Forced Busing Was Not a Black and White Issue

Joe Biden’s bragging about his working with segregationist Democrats brought his opposition to forced busing in the 1970’s back into the news last week.  With all the time passed and with all the agendas surrounding its history, there is far more ignorance than knowledge about forced busing.  I cannot dispel all ignorance, but I will humbly try to do my small part.  (And, yes, I guess I will be indirectly defending Biden on this although I am NO fan of him.)

It is difficult to prove a negative, but I cannot recall any elected body that willingly instituted the busing of students to far off schools into order to achieve desegregation.  With few to no exceptions, forced busing, when instituted, was done under the direction of federal court rulings.  It was one of the more noxious late 20^th century episodes of federal judges acting as dictators in black robes.

And it was profoundly unpopular. Parents, many of whom chose their home to be close to a school, saw their children bused to a far off school across town.  At the same time, they saw that many of the liberals pushing forced busing sent their children to private schools.

Responses became even violent as in Jefferson County, Kentucky and South Boston.  But a more common response was upper middle class families, mostly White, fleeing to the suburbs (“White Flight’) where there was not forced busing regimes.  Others switched their kids to private schools.  Yes, some did so from racist motives, but virtually all did not want their children to be a part of this dictatorial social experiment. White Flight harmed urban school districts by weakening their tax base.  And, ironically, it usually made urban schools, as well as many cities, less multiethnic.  So much for desegregation. 

It was certainly hard to explain how putting children on long bus rides every day helped their education or why it helped the education of black children to seat them next to white children.  The latter question was asked by black opponents to busing. 

And that brings me to what is perhaps most forgotten.  Forced busing was not a white vs. black issue.  Opposition to it crossed racial lines.  I personally experienced this as a high school student myself in Dallas in the 70’s.

I lived far from my private school, and it became unfeasible for my parents to take me to school.  But the school bus did not come nearly as far south as where I lived.  So I had to get up early and take a city bus just to get to my school bus. Yes, I experienced a bit of busing myself.

Now on the city bus were mainly Black workers getting to their places of work early in the morning. I was an unusual passenger in more ways than one, but we got along very well.

One morning on the bus – I don’t remember how – the subject of forced busing came up.  I was surprised to see how much these Black workers opposed it.  They were quite vocal about it.  But their opposition made sense.  After all, some of them surely had kids bused across town, too.

But opposition to forced busing crossing ethnic lines is not something you hear much about.  Instead past opposition is assumed to be RACIST among the race baiting crowd.

It should make one wonder how much other fake history they are peddling. 

Democrat POTUS Candidates Wear “Ethically Bankrupt” T-Shirts

Well, not exactly.  But the t-shirts they wore the other day sure sent that message.

Allow me to explain.  Over the weekend, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) held his “World Famous Fish Fry,” and Democrat candidates for President came like sea gulls to a sea food dumpster.  They proudly wore “Clyburn” t-shirts, too.

The problem, ignored by the Democrat “News” Media but one I’ve noted before, is that Jim Clyburn has shared a stage with the notorious racist anti-semite Louis Farrakhan and has since refused to denounce him.

Let’s flip that.  If a Republican Congressman had shared a stage with white supremacist anti-semite David Duke and then refused to denounce him, do you think Republican candidates for President would come flocking to his fish fry?  No, Republicans would instead be getting in line to denounce him and to disassociate themselves from him.  And candidates would be recruited to primary him, too.

But not so with Democrats and Jim Clyburn. Heck, he remains the number 3 in the Democrat House leadership.

And the Democrat POTUS candidates come flocking to eat his fish and wear his t-shirts.

Face it. Democrats and their double standards are ethically bankrupt.

3 and Other Numbers in the York Minster East Window

With this being the first week in Trinity season in the traditional church calendar, I thought this a good time to point out something medieval, fun, and slightly nerdy at York Minster.

The main theme of the Great East Window of York Minster is the beginning and the end as indicated by the very tip top where God the Father holds a book with “I am the alpha and the omega” in abbreviated Latin.  At the same time, there is also a strong Trinitarian undercurrent to the window particularly in how it is organized using – you guessed it – the number 3.

The tracery as a whole is, as is common, in a dome shape – one dome.  At the bottom of the tracery is three domes.  Hmmm.  Under that is the bulk of the window, and there are lots of threes and multiples of three.  First, it is organized in three vertical rows dividing each horizontal row of panels in three. Each of these divisions in turn contains three panels.  So 3 x 3 is 9, of course, which is the number of panels in each horizontal row.

At the bottom is one row of worthy bishops and kings – nine panels. Multiply that by 3 and you get 27, which happens to the number of panels dedicated to Creation and the Old Testament. These are the top three rows of the rectangular bulk of the window.  Now multiply by 3 again, and you get 81.  And there are 81 panels dedicated to the Apocalypse of St. John (i. e. the Book of Revelation).

Now here’s where it really gets weird. Multiply 9 x 27 x 81.  You get 19,683.  That points back to the main theme of the window, the beginning and the end, as it is the number of years that some medieval calculations had between Creation and The End.

That is a bit of Trinitarian end-of-the-world fun, is it not?

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By the way, if you find the East Window of York Minster the least bit interesting, then I highly recommend The Great East Window of York Minsterby Sarah Brown.  This book is scholarly yet pleasant reading and very well illustrated.  Most of the recently restored window may be viewed in the catalogue which takes up about two-thirds of the book.  Amazingly, it is very affordable as well.

If your church or group would enjoy a presentation of the East Window and its history, taking about an hour, my presentation has been well received, and I may be available.  Feel free to message me in the comments.  (You will need a Google identity.  I do moderate all comments, so I can keep your communication private if you express that wish.) Or you may message my twitter account.

Gen. Michael Flynn Hires Sydney Powell As His Lawyer

Lawyer hires usually aren’t big news, and Gen. Michael Flynn hiring Sydney Powell is not getting a lot of attention. But it should.

Powell, a former federal prosecutor herself, is a foremost critic of prosecutorial misconduct amongst the Feds.  And among her past targets have been Robert Mueller and his no. 2 man Andrew Weissmann.  She has literally written the book on Weissmann, Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice.  Further, she is withering and no-nonsense in going over the facts of Fed prosecutorial misconduct and shady ethics.  She is not hyperbolic, emotional, or manipulative; she relies on presenting the facts in a manner very hard to dispute.

I am very encouraged Flynn has hired her. His case reeks of dirty play from Mueller, Weissmann and company.  If the bad cops don’t back off and soon, she will expose them.

The Michael Flynn case just got a lot more interesting.

Tory Choice: Boris or Bust UPDATED

As Tories choose their leader, they had better look long and hard at the results of the EU MEP and Peterborough elections.  The Conservative Party did horrifically in both.

And the reason is clear to all but those who do not want to see. Three years after voters chose Brexit, the Conservative Party is still fumbling and bumbling in carrying out the voters’ will.  It looks suspiciously like failure theatre from Theresa May (Now gone and deservedly so.) and company.  But whether from intent or incompetence or both, the failure to carry out Brexit has alienated voters, including much of the Tory base.

Yet, as Mike Shedlock as pointed out, this has not resulted in Labour strength.  Labour is losing voters, too, although not as badly as the Tories.  The very new Brexit Party has taking voters from both in historic fashion.

To get the Conservative Party out of the May morass, it will take (1.) a confidence inspiring leader who will (2.) carry out Brexit no matter what.

Only one man who is running meets both of those qualifications: Boris Johnson.  And he is politically savvy to boot.

If Boris Johnson is chosen to be the next Tory Party leader, I predict the Conservatives will win the next parliamentary election whenever that is called.  Yes, things look bleak now.  But Boris is that good at both politics and policy. (And Labour is that awful.)  

But if the Tories choose another leader, especially one who will not get the UK out of the EU by Halloween, then God help the UK to survive Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn.

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UPDATE: Boris has just told the EU to negotiate in good faith or forget that 39 million pounds the UK “owes” them.

Does any other Tory leadership candidate have to guts and the savvy to do this?  Normal people love a leader who stands up for their country like that.  That is exactly the kind of leader the Tories must elect unless they want to hand the UK over to an Anti-Semite Marxist.

In anti-“hate” putsch, YouTube removes . . . Triumph of the Will.

When I first read that, as part of its attacks on “hate speech”, YouTube had removed the infamous Nazi propaganda film, Triumph of the Will, I hardly believed it.  But I searched at YouTube last night and this morning, and, sure enough, I could not find that film.

So in the name of opposing “hate,” YouTube has removed important history of how hate, namely Nazism, was promoted in Germany.  And it is an important film in itself and also in illustrating how propaganda can be effectively used even for the most evil causes.  Such basic education is now gone from YouTube.

I suspect Google will come partly to their senses and restore Triumph of the Will.  But this is the problem with campaigns, open and surreptitious, to silence “hate.” What really gets suppressed is history and free speech. What gets promoted is news, speech, and education that is politically correct, offending no protected group . . . which is hardly news, is not free speech, and is propaganda, not education.

Not to mention that silencing views and information with which you disagree is what totalitarians do.  And isn’t that real hate?

