improvement, as there is an indication that the whole of the ministry will now be doing the thinking instead of Rudd’s gang of four.

The great big mining tax is still on the table as is ration and tax, although the latter is on the backburner for a while. The government has suspended its anti-mining advertisements and ill advisedly the mining industry has agreed to stop its anti-tax ads. Mining has been offered the chance to negotiate with the government to reach a consensus, and seem to have been sucked in.

There is absolutely no moral justification for an additional tax on mining profits; they should be treated in the same way as those of any other industry. Natural resources are no more the ‘property of the people’ than is air, sunlight, or rain. Miners need to reject any concept of a Resource Rental Tax, make it clear to both sides, and stick to it. Rational economists have dismissed the fallacious concept of resource rental long ago as a myth.

Probably the most important improvement the ascension of Gillard will achieve is hopefully some improvement in the opposition. Tony Abbott cannot rely on Rudd’s unpopularity to sweep him into office, and he and the opposition will have to come up with policies that will offer a real alternative to the government.

At this point in time they have not done this. After defeating Ration And Tax in the Senate they looked the goods, but then in a fit of stupidity turned around and backed a new form of emissions tax.

Abbott seems to concentrate on the idea that the way to offer an alternative is to push for the same things as the government, only different in some way. The utterly stupid concept of taxing our most profitable businesses extra to provide a Rolls Royce parental leave scheme at up to $150,000 per year is an indication of this. They have actually come up with something worse than Rudd has inflicted. As it stands now the only real difference between the government and the opposition is on the mining tax.

The productive sector work for themselves, and in so doing improve the lives of everybody. Currently all that the big two parties are offering is differing degrees of looting to feed the avaricious desires of federal, state, and local governments that are out of control.

The Liberals have to start aiming at reducing the size, scope and cost of government and offer an alternative to the current growth of big government or get out of the way.

The only party that is consistently opposing the growth of government and offering viable policies to reverse it in this country is the Liberal Democratic Party.

McChrystal busted for thought crimes.

Illustration; From, The Peoples Cube.

There was a joke from the Vietnam era about a wounded Australian soldier being interviewed, as follows: 



Interviewer: And how did this happen to you?
Soldier: Well when I came over here, I was told that the best way to work out if someone in hiding is hostile is to insult the enemy leader; if he reacts angrily, he is Viet Cong.



So?



Well I was out on patrol, and I realized someone was hiding in the bushes across the road. I took cover and called out “Ho Che Min is a bastard”, and a voice replied, “Harold Holt (Then Prime Minister) is a bastard”.



And?



I walked across to shake his hand and got run over by a Yank.

This is fairly typical of the attitude of most soldiers I have met towards politicians and the Americans are probably not much different. In fact the interview with Col. Jack Jacobs below seems to support this contention. H/t Newsbusters:

JACOBS: “Those views are very widely held, by the way, inside the military and outside the military, about those people. That they're ineffective, that Jim Jones, the National Security Advisor, does not have an impact on national security policy, that he has very little access. That Holbrooke hasn't done anything and so on. Those views are widely held. They're not just held by McChrystal's staff for example.”

Breitbart has McChrystal’s position summed up here.

Shortly after President Obama assumed the Commander-in-Chief duties, he retired the existing commanding general in Afghanistan and handpicked his successor: General Stanley McChrystal. McChrystal was always known as a brash and outspoken military man, an expert in counterinsurgency, greatly respected by the troops under his command, and as having little patience for fools.

His requirement to have to answer to Obama, then, was a trainwreck waiting to happen.

I have read the article and it appears to be mostly commentary about the General with quotes, mainly from his staff. Some, but not necessarily all of what they said may have come from McChrystal but it is reasonable to assume that some was their own opinions and are not the Generals responsibility. The whole thing comes down to the fact that a commander has opinions that the administration doesn’t like, and those opinions are about them. There is no suggestion that the man is in anyway incompetent or unable to do the job, in fact he seems to be very good at it.

He is essentially being railroaded on the basis of a slime job by a left wing rag.

Liberal Party ads.

Election time is coming up and we are seeing some good ads coming from the Libs this time. There is a rumour that ad genius Singo is doing some of them this time. Maybe he is, they seem a bit more interesting this time.

The first features Julie Collins of Labor having just a little difficulty in explaining just how their big new mining tax will work. Maybe she should push it on the basis that if passed we will find out whats in it. It worked for Pelosi:


Then we have Kevin Rudds bag of tricks:


And who could forget Kevin 07, well here’s the new one, Kevin Olemon: