Musings Archive

Addendum — Blacks Also Not Tired of Winning Yet

Posted August 31, 2023 By John C Wright

In a recent discussion in this space, I was listing Donald Trump’s accomplishments for president, but there are items I forgot or failed to emphasize. This is only what he did particularly to help blacks, and I mention this list only to emphasize that if he is indeed a racist, he is the most ineffective racist of all time:

  • Opportunity zones in urban areas,
  • Massive funding for HBCUs,
  • The First Step Act (to give ex-cons opportunities to apply for employment or home loans without their record getting hindering this),
  • Abolished the 1994 crime bill that was written by Joe Biden and supported by Bill Clinton and nearly caused the incarceration of 490,000 black men (long prison terms for minor drug possession offenses, &c.)

Let it not be forgotten that Trump NEVER took a paycheck for his service as President. Instead, this paycheck was donated to HBCUs,  to urban development charities, and other black charities as well.

In the alternative, let us list whom the Democrats have mainly benefitted. When taking into account their age, and the number of years they have been in DC, the number values are startling:

1. Mitch McConnell: 81 years
Time in Washington: 39 years
Net worth: $35,000,000

2. Nancy Pelosi: 83 years
Time in Washington: 36 years
Net worth: $115,000,000

3. Dianne Feinstein: 90 years
Time in Washington: 31 years
Net worth: $80,000,000

4. Chuck Grassley: 89 years
Time in Washington: 48 years
Net worth: $8,000,000

5. Joe Biden: 80 years
Time in Washington: 51 years
Net worth: $15,000,000?? — amount undeclared from Ukrainian money laundering cannot be estimated at this time.

 

 

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Mug Shot August 24, 2023

Posted August 25, 2023 By John C Wright

A post by U.S. President Donald Trump of his police booking mugshot

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THE CHOSEN: Art or Entertainment Heresy?

Posted August 24, 2023 By John C Wright

Exit only left a comment in my comments box on another thread where, in my judgment, with all due respect, I conclude it does not belong. But I do not with the conversation to be erased, so I have taken the liberty of moving it to this space.

The exchange was as follows, and may continue in the comments below:

*** *** ***

Exit Only …(One comment)

That encounter Jesus had with the Canaanite woman? (Warning: rant ahead) I bet he got that from watching The Chosen, an entertainment heresy that dares to calls itself a series on the ministry of Christ. I’ve checked out a few scenes of the series posted on YT, and boy oh boy, do they play fast and loose with the scriptures to add soap opera drama. The episode where Jesus encounters the Canaanite woman, He is tasked by the woman for asking for water, and get this, Jesus meekly apologizes to the woman for being rude! The Son of God, apologizing for an apparent faux pas?! The Canaanite woman remains offended and huffy, even though she has slept around with multiple men, and her current beau is not her husband. Even by Samaritan apostate standards, I don’t think her own society would think much of her.

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The Way of Witchthink

Posted August 21, 2023 By John C Wright

I recently had occasion to take the “White Privilege Test” endorsed by the black Lives Matter movement, and was thunderstruck, but not surprised, to find that none of the questions, not a single one, had anything to do with anything that could honestly be called a privilege.

This leads to a serious conundrum. What is White Privilege?

An even more serious question is this: How can anyone take such a silly question seriously?

Let us explore the answer below. It will lead to a larger answer explaining not merely Critical Race Theory, but also Critical Gender Ideology, Critical Intersectional Feminism, Critical Colonialism and the other Cultural Marxist theories all springing from Hegelian Hermeticism. The same perverse spirit animates all these theoretical frameworks.

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Black Privilege Test

Posted August 20, 2023 By John C Wright

The White Privilege Test as updated by our own Eloris. The words below are his. 

1. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its
policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

As many have mentioned, this one will look just fine the other way around.

2. I can loudly complain that characters on TV shows do not share my skin color without being thought racist.

3. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, I will be able to find doctors or lawyers who have pledged to treat me preferentially because of my skin color.

4. Honestly this one is too dumb to even revise.

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White Privilege Test

Posted August 15, 2023 By John C Wright

I kid you not. I did not add nor edit the wording below. This is not a satire. Quoted material is italicized.

From https://www.idrlabs.com/white-privilege/test.php

White privilege is the alleged social privilege that benefits white people over non-white people in some of the world’s societies. A sometimes doubted or disputed concept, author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie used the research of Peggy McIntosh to craft the present White Privilege Test. The test is endorsed by Black Lives Matter, The European University Institute, and the UK Royal Historical Society.

Could you be said to have white privilege? For each of the following statements, indicate how well it describes you below.

Here are the questions. There are five allowed answers: strongly disagree, disagree, no comment, agree, strongly agree.

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Just for the Record

Posted July 17, 2023 By John C Wright

I have seen gloating and wailing over the fact that, when asked by Tucker Carlson about his concern for sending tanks to Ukraine versus his concern for ill besetting his own nation, candidate Mike Pence answered “That is not my concern…”

Many a pundit decreed this the end of his career. However, heard in context, it was clear that Mr. Pence meant Ukraine was not his concern, and that America was.  The statement is being taken the other way around.

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A Topic of Which I Never Tire

Posted July 14, 2023 By John C Wright

Some day I will discover the source of my obsession with this topic, and need impose no longer on weary readers who have heard me hold out my opinions before.

Each time I think I have a clear answer to the question, something happens to provoke me to puzzlement again.

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Not a Review of SOUND OF FREEDOM

Posted July 12, 2023 By John C Wright

My wife went to see the film SOUND OF FREEDOM, and I did not, because the subject matter is too disturbing to me. So, obviously, I can write no review on a film I have not seen. But that does not mean I cannot write a recommendation.

For I have seen the reactions from other reviewers, and they are ghastly.

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Idle Thoughts on A Deep Issue

Posted July 10, 2023 By John C Wright

At first, I was as aghast as any man at the spectacle of Russia conquering territory in Europe, first Georgia under Bush, then Crimea under Obama, and now Ukraine, under Jill Biden.

Naturally, like most Americans, I thought it the duty of the Western Powers to unify and support Ukraine, as the attacked party.

But how much support? And for what gain?

What American interest is involved?

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Rewarding the Loser also Cheats Him

Posted July 2, 2023 By John C Wright

A reader with the cervine yet dogged name of Rudolph Harrier observes that Affirmative Action makes racial discrimination rational. It creates more of the very disease it seeks to cure.

His argument runs as follows.

Suppose that you have two doctors you can go to. They both went to the same school. Beyond that all you can tell is that one is an Asian man, the other is a black man. But you know that the school that gave them their degrees was willing to accept dramatically lower MCAT scores from black applicants, and presumably they also were more lenient on black students after application.

Now it’s possible that the black doctor didn’t need those accommodations and is actually much smarter and a much better doctor than the Asian doctor. But the only information you have tells you that it is also possible that the black doctor is underqualified, while this is not possible for the Asian doctor. So the rational decision is to choose the Asian doctor.

He argues that, by game theory logic based on available information, affirmative action creates a disincentive to patronize Negro doctors, and to patronize Oriental ones.

Because the Affirmative Action committees select race as the basis for falsifying the reward-system, race becomes a legitimate and rational basis for making judgments in situations of limited information, that is, bias. In this case, it becomes a rational and justified bias.

My comment:

Elevating anyone above his merits, as when the Gold Medal is bestowed to one who only performed at the level of Bronze, is getting something for nothing. All affirmative action, in other words, is theft.

This is not returning stolen property to the dispossessed. This is dispossessing him of whatever lesser worth he might have had.

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Not Tired of Winning Yet CLXV

Posted June 29, 2023 By John C Wright

Rejoice! The Supreme Court, thanks to its constitutionalist and originalist justices, has this day made a ruling on Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, 600 U.S. ___ (2023) and its companion case  Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, 600 U.S. ___ (2023), held that race-based admissions policies at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

For some reason, no news outlets give a link to the actual ruling. Here it is: Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard

Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion. Concurring opinions by Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh. Dissent by Sotomayor, Kagan, Jackson.

The High Court says:

Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.

Well said. Sad that this is a startling sentence in the modern day.

Accordingly, the Court has held that the Equal Protection Clause applies “without regard to any differences of race, of color, or of nationality”— it is “universal in [its] application.” Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U. S. 356, 369. For “[t]he guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color.” Regents of Univ. of Cal. v. Bakke, 438 U. S. 265, 289–290.

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Left to Right is Leftist

Posted June 26, 2023 By John C Wright
1. Left to Right is Leftist

The Left-to-Right political spectrum measures the degree of progressiveness versus reaction.

The spectrum describing politics as left to right is, at this point in history, unavoidable. Alas, too many people use these terms, and no attempt to introduce a new way of describing the major factions is likely to become popular.

Nonetheless, it should be recognized that it is a propaganda tool of the Reds, it has no meaning outside that, and that it cannot be used consistent, or even a rational, fashion.

Attempting to place real political positions on it is as endless hence futile as placing comic book characters on the D&D alignment, and arguing whether Spider-Man is lawful-good or chaotic-good.

The spectrum is simply not complex enough to measure all things by how progressive they are.

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Mama Bear and the Ballot Box

Posted June 24, 2023 By John C Wright

Let us ponder if there is an argument to repeal women’s suffrage.

The basic argument is that so many women are feminine in spirit that, on the whole, women voters feminize the government while masculinizing themselves: which is an outcome whose drawbacks outweigh the benefit of female civic independence from their menfolk.

Hence, suffrage for women it turns government into a nanny state, and turns women into ersatz men. Read the remainder of this entry »

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Selfishness, Business, and Fascism

Posted June 21, 2023 By John C Wright

Part of an ongoing discussion:

Our own Nate Winchester observes: ” I mean we’re in this whole ESG/DEI mess because businesses and investors decided they would be less selfish.

My comment:
Perhaps. Or they decided to be more Gnostic, because they have not been Christian for two generations if ever, and a moral vacuum is hard to maintain, particularly when it is good for business to appear to be moral.

I suspect the business do not suffer from a deficit of prompt attention to their self-interest. The few businessmen I have known personally were attentive to their bottom line to the point of obsession: they worked from cockcrow to midnight, without vacation, a war with no armistice. They understood their self interest well enough.

What they wanted was good publicity. In days gone by, the tithes of the rich went to funding schools, hospitals, public libraries, museums and so on: the standard Christian works of corporal mercy. The number of libraries and such funded by Carnegie or Hershey is legendary.

How the foolish rich were led to thinking that good publicity consists of cultural Marxism directed to the destruction of the rich is fascinating to autopsy.  The emergence of a new class of Plutocratic Socialist is one of the paradoxes of modern life.

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