Remember when Google’s slogan was “Don’t be evil”?

A Reminder: European Anti-Semitism is Not Just a Nazi Trait

Alan Dershowitz provides a timely reminder that Anti-Semitism in Europe is not just a trait of the Nazis.  As we rightly look back on D-Day and World War 2, we must be aware of hoary myths, such as that Europeans valiantly resisted Hitler’s predations on Jews.  Well, some did, however . . . .

Why have we seen such an increase in anti-Semitism and irrationally virulent anti-Zionism in western Europe?

To answer these questions, a myth must first be exposed. That myth is the one perpetrated by the French, the Dutch, the Norwegians, the Swiss, the Belgians, the Austrians, and many other western Europeans: namely that the Holocaust was solely the work of German Nazis aided perhaps by some Polish, Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian collaborators.

False.

The Holocaust was perpetrated by Europeans: by Nazi sympathizers and collaborators among the French, Dutch, Norwegians, Swiss, Belgians, Austrians and other Europeans, both Western and Eastern.

If the French government had not deported to the death camps more Jews than their German occupiers asked for; if so many Dutch and Belgian citizens and government officials had not cooperated in the roundup of Jews; if so many Norwegians had not supported Quisling; if Swiss government officials and bankers had not exploited Jews; if Austria had not been more Nazi than the Nazis, the Holocaust would not have had so many Jewish victims.

Dershowitz looks at this and earlier history and notes that the revival of European Anti-Semitism should not surprise. And he adds (although he is Left of Center himself) that it is far from just a right wing trait, but frequently a Leftist one as well.

"Oh no," we hear from European apologists. "This is different. We don't hate the Jews. We only hate their nation-state. Moreover, the Nazis were right-wing. We're left-wing, so we can't be anti-Semites."

Nonsense.

The hard left has a history of anti-Semitism as deep and enduring as the hard right. The line from Voltaire to Karl Marx, to Lavrentiy Beria, to Robert Faurisson, to today's hard-left Israel-bashers is as straight as the line from Wilhelm Marr to the persecutors of Alfred Dreyfus to Hitler.

The Jews of Europe have always been crushed between the Black and the Red – victims of extremism whether it be the ultra-nationalism of Khmelnitsky to the ultra-anti-Semitism of Stalin.

Dershowitz omits the role that Muslim migration has had in increasing Anti-Semitism in Europe.  But even if the gates had not been opened to Muslim mass migration, Leftist Anti-Semitism would still be a problem in Europe. 

Look at Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour Party. That old Leftist is not Muslim, but Labour has become more openly Anti-Semitic under him.

And that includes the Labour candidate in the Peterborough by-election today.  As much as she is now tries to hide it, Lisa Forbes has a documented history of Anti-Semitism.  And British Jewish organizations are speaking out about it:

“The revelation that Labour’s Peterborough candidate Lisa Forbes liked a racist Facebook post accusing Theresa May of having a “Zionist Slave Masters agenda” as recently as April – and previously welcomed a post indulging the bizarre conspiracy theory that Mossad and the CIA are behind Daesh – brings in to question her suitability for public office.

Ms Forbes has now apologised, saying she had not seen these words, but this stretches the limits of credulity, especially given the high profile problems in Labour and the previous antisemitism scandals in Peterborough Labour circles, such as Alan Bull and last November’s resignation of two senior councillors, who said they had been pressured against when trying to complain about antisemitism.

Ms Forbes also says she will seek antisemitism training. This is somewhat ironic given her previous rejection of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

We are fed up hearing that Labour opposes antisemitism while repeatedly hearing excuses that its members accidentally missed the racism that was staring them in the face.

Unless Labour disowns Lisa Forbes as a candidate, it will only confirm the Party’s shameful descent into the racist mess for which they are now being investigated by the EHRC.”

So when someone tries to feed you the “nonsense” that Anti-Semitism and racism in Europe and elsewhere are traits of the Right, not of the Left . . . well, I will leave it up to you what to say.  But do not fall for such dangerous myths.

D-Day With The Queen

I hesitate to post on the 75^thAnniversary of D-Day; so much has already been said.  But I cannot let it pass.

Those who reinvaded Europe on D-Day were amazing and courageous.  And so many of them lost their lives for the freedom of the West.

To have served in World War 2 and to have survived to this day is also amazing.  Few can say that now.  Not many are still living.

But one of them is The Queen.  And she seems able and willing to outlive us all!

I enjoyed her brief speech today, particularly when she said in her typically understated way the equivalent of “I’m still here.”

God bless the souls of those who served and have passed on as well as those few who remain.  And God save The Queen